STONY BROOK

AT Day 130: Tuesday,  August 15, 2023

Campsite in the Woods – Campsite by Stony Brook

SOBO Mile 1742 -1720

Distance Hiked – 22 miles/35.4 km

Total Distance Hiked: 2136 miles/3437 km

A: 6050 ft/1845 m D:6070 ft/1851 m

We started hiking in the dark and finished the day in the dark. It was pitch black when we broke camp and started hiking at 6:00 a.m. It was raining, not heavy but just enough to get wet.  We hiked with our torches for probably the first hour before the woods opened up and the skies brightened up a little. The rain continued to drizzle.

The trail was just as pretty as yesterday, we were just  getting a bit wet.  The drizzle soon turned to consistent rain. The grey skies and rain added to the feeling of hardship.  We trudged along, we could have been walking in circles. There wasn’t much to lift your spirits, apart from an occasional colourful or otherwise interesting  fungus.  We remained optimistic as it was predicted to stop raining in the afternoon. We hadn’t seen any hikers this morning. We  felt a little lonely in our mystery. To lift our spirits we stopped for lunch at Wintouri shelter. A chance to get out of the rain, eat some hot foot and hopefully a mental reset. 

The rain stopped soon after we left the shelter. We seem to be ascending for hours most of the afternoon without actually reaching the summit of anything just a bit of a down and then back up again. As the rain had stopped we started to encounter clusters of northbound hikers.  They all seem to have departed at the same time. We can only guess it’s from a trailhead parking for a  Lookout which was nearby.  We didn’t go to The Lookout, not much point on a foggy and overcast day. We recognized one hiker, Turtle Tracks whom we met a day out from Duncannon. We stopped for a quick chat. He’d gone home for a week for a mental rest from the trail. By days end we passed close to 30 northbound hikers. Now that’s a bubble created by the weather. 

Even though the afternoon dragged on a bit, we had sections of perfect trail. Soft underfoot and flat.  And just as we were commenting on how good this was the woods changed to being darker and wetter and not so pleasant to hike through. Such a drastic change from the wonderful trail leading up and especially compared to the wonderful woods of yesterday.  

We had planned on stopping at the Stony Brook shelter and camping there. Not sure if any campsites would be left so late in the day with so many NOBO’ s.  By the time we reached Stony Brook we decided to call it a day.  Hammer was worried that with predicted overnight rain, water levels could rise. We found a campsite high above the creek. It was nice to get out of wet shoes and socks. Our feet were absolutely pickled.