July 9, 2004 - Had a great night sleep at the shelter, pitched my tent because of the bugs. We were right next to a highway so the cars were noisy but it didn’t bother me. Went to a diner for breakfast and ate pancakes. Then packed up and left but it was hard to leave because some past thru-hikers were setting up food for the big hiker feed tomorrow and the next day. But I needed to move on. Had a hard climb out of Port Clinton, leaving towns are the hardest climbs. Once I got up on the ridgeline it wasn’t so bad. Got good views at Pulpit Rock, the Pinnacle, and Dan’s Pulpit. Then went back down. I was thinking that Penn is not that hard of a state to hike. Where are all these rocks? I spoke too soon because the next 17 miles to the shelter was hard. Made it to Bake Oven right as the sun was setting; don’t want to be hiking on the Penn rocks in the dark. When I got to the shelter after 32.6 miles of hiking I found the worse-kept shelter area on the AT. So I pitched my tent, cooked dinner, then off to bed. Big 32.6 miles on the day.
