Monday April 9th
Curmudgeon stomped the woods. Geezer legs, gray weathered fenceposts, groaned like old wood through another day.
Numbed toes, too often stubbed, met rocky bits where each foot placement needs to be custom-fashioned. Old man Pennsylvania serves up lots of these. It's old, weathered trail, well hiked. But "Rock makes for a durable footpath" - that's the official PA guidebook's answer to critics. "Lame-ass policy, make us *both* lame" the old codger muttered under his breath, "lazy a-holes could at least re-arrange some of the rocks ... get rid of the damn toe-stubbing spikes ..."
Rocksylvania gets a lot of press. Flatsylvania, not so much. What PA extracts from the hiker in the way of bootkilling footing it returns by having some of the smallest accumulated elevation change of anywhere on the trail.
Photos? Get real. I could show you parking lots. I could show you road crossings. I could show you rocks. Of course I could show you rocks. But I'm in grouch-mode today. Grinch mode. I'll begrudge you just one photo: Toms Run Shelters, which serve as a decent half-way landmark - mid-point of the AT - if only the nit-pickers would stop worrying about a tenth of a mile here or there.
In 2011 the Appalachian Trail was 2081.0 miles long (official distance according to the data book), and the half-way point was about a quarter mile north of Toms Run Shelters.
In 2012 the Appalachian Trail is 2084.2 miles long (official distance according to the data book), and the half-way point is about a quarter mile south of Toms Run Shelters.
So the old man milled about Toms Run shelters for a bit, confused and grumbling under his breath, and then he trudged back the way he came.
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Here's a map of today's route, with a link (click on the title) to all the other photos that the old grouch wouldn't show you:
AT Day 89 - Michaux State Forest at EveryTrail
EveryTrail - Find the best hikes in California and beyond
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