Cove Mountain Shelter to Near Horse-Shoe Trail---May 26th

Woke up by three this morning by a rather loud gnawing sound coming from inside the shelter.  "Man, that has to be one huge mouse.", I thought.  Scrambling for my headlamp, I turned the beam on the opposite side of the shelter where the noise had come from, scanning the floor and walls.  Suddenly, the light landed on a creature that, tired as I was, looked completely alien to me.  It took a few moments for my addled brain to recognize that what I had before me was a porcupine that had been taking wood chips out of the bunkbed, most likely for their salt content.  Well, it's been years and years since I'd seen one of these reclusive animals, so I had to get a photo.  Once I took it, I climbed back into my sleeping bag, thinking as I did so that it was a good thing it hadn't been chewing on my bedpost.  If it had, I might have got the sharp end of those quills.  When I woke again at 5:30 I was again the lone inhabitant of Cove Mountain.
Out early for the trek to Duncannon, I did a bit of roadwalking to get to Mutzabaugh's Market.  I was really pleased with their prices and stoked when I found they were having a 2 for 1 sale on their entire assortment of Pop Tarts.  Sweet!  The library didn't open until that afternoon and the laundry didn't have a bathroom, where I wanted to shave, so I left town immediately feeling slightly disappointed.
The Susquehanna and Juniata Rivers are so wide, over three times as wide as the Elbe in the Czech Republic and that is one of Europe's major rivers. 
Today had to be the hottest day of the hike.  It was already over 80 degrees Fahrenheit by 9 a.m. when I was crossing the Clarks Ferry Bridge and the humidity was so high it had me dripping and wilting.  The heat wore me down even under the shady trees.
In the afternoon there were some sudden thunder showers lasting only a brief spell, but in the evening as the sky grew darker and the rumblings grew louder and louder, I quickly made camp near a stream on the north side of Stony Mountain several hundred feet below the summit.  There was no use trying for more miles today and my instincts/sense of self preservation proved correct.  No sooner had I crawled into the tent and battened down the hatches than the rain fell down in buckets.  Despite the heavy rainfall and a short stint of hail, this was to prove more of an electrical storm.  My oh my, the thunder and the lightning!!!  Several sharp cracks following blinding flashes of light made me feel as if I'd been the beneficiary of a few near misses.  Wow!  All I could do was huddle in the center of my tarptent nervously waiting for the storm to pass overhead.  Eventually, it did and though a little wet, I'd survived.  I'm not sure how much more the tarptent can stand.  It's weathered some pretty severe storms on the Florida and Appalachian Trails so far.

Mr. Porcupine---My Nighttime Visitor

Cove Mountain Shelter