Journey Day 255 | AT Day 78

Ironmaster’s Mansion Hostel, Garner, Pennsylvania was a welcome site.

6/7/86

Up from Quarry Shelter. Talk with young guys from York, Pa., hike out in the rain. It stops, but I get soaked walking through heavy bush growth. It’s getting ridiculous. Stop at PATC cabin. After break, decide to walk roads to avoid getting more soaked.

Hike down one road to a spot where an overgrown road goes off. I take this road and get lost, hike to the dead end, back. Down a major, but wrong, road, walk up to the right spot, near a lookout tour. Follow the ridge road on down. At an intersection, lost again. Walk around, end up at the road junction I meant to reach earlier. A man tells me the way back to the A.T. But I’m soon on the wrong road again. It dead ends. My temper’s getting short. Push on, break, then  hike out, passing a father and daughter. At the Ironmasters Mansion hostel,  I meet the proprietor, Bob Rex, who works in the Bowling Green schools, his wife’s a BGSU prof. Then to the lake for a nice, cold swim. Check in, shower, hit the store which is exhausting my money supply. At the kitchen, I talk with Bob Rex and his wife, cook, update. Eat, talk with Rex, finish updating my journal. Clean up, crash.