Port Clinton, Penn, AT NOBO mile 1213.7, Monday April 28, 2014 — Big weather is moving in just as the Pennsylvania rocks are about to get seriously real. Time to adjust the plan.

First the forecast: Tuesday – rain, Wednesday – t-storms, rain ending Thursday.

Now the problem. Wednesday I expect to be hiking on an exposed ridge line in the middle of thunder storms with the equivalent of lightning rod in each hand. No place for a same person to be. The ridge is aptly. Named the knife edge.

Solution: First, get picked up by two section hiking women from northern Illinois who have a car. It helps that we’ve been staying at the same shelter for the past couple of nights. Go to a motel after 11 miles on the trail today and make a plan.

We plan to hike 14.8 miles south from Port Clinton to highway 183 where we left the trail today. The advantage of this approach is that we will be climbing up the Port Clinton rain-slickened rocks rather than sliding/falling down them. A couple of Ausie hikers we met in the lobby who had just negotiated the Port Clinton boulder field endorsed that plan.

Wednesday will be a weather zero with a return to normal north bound hiking Thursday. The rain will clear by mid morning.

That’s the plan. It’s a little outside the box, but it does pass the common sense test.

Today we passed by the site of a fort from the French and Indian War. We also met two girls who were taking a friend on her first camping trip. They seemed to be having fun.