6/5 Ordinary Day

17.4 hiked today, 1179.2 miles N, 994.8 miles left
501 Shelter

Today turned out to be an easy day minus my general drowsiness. I think I could have curled up and napped at about any point but I wanted to get a little ahead so I could relax before I meet up with Dana on Thursday.
Early in the day I passed a water quality project to clean up the results of the mines. It was remarkably simple with a pipe taking water from upstream and bubbling it up through chipped limestone. The water leaching from the tailings is too acidic for most river life, especially fish people like to catch. The limestone disolves into the water lowering its ph. The effect is dramatic. Just up stream the water shows very little signs of life and inside the pool of water of the treatment system I saw a frog presumably happily swimming around. Shortly after that site I came across a well preserved graveyard that I assume was for the residents of the town that lay in this gap in the 1800's. What was neat were all the gravestones I could read were of people born in England who had died in the 1850's.
The trail from there on was unremarkable. There were ocasional outlooks which were much better than others of recent days. The rain seems to have really cleared the haze out of the air.
William Penn Shelter was kind of neat. It is somewhat impractical but dramatic in that everything about it makes one feel small. The shelter is about 15-20 feet tall but the first floor is over 10 tall. The steps leading up to the shelter are oversized and the picnic table even seemed to have taller legs. Though the shelter was very nice I couldn't help thinking that the same amount of wood could have housed twice as many people. I hung out there with Caps and Anonymous who cooked extra dinners they had packed before I push ahead to the 501 shelter.
The 501 shelter is named for the highway it is right next to. I almost skipped over it due to the road noise but I decided to check the register. When I hiked down the shelter's side trail I found a large building with a enormous skylight and bunks. Given it had 4 walls the noise was not bad inside so I decided to stay after all. It is deluxe having a shower, treated water, and if one had a cell phone pizza delivery.
In closing I wanted to mention the wildlife I have seen. First there was the tick on my knee. Never use Off bug repellent wipes. I used it on my knee and still had to pull out a tick. Next I saw a long slug in the trail. What I love about these and snails is the way their eyes are on stalks. If they get scared they had suck them in so they are flush with the surface of their body and then they stick them back out slowly looking to see if the danger has passed. Very cute. Finally I saw a box turtle with red eyes crossing the trail.