Woke up to the sound of birds chirping under the pavilion. I can only assume they were singing happy birthday!

I walked down to 3 C’s Family restaurant for breakfast.

After breakfast I stopped by the barbershop in town to meet the owner Frank. Didn’t get a haircut (still growing it out until Katahdin), but stayed and chatted a bit. He puts out coffee and snacks for hikers.

After picking up some last minute supplies at Walmart, I finally hit the trail around 11am. It was a hot, steep and rocky climb out of town.

The views from the top were pretty nice though.

There was as also a mini observatory complex at the top.

Later in the morning, the snakes started coming out as the temps reached 90+ degrees.

The trail kept getting rockier as Pennsylvania really started living up to its reputation on the trail. It was slow going through the heat and rocks all day .

At the end of the day I ran into my first rattlesnake. I was going from rock to rock and was about 3ft away when it started rattling!

After my heart beat dropped, I ended up camping near a spring a few miles down the trail (after thoroughly checking the area for snakes!)