Hiking on the appalachian trail....REALLY!

I went hiking on the AT recently. I climbed out of Delaware water gap on a bright sunny day. I thought the first day it might be good to stop at 6 miles and relax at the shelter. I ended up staying there for the night and glad I was. At about 10 PM it started to rain, lightning and thunder. It rained hard until about 6 AM. Shortly after I got up to take care of making breakfast, get water and pack up. I was on the way a little after 9. The view out the shelter was over the valley and showed a sky that was overcast and some low hanging fog. I found myself walking into a foggy sections of trail. All the ferns and varieties of mushrooms! This walking with my head down had me seeing things I normally do not see. As the day progressed the fog burned off and the sun would come and go as would the brief showers. What was constant on this part of the AT were the rocks. Big 'uns little 'uns, sharp ones and round ones. Still I managed to stay on the trail despite rarely looking up. There seem to be quite a few people coming the other way. "Through hikers" making their way from Georgia to Maine. To be in PA at this time of the year they would need to have started in the March-April time frame. Many stopped to talk and learn what was ahead or how far Water gap was. Rocky as it was there were no hills to climb or descend. Until I got to Wind Gap where I waited for another south bounder Mark. We then walked into town for some Dinner.