Day 52: Rocks, Rain, and Miles

So i checked the weather forecast last night and wow i did not realize it was going to get as cold as quickly as they are predicting.  Today was forecasted to be all rain with temps never going above 61 with a cold front and after that every night in the mid to low 40s.  Yeah i dont think i can handle that with my current sleep system and my mummy bag is in the post office120 miles away in Duncannon, PA.  So i got this crazy idea that maybe i can do 120 miles in 4 days to limit the amount of nights i potentially have to sleep cold.  This morning i hit the trail at 4:15am in hopes to make it the 16 miles to the bottom of Lehigh gap before it rained.  Lehigh gap for SOBO's is a 1000 ft near vertical downhill boulder scramble and smooth granite slab.  It is renown as one of the toughest ascents/descents on the trail.  The trail between the shelter and the gap was easy as it crosses a superfund site.  From 1898 to 1980 there was a zinc smelting plant that let out toxic emissions i guess and it destroyed all vegetation on the mountain and polluted the ground. Well 2 miles before i got to the descent of Lehigh Gap it started raining.  I would not recommend to anybody ever to attempt that descent when wet... ever.  I made it down safely though and crossed the river to the other side of the gap.  It stopped raining just long enough to snap a picture of the mountain i descended.  If you want to see pics of the trail there look it up on Google because i didn't take any pics while it rained.  After that it continued to rain until 5:00pm.  I didn't get to my destination of Eckville shelter until 8:15pm.  That is 16 hours of hiking and I completed a total of 40.9 miles.  I wont lie it hurt to go over that many miles with how many rocks are on the trail and how wet/slippery it was today.  I believe i am out of the worst of the rocks though so thats good.  The reason i did 40 miles was this shelter is privately owned and is behind a guys house.  It has running water, is free to hikers, and more importantly is fully enclosed so I won't be in the wind since a cold front did just go through.  I will continue to push on to Duncannon because i really miss my down mummy bag.  I just want to curl up in it and not have to be concerned about being cold.  Tomorrow wont be as big of miles.  I have to go into Hamburg to resupply and i am going to try and find a sunny place to dry all my socks and shoes since they are soaked.