Well, last night I had a nocturnal visit from a tiny rodent friend. Friend might be too strongly worded, however, it was my own fault. I left a bag of gorp in my pack pocket, which by the way is made of spandura nylon - nice and snug. Terrapin informed me of the presence of mouse droppings on the spray can of new skin I gave him. Then I examined the pocket and found all the evidence. Mouse droppings were on everything and the bag of gorp was consumed. I think there must have been about one cup in there, the little pig. I guess I took one for the team because no one else reported problems.
We made quick time this morning and had our first taste of what Maine might be like with a stream crossing that required placing ones foot on water-covered rocks. We decided it was time to don the crocs.
The infamous rocks of Pennsylvania (or Painfulvania) were more and more prevalent today - I guess thats what we have to look forward to for the rest of the state. How many more miles do we have till the Big K? 996 more miles to go - or something like that. WooHoo! More miles are behind than in front for a change.
The goal for today was to reach the 501 Shelter where pizza deliveries occur once an hour during the end of the day. We gave Goofy and Terrapin some cash and our pizza requests which they called in for us from Terrapins phone. Just as we crossed the road we saw Kiwi who had just received his stromboli along with our pizza order. I can't even begin to relate to you how wonderful it is to have pizza and pepsi ready and waiting. And it was demolished in record time.
This shelter is at capacity tonight. In addition to those already mentioned, we have Buffalo, a section hiker, and Knuckles, Underhill, Magnet, and the Blue Brothers - Vince and Nick. It seems there are still a lot of folks at the end of this years hiking class, so I know that I'm not the caboose even though I feel like it.
Stephan has such a way with words... and had me cracking up again. After lunch we were laying down and fighting off sleep while trying to remain in the shade of some trees - blasted sun kept forcing us to move every few minutes. Stephan started rambling about the lack of good spots along the trail for sitting or laying down or something and paused... and then began something about a golden stool from the heavens... I looked at Dan with confusion and asked who was going to poo out the golden stool? Dan was in my camp - I guess thats what hiking and lazy afternoons do to your brain.
As Dory from Finding Nemo would say, " Just keep hiking, just keep hiking"
--Steph
www.hikingat.com
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Are you living the life you always dreamed?
Hi Everyone,
I've decided that journaling every day is not happening for me so I'll send emails when I can. I just spent the last 3 nights / 4 days in Duncannon, PA (~1117 miles) carousing with other hikers and infusing the local economy with beer, food and hoteling purchases. We had a combination sendoff party for Lamby and Jacob and a birthday celebration for Mickey (Hans) at the Doyle (infamous for cheap beer and cheap rooms). One of the urban legends (later confirmed by Heather who works there) is that Baltimore Jack sniffed out a deceased patron of the Doyle, rumored to have expired on the 4th floor near the top of the staircase. Well, Stephan and I were in the room directly across from the staircase so we had to find out more... According to Heather, the guy was in room 24 (not 29-our room) and died of natural causes.
The next day we hung out on the porch at the Doyle and spent about an hour doing the word scrambles in the Sunday paper - you'd think with six literate hikers that we could unscramble all the words in record time. Maybe we were still working off the beer.
Later Jen and Dan shuttled 5 of us to the movie theater - Jen is a saint for putting up with 6 smelly hikers in her car! 5 of us saw Bourne Supremacy which was good with the exception of the "in your face" wobbly camera action so favored in the Blair Witch Project and the 25-minute long car chase that made me feel like vomiting. Maybe it was sitting in the third row that did it to me. Wait for it to come out on DVD, kids. Jen and Dan did better with Spider-man I think.
The following day was errand day for us: laundry, post office, food shopping, and pharmacy trips. Its hard work getting all this mundane stuff done but at least we had all day. Neither Stephan or I felt like hiking but Dan and Jen did an 8-mile slack pack that included a hot lunch. Dan made Jen one of his favorite dinners - mashed potatoes with gravy. Doesn't sound good to you? Try living in the woods for 3 months with a monstrous appetite; a lot of things you normally wouldn't eat suddenly become appealing.
Our town visit was very low key and relaxing and I don't regret "yellow blazing" to get to Boiling Springs (where we met up with Dan and Jen). We were able to meet a whole bunch of new people as well as visit with folks we hadn't seen in a month or two.
Here's to enjoying the trail, friendships, and the generosity we've witnessed along the way from hikers and non-hikers alike.
--Steph
www.hikingat.com
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Are you living the life you always dreamed?
My alarm went off at 7 but I don't think I crawled out of my bag until 7:30. I'm enjoying my new purchase - the mac-daddy thermarest 4 season 3/4 length ultralite series sleeping pad. I think its 1.5 inches thick which doesn't sound like much to regular cushy bed sleepers, but this pad is a slice of heaven! I used to toss and turn all night long and now I just do normal sleepy turns. Did I mention that Wideload was so jealous he purchased one in Harpers Ferry?
We finally got to meet Jen (Blackfoot's girlfriend) today - Hi Jen! They stayed at a B&B in Boiling Springs last night. We met up with them in the morning and ended up skipping out on a few more PA miles... Six of us piled into Jen's civic and headed north. Lamby didn't want to hike today so he dropped us off 9 miles from Duncannon for an easy afternoon slackpack.
Three cheers for slackpacking - Hip hip, hurray!
--Steph
www.hikingat.com
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Are you living the life you always dreamed?