I made some phone calls to try and find a pair of Brooks Cascadia 11 trail runners. They were what I wore for the first 800 miles or so and I didn't want to take a chance on something I had not worn before. The Appalachian Trail is no place to experiment with footwear. I contacted a store that sold shoes and clothes for runners in East Stroudsburg and the clerk said that she had a pair in my size. It was only a mile away from the Super 8 I'm staying at. When I arrived at the store the clerk showed me a photo on the wall; it was a picture of the store's owner on top of Mount Katahdin. She (the owner) had completed a thru hike of the AT a few years ago.
The clerk asked me how I found the time to hike the entire trail. I told her that it had been a pipe dream for 45 years before I really had the time and resources to undertake it. She wants to follow in her boss's footsteps and said that she asks all of the thru hikers who periodically come into the store how they made the dream a reality. She isn't the first person to query me on how I made it to the trail.
When I left Carlisle last Monday after two straight days of rain it was supposed to be clear. It was for most of the day, but the trail was still extremely muddy. I made it to Duncannon, PA, 17 miles away, by early evening, but not until after being thoroughly drenched by a late afternoon thunderstorm that lasted for quite a while. I was passed by several young guys who were hiking in just shorts during the rain, but it was quite cool, so I had my rain jacket on. They were moving fast, so I suppose their body heat kept then warm.
My guide book warned me that the seven mile stretch before Duncannon was extremely rocky, and it was. The infamous Pennsylvania rocks were starting to bare their teeth.
Duncannon is a rather economically depressed town located right beside the Susquehanna River. The trail goes right through town and passes right by the Doyle Hotel, a well-known stop for AT hikers. A restaurant and bar are on the first floor and rooms that haven't been updated in more than half a century on the upper floors go for $25 a night. I ate there, and the food was acceptable, but I had no intention of staying there because I had just stayed at a motel in Carlisle and because I'd heard about those infamous rooms with cobwebs, no screens, no AC in summer, buckets strewn about to catch dripping water from leaking plumbing above, no TV, moldy bathrooms, etc. People who stayed there said it should be shut down by health inspectors.
I socialized with the mostly hiker crowd in the restaurant and bar for an hour or two and then hit the trail again, but not before chatting with a guy from Cleveland who was calling it quits. He had only been on the trail for a few weeks, starting in Virginia just south of Harper's Ferry. He had never backpacked before and didn't do much research beforehand. He relayed his tales of woe to me, from accidentally burning his backpack in a campfire, somehow losing half of his tent, having to replace expensive boots that were too small, suffering from hypothermia, etc. He was an optimist though, despite his acceptance of defeat. He vowed to return to the trail when he was better prepared. His trail name was Grass Man, the nickname given to a Sasquatch type creature that he believes inhabits parts of rural Ohio that he once spent time searching for. I didn't press him for details.
I made my way out of Duncannon and crossed the mighty Susquehanna river on a long, tall bridge. By this time it was dark and the trail went up an extremely steep, rocky mountainside on the far side of the river. After I reached the plateau I found a campsite and bedded down for the night.
Pennsylvania continued to be quite rocky, but the weather was improving. Over the next few days I hiked into the evening. There are numerous road crossings and gaps in Pennsylvania that are near towns, so when I arrived at Swatara Gap, about 50 miles north of Carlyle I decided to walk into Lickdale, PA. There was a converted rail-trail that led into town and my guidebook said that there was a truck stop there with a 24 hour McDonald's. By this time on the trail I am becoming so sick of trail food that the idea of a McDonald's breakfast was worth the extra miles. Unfortunately, my usually correct guidebook was wrong. I arrived to the truck stop after midnight and the McDonald's was closed. I had a cup of coffee and a blueberry Tastycake pie and headed back on the rail-trail.
I don't know what the rail-trail builders were thinking, maybe they wanted to stress the rail theme, but instead of using fine gravel which is suitable for walkers, runners and bikers they used larger rocks, almost as large as the type you find railroad ties bedded on. It made for very uncomfortable walking and I was glad when I returned to the AT. So much for Lickdale. BTW, Lickdale was originally named Union Forge, but was renamed in the early 19th century after a patron of the town, James Lick. I'd change it back to Union Forge. Much classier.
I was hoping to get to Wind Gap, PA by Saturday morning, the 28th of May. Jackie had mailed me a few items I requested to general delivery at the Post Office there. I still had a long way to go though and would have had to average 30 miles a day to get there in time. With the trail becoming so rocky and my shoes beginning to fail me, I knew I wouldn't be able get there in time. Since the Post Office wouldn't be open again until the following Tuesday because of the Memorial Day long weekend I decided to take a break in Pine Grove, PA to kill some time and rest my feet.
Pine Grove was almost five miles from the trail, but I walked there as the road was lightly traveled and had a good shoulder. It is a small town, but it had a decent motel and a few stores. There was a Dollar General store right next to the motel, and I had discovered earlier that these stores carried quite a variety of food items and are ideal for resupplying a hiker. The road into town was all downhill, so when I returned to the trail it was a strenuous two-hour walk. No rocks though.
The next 90 miles to Wind Gap were relatively uneventful. Pennsylvania was becoming a little monotonous, with thick forests, lots of rocks and very few views. I did see plenty of snakes though, since the weather has finally changed to sunny and warm. I did veer off trail for a mile and a half with a fellow hiker from NJ to Palmerton, PA for dinner at a local pub on Monday. The food tasted great but I think it gave me some mild food poisoning as my digestive system was not happy for the next 18 hours, starting shortly after I left Palmerton.
Palmerton has several beautiful onion-domed churches that you see in some of the old Pennsylvania mining towns. Eastern Europeans worked in the mines in large numbers beginning in the late 19th century and they brought their Orthodox church architecture with them. Palmerton was a zinc mining and smelting hub for almost 100 years.
I would be remiss if I did not mention trail angels. They are people who provide "trail magic" along the trail and help hikers out by giving them rides to/from towns, etc. Sometimes they are former AT thru hikers and sometimes not. Just in the last week I have been the recipient of the kindness of trail angels a few times. One left a cooler filled with ice cold cans of soda and iced tea near a road crossing (just far enough away not to be seen from the road). Another left several gallon jugs of water in the middle of a long stretch of trail with no water supply. I appreciated both of those gestures. When I was getting ready to leave the pub in Palmerton a young guy and his wife who had been eating there offered us (me and the guy from NJ, trail name Digger) a ride back to the trail. I accepted, but Digger was going to pitch his tent on the lawn behind the pub, courtesy of the owner, since there was no place to stay in Palmerton and he wasn't a night-hiking kind of hiker.
The guy who gave me a ride (I didn't get his name) told me that he and some others like to help hikers out whenever they can. They appreciate hikers coming town, but there is a rift between those who appreciate hikers in Palmerton and those who don't. Apparently Palmerton used to permit hikers to camp in a large park in the center of town, shower at the fire station, etc. However, a few years ago a few stupid hikers caused some vandalism and a few others were arrested for public drunkenness, so the welcome mat was taken away. It's too bad that a small minority of bad eggs can cause that to happen. Trail towns vary widely. Some, like Hot Springs, NC, Damascas, VA and others have developed a symbiotic relationship with hikers. Others have not.
When I arrived at Wind Gap on the morning of May 31st the Post Office wasn't open yet, so I walked another mile to a laundromat. I washed my clothes and put my down sleeping bag in a front loader. It was the first time I had washed the bag since I started the trail. I had the bright idea of washing my trail runners also, since they had accumulated plenty of fine dirt. I also wanted to put them in the dryer with my down bag since it would accelerate drying of the bag. The acceleration part worked, but as I mentioned above, the dryer caused quite a bit of damage to the shoes.
I was going to spend the night in Wind Gap since I hadn't showered in over four days, but the lodging prospects were quite dodgy. I pushed on to Delaware Water Gap, 16 miles away, arriving just before midnight. I had made a reservation at the Super 8 which was only a few miles away, but since it was so late I called a cab. It was only $10, which I thought was quite reasonable.
I am very much looking forward to crossing the I-80 bridge to NJ tomorrow while marveling over that massive, slanted chunk of mountain on the NJ side. I'll then hike up to Sunfish Pond, which I haven't seen since I camped there in a canvas tent as an 11 or 12 year old Boy Scout. A couple I ran into yesterday on the trail told me that it was spring fed from underneath and that the water was clean enough to drink (I'll still filter it).
Goodbye Pennsylvania.
Looks like you are having a successful journey Ross. It seems quite epic to me. Good thoughts on the next leg of your journey!
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