Date: September 17 2000
Trail Day: 109
Miles Today: 24
Location: 501 Shelter
Section Mile: AT 953
ECT Mile: 1645
Last night one of the locals came by at about 3:00 AM and asked us if we wanted
to smoke some pot. We were sound asleep when he came in. The group hung around
for quite a while and I could not get much sleep. I woke up quite late
(maybe 10:00 AM). Fall Girl and Fire Breather were gone. I tried to get
breakfast in town but there was no place. Started hiking - wasn't feeling very
good. I decided to take a O in Shartlesville. Decided to hike to Cross-Mountain
, which runs to Shartlesville. I was looking for a black top road, which it
wasn't and completely missed it. Talked with a nice day hiking couple about my
options to bail out further down. None of those sounded very good. So, I
decided to hike on to Duncannon, 3 days, about 70 miles away. Composed a poem :
Destination Duncannon
Gather round ye young and grown,
And listen to me bitch and moan.
Twenty five days, on the run,
Now its ceasing to be fun.
Covered, five hundred miles,
Thought of it, makes me smile.
But now my body is so worn,
My socks - they are all torn.
My tarp belongs to the landfill,
My sleeping bag leaks holofill.
I need a shower real soon,
I smell like a dead racoon.
My clothes - they need a wash and spin,
To be of any use again.
My morale is now shot to hell,
My spirit is way down as well.
I walk with an unsmiling face,
Gone is my former pace.
Boy, I need a zero day,
To fully recuperate.
Three days mileage, sixty nine and some,
Hello Duncannon, here I come.
Anyway, thanks ye young and grown,
For listening to me moan and groan.
Date: September 18 2000
Trail Day: 110
Miles Today: 24
Location: Stony Mountain
Section Mile: AT 977
ECT Mile: 1672
Got up quite early today. Took a
photo of all. Turns out Firebreather, Fallgirl
and Sweet Cicily were responsible for the birch beer I found at Kirkbridge
shelter a few days ago.
Trail Angels
Hiked to an AT shelter,
With absolutely no water.
Saw a little sparkling spring,
A sigh of relief, it did bring.
What do I find floating there ?
A can of cold birch beer.
Sat down, drank with relish,
Best drink I must admit.
Fire breather, Fall girl, Sweet Cicily,
Thanks to you, all the three.
Date: September 19 2000
Trail Day: 111
Miles Today: 22
Location: Hotel Doyle, Duncannon
Section Mile: AT 999
ECT Mile: 1694
The place where I tarped was good - under a big, dense pine tree. When I got
up in the morning it had just started to rain but I did not get a single drop.
Packed up and started off. It rained all day. The day was also very
foggy.
It was a fairly easy hike. Came to an old shelter and stopped for a break.
I could not find the register. I rested for a while and continued on. A few
hundred feet down there was a beautiful shelter - Peters Mountain shelter.
There were 5 brothers there who had stopped due to rain. I made a register
entry and continued.
The last section to Duncannon was quite rugged. The trail designers have
tried to run the trail along the ridge top. But this is highly broken
here. So the trail goes down some 100 ft, turns around, goes back up,
runs the ridge for 300 ft, back down ... Some places I had to check for
blazes to make sure I was indeed on the trail. I could also hear the road
and train traffic but it took a long time to actually get to it.
Got a room at the Doyle hotel. Its quite run down but they are working on it.
Did laundry, shower and dinner. Met T1 and T2 - they are doing the AT in
sections. They started this one in Delaware Water Gap. T2 has some foot
problem also. Met Springer and Still Searchin. Had a long conversation with
Still Searchin about life, trail etc - very interesting.
Date: September 20 2000
Trail Day: 112
Miles Today: 0
Location: Hotel Doyle, Duncannon
Section Mile: AT 999
ECT Mile: 1694
O day today. Bought groceries, new tarp etc. The old tarp had big beer can
sized holes in it. I had placed my alcohol stove on it while cooking food
and it made a bunch of holes in the tarp. Also got a novel to read - Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Why its a best seller is beyond me.
Also stopped by at a computer store and the owner allowed me to use his
computer to check for e-mail. Looks like Michelle sent me something in Kent
where I did not stop. Wish I had known about this earlier. Called Kumar.
Left a message at Churi's.
Met Torn, Cinderella and Razmataz. Very interesting group of people. They
are north bounders but will be stopping in 10 days or so. Torn has a very
appropriate name. Stayed up very late talking and partying with them.
Date: September 21 2000
Trail Day: 113
Miles Today: 0
Location: Hotel Doyle, Duncannon
Section Mile: AT 999
ECT Mile: 1694
Another O day. Read the book, ate pizza and drank beer.
Date: September 22 2000
Trail Day: 114
Miles Today: 14
Location: Near PA 944
Section Mile: AT 1013
ECT Mile: 1708
Got up and did all my morning chores. Had breakfast across the street and
hit the trail. The climb up lasted quite a while although it wasn't steep.
The rocks are starting to decrease. I believe the Pennsylvania rocks
are just very overblown. My take is - we are on the Appalachian trail.
Its not Appalachian lakes, rivers or sea shores. Its Appalachian mountains
and mountains are made of rocks. So in a trail as long as this one, you
should expect sections with a lot of rocks.
Met a 19 year old guy. He had run away from home when he was 17 and has been
homeless ever since. He has been hitch hiking all over the place and has
lived in Arizona, California and the Carolinas. All he had was a very small
day pack and a sleeping bag tied with a string. He was wearing slippers.
He is trying to hike to Massachusetts where his parents live and take care
of some court cases pending against him. Everything he had with him (which
was very little) was stolen. He had been abusing drugs several months
back but was now clean. He had small red berries with him that he got from
some tree. He had eaten several of them without even knowing what they were.
He said the Bible says all fruits growing in the open with seeds can be eaten.
I ate one of them and found several along the way. I intend to find out
what they are. I was also very surprised to find out that he had an email address.
We exchanged our addresses. He also gave me a prayer feather. I gave him one
of the maps that I am now done with. I hope he gets all his problems resolved.
I personally think he has all his inner problems resolved. It is now just a
matter of time. We'll see.
A short day today. Cooked some horrible tasting rice. Almost had to force
myself to eat it. I was then lying down for a while when I heard a lot of
snorts and crackling of twigs. I thought I had a human visitor. Got up and
saw about 7 deer that bolted. I did not move. They hung around there for about
half an hour checking me out. Deer are very curious animals. Every once
in a while one of them would come a little closer and stomp.
Sleeping in the open tonight. There is civilization near by and there is a
constant hum and drone.
A field view
Date: September 23 2000
Trail Day: 115
Miles Today: 14
Location: Near Center Point Knob
Section Mile: AT 1027
ECT Mile: 1722
Carly, Stevie and Joey listened wide-eyed as their Dad, Mr. Jones recounted
the horrible incident. "The giant was after me, so I ran up this tree".
What did the giant look like Daddy" - piped little Stevie.
"Oh he was dark, huge and ugly. When he walked large twigs and branches broke
really, really bad. He was also breathing fire", said Mr. Jones embellishing some.
Carly, Stevie and Joey along with Mr. and Mrs. Jones were a chipmunk family
that lived on a tree near the AT. "But the tree I ran up on, was dead and
short" - continued Mr. Jones to his audience. I ran all the way up, saw it
was too short and tried to run back down but the giant realizing I was
trapped had already come too close to the tree, so I stopped half way down".
"What did you do ?", squeaked Carly. Even Mrs. Jones was quite frightened
now. "Well, I saw another dead branch lying on the ground a full 10 feet away.
I aimed, held my breath and jumped with all of my strength. I landed on the
branch and I think the giant was still running after me. So I ran full speed
till I lost him".
Well, that's what Mr. Jones would like his children to believe but here's
what happened - I was hiking along and a chipmunk ran up a small, dead tree.
It ran up, realized it was too short, tried running down. Realizing it was
stuck, I decided to get a closer look at it and moved in. It was funny to
watch him upside down, chest and head thrust well away from the tree looking
for a place to jump to. Then he took this massive jump. In the air he kept
flailing his little arms and legs as though trying to fly. He landed on his target
and scurried away. I bet his story becomes more and more hair raising with
time.
Most of today's hike was flat. We are in a large, fertile valley that has been
built. So it was road crossings all the way. Other than the crossings its
quite beautiful. The soil has now become even richer and deeper. Walking
is now a pleasure. Met two very friendly gentlemen. One was a hunter and
dog breeder. He has won many dog show awards. He was quite interested in
my equipment.
The second gentleman was a trek leader for a local organization. He has
knee problem, so just drives and meets the group at road crossings. I met
him 4 times, thus.
Stopped by at the cafe in Boiling Springs. I did not see much of the town,
but what I saw truly impressed me. The people are very friendly and polite.
It is very clean. There is a little creek that has crystal clear water.
They have expanded that to a little lake. People are feeding the ducks. I could
see several 8" fish feeding off the bottom. There was then a bridge over the
creek with at least 50 or so similar sized fish swimming in the flow.
This area has a catch and release policy. The setting is quite serene.
Teenagers at the cafe and outside were very well behaved. The people also
seemed happy and content - this I find is quite rare nowadays. I have seen
similar very clean, nice but fake places but they are only for the rich and are
called "gated communities". This is the first nice place I have seen made
with the not rich crowd.
Decided to tarp tonight also.
