Progress Map

May 21, 22 and 23 2016 - Zero Day, Slackpack Day and Zero Day

May 21 (0 miles)
Zero day in Pine Grove PA today at the Comfort Inn. Pat drove up yesterday and we spent the day running errands together. I shopped at Walmart for supplies then we went to the science museum in Harrisburg  (Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, Market Street, Harrisburg, PA). We saw an imax movie "journey into space". We had dinner in Pine Grove at O'Neal's pub. Really great food and service in a hole in the wall place. We shared onion rings, I had pulled pork BBQ and Pat had a burger.  Later, I drove to Cabelas, the largest one (store) in the world to get a new water bladder.


Shopping at Walmart, escargot in a can (did not buy)


Vending at O'Neals, "glow in the dark" (did not buy)


Cabelas (did not buy)


Cabelas


Cabelas


Cabelas

Harrisburg has a lot of cow sculpture in the city

May 22 (9.1 miles)
Pat dropped me off about 9 miles north of Pine Grove and I slack packed back. The shuttle service picked me up and drove me back to the hotel. The day was not a good one. It sprinkled on and off all day, I was feeling lousy and my right knee was aching. As the day went on my left knee start acting up too. I had an ace bandage on the right side and that helped. It's the downhills that are the problem. The knees have me worried, I decided to take off tomorrow too after stumbling and going down (gently) on my right knee (into soft leaves). If I don't take time now, I may regret it later.

On the good side, I managed to hike the 9 miles back to Pine Grove. I met two really nice college kids (male and female) that spent a long time talking to me. Both were art sculpture majors, good luck with that. Near the end of the day at an over look a father and his 3 sons came up from the valley (on Showers Steps) and we had time to enjoy the view together. One of the boys pointed out their driveway, way down in the valley below.

The final 2 miles were very slow, very rocky and wet with rain, this is where I stumbled. The last mile seemed to go on forever. The shuttle driver was there when I arrived and she was very nice.

 Gotta love it

 

Trail marker

 I want this for my lawn

 Boulder Field (luckily the trail did not cross this one)

 View from Shower's Steps

May 23 (0 miles)
Plan to stay in the hotel and rest my knees

May 16 to May 20 - Duncannon PA to Pine Grove PA

I'm going to start posting a new page about once a week now.

It takes too much time and too much cell phone battery power to do it every day.
In any case most followers who are more interested are already following me every day through our GroupMe messaging.

My AT Summary to date: Rockfish Gap VA to Pine Grove PA: 331.8 of 2189.1 miles (15.2%).

FYI: There are 229.2 miles in PA, leaving only 99.7 miles from Pine Grove to the Delaware Water Gap and the NJ boarder.

I'm trying to do 10 miles per day now. 

May 16th (10.6 miles)

This week began with my good friend Manny dropping me off at the Red Carpet Inn in Duncannon PA on Sunday May 15th. I thought it was really funny when he took one look at the place and said "At least one murder has happened here." The next morning the owner of the hotel drove me to the AT where I restarted my AT trek.

Hiked up to the ridge from Duncannon. A few thru hikers passed me but no one was willing to chat for long. Stayed at Peter's Mtn Shelter in my tent there were 3 occupants but non one willing to chat other than exchanging names. One woman who was also tenting exchanged greeting with me, she was pleasant. There was a very difficult 0.2 mile trek down many stairs to the spring and then back up again.

 

May 17th (12.4 miles)

Otis was one of the men in the shelter and on his way out in the morning stopped to talk for a few minutes. He turned out to be quite nice. He started the AT in GA back in January and told me about finally getting his trail legs after about 30 days on the trail.

During the day I met Flash52, a section hiker, we thought we might see each other again since he's leap frogging the AT with one car and shuttle services.

I also me Quick at thru hiker (quick to talk and quick to start going again) had a nice beard and looked like Ben Affleck.

I camped alone along the AT after completing my planned mileage for the day. 

May 18th (10.2 miles)

During the day I met Santa and Wonder (man and woman) hiking together. They started their thru at the end of February.

I camped along the AT with Tim another flop flopper (started in Harpers Ferry) I met during the day. We had light rain so went into our tents early but talked for almost two hours before falling asleep. He's a mechanical engineer.

May 19 (10.7 miles)

I woke to Tim rushing out of his tent to vomit. Luckily it was a false alarm. He had made some unusual freeze dried bean soup for dinner last night. That may have been the problem. He left early and I did not see him again (yet). 

Hiked the day chatting with everyone on GroupMe and trying to save battery power. I finally stumbled to the William Penn Shelter side trail. I left my pack there and walked down to the privy and shelter. The shelter wash empty! I was told that it was very popular. I went back up to my pack, descended the opposite side of the ridge to fill up on water then took everything back down to my private shelter for the night.

May 20 (4.4)

(arrived in Pine Grove PA for a day of R&R

 The Red Carpet Inn

 Me on a rare sunny day

 Trail crew must have worked hard at this

 Layers

 Highway crossing

 A last view looking back towards Duncannon

 View from my napping spot

 My napping spot

 Piped spring

Many, many steps down to the spring (0.2 miles of steps) this may have been the hardest thing on the trip yet,

 The trail

Spider web in a cave

 View of the Susquehanna River

 Abandoned foundation

 Another view of the Susquehanna

 New boots

 Looking down towards Duncannon, I crossed these bridges before the graduation break on the way into Duncannon.

 The trail going up the mountain after Duncannon

 Clark's Ferry Shelter, stopped here to rest

 Trail getting rockier

 Tasted like dog food but the label read "deviled ham"

May 9th and 10th, 2016 - Cumberland Valley to Duncannon PA

May 9th

AT under Rt 944 (the end of the Cumberland Valley)

I hiked 10 miles today.

Marie from the Holly Inn dropped me off today at Rt 944 where I was picked up yesterday.

I began the climb out of the Cumberland valley and in less than a mile I came to a spring and a sign that warned me to get water here because springs further up the mountain may be dry. While resting, a man came from a near by campsite and talked to me for 15 minutes or so. He was a local who just liked camping. His new bride was still asleep in the tent. He said that he usually came out to camp a week or two every year.

Today's track in red (that's Duncannon down by the river at the top)

Cemetery I passed yesterday

Yesterday (mother's day) a mother and a boy were hiking the AT and they hiked along with me for a short while. The boy was about 9 and soon had his foot stuck in the muck of the swampy ground and we had to part company. The boy mentioned wanting to see a grave yard and I passed it just a few hundred yards later.

Nice path




Tractor on the ridge in the distance


Violet

Farm land between two ridges


Me


Field flowers


A view of the ridge to climb


More flowers

Nice bench after climbing 700 ft

View back down to the Cumberland Valley from the bench

Groundhog climbing a tree

A ground hog came running down the trail towards me and I had to yell at it. It scampered up a tree. I didn't even know ground hogs climbed trees. A rabbit ran across the trail only minutes before. These two were the first wildlife I'd seen on the trip so far, besides squirrels and chipmunks.

Finally reaching the top of the ridge leading to Duncannon

view from the ridge leading to Duncannon

 view from The ridge leading to Duncannon

From the viewpoint on the ridge I was two miles and 2 hours from the shelter and sunset. I decided to stay for a while and catch up on my texting. But, a thru hiker  came along  and told me that the trail was very Rocky for the next two miles. The thru-hikers name was palindrome.  I asked him if he was a mathematician he said yes.  He also said he had been tracking my progress by following my boot prints in the mud and that he was still searching for someone with triangles on their boot print. 

Once I reached the shelter I found several thru-hikers there. Among them was a doctor another was a jeweler and another was palindrome.

The doctor told me that he always wears Crocs. He said he had a pair just like mine. And that he likes wearing them to work because if they get blood on them he can put them in his dishwasher. Yuvk

Palindrome was washing his feet he said that he has hiked all the way from Georgia and still hadn't developed that hikers stink. I said that I thought the stimk was just young guys who weren't washing on the trail that established the hikers stink phenomenon. He then set up his tent inside the shelter. Which is a hiker faux pas. He was starting to remind me of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory.

 The Jeweler had just gotten a resupply package from his mother and was flush with supplies. He said he was going to take the next day as a 0 day at the shelter. He joked that his father was about to sending a resupply package in the next town he was going to. They definitely were not coordinating with each other. Apparently his parents are separated.

Cooking dinner from inside my tent

May 10th

I hiked 6.3 miles today to my car!

Today's track in red
(that's Duncannon down by the river at the top)

When I woke up it was late. But the jeweler was still at the shelter and we talked for about a half hour. He told me about how he'd come from four generations of Jewelers and that he had worked for Tiffany's. He gave up the job at Tiffany's to become an apprentice to an experienced Jeweler. However the Jeweler became very busy and didn't have time to teach him. This is when he decided to quit and Hike the Appalachian Trail. He had another job lined up some place in North Carolina and decided to hike from Newark New Jersey to North Carolina on the Appalachian Trail. He had hiked the roads from Newark to Appalachian Trail. Along one of the New Jersey roads he had stopped to take a break under a tree. A policeman approached him and ask him if he had any weapons and what he was doing. He said that he'd had a pocket knife and the policeman said no I meant any real weapons like a hatchet or machete. Then the policeman said your going to Apple what? After not finding anything wrong with the jeweler and growing frustrated the policeman finally left him alone.

Outhouse at the shelter


Inside the outhouse

Overlook above Duncannon, PA

Youtube video of this vista

Just a mile before Duncannon I came to this wonderful Vista. A couple arrived soon after me they were flip-floppers and had started in Harpers Ferry on the same date that I started at Penn Mar. That gives you some idea of how much faster they were hiking than me.

Duncannon, PA below

Other FlipFloppers that started in Harper's Ferry

A long series of steps down to Duncannon
An Austrian hiker just ahead of me with his dog

benches created from the natural rocks

more steps
Youtube video of some of the steps

more benches

more steps

more benches

Crossing into Duncannon

Crossing into Duncannon

The couple from the Vista who had been following me the entire way down the mountain finally caught up to me when I reach town. I took a short break at the picnic tables below before continuing my hike to the doyle Hotel. I saw the Austrian guy with his dog at a gas station as I passed.

AT white blaze on telephone pole


Duncannon VFW park

The Doyal Hotel in Duncannon

The doyle Hotel was packed with Backpackers about eight of them were packing their bags with supplies and were about to leave when I arrived. It was an amazing sight all of us Backpackers in one place at one time. I dropped my bag in the pool room and sat at the bar. The couple from the Vista were sitting at the other end of the bar and we talked for a couple of moments. Also at the table behind me was a man who had passed me earlier in the day. We introduced ourselves and I found out that he was from Florida and that his real name was melted soul. I thought he was going to give me a great story about how someone had broken his heart and given him his Trail name. But how he really got it was by trying to dry his boots with a hair dryer in a hotel room and melting its soul.

Owners of the Doyal (Pat and Vickey Kelly)

Pat and Vickey Kelly

Pat and Vickey Kelly

The Proprietors of the Doyal are a married couple named Pat and Vicki . Vicki was pretty funny and she had a whole stick worked out. Jokes designed for thru-hikers. I won't go into them here I guess you have to experience them for yourself.

One thing that I did enjoy about the Doyal was that they had sweetened and unsweetened tea ready to go on ice.

I had a large tea and a bag of chips that revived me for the final two-mile hike to the car. Later I couldn't figure out why I didn't leave my backpack at the Doyal and come back for it once I had the car. I'll have to plan better in the future.

Flowers in the town of Duncannon

Flowers in the town of Duncannon

Lawn ornament in the town of Duncannon

Crossing the Susquehanna River part 1

After the doyle Hotel it was a pretty long walk through town  over a mile. Then another long walk through traffic and over two Bridges to the car. Crossing the traffic was precarious, the cars and semi's moving very fast and there were no crosswalks.

Crossing the Susquehanna River part 1

Crossing the Susquehanna River part 1

Crossing the Susquehanna River part 2
Youtube video of this crossing

My Car!!!!!
84.5 miles