Week 16: Rocky Road

Day 106: The Doyle

Saturday, June 22nd

19.3 miles today

1,151.9 miles total

After basically sleeping all day yesterday we woke up around 2 to get ready to hike. We woke up later because we didn’t have much to hike and we were planning on meeting joes friend and Mandi for lunch in Duncannon.

The walk through the farm fields were nice especially with the sunrise. The night hiking has been mentally tiring because of the hours but the views were pretty nice in the morning. It was still like 70 something degrees at night too so with our climb out of the farmlands we were sweating buckets before the sun-rose.

Luckily I there was a privy at the top because i needed it. As soon as I made my way down it became more urgent. The climb out was terrible too. Nobody was down there so I left the door open and I was so sweaty I was sliding around on the smooth toilet seat.

I met the guys at hawk rock with a good view of Duncannon and the surrounding area. We chilled there for a bit while day hikers came up to see the view. We decided to do the extra 2 mile walk through town so we didn’t have to do it later and I’m glad we did but it’s was hot and the sun was beaming down. We saw tag along and she gave a us some sodas and water.

Walking across the Susquehanna took way longer than expected. From up high it looked so small. Just before we crossed, my legs red from chaffing, we saw joes friend driving across the bridge.

The Doyle was really cool. A hotel over 100 years old that’s past through a few hands and has catered to hikers for a long time. My friend Alex recommended we get the Doyle burger so that’s what we all got with no regrets. One of the best burgers on trail by far. I know I swore off meat but I had to try this one. I also said I’d stretch more and haven’t done that either..

We got back to the house later than we thought like 3ish. We were going to go to bed and wake up at 11:30pm to go back to hiking but when we did we (me and Spencer) didn’t not feel up to it…

Day 107: Back To Sleep

Sunday, June 23rd

Clark’s Ferry Shelter

2.6 miles today

1154.5 miles total

When Joe came down to wake us up at 11:30 I felt like I barely closed my eyes. It felt like high school when I’d stay up until midnight and wake up at 5:30. We were slow moving and I had no motivation to do anything let alone hike. Spencer and I sat at the table. I finished my bagel and egg sandwich and sat there with my head in my hands. I reminded myself this isn’t a job I don’t “have” to do this. Sleep is important and there’s no use in hiking like this, it could lead to injury. Spencer didn’t take much convincing he got less sleep than i did.

We had a pow wow with Joe about it down in the basement. He was on board, if we didn’t feel good then we shouldn’t go. But he’d eaten a lot of food and they both drank coffee so they took some melatonin and we all went back to bed. I stayed up until 3ish to try and keep that sleep schedule in check and then woke up around noon. Spencer went to sleep but woke up earlier than that and Joe stayed up really late and got up at the same time. We were all outta whack. I’d look at the time on my phone and my body couldn’t tell if it was AM or PM. I tried to sleep some more but it wasn’t happening.

So Joe and I took a trip to McDonald’s for a cheap dinner/late lunch. Later we made some spaghetti, vegan meatballs and garlic bread before going back out to trail for real this time.

When we did get back to the trailhead there was a storm chaser hobbyist was there because he’s been tracking this big huge storm all day and was warning us not to hike this section in the rain because the trail just turns into a waterfall. He works for the fire department or something and they had to rescue people from this spot. So that kinda worried us a bit. We could see the lightning off in the distance for a while and monitored the radar for two hours under the highway bridge. Eventually nothing came and we just decided to hike. It never rained on us but it was windy and the bugs were atrocious. I had to keep changing the brightness of my headlamp and try my hardest not to breathe through my mouth so I didn’t swallow any flies. But it was so rocky and we’re on the side of the mountain so I needed to see where I was stepping. We made it 2 miles up and to the first shelter to fill up on water. We were going to do 26 miles but we were still tired and fed up with the whole night hiking schedule so we just setup camp there at 1am and went to bed. I’ll miss the sunrise views but I won’t miss the headache that is night hiking.

Day 108: Being Lazy

Monday, June 24th

Random Campsite

13.1 miles today

1167.6 miles total

I felt like I got decent sleep last night and it actually cooled off considerably. We finally got a cold front with the jet stream shifting down to push this hot air out of here. It was windy all day perfect for hiking. The gusts had to be at least 20+mph. We didn’t start hiking until 11:30 though which wasn’t the best considering we were trying to do 25 miles today. We miles in we got some trail magic from twizzler and hobbly girl. They had some sodas, twizzlers, and homemade banana bread.. yum! They shared some stories with us and told us all the people they’ve met, over 300 this year! We carefully avoided a wasp/hornet nest that some kids accidentally poked and got stung by earlier.

The rest of today was a breeze, literally and figuratively. Some good views every now and then when we’d pass under electrical wires. When we stopped at the spring 13 miles in we debated having Mandi take us back to the house but she had to work. After some snacks and a couple poops it was 5:30 and if we kept hiking we’d get to the shelter around 9:30- 10 so we decided to call it early here with a few other hikers. We can still get to where we’re trying to go in 3ish days so we’ll be fine but we’ve definitely been lazy recently. We could be hiking more but with the whole heat thing and being relatively close to joes house it’s been tough to find motivation. 13 miles isn’t bad but when your goal was 25 it does feel like a cop out. I think we still needed a day to get back into a normal circadian rhythm anyways. But we should be hiking more. Dinner tonight was Spanish rice with tomato basil tuna and olive oil. Finally eating some food I’ve been carrying for far too long. I still have that meal that lady gave us before we crossed the Pennsylvania boarder.

Day 109: Same Shit Different Day

Tuesday, June 25th

SureStay Plus

17.7 miles today

1185.3 miles total

I was surprised how cold it got last night. I had to bundle up by the time the sun rose. I also kept waking up because I heard what I think was a deer walking around the outskirts of camp last night but I got pretty good sleep regardless. I didn’t enjoy my breakfast of bars of pop tarts too much but I did like how light my food bag was getting.

Like the old days we were nearly the last to leave camp but caught up with most people along the way. The climb back up to the ridgeline wasn’t bad either just a long gradual climb up but the guys especially Joe didn’t find it as easy. Once we were up there it was relatively flat, some rocks here and there but I was listening to a book to keep me entertained.

Its been tough hiking with just the guys especially with the whole night hiking we haven’t made a lot of new friends and all the people we have known are 100 miles ahead of us and probably won’t slow down. I didn’t think I’d miss all of them so much. It’s been nice to read their trail logs though.

We stopped for a quick snack and then a few miles later we stopped for water and lunch. We got 11 or so miles done by noon which was nice but it was getting hotter. We crossed over a section of trail completely covered in water and muck deeper than I wanted to know (from a beaver dam) and hopped and walked along fallen trees to avoid it. After that we walked through a few fallen trees and up a hill with tons of brambles and spikey bushes along the trail cutting us up for a quarter mile.

At the bottom of that hill the trail went under a bridge so we stopped there for a couple hours while Joe tried to cool down and rehydrate. We kept going and when we made it to the next gap Joe was done hiking.  He got a hotel because the hostel didn’t have any rooms just cots outside and we decided to join him since he was going to pay for it anyway. The hostel owner was nice enough to drive us down there and take us to a place where the guys ordered pizza and I just ate left overs to save money. We watched the office and fell asleep, well Joe fell asleep and started snoring and the beds were so uncomfortable that Spencer inflated his sleeping pad and slept on that. The hostel owner did say this place has gone through a few owners in the last couple years, probably a few reasons why.

Day 110: Rain? What’s that

Wednesday, June 26th

501 Shelter

11.6 miles today

1196.7 miles total

Luckily we got a local shuttle driver to pick us up this morning at 7 from the hotel so after 6am breakfast I waited it the lobby with all my things ready waiting for the guys to come back down with their things ten minutes after 7. Pip drove us back to the hostel we left from and we let out breakfast settle before doing the 1,500ft climb back up to the ridge. This one was a lot steeper and had more loose rocks that shifted under every step.

At the top we waited for Joe to make sure he was alright before continuing on. The miles seemed to fly by while Spencer and I talked. We got to our water source 7 miles in and I watched Joe drink 3 liters of water while I searched Amazon for a cheap sun hoodie because the shirt I’m wearing is just too thick and it doesn’t breathe and with the temperature rising I’m getting tired of it. There we met some local trail maintainers (push) and told him about the downed trees and uncut brambles and thanked them for their work (they’d just weed wacked the next few miles).

A few miles later we got some trail magic from tag along and a guy named Steve. He had some sodas and chips and pretzels. A few new hikers came in behind us, skillet, sharky and big spoon. We few miles later and we got to the 501 shelter off the 501 road. This place is nice! Fully enclosed big sun window in the roof, several bunks with a picnic table in the middle, board games and books, outdoor shower, water spigot, porta John’s and charging station by the care takers house. We were gonna just have lunch here but Joe was adamant on staying and with a severe thunderstorm coming and no good place to stay in town it made sense to stay here rather than keep going a little farther. When we first got there the sun had the shelter baking hot but A few hours later when the storm clouds came in the temperature quickly dropped. Just as the pizza and subs that everyone ordered arrived the band of rain that came through was dumping rain. They came back soaking and I wish I had ordered food but knew I could hold off for a few days and ate one of my meals instead.

Some more people came, fives and lucky charm, soaking wet and ordered pizza too. So it’s 8 of us total tonight and odds are some of them will snore so I should get to bed soon. Fives gave me some of her veggie calzone and I narrowly beat Spencer in a game of battle ship by with one hit left!

Day 111: It’s Getting Rocky

Thursday, June 27th

23.6 miles today

1220.3 miles total

The second wave of the storm came after 11pm when I tried to fall asleep but couldn’t. I woke up to a bright flash through the windows and a big BOOM of thunder right after. When I turned over the big sunlight window would light up with each lightning strike. The storm didn’t last too much longer but I struggled to fall asleep between the thunder and snoring. Idk why Joe thought we’d get up at 4am oh maybe because it was his idea and not mine because ain’t no way I was waking up that early and getting enough sleep. I woke up around 7 when I felt like I was rested enough. The wind was still blowing the water off the leaves and Joe was ready to go. We had breakfast and did our morning chores and left around 8.

He wanted the beat the heat but waited for us to get a picture at the 1200 mile marker. Going forward though he might just have to leave before us to be able to hike the same distance.

Today the rocks didn’t let up. From the shelter all the way to town every step was rocky, small rocks -> big rocks to everything in between. All covered in mist and debris from the storm to make it more difficult. This state sucks. All our feet ached and we stopped at one mediocre view to find our first rattle snake giving us a warning rattle only for it to fall back off the cliff.

When the guys hiked on we planned to go to the next shelter only 15 miles from where we started since we’d be picked up in town by joes wife. However, when I got there the guys just wanted to keep going and get picked up today so we’d have an extra rest day and get better sleep. I was in a little bit of pain from my new shoes not fitting the way I’d hoped they would but felt okay pushing on. I tapped my heels to prevent the hot spots I was feeling ate some lunch and we took a quick break before hiking out at 3. About 8 miles later and one of the steepest descents into town later we arrived and walked through the small town of port Clinton at 6pm to the sounds of the church. Our destination, the peanut shop, (a.k.a. A glorious candy store with everything you can think of). A famous destination that a few people told me I couldn’t miss. It was well worth the visit and the fudge was pretty good.

Across the street was a restaurant where we saw some packs and where there’s packs there’s hikers. So we went inside to see a table full of hikers a couple familiar faces but mostly ones we’d just met recently. BAM was there though and offered us some of her food, I can’t remember when I met her but I’ve know her since at least the 400 mile mark. It was there she told us the statistic that nearly 5 people every year end their hike because of that steep descent we just did (broken bones). So I’m glad we weren’t part of that statistic.

Mandi picked us up and on the way back home we stopped at the world’s largest cabelas (hunting store). It was alright. They had a lot of taxidermy game, especially deer. I’m not a huge hunter though so I didn’t care much for it. They also had an “aquarium” in the fishing section with trout, bass, catfish, perch etc. But it was a little sad to see so many big fish in such small tanks.

What was more exciting was going to Red Robin for dinner because Spencer had never been plus they had $3 Coronas. I was excited for “bottomless” fries but the service was so slow we only got a couple rounds before we got tired.

Day 112: Budweiser Clydesdales

Friday, June 28th

0 miles today

1220.3 miles total

Not much happened today. We did go see the new inside out movie. I thought the first one was sadder but this one was still just as good. I finally satisfied my craving for movie theater popcorn with lots of butter and salt, yum. At 6pm there was a parade and the Budwieser Clydesdale horses clopped down the street. We went to a local Mexican restaurant afterwards and Joe and I split a margarita pitcher. That was pretty much it.