5/15 Day 73 Birch Run Shelter to campsite and mile 1108.8 - 21 miles
Another cold sleep. Early this morning we passed the official halfway point for this year. Because the halfway point changes each year, it was nothing special. Just trail. A few miles north was an elaborate halfway marker. We were here with Ayce, Giuseppe, Blue Moon, Coups, Dirty Mike, Passover, and Larryboy. We took some photos and Blue Moon made some follow up phone calls regarding the ice cream. It seemed it wasn't going to happen.
We hiked to Pine Grove Furnace State Park and, as suspected, the store was closed. Luckily, Blue Moon didn't give up. He headed to the AT museum across the street and talked to a former thru hiker, Yellow Shoes, into driving him to a store to buy ice cream. We wrote down our flavor choices, collected money and away he went. While we waited we went over to check out the AT museum. It was nice and they had some neat items but it was interesting to me that they refused to allow AT thru hikers to use their restroom.
Before long, Blue Moon returned with nine half gallons of ice cream. We all dug in to our ice cream as the cold rain began again. Giuseppe was first to finish and I was a close second putting away over 2,500 calories of moose tracks. Everyone was able to finish except Wideload.
The rain had stopped before we left but it was still pretty cool. The rest of the day was uneventful. We hiked on passing the next shelter and decided to stealth camp a bit further hoping to get into Boiling Springs by late morning. The rain began again while we were hiking and continues. Hopefully the rain will be over by morning.
--1st Place--
--2nd Place--
5/16 Day 74 campsite to Darlington Shelter - 22.4 miles
Woken by rain this morning. Not a heavy rain but enough to make us not want to get out of the tent. We packed up and were on our way. The rain stopped soon after we started hiking and the sun came out. We did several miles of walking through corn fields and fields of weeds this morning. We came out of the corn fields and into the town of Boiling Springs. My first thought was that this town must be some fly fishing Mecca. I had never seen so many people fly fishing. We walked on eventually coming to the ATC mid Atlantic regional office which seemed like a nice place to rest. We killed some time there for a while before hitting up the convenient store for some extra snacks.
We decided to eat lunch in town before getting back on trail. We ended up at a local pizza shop. Passover and Ayce were with us and Dirty Mike and Coups came in a bit later. The place was nice enough but unfortunately the free drink refills don't apply to hikers. We were told after two drink refills we would have to pay for any additional refills. It didn't seem the locals had the same restriction. We went back to the ATC office to sit on the porch and let our food settle before hiking our remaining fourteen miles. I spoke with my sister's father in law while we were in town. They live nearby and plan to try to visit tomorrow.
Ayce and I were back on trail by 2:30 with Wideload and Passover about a half hour ahead of us. Most of the remaining miles were through corn fields and pastures. They were easy but boring miles. At the end of the day we had a steep climb back up to a ridge where the shelter was located. We chose to take advantage of the nice night and tent. This would also allow the tent to dry. Tomorrow we'll go through Duncanon, PA and visit the famous Doyle Hotel.
5/17 Day 75 Darlington Shelter to Duncannon, PA - 11.3 miles
We were up and ready to get to town early. We had all planned on hiking in and staying at the Doyle in Duncannon. Wideload left with Passover and I waited for Ayce. We passed the girls and waited for them at the edge of town. Ayce was now thinking of not staying in town because he would be meeting his girlfriend next weekend at a specific location and had some miles to cover.
We walked though town arriving at the Doyle just as they were opening for lunch. We met Pat and Vicki, the owners. We sat down in the dining area and Pat came over to go over the menu with us. After giving us a few minutes Vicki came back to take our orders. While waiting for our food my sister's in laws Bruce and Rosie arrived. They live not far from here and wanted to come say hi. We were excited they were willing to take the time to come see us. They say with us for a couple hours listening to our trail stories and asking questions before hitting the road again.
At some point during lunch Ayce and Passover had decided that they would definitely be moving on today. Now we were torn between staying and relaxing the afternoon or hiking out with our friends. We finally decided we would stay and catch up later since they both would be taking some time off the trail in the coming week. The local grocery store offers free shuttles from the Doyle and back so we all took advantage of that. After the resupply, Ayce, Passover, Coups, and Dirty Mike were ready to hike out. I walked with them a couple blocks before saying goodbye and parting ways. I was sad to see them all go on as we had been enjoying their company. At the same time, it was nice for us to make the decision to stay even if by ourselves. For much of this trip we've just followed the rest of the group for the sake of keeping the group intact. We'll catch up eventually.
After everyone left it was a typical town evening consisting of showers, laundry, and food. It was nice to have the evening to relax. We'll be back on trail tomorrow.
Moose
