Date: 2005-07-10
From: Bear's Den Hostel

To: Pine Grove State Park
Miles today: 106.0
Weather: clear sky

DAY 40 (4 July 2005)Back at Bear¢s Den early morning, with an arranged slack pack back to Harper¢s Ferry. Slack packed with Paul, after he fed all of us pancakes and muffins w/cream cheese (how sweet!). Quick stopover at the Blackburn Center (which offers free dinner!) for water and duct tape for my boots (which are ¢asking for porridge¢ at this point, and I meant to get new ones last weekend, but I¢m not sure where my brain was). Hitched from WV9 into Harper's Ferry for the 4th of July picnic at the hostel, fearing we¢d miss all the food, but ended up the first ones there! Great food, van-loads of thru-hikers returning from the ultimate frisbee tournament, great company, and I finally got to hear Crazy Horse play his miniature red flaming ukelele-like guitar (Stella Red). Since Paul and I are working for stay, we got to do several loads of dish washing and help clean up, but overall, I feel like we didn¢t actually have to work too much for such a nice stay! Lots of other hikers, games, music, stories... and that night, the Cucumber Girl became Cucumber Boy (details of the transformation are still under investigation).                                                                [Having problems posting pictures on web due to incompatible operational systems or very slow connections... may wait till October to post more pics.]DAY 41 (5 July 2005)Free help-yourself breakfast with all the fun, wild people of the woods, and a late start for a 10-mi day uphill. Hiking with Paul ran into two Aussies new to the trail - a fun bunch. The first shelter out of Harper's Ferry (Ed Gravey Shelter) is something out of a Russian fairy tale! We have stories of Baba Yaga living in a ¢log cabin on a chicken foot; you come to it and ask it to turn it¢s door side to you¢, and this cabin-like shelter, complete with a balcony and a loft upstairs was just like that! Picking wineberries, that are finally ripe, and occasional mulberries along the way, it is a wonder i get any miles done at all. Continued on to the Pavilion north of Gathland, where we met Granade Boy (and crew: TCB, Bearbag, and Minnie), and scored pizza from them - pizza that was delivered right there, to the pavilion on the trail! Walked another 0.6mi to the shelter with full bellies and in fear of being caught in a storm. The storm did start, but not until we got to she shelter and Paul read us all a bed-time story. My right eye was feeling itchy and I thought it may be poison ivy, so I asked Paul to lick my eye ball, the way my mother would do if I got something in it. He wouldn¢t do it, so I said, ¢now I¢ll have to ask the next person that walks in to the shelter to do this.¢ This is when Manynames walked in. I hadn¢t met him before, but the first question out of my mouth was, ¢Will you lick my eye ball, please?¢ And he did it!! We¢ve got it on video, but I¢m not sure it¢s for public viewing. Needless to say I woke up with normal eye balls - no puffiness, no itchiness, no poison ivy! It really works. Saliva is disinfectant, so it's much better to have your eyeball licked than to stick your finger in your eye. Serious.So, around 10pm, the storm was raging and we were glad to be in a shelter, watching this as though on a big-screen TV, lightning and thunder in ¢surround sound¢, when a couple came in with yellow ponchos and a dog (and backpacks). They said they¢re out for just a little while (no set time) from 0.6 mi back, trying out the trail, because they plan to hike it from Gathland to GA, then up to ME, then back to Gathland (so the entire AT - twice) starting next month. Hmmm... they sat around with their little wet dog and watched the storm with us; unpacked their stuff an hour later, napped, and then re-packed it and walked back off into the raging storm (and it was about midnight then). We looked for them the next day, but I think they just walked back to their car and re-considered their double thru-hike.DAY 42 (6 July 2005)Manynames has the same disease that I do - the ¢I can¢t stop eating berries¢ syndrome. We¢d pick blackberries, walk 10 yards, pick more, walk 10 yards, pick more and hope that we can walk 20 yards before dispersing into the bushes again. There was a small cement restroom right before Boonsboro with a hot shower, so we visited that, and then dropped Paul off for his visit with the parents, and continued on thru the berry madness. Climbed some cherry trees, munched on mulberries and wineberries and green apples, and still got a 20 miles day in! There is a fortress tower called the Washington Monument, which offers some nice views with a breeze. Crazy Horse caught up to us then, and Manynames and him drummed on the monument rails - very stylish. On the walk from the monument, Crazy Horse contracted our berry disease, and we climbed some more cherry trees, before wondering into Pine Knob shelter, which is about to be renamed to ¢Mad ¢Coon¢ shelter, because a lady recently got bitten by a rabbied racoon there! Dashed on to the next shelter, and got there before dark and before another storm rolled in. Saw some deer along the way, and decided to let them live, since they don't compete for our berries. I was curious, now that I¢m Cucumber Boy, whether the ¢girl¢ in me would emerge and be winy after dark, but we reached the shelter before any entity-splitting occurred. However, since the shelter looked dark and packed, I just slept on the creaky picnic table until someone yelled ¢Hey, you, hippie on the table - are you getting wet!?¢ And yes, I was, because the storm was raging, so I slept with a dozen of thru-hikers¢ boots on the floor, which was actually quite comfortable. Awoke to find Wolfman, Santa, Bigfoot, and some other hikers from before staying at the shelter! It¢s odd how you meet people, hike with them a while, and then separate thinking you¢ll never see them again, but catch up with them over and over. Everyone ends up taking zeroes at some point, or getting off the trail for one thing or another, and we just keep running into each other!Walking with Manynames today, again. He is unbelievably peaceful (it¢s the Tai Chi... 20 years of it!). He¢s been wearing the same pair of $35 sneakers since Amicalola, and I know it isn¢t the shoes - it¢s the man wearing them! Most hikers I know are on their 2nd, if not their 3rd pair by now! When he walks, not a leaf, not a rock moves - he is that peaceful. DAY 43 (7 July 2005)Walking slow with Manynames again. He¢s Polish, so we share some stories and practice affirmations along the way. Picking blueberries and blackraspberries in tangles that just won¢t end. Lunch at Pen-Mar landed us a night in ¢hiker heaven¢: Pigbear (P) and I were tossing a frisbee, and he almost slipped when a lady said, ¢Don¢t break your leg, now, or I¢ll have to take you home and feed you dinner.¢ To which I replied, ¢Do we have to break our legs to get dinner?¢ A couple of minutes later we had an arranged dinner for 4 at her house 8 miles down the trail. Crazy Horse (CH) caught up with us and off we went together... or so we thought. Immediately after crossing the MD-PA (Mason-Dixon) line, we saw a pack (Jude¢s) in the middle of the trail, and it was evident that our going wouldn¢t start for another hour or so ¢ the next 20 yards of the trail were so densely neighbored by bushes of wineberries and raspberries that we stuffed ourselves with liters of them, filled a Nalgene for our dinner angel, and then stuffed ourselves some more after managing to walk 30 more yards and cross a road! It was a berry glutton's heaven. ¢I love PA!¢ The dinner angel¢s husband picked us up, and we four feasted on the best mac&cheese I¢ve ever had in my life, hamburgers, and fresh veggie salad, and lemonade for hours, telling stories and being oh so grateful! Then, we repaid our dues by playing guitar (CH and P), whistling (Manynames is a professional!), and drumming on everything within reach! It was great! We even got to spend the cold, rainy night on their screened-in porch!! And got coffee and cookies in the morning, including a ride back to the trailhead! Trail angels are awesome, and we cannot thank them enough! DAY 44 (8 July 2005)All this talk of storms and hurricanes, and we¢ve been lucky to only have them at night. By the time we got back on the trail, the rain had subsided and the blueberries came out once again. We made it to Caledonia State Park for lunch only to find the ice cream vendor closed and waiting for a delivery... we about attacked the ice cream delivery truck driver, ¢cause they still wouldn¢t give us any ice cream! There was so much talk of this talk of a Hiker Feed Fest in Duncannon, PA, that I was enticed to go. Crazy Horse, Pigbear, Slap Happy, and Treetrunks were getting a ride up there... I could also benefit from new shoes, because shoe-gooing them every night is getting old, and it only lasts till lunch the next day. I opted to hike on with Manynames and maybe catch a ride up there tomorrow. Well, if it isn¢t God or the Universe, or whatever other huge, powerful force speaking to me, but my shoes completely fell apart in the next 10 miles to the shelter! I felt like I was walking barefoot, and for a while there we were only making about 1 mi and hour! I HAD to go to Duncannon, for the shoes, if nothing else. I also wanted to catch up to Packstock. He was one of the funniest people I've hiked with on the trail. I just laugh thinking about some of the things we¢d say or the songs we¢d compose (about how great it would be to be a human jack rabbit - the AT would be a breeze, a hop, skip and a jump; or what would be the strangest combination of foods in one dinner burrito)!Shared a nice, new shelter with Sensei, Wolfman, Santa, Kokomo, Manynames, and some section hikers that night. DAY 45 (9 July 2005)Shelters are strange - I always want to sleep in, and have a hard time getting up, but when I¢m cowboying - I¢m up at the first call of the birds, which is way before sunrise! Hiking with Manynames again, practicing mind-yoga and affirmations, and picking blueberries till our hands, mouths and bellies can hold no more. On to the ¢half-gallon challenge¢ at Pine Grove State Park. The affirmation I had in my head wasn¢t clear, and I know the Universe wants to help you but you¢ve got to be concise in what you request, otherwise there¢s too much room for misinterpretation. I decided I wanted (1) to eat ice cream, (2) get a ride all the way to Duncannon, and (3) ride with a hiker/trail angel instead of hitching. Well, after I finished my quart of mint choc chip and the rest of the cookies and cream that Wolfman couldn¢t finish, and was delighted that I didn¢t do the crazy ¢eat a 12 ga of ice cream as fast as you can¢ challenge, Wolfman started flirting with me (and he¢s at least 50yo). I had to remind him that I¢m now a boy, and he¢d only be allowed to flirt with me if he were a Catholic priest. Turns out he¢s been a Pastor for the Navy for a decade or two!!! Well, we all took it light-heartedly, and then the section hikers from the shelter showed up and offered to give me a ride all the way to Duncannon, so off I went!!!Now, this is a day that isn¢t so easy to forget, and yet all the details are still a-mess in my head. I arrived in Duncannon, and popped into The Doyle Hotel, which has been talked up by hikers and literature alike, only to find out that the feed fest is somewhere uphill. The Doyle, though many hikers like it, was like any other dive bar, dark and smelly. I walked outside and heard a ¢Sweetheart, you need a ride to the feed fest?!¢ call, and hopped in with Pellet (whom I hadn¢t seen since David Path Shelter on June 3rd!), Shoutout, and some other hikers into a truck driven by a trail angel. Turns out I lost my green tarp and grey Eureka! tent-fly along the way, and I still hadn¢t found them. [If you are a thru-hiker and reading this and had found the tarp, please let me know in the guestbook. Thanks!]I ended up walking into about a 100 hikers and trail angels all running around, eating, and frolicking in a field, and about a dozen of them said little other than ¢I¢m sorry, honey, I¢m so sorry. Hadn¢t you heard?¢ ...Packstock had been hit by a train wee early that morning, after a day/night of heavy drinking at the feed fest/Doyle Hotel. The rest doesn¢t belong on this web site. Just that I¢d spent hours talking to the state police investigator, my family, his family, and was assigned a buddy (Bubbski) to keep me from going off the deep end, and... after some meditation with Bubbski and Serenity (thanks for the foot massage, girl!), and cowboying out in the field with with some other hikers that had hiked for some time with Packstock, and a super delicious breakfast, I was outta there!DAY 46 (10 July 2005)Slim and Bogie (trail angels) took Bubbski to the trailhead, and me to the outfitters to get new boots, and then back to the trail at Pine Grove, from where I hitched to Duncannon before. Such wonderful, patient, caring people!!! I¢m wondering if by some chance of luck I¢ll run into Bubbski again. Back at the ¢12 ga challenge¢, after a quart of chocolate (my own) and a quart of moose tracks (finishing up GQ¢s), and meeting up with Godspeed, Aslan, GQ, Blaze, and some other hikers, I opted to walk up the trail alone to the next shelter. I need to get used to this hiking alone deal. Really, I¢ve kept up with some fantastic people, but I¢m looking forward to hiking alone more for a while. The woods are miraculous, and some of the awareness is lost in conversation with a companion hiker, you know? It's fun, sure, but i did come out here to find myself, and sometime, when i'm hiking with others, i feel lost in conversation, rather then looking and being aware. I was relieved to see a tent at the shelter, but have the shelter itself all to myself. There¢s a whirlpool of thoughts running thru my head, and most of them are probably too private to share here, but the whole mind-yoga thing comes back around. I feel like Packstock¢s spirit is with me, and the split I had inside my head (b/w Cucumber and Girl, and then b/w Cucumber and Boy) is now between Cucumber Boy (one entity) and Packstock... or maybe I just hear voices in my head, who knows. Anyway, I feel like keeping an objective journal of where I¢m going and what I¢m doing is futile and vain. There is so much more that goes on outside that frame, and most of it is on a level that isn¢t compatible with internet communications, so my musings stay private, for now, and I may or may not continue to update this journal. I feel that the hike was more for myself than i initially intended, and it is better this way. Of course, this is something you do for your self, walking up and down hills and mountains day in and day out, rain or shine - it makes no sense to do this for anyone else. But keeping a journal online is something, obviously, done for others, so they know i'm okay, or what i am going through, since i don't know anyone back home who has ever done a thru-hike. Anyway, for now, I trek on solo.