Date: 2007-10-18
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Boonsboro, MD
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Half way!!!! It's hard to believe that I've actually walked more than half of the whole Appalachian Trail; it was certainly hard to grasp when it happened, and I still have trouble actually believing that it happened. That said, it's just as hard to believe that I still have more than 1,000 miles to go.I last updated on the 13th, when I was in Duncannon, Pennsylvania. I left the internet place and headed to the grocery store. The walk was nothing less than treacherous. I actually had a guy that seemed to drive towards me and then swerve out of the way at the last minute, which was a bit frightening. I was able to get everything that I wanted, though, which was nice. As I was headed out of town, this hoopty old car drove by me with a girl hanging out the passenger side window. I figured that it was some random local just being obnoxious, but a few minutes later the same person was walking towards me on the sidewalk. It was Two Step, who is another SOBO, and was taking time off at this lady's house because she had a stress facture in her foot. She was headed out of town the next day, and tried to talk me into staying in town to drink, but I passed, intent on making it out of Duncannon without being trapped by the Doyle. I made it to the first shelter south of town, Cove Mountain, which is where two people were murdered back in the 1990s. I was walking down the blue blaze trail to the shelter when I saw a bunch of smoke coming from the area. Luckily, it was from a NOBO, Mismatch, who I had met at the Congdon shelter up in Vermont. He was with his brother, and making up some sections in the area. We had a good evening, and caught up on things that had happened for the NOBOs and the SOBOs. The morning of the 15th, I awoke to knowing that I had to do either 7.3 miles or 25.5 miles. Given my desire to catch up with the Southbounder Party Train, I settled on the 25.5. I headed through the first gap and down the second mountain into the large valley that is home to US11, I-81 and the Penna Turnpike. So, I had the distinct pleasure of listening to cars all day, but made super duper good time. I have been reliably walking around 3.5 miles per hour, which is pretty darn fast. Water was a bit short during the day, but I made it without any problems to Boiling Springs, which is home to the ATC's Mid-Atlantic office. I bummed a pen off of them since mine had run out when I went to sign into the Darlington Shelter registry. I stuck around in town for about and hour, and headed out at 6, with 4 miles to do to the shelter. It was a really nice walk through farm fields at the end of the day, with the sun setting to my right, and a big mountain rising to the front of me. Unfortunately, I had to go up the big mountain, but arrived at the shelter to find Smiles, another SOBO, who I had never met before, and Vegas, a section hiker out for a few short days. I cooked up a big dinner of tortellini (standard fare), and passed out with super duper tired legs. Due to the swaying temps that have been slowly nudging closer and closer to realy cold, I had to head into Mt. Holly Springs to get my sleeping bag liner, which Mom had sent to me. I left the shelter early, and arrived at the road crossing to town to find a guy standing there next to his car. He offered me a ride into town and then back to the trail, which I readily accepted. His daugther works as the caretaker for the ATC's work camp that I had passed the day before coming into Boiling Springs, and he was very friendly, and despite driving through some red lights in town, it was a pleasant trip. After being dropped back off at the trail, it was a short mile over a small hill to the Green Mountain General Store, where I got a bacon cheeseburger sub (two burgers), a big bag of chips, a bottle of Diet Coke (no DC with lime, unfortunately), and a pint of ice cream. I skipped on the half gallon challenge, however, because I'm not a big fan of the ice cream that they have there. I powered through my food, and also demolished a massive helping of chips that some hunters had leftover. I read some of the newspaper that Mom had sent me, which was a nice change from the usual. I left the deli, and crossed the half way point a bit later. I spent 14 minutes walking to a view that Vegas had said was really nice, but when I got there, it was just a big rock that looked out over some trees and hills--I was expecting to see miniature towns and things down below, or something somewhat interesting, but all it was was trees...I'm sick of looking at trees just like I'm sick of walking! The half-way point felt good; hard to believe. I arrived at the park that houses the marker to find Oblivious and Seaweed Sally sitting in a field. I sat around and talked to them for 45 minutes, and we headed out. We hadn't gone another 5/10ths of a mile when we came across Runway, Uly and Barbarossa! I had run full on into the back of the Southbounder Party Train! I sat around and caught up with the three of them while Oblivious and Sally headed out, and then parted ways as they did some yellow blazing to skip the shelter I was planning on staying at. I arrived at the shelter to find the rest of the train, which was awesome; met a bunch of people who I had never met before, and got to see those I had met before but not seen for nearly a month. We all celebrated the mile stone with fire crackers and a big fire, which was fun.I woke up early on the 17th, knowing that I had to do atleast 26 miles (my longest day). Cricket left a few minutes before me, and I caught up with him after a few miles or so. I arrived at the first shelter of the day to find El Presidente, who I hadn't had a chance to talk to the night before, and we had a good time sitting around eating second breakfast. The next shelter was billed as the 'best maintened shelter' and it was amazing. There was a painted pumkin, a bunch of mums and some hanging plants, plus the place was all painted up, there was gravel spread in the area in front of it, a park bench, well-marked trails to the springs, and everything. The maintainter, or "innkeeper," as he had billed himself definitely put a lot of time into keeping the place in tip-top shape! I kept pushing on after just a short rest determined to not get myself into one of my usual 18 miles to do after lunch situations, and got water at the state park at the bottom of the hill, where I made arrangements by phone to spend atleast a night in Frederick, MD with old neighbors, and then for my cousin to come walk with me down in Shennandoah National Park. I hit the first shelter to find Uly, Barbarossa and Runway standing there, and they were planning on doing another 5 miles. I'd already done 24, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt to add on some more. I didn't have any trouble keeping up with Barbarossa, which was a first--he used to walk much faster than I did. Not to mention, I was carrying 60 oz of water, which weights a ton, but there wasn't really any option. The shelter was actually two shelters next to each other. We cooked up big dinners, drank a lot of tea, and had a small campfire. Uly and I took one shelter and Barbarossa and Runway took the other. I got up this morning at 6am, which is about the earliest that I have ever gotten up. That said, I didn't make it out too quickly, because I boiled water and made tea for breakfast. i bummed some banana chips off of Uly and got on the road at about 7:30, with 24 miles to do to where I was going to be picked up at 5pm. I had the whole day planned out down to the minute, but then I came across Roy, who was stealthed next to the trail. I stopped and talked to him for a long time--he had broken one of his pinky toes the day before and seemed to be in a bit of pain, so we agreed to look each other up in Harper's Ferry. I left there and headed up the hill to High Rock, which supposedly had a great view. Roy told me that I could save some time by walking up there on the road, but I skipped that for the trail. I got to the park at the bottom of the road to find that all of the flush toilets were locked up, which was a bit disappointing, but I made due. It was a rather strenuous climb for the next 3 miles to the top of High Rock, and when I got there, Roy was sitting on the top of the rock acting like he had not a single care in the world...I guess the road walk was a bit faster, because he wasn't totally packed when I left his camp, and he had a broken toe!! We sat around and I passed all but 10 minutes of the time cushion that I had planned into the day for meeting my ride into town. Rather distressed when I realized what time it was, I split, and took a quick hike down the hill. The rest of the day went pretty quickly, as I was anxious to go to someone's house where I could eat a big meal and take a shower! I endured a few little rain showers, walked while listening to music for the first time, and arrived at the road crossing about 2 minutes before our scheduled rendezvous time! It was perfect. I have since taken a shower, eaten about 1 1/2 crab cakes, a massive steak, a bunch of salad and sipped on some Buds. I think that I might go get into the hot tub; I have made the decision to take my first zero in 2 weeks here, as it works with my schedule to walk with my cousin next weekend. It'll be a pretty slack week to where I'm going to meet him, but I my feet need a break, to say the least, and I am going to get to see some people that I can't remember having seen for a really long time.A note about hiking with music; it slowed me down. The rhythm of my feet didn't match that of the music, which really threw me off and I had trouble pushing myself to go faster while my feet were trying to match the slightly slower music's pace. So, that along with the fact that the battery is starting to go in my iPod and that I can't get more than about 10 hours out of a charge, in the future I'm probably going to pass on listening to music while I'm walkin' along.