Date: 2016-07-08
From: James Fry Shelter

To: Carlisle Super 8
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: light rain

Cake gave me my wake up call at 5:30. Her and Haiku were going to get an early start and I asked her to wake me up so I could get one too. I wanted to get some miles in today before the blazing sun hit. I got up packed and on trail at 6:20. Cake and Haiku had already left when I got on trail. I got to the first road crossing and decided to walk the .20 miles to the deli up the street. It opened at 7 and it was 6:50. I couldn't pass it up. I was able to get a breakfast sandwich and coffee. After leaving the deli there was what I am calling the Pennsylvania mini roller coaster. 4 steep ups and downs in a short amount of time. The middle of this had a rock maze where you had to go over, under and around a bunch of boulders. With the extreme humidity it made for a tough go of it. Finally reaching the fourth summit I came to center point knob which was the original half way point many years ago. I sat and took a break and ate my bag of chips and can of Coke I had packed out from the deli. At this point there was a gradual decent down into Cumberland Valley and I was only 3.6 miles to Boiling Springs. The trail comes out of the woods and into a corn field. The trail snakes around the corn field snd begins to cross the valley. It was hot with no shade and having the sun blazing overhead. However given the 100% flat terrain I would take it. I arrived in Boiling Springs at 11:30 and stopped at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy northeast division which is right on the trail. Cake had texted me and asked where I was. I said I was in town and was going to get lunch next. I had planned on going to cafe 101 for lunch and that is where she was. She sat and chatted with me while I ate and sleeping bear was also in town and came into the cafe. I forgot how nice air conditioning is after not having it for several days. While in the restaurant a man came over and asked if we were thru hiking. We said yes and he told us he Thru hiked in 1983 and told a story about a man who they had met in Boiling Springs back in 1983 that used to put up hikers in his home and make them dinner. He explained he was too old to do that anymore but gave them 20 dollars for the three of them to have a nice meal. Well the guy saw three hikers sitting together and came over to "pay it forward" and gave us 20 bucks. We were very appreciative and after he left we learned the town pool was 5 dollar Friday's. We were gonna take the money and use it to get into the pool. On the way there we had a thunder shower and the pool was temporarily shut down due to thunder. The guy let us in for free as we were hikers and he felt bad that it was so hot and we were walking. We had to wait only 15 minutes and they reopened the pool. Most of the people left when it rained so we had the whole place to ourselves almost. The pool had three water slides as well. After we swam for an hour we walked back to the cafe and used the 20 from the man who's trail name was Mr. Incorrigible to buy us some snacks. I got an iced coffee and a cannoli. Sleeping bear was getting picked up by family for a night off. Cake and I talked about what might be a good plan. There is no camping in Cumberland Valley so the options were stay in Boiling Springs either at the free campground or hike another 16 miles to the next shelter. Another option was in 8 miles there was the town of Carlisle and they had several motels there. We decided with the heat lets hike 8 miles and find a motel to split. We pushed off from Boiling Springs at 4 and had a road walk down Main Street. The trail then darted into the woods and crossed many corn fields along the edges. We had several road crossings as we went over PA 74, 4 side streets, PA 641, the I-76 the PA Turnpike before arriving to US 11 which takes you into Carlisle. We walked the .40 to the super 8 and were able to do laundry and eat dinner at a 24 hour diner across the street. Cake and I called it a night at 9:30.