Date: 2018-07-10
From: Pine Grove Furnace State Park

To: Boiling Springs, PA
Miles today: 19.3

I woke up on our tiny island to Bubbles packing up at 5:30 am. He was gone by 6. I decided get up then to have an early start. I made my usual breakfast of oatmeal but I had difficulty putting it down for some reason. Maybe my body is finally rejecting oatmeal and I should stick to bagels instead. I rolled out around 7 am the earliest I've left camp so far on the trail. I brown blazed back .2 to use the restroom at the park then headed back on the trail.I was excited about a deli about 8 miles out. It was a reason to hike a little faster today for those deli sandwiches. I tried to convince humming bird and fire eater to go but they were not having it. The trail had gradual slopes and it was easy to get there. At the deli I ordered a taco salad and hung outside. Two women who were section hiking sat next to me. We got to talking about the different sections in PA. The one woman ordered too much food and she shared her sandwich with me. I was happy to get some extra food. They headed back to the trail and I stayed behind to update my journal. I got back on the trail at 12:30 pm.The sun started cooking the forest today. The humidity was high too. I made sure to drink extra water. After a couple miles I came to some high tension wires and a saw a tarp with a quilt on top with a backpack laying beside it. I didn't see anyone around and it seemed strange for it to be there. I came to a road crossing and found a man walking down the road. He was wearing a yellow shirt and had a long beard. He said he was suffering from PTSD. He said his knife was in the woods and that I shouldn't be worried. All of a sudden the woman who I met at the deli told me to come into the woods since she called the police on the guy. He had been making some threatening statements. The police rolled up and the guy just lost it. He talked about making pipe bombs and light bulb bombs. Also how the government had been tracking him for some time. The police didn't seem too worried and let the guy rant for awhile. We didn't stick around long enough to see what happened. I hiked with the woman for 4 miles to make sure we had a safe distance from the guy. She said she was a 7th grade English teacher as well as an EMT. We pushed on through the rock maze which was not that fun. Some places you had to climb over bolders. I hiked ahead and came to an open cornfield. It was the start of the Cumberland Valley and was 17 miles of farm fields. It was 5 pm and super hot in the open field. I pushed on another 2 miles and arrived in Boiling Springs.  Boiling Springs was a small town but it looked like it had history with all its houses with character. I stopped by the outfitters and got more fuel for my stove. I then went to the tavern for a drink and dinner. Humming Bird, Fire Breather, and Bubbles were already there having drinks. We all ordered food. They got some of their drinks paid for by locals in town. Fire Breather got all his drinks paid for. I thought because he had an accent and was from South Africa. We talked to the bartender about camping in town since we didn't want to hike back a half of a mile to the site outside of town. He mentioned camping in the gazebo in the park since there wasn't many police who went by at night. We took his word for it then headed out to the gazebo. It was a very tranquil location with a lake and some ducks. When nightfall hit we all setup our tents in the gazebo. It started raining shortly after. We had to keep from using our headlamps to not give away our position.  Tonight is my first campout in an gazebo. I hope no one finds us here.