Date: 2005-05-19
To: Hamburg,PA
Miles today: 0.0

What if no one stops?I had been trying to arrange town stops for groceries every 5 ¢ 6 days. The Appalachian Trail occasionally passes through the center of a town, but more often it goes through the outskirts and it¢s a number of miles to the store. You choose which towns you stop in based on information in a guidebook. If there isn¢t a convenient opportunity 5 ¢ 6 days since I last stopped, I try to go a little longer without stopping. I had gone as long as 61/2 days previously, but after crossing under PA Route 61 and emerging onto Blue Mountain Road, I had already gone a full 7 days. I had eaten a Lipton rice dinner for breakfast and had only 1 Lipton pasta dinner remaining in my food bag. There was no doubt about it ¢ I needed groceries.        But, I got that sinking feeling as soon as I saw the configuration of the road crossing. Blue Mountain Road started right there as a connection to the busy, 4 ¢ lane Route 61. It looked like a twisty 2- lane country road that wasn¢t getting much traffic in either direction. If you weren¢t going into town here, the Appalachian Trail continued across the road with an immediate, steep climb. Looking in the direction of Hamburg, it was mountainous on the left side, and wooded on the right. The guidebook said it was 3 miles to town, but I had no idea if these 3 miles were flat or hilly. If it had been a larger road going in, I could have assumed it was pretty much flat. My ¢town strategy¢ was to try to choose towns with major grocery stores no more than 2.5 miles from where the trail crosses the road. If 2.5 miles or less, I would try to hitch a ride for 30 minutes, and if no one stopped, I would start walking. If it was more than 2.5 miles, I¢d continue hitching, since there was always the possibility I¢d have to walk the entire way back, and I didn¢t want to risk having to walk more than 5 miles total for a grocery trip. Since the guidebook said it was 3 miles to Hamburg, I stuck to my plan and stuck out my thumb. No more than 10 cars went by in that first half hour, and no one stopped. I always had the option of getting back on the trail, but it was at least 2 days to the next good grocery opportunity, and I was already out of food. It was inconceivable to hike 2 days without food (and lots of it!), so I figured I¢d give it another half an hour. I wore my pack the entire time and stood near where the trail crossed the road, so that the drivers would see that I just came from it, and hopefully stop. After an hour with no takers, I started walking instead, but after only about 1/10 of a mile I decided I didn¢t like the looks of the road, and returned to where I had been standing. After an hour and a half, I made another ¢sortie¢, this one a bit further, but I again aborted it. After two hours I realized I probably could have walked both directions, had I started off immediately. Did it make any sense to only start walking NOW? And I have to admit that I had this negative thought: do I even want to go into a town full of people, none of which would pick me up? Yes, and if I was getting back very late, I would do my best to find some place to camp along the way. I hitched as I walked, but had to walk the whole way. It felt like less than 2 miles, was nearly flat, and took me about 40 minutes. The road, which turns into Port Clinton Road, borders on a river, and was one of the loveliest I had walked. After shopping for food, I found out there was a public library just a few blocks away, and spent some time there. The librarians at the desk said I was the first hiker to come into the library this year. The town brought joy to my heart when I saw signs for other towns I recognized, and for directions to Routes 22 and 78 which pass through my birthplace, central New Jersey, and which I had driven on countless times. Leaving the library, I resigned myself to a likely walk back, but got a ride from a fellow in a pickup truck, the 3rd vehicle to go by in my direction. The driver said he picked up a few hikers in the last couple of weeks, so they¢ve been going into Hamburg like I did, but maybe just not stopping at the library!