Date: 2003-05-26
From: Cove Mountain Shelter 

To: Duncannon, PA (The Doyle) 
Miles today: 4.0
Weather: light rain

Aloha All! And a memorable Memorial Day to you too. I do hope it was a pleasant one. Mine was... definitely memorable!   Once again the rains did come. In the middle of the night it began to pour. As I looked out the shelter entrance all comfy cozy in my sleeping bag on my raised bunk I thought... thank heavens I'm carrying a tent! NOT! I was really thinking that the shelter was a good decision. It poured all night and I slept pretty much like a newborn baby - only waking when I turned over. Ahhhhh... sleep.   It was a short but rocky jaunt to Duncannon this morning. I'm beginning to understand PeeWee's (a former hiking friend from 2001) warning about the rocks in northern PA. Let's see if I can describe them. Take a large flat thin rock in your hands. Ok, now take that large flat thin rock and turn it on its thin side. Excellent. Now take that large flat thin rock turned on its side and bury it in the ground with however much rock you desire sticking above the ground. Good, good. Now take millions of those large flat thin rocks turned on their sides and bury them in a variety of depths and scattered directions very close together. Perfect! You have just created the beginnings of northern PA rocks! Job well done - dang it! And ouch! I understand that there are more to come and they just get better (i.e. worse). Joy.   Just short of hitting the town limits I experienced my first Trail Angel act for Grand Adventure, Part II. Someone was kind enough to leave an iced cooler alongside the trail with a variety of fruit juices. What a pleasant surprise! And greatly appreciated. I certainly enjoyed my Orange-Pineapple-Banana drink. My big mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) to whoever you are.   For those of you that don't know what a trail angel is, it's someone that goes out of their way to show a hiker an unexpected act of kindness. This could range from leaving a cooler of juice beside the trail to picking up a hiker trying to get to town to throwing a grill feast somewhere trailside to any number of other acts of kindness. All greatly appreciated by those that get to experience the act. So if you want to be appreciated and almost bowed to, pick up the next smelly hiker you see. You may have to air out your car afterwards but you'll feel good having done so. Hesitant about picking up strangers? Buy them a soda or burger. You'll be loved. Anyway, that's a trail angel.   Almost immediately after the trail angel act Galen and I entered Duncannon. What a town. I don't know where to begin to describe it. It is an old town that has seen better days for sure. But it has character. Just as I did in Grand Adventure Part I, I stay in all places known for character. That's why I'm in the Doyle Hotel. It definitely has character and characters!   The Doyle hotel was built in 1904 by Anheuser-Busch and was run by the Doyle family for more than 4 decades. Most of the early thru-hikers stayed here and many hiking tales have been told around the bar downstairs. I believe the bar offers 7 varieties of beer on tap but alas, though they have every other basic alcohol behind the counter, they know nothing about Bloody Mary¢s. {Why do I feel another long search for a good Bloody Mary happening in Part II also?) Anyway, the hotel is supposedly undergoing renovations with its new management but at the moment I'm hard pressed to see any. The best way to describe The Doyle would be to call it a... oh... flop house. Remember that expression "a flea bag hotel"? Well, I honestly just killed a flea on my bed. Really. That would explain why one of the two signs in the room reminds you to clean up after your pet. The other sign tells you to open the window at your own risk! It does have character and charm though. It's also the main residence for many of the downstairs bar customers adding a bit more local color.   It's just my luck that the drunk that likes my legs is the only guy in the bar that gets thrown out for saying the "f" word. His obnoxious drunken state was okay but the "f" word was not. Excellent! As I said, it has character and characters and I love it. It also has scalding hot showers, Internet, wonderful and welcoming people, a fun and festive atmosphere, and a really good cook all day long. How much more could you possibly want? A best buy at $15.90 for sure!   Besides chatting with my breakfast group (Galen, ChuckLuck and Buttercup who ended up not getting out of town as planned yesterday), the home front, other hikers (Quasimoto has caught up with me already), and a lady at the laundry, my day has been pretty quiet. If you include resting, looking over all the goodies in my first ever mail drop (thank you Char - looks tasty!) and figuring out what I need to get to Port Clinton, my day has passed way to quickly. My current plans have me breakfasting at Jodi's again, mailing a bounce box and hiking out of town by 10a tomorrow. That should be enough character for this week. More than enough.   Before heading to bed though, I do want to say aloha to Galen. Duncannon was his exit from the trail. Galen if you're reading this I look forward to running into you on your journey south. Mahalo for the laughs. You've been fun. Good luck and aloha.   For everyone else, sleep well and don't let the bed bugs bite.... or fleas. Aloha!BS&T/A&Ps/M&Gs: nary a one. Yeah!Critter count: 1x chipmunk, 1x squirrel