Date: 2021-05-09
From: Carlisle, Pa

To: Duncannon, Pa
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: overcast clouds

For the first time in a while I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Probably from the excitement of watching ¢Bring it On¢ until 9pm. The hotel I was in was in the bottom 10% of the Holiday Inn Express hotels I¢ve been in, but the bed was very comfortable. Unfortunately, the shower didn¢t drain well and I had to spot-clean areas of my temple 30 seconds at a time. Why didn¢t I switch rooms, you might ask? I had already unpacked and laid out every piece of gear I owned and didn¢t want to pack it back up to move rooms. This is fine  Scheduled an Uber for 7:30 am pickup last night and then as I was sitting in the lobby at 7:40 am the driver cancelled the ride. Tried again and no dice with either ride share app. So at 8:15 I gathered my things and started the three mile road walk back to the trail. Not the ideal way to continue breaking in my new shoes, but, ah well...the best laid plans. I showed some degree of restraint as I walked past a McDonald¢s and two donut shops and tarried not. By 9:15 I was back on the trail and walking through more bucolic Pennsylvania farm fields. Had a few fence stiles (stairs built over a fence, for the uninitiated) to clamber over but alas! No cows in the fields!  Cows are the deer of domesticated animals and I was hoping to have a bovine encounter, to no avail!Early in the hike I crossed paths with a SOBO wearing a Detroit Tigers ball cap. I had to ask him: ¢are you hiking to avoid having to follow them this season?¢  As it turned out, he was a section hiker from Grand Rapids and only lives about 25 miles from my home. His daughter lives in this area so he came down to see her and do a few days of backpacking. Before parting we settled on 65 wins as the best case for Detroit this year. Roughly 3 miles in and it was back to the woods and hills, leaving farm country behind. About 10:30 rain started to threaten (2 hours earlier than predicted by those paid to predict such things). I took my pack off and stood frozen with indecision: put on my rain jacket and get sweaty or just roll with getting wet?  I decided to roll, so I opened my pack and stored my jacket, then put my pack back on. Then stopped. Took my pack back off, got out the jacket and put it on. Sooooooo glad I did: it never got to the mid 50¢s as predicted (by those paid to predict such things) and I would¢ve had a heck of a time keeping warm as the rain turned to heavy rain most of the afternoon. As it was, my hands actually got cold when hiking - a very rare occurrence for me. Once back into the hills, the rocks came out to play. I¢ve got to say, had I not replaced my shoes on my wife¢s advice yesterday, I would have been one hurtin¢ cowboy today. The rigid soles of my Oboz saved me at least a few dozen ¢gosh darn¢s and a similar number of ¢fudge!¢s.  Although Harry has some issues now with He Who Shall Not Be Named (Lord Ingrown Toenail) that pained me a bit. SIDEBAR: Why is it we have names for our fingers: pinky, ring, middle, index, thumb - but not for our toes?  I mean, there¢s the big and the pinkie, and by default the middle toe, but not the others?  100 centuries of language and this hasn¢t been worked out yet? Patient: ¢Doctor, I think I broke my toe!¢Doctor: ¢which one?¢Patient: ¢for the life of me I don¢t know what it¢s called¢Can we resolve this and come to some kind of naming convention for toes? Working from the inside out: Big, Second, Middle, Clarence, Pinkie?Patient: ¢Doctor I think I broke my left Clarence toe¢Doctor: ¢well let¢s have a look!¢hese are the things I think about when I¢m hiking in the cold, pouring rain.SIDEBAR ENDEDSo Harry¢s Clarence toenail had an issue that I¢ve corrected, but it was still tender. All in all, the new shoes have been great so far. Had one funny encounter with two SOBO day hikers. As I was coming uphill they stopped to allow me pass (trail etiquette) and I caught a bit of their conversation where he said ¢there was a whole episode about shrinkage¢ and then she said: ¢It shrinks?¢ and I blurted out ¢like a frightened turtle¢.  All this from a Seinfeld episode. They cracked up and so I stopped for a few minutes and we talked about our favorite Seinfeld Episodes. The second one the guy mentioned was when George claimed he was donating money in lieu of gifts to the ¢Human Fund¢. Just the day before I was texting with my sister and referenced that same episode. The world can be very strange when something I hadn¢t thought of in a decade pops up in back to back days. About 3pm I reached my target camping spot, but even given the road walk I felt it was too soon (and raining too hard) to call it a day. I was 4 miles short of Duncannon, Pa and there¢s an...iconic hotel there called The Doyle. I called them up and was told they were closing at 4 but she had one room left and I could knock on her door after 5pm and she¢d get me into the room for the night. Hikers know about the Doyle. It¢s a hotel in the sense that it says ¢hotel¢ on their sign, but that¢s about where the similarities end. It¢s really not much more than a down on it¢s luck hiker hostel. But, I¢m out on this journey for experiences, not just miles, so I¢m in. I got to town a little earlier than expected so I grabbed an Arnold Palmer ice tea at the gas station then stopped by an outfitter/hostel. I bought some Spam (don¢t judge) and some moleskin for my old blisters. When I talked to the woman at the counter she asked where I was staying, I hesitantly said ¢The Doyle¢ and she said that every hiker should stay there once. I asked her if that was her way of saying her hostel was full, she laughed and said ¢yes¢So, I¢m in my room here. It¢s roughly 10x10 with a box spring and mattress whose better days have seen better days. There¢s a heater on the wall that doesn¢t work. I bare light bulb in the ceiling with a pull cord. Various stains on the walls and ceiling that one can only hope are urine. I¢ve already got two escape routes planned, should the need arise, and I¢m just sleeping in my quilt on top the bedspread (which I have reversed). I certainly believe this will qualify as an ¢experience¢ and for the bargain price of $25!All together now...¢This is fine¢Happy Mother¢s Day!