Date: 2014-05-24
From: PA 16 Blue Ridge Summit

To: Boiling Springs, PA
Miles today: 54.4
Weather: clear sky

Day 73: Saturday, 24 May 2014 Blue Ridge Summit/Waynesboro, PA (1060.8) to Boiling Springs, PA (1115.2)Boiling Springs is a beautiful town! Great hiker town!We've had about a week of nice weather, not too hot. I'm doing a little more cowboy camping. I've pick off a few ticks but no Lyme's disease yet. (Oh, that's great to hear, Buffalo!)The hiking has been nice and flat, not rocky. We did 4 miles, got into town, had breakfast, did some shopping. We were going to go back to the same restaurant for lunch, but they didn't open for lunch until later. Oh, well! We're on the trail now and plan to get into Duncannon tomorrow.FAHthur: How was hiking through the national parks?"Reflecting on your style of driving to see things, (FAHthur likes to drive to see a lot of places, hence, our cross-country road trip.) both the Great Smokey Mountains and the Shenandoah, you'd "see" more views by car because of the overlooks. Hiking through them, if I didn't know they were national parks, I wouldn't know they were any different! In Shenandoah National Park, however, I'm glad I took the trail and not Skyline Drive because I saw more bears! [I had suggested that we hike Skyline drive to 'see' more views, as was suggested by some hiking books.] The trail has been well maintained. Seems to be a concerted effort between all the local hiking clubs, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the National Park Service."We asked where Violet, West, and Gentle Spirit met up. "The guys met up early on in Georgia and called themselves 'The Herd'. Violet started in Georgia, but they didn't meet up until a little later.Hold on, gotta say "Hello" to the day hikers! We'll probably see a lot this weekend. We get a lot of the same questions but it's lots of fun to talk to them and tell them about thru-hiking."FAHthur: Did you tell him about Backpacker?The Mum: Well, I was going to keep it a secret and send it to him.Buffalo: What about Backpacker?In the June 2014 issue of Backpacker is a 2-page spread from Doodles, a hiking friend from the PCT 2013, and her rendition of how thru-hikers and 5-year-olds are a lot alike! Doodles' PCT journal was a daily drawing that really captured the essence of the hike each and every day. Doodles had told Buffalo about the drawing and showed him a preliminary draft. For one of her drawings from the PCT, she lists what thru-hikers and 5-year-olds have in common! In the Backpacker spread, she list 27 ways, everything from "Eating food off the ground" to "Realizing you need to poop RIGHT NOW!""Wow, once you do one thru-hike and meet people, it just snowballs from there. You meet more hikers who know about more trails and all the adventure! I was talking with a German couple some time ago. The guy did a lot of traveling, living out of a backpack, through Europe. He said that the best times were when he finally ditched the guide book and went exploring on his own! It's just great all the people doing great adventures!Some thru-hikers want to pass and touch every white blaze. Others want a continuous 'trail' of footprints from Springer to Katahdin. For me, especially having done the PCT, I'm not concerned about making sure I "cross the road" when I come back to the trail head. I just don't want to skip big sections of the trail. I just want to see and experience it all!"Well Buffalo, I think that's all anybody can expect, and we're here to vicariously experience it with you! Can't wait to see all the pictures and hear all the stories!