Date: 2014-09-30
From: Port Clinton, PA

To: Front Royal
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: broken clouds

Posting from the AT Conservancy HQ in Harper's Ferry, where the staff and volunteers have been great. I am officially noted as the 101st SOBO thru-hiker to make it and register here in this calendar year, though that will surely change before my 2000-miler application returns to them. (Though this won't happen this year, as I explain below.) There have been about 450 NOBOs this year. As this is said to be a record year, with about 2000 NOBO attempts and 900 SOBOs, many are obviously not making it to this point or bothering to visit the ATC Office.My friend, and former student, John Hair just left, having hiked around the area with me today. It was great to see him; we watched some football last night, with Rhody and an Aussie section-hiker. I have 9 miles to go into Virginia to get to the nearest shelter before the rain and dark descend, so this will be a quick post. The "Roller Coaster" awaits me today and tomorrow in VA--13 miles of relentless ups and downs--but bring it on...I am excited to be on the downhill slide to TN, NC, GA, and home!Let me review how I got here (mainly for own memento):9/7 Wildcat Shelter on the New York/New Jersey line (m. 815.3 going south or 1370 from Springer).9/8 Wawayanda Shelter (827.4 or 1357.9)9/9 Pochuck Mtn Shelter (838.9 or 1346.4) The bear sighting described in my last post was here.9/10 High Point Shelter (851.3 or 1334)9/11 Brink Road Shelter (870.9 or 1314.4) A 20-mile day!9/12 Mohican Outdoor Center (884.9 or 1300.4 This was a creepy spot, and I had just got through describing to Karyssa how it would make a great set for a slasher movie, when I heard from a local that Friday the 13th used it! 9/13 The Church of the Mountain Hostel, Delaware Water Gap, PA (895.7)9/14 Red Roof Inn, Wind Gap, PA (911.3 or 1274.3) shared a room with "Up in the Air" and "Gravity" after the Beer Stein disallowed camping in the back yard. Rhody and Christine were there also. Wolfs Rock and Lookout Rock over the Delaware were highlights. 9/15 Leroy A Smith Shelter (915.9 or 1265.9) A cold and rainy day, in the 40s. Read Tim Gautreax's "The Clearing" while hanging about.9/16 Jailhouse Hostel, Palmerton (931.4) with Thorn 9/17 Bake Oven Knob Shelter (939.4) Ran into Gonzo, who I hadn't seen since ME.9/18 Eckville Shelter (956.8)9/19 Port Clinton Hotel (971.6) Like something you'd see in a western, without whores: a bar underneath several tiny rooms, with a long dark hallway and shared bathroom. Got up with Sarah and Abe (a college mate from Temple U) and hiked around Hawk Mtn Sanctuary. Abe and I got caught up as if the decades since our last meeting were mere days, and I was relieved to meet the same Abe as I remember in pursuit of our PhDs; his always was a more analytical mind than mine, and although we tried to sort through an argument he's thinking about--why do we consider the bad shit that happens to someone worse if that someone is already in existence, as opposed to merely going to exist, basically--I don't think I could get my head out of hiking mode completely enough to help. Sarah asked if had reached any notable milestones in trying to clear my head out here, and I was sort of speechless. I guess I thought that the reflection on this experience will start after I finish. However, and upon reflection, I think I have definitely grown more resilient and self-reliant as a result of the journey to this point. Beyond this, I may have achieved a degree of what Epicurus called "ataraxia" or "imperturbability" where I don't become so easily flustered and stressed when shit goes south. I have overcome obstacles large and small on this trip: I have ran out of food (and just walked faster) and water (and just walked farther) and ran out of stove fuel (and simply burned wood) and ran into tropical downpours (and just walked in wet clothes, day after day after day, until the sun shone). I have had "essential" gear break or get lost, and learned to do without. I have walked for miles to a shelter/hostel/store to find it closed and had to re-adjust my mileage, and many and sundry other inconveniences, without losing my marbles as much as I might have prior to coming out here. All in all, it was a great day with Abe and Sarah, especially as they "shuttled" me after lunch some 17 miles west down the highway and down the trail. I got back on in Swatara Gap, having been mis-directed by a local and wandering around for an hour.9/20 Rausch Gap Camping area (1013.2) over the 100-mile mark. Tented near a crowded--with BSA leaders mind you(!)--shelter. Howitzer (?) blasts from nearby Fort Indiantown Gap MIl Res rocked me to sleep...thanks Obama! The nearby "inversion" well on Rausch Creek was interesting; said to be the largest in the world, such wells are formed by excavating a 50' well under a stream bed and filling it with coal (and/or limestone--there was evidence of both around the site, so I couldn't be sure--and letting the stream tumble into the well. When pressure forces the water back onto its course, it is cleaned and ph-balanced, and the town below enjoys pure and soft water.9/21 Peters Mtn Shelter (1031.2 or 1154.2) little water and tough miles and a stink-bug hatch! Reports of a bear killing a hiker spread down the trail at this point. 9/22 The Doyle Hotel, Duncannon, PA (1042.2) I saw two "leggy" (=young, probably last spring's cubs) bear on the Susquehanna side trail into town.9/23 Alec Kennedy Shelter (1071.7) Got a ride from Mike's shuttle service across part of the boring Cumberland valley, as there was no camping there. Another 9-mile stretch of the Kittatinny Ridge skipped, and not one shit was given over this transgression, this hiker having had his share of it in PA. (I now reckon that I won't be applying to the ATC for a "2000-miler" application this year, as it asks whether I "made a sincere attempt to walk the entire trail" and can't honestly say that I have. I have made a sincere attempt to do a long-distance hike from Maine to Georgia, and am not particularly interested in the ATC certificate, or the "thru-hiker" tag. I thank "Acorn" for pointing this out; prior to his comment, I assumed that anything over 2000 miles on the trail "qualified" one as a thru-hiker. His salacious comment on Janet, who I met at Green Mountain House, can't be true, but if it is, then she deserves recognition, for being over 60 and still desiring to fellate young men...more power to her, I say.) Hung out in Boiling Springs with Rhody, Gonzo, and Matt--a SOBO from Tennessee--as well as "High Five" and "Ice-Man Dan" a couple from NC/CO getting married in VA.9/24 The Ironmaster's Mansion Hostel at Pine Grove Furnace State Park (1087.4) worth the $30 to be out of the rain, with free laundry and frozen pizza and waffles...delicious. The AT Museum was also worth the stop.9/25 Quarry Gap Shelter (1104.3 or 1081)The Taj Mahal of AT shelters, with hanging flower baskets and a pristine spring right there--which two local section hikers promptly washed their dishes in...GRR; the caretaker deserves a medal to put up this nonsense!9/26 Deer Lick Shelter (1120.1)Grim shelter on my own, and my mileage excludes about 4 miles of road-walking in and out of South Mountain, trying to get up with an old friend Shelley from nearby Gettysburg. The hotel owner and one guest were too ADD for me to handle, so I had to press on, squandering a chance to catch up with a good friend. Weird feeling.Crossed the Mason-Dixon Line and hung out in Pen-Mar park with High Five and Ice-Man-Dan's father while Dan attempted the 4-state challenge (PA-VA, 45 miles or so, in a 24hr period). Overlooking various battlefields from the civil war--I even crossed Antietam Creek a couple of time--while reading Robert Graves's "Goodbye To All That", a classic anti-war memoir of WWI, puts these pastoral valleys and mountain passes in a new light. They must have been of infinite scale and consequence to the bands of rag-tag soldiers scurrying over them as I do, but to most of us who drive or ride past them during a commute, they are utterly ordinary and small. A Welshman in Graves's outfit says, of the parcel of front line France in their charge, that it was like a hole in your tooth, huge to the tongue, yet tiny to the eye. I dig that shift in scalar perspective these days.9/27 The Free State Hiker Hostel, Smithsburg, MD (1134.8)Spent the night with sectioners Ralph and his wife Debbie...very cool people. Shuttle driver John took us to resupply and then to his house to party with his family...great guy! The hostel is in its last year, as they need the space for growing kids.9/28 Rocky Run Shelter (1150.3)Great new shelter and convo with a sectioner camping nearby, John, who administers golfpsych.com. Him and his wife are big in providing psychological advice to world-class golfers. He gave me terrific beef jerky and gorp, as well as counseling on how to continue sans cogitatus negativus! I suspect that a bear woke me at midnight, though John heard nothing.9/29 Teahorse Hostel, Harpers Ferry, WV (1165.7 or 1019.9)Stayed with John, Rhody, and 3 others at this comfy house on High Street in this historically rich town. Once again, my memory's stored images of a place, while vivid, have little in common with reality. Went out to Monday Night Football and had some great seafood in the next town over; HF being a complete and utter tourist trap. (Ghost tours seem to have replaced historical ones; someone will have to explain America's fixation on observable beings that can walk through walls.) I walked around a Nat Geo film scene and across the Potomac with John, and we got caught up; he graduated some dozen years ago, and now works in DC. It was great to see him. Great hostess/owner Laurel made us waffles and lots of fruit from breakfast.I met a Sipsey Wilderness buddy: Dennis Bales (...1@yahoo.com); looking forward to getting home.I miss my kids Hannah and Molly more than ever, and can't wait to see Karyssa and them in Georgia in 6 weeks or so.Now, I gotta get back to the task at hand: less than three miles to the stateline and Virginia where I will remain until mile 1721 (or 463) when I finally hit the Tennessee line. I get to scoop up new trailrunners, socks, long-johns, and a fleece mailed to me from home by Karyssa--thanks Babe--in a few days, in Front Royal, Gateway to the Shenandoahs, and favorite of Me Mum, long live her memory, and Dad. Wish me luck in getting there!All the best from the trail.(P.S. my Olympus digital camera broke, and I am currently using a cheap store-bought one. If anyone has a better one lying around, and would like to donate it, I can return it after my hike. E-mail me if interested.)