Date: 2015-06-15
From: Chambersburg 

To: US-11
Miles today: 18.8

It is always hard to start hiking after one zero day, after two zero days it was doubly hard. Oh, and what made it even harder was being in a nice comfy bed in a home with air conditioning. Then, walking downstairs to an egg, bacon, sausage, cheese sandwich made it even harder. Yes, Lavender's sister spoiled us. We gained some of the weight back we have lost on the AT diet!! We will need that extra weight to help us. Our packs are extra heavy as we resupplied with way too much food. You would think we would learn not to buy so much food. At least our pack weight will go down in weight every time we eat. We better eat up! Trail Angel Mary Ellen, Lavender's sister, and her granddaughter took us back to the start of the trail. We were off and hiking by 7:18. There was a thunderstorm last night (we were thankful we were not tenting!). The grass along the trail was wet, wet. Nobody had been hiking yet this morning. Count had web duty. The spiders were busy last night after the storm. He got lots and lots of webs over his face. The webs were trailing off the back of his backpack. Yes, they were extremely busy.    We left the trail on Friday at a gap. Of course this means an immediate climb this morning. It was a climb of 390 feet in just over a mile and the trail was wet. Not a good mixture for making miles. But, we hiked on crossing several small streams, seeing several stealth tenting sites, and crossing roads. Then, we started a climb of 450 feet into a rock maze. And a maze it was! We wound around, over and under rocks. Lavender had a very difficult time climbing up one rock that she had to be pushed up the rock. If course, she then helped Count in return. Then, we missed one 2 inch by 6 inch white blaze and we were not on the trail. Obviously, we weren't the only hikers to do this as we saw hiking pole holes. We turned around to find the white blazes and continued through the maze. We were finally out of the rocks. And, what do we do? Take a break! We were exhausted.   After our break, we had 4 more climbs and descents before the trail opened to the Cumberland Valley Appalachian Open Trail. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) owns the land but allow farming to continue on the land as this is the natural way it was. For us, this meant a flat, rockless, open trail! We finally found the flat trail!! Rumors of it being in Virginia were false. It was in Pennsylvania!! You can only imagine how ecstatic we were. And to make it even better, the sun was not shining. If it had been, we would have melted as there were just fields of crops for almost three miles into Boiling Springs. Well, some of the trail went through woods also. But, it was fairly flat!    We approached Boiling Springs and saw lots of fly fisherman fishing in the streams. It looked very restful and peaceful. We also were approached by several tourists asking if we were thru-hiking. We told them a few of our tales. Then, we were asked to have our picture taken. We obliged them and chuckled as we walked on.    Boiling Springs was very pretty. We enjoyed a break on a porch swing on the ATC. We bought a drink and ate our lunch relaxing on the porch.   Before long, our lunch break was over. We filled our water bottles, again no water filtering necessary since we filled at the ATC, and continued hiking. We had an afternoon of level hiking! Eight miles of fairly level hiking, a few feet of a little climb or descent, but, oh, it was good. Well, except that the trail was muddy, muddy, muddy. This actually made it difficult to hike as we kept slip sliding our way along the trail. Our legs were covered with mud as well our boots. We walked between open fields and farmland. We were walking down a small hill when we saw a cooler with chairs sitting in someone's home near the AT. Could it be, trail magic?   Not being bold, we walked on. The trail crossed a road. As we neared the road, we saw a sign on the fence stile. It said "Trail magic 100 yards". Yes, the cooler and chairs were trail magic. We walked the 100 yards. Opened the cooler and found sodas on ice. We helped ourselves, sat in the chairs and watched the vehicles go by on the road. What a treat. We left our break haven and continued hiking. We crossed 4 roads, including the Pennsylvania turnpike, and a railroad track. We arrived at US 11 where we ended our hike for the day. We had a Trail Angel, Brad, and his daughter pick us up. He came with fresh vegetables, brownies, ice cold water and slushy's. He knew exactly what hot hikers need! He took us back to Lavender's sister's home for one last home cooked meal, a shower and a comfy bed for the night. We have been spoiled with food, showers and good night's sleep while hiking through southern Pennsylvania. No slack packing for us - as we hiked with full packs except for only one days worth of food.