Date: 2022-09-09
From: Darlington Shelter

To: Stealth South of Little Dogwood Run
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: scattered clouds

We left Darlington Shelter and began a mile-long, gentle descent into the Cumberland Valley as the sun started its roll over the eastern horizon. A southerly view opened up to show the valley, hemmed in by the South Mountain ridge 15 miles away, covered in a thin layer of low clouds settling like soft butter spread across rough toast. The Kittatinny and South Mountian ridges run parallel to in another roughly east-west. They are two of many ridges like this in Pennsylvania. Between these two ridges is the long, wide, fertile Cumberland Valley. We would descend Kittatinny, cross the soybean and cornfields of the valley, and return to the woods and hills of South Mountain at day¢s end. Joni had met a trail angel, Natalie, who contacted us on Instagram and offered her help to us however we needed it. I took the chance to order a new pair of shoes from the local REI. Natalie picked them up for me and agreed to deliver them to the trail today. We had to make 10 miles before 10:30 to meet her. That¢s a bit larger ¢bite¢ than our normal ¢12 before 12¢. We cruised across the valley, skirting cornfields, crossing streams, and dodging school busses on their morning routes, and arrived at the meeting place (PA 641) with 15 minutes to spare. Natalie arrived with shoes, drinks, watermelon, and homemade cookies. She sat out lawn chairs for us and had us all sit for a spell. I swapped shoes out, she took the old ones, we snapped some pictures, and headed on our way. What a great favor! Thank you Natalie! Pennsylvania¢s trail magic has been personal!Boiling Springs is situated towards the south side of the valley. We rolled into town about 1:00, having covered 14 miles for the day. We found a table on the patio at Cafe 101 and ordered a hearty lunch. The trail out of town passed a pond, covered in Canada geese, and then wound past an old iron blast furnace in what is now a city park ringed with giant sycamore trees. Boiling Springs was, for over 100 years, a center for iron smelting. Railroads, rivers, and ore-rich mountains all converge here around this once-booming industrial town, now a peaceful and quaint weekend destination. We spent the two miles south of town cutting through cornfields under the hot afternoon sun. We made it back into the woods (after dodging an afternoon school bus) and headed up the ridge to find our campsite for the evening.Our first site prospect had been taken already. Though we don¢t mind sharing a site with someone lease (there was room for us) our 5:30 wake-up time makes us bad neighbors. We pressed on to a second site shown on our map but couldn¢t find it - I suspect it was a duplicate entry of the first site but it created much consternation among the young scouts. We were in our own now! I found what seemed like a flat area on the topo map and we took an abandoned woods road to get to it. It proved adequate for our needs and was well-hidden to boot. We pitched our tents, hung our bear lines, cooked dinner (few were hungry after our Cafe 101 lunch) and settled into our sleeping spots for the evening. Tomorrow: the Half-Gallon Challenge at Pine Grove Furnace State Park!