Date: 2016-05-10
From: Darlington Shelter 

To: Clark's Ferry Shelter 
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: broken clouds

I heard some shuffling this morning and woke up to orange and pink lift pouring in from a beautiful sunrise. Then I went back to sleep. A defining moment in my hike. It was drizzling as we packed up this morning. The forecast called for scattered showers all day, but I managed to stay almost completely dry. The trail descended the ridge and through a set of pastures towards the ridges that we'll be following almost due east for the rest of Pennsylvania. The hiking was pretty easy, and despite Awol's warning that the ridge would be "very rocky," I moved quickly up and over the ridge before Duncannon. I paced with Dr. Trails and Rain Man for the final flat ridge walk and descent into Duncannon and began the road walk into town. The sense of humor of this group is far closer to my college friends than any other I've encountered, and makes me feel pretty at home. We passed through the streets of Duncannon and ran into Magic and Puzzles and made our way over to the Doyle Hotel, one of the oldest institutions on the trail that has always catered to thru hikers. I was given the advice that the Doyle is a place to visit rather than stay, and a single look at the outside convinced me of it; the windows are all busted out, the whole place looks dirty and falling apart. We rolled in at about 11:15 and were greeted to a unique sort of service. Essentially Pat and Miss Vicky - who I assume must own the place - moved at their own pace and decided to finish their coffee before allowing us to even order anything. Eventually we managed to convince her to pour us a few beers and put in an order for a couple of burgers. They seemed to be out of half of everything on the menu, and it didn't seem like an uncommon occurrence. The beer was cheap and the burger was good, but when you've been trying to get your check for 25 minutes while Miss Vicky chats up a local, it's not easy to feel kindly about the place. White Rabbit, Large, Spidey, Blues and Bolt showed up. We eventually paid up and were packing up for a while in their billiard room and were berated by Pat about keeping our stuff off the pool table and not throwing out our trash in the bathroom trash can. He essentially told us all that we were idiots without common sense enough to pick up after ourselves. Doctor Trails ended up bringing the entire bathroom trash can out to the dumpster in full view of Pat to try and show him that he was being ridiculous. We left soon after with full bellies, but feeling more than a little miffed at the staff of the Doyle. The place needs a makeover, inside and out. We did a bit of resupplying at a convenience store nearby then Seal Tree, Frost, Dr. Trails and I walked the rest of the road walk through town and across the Juniata and Susqehana rivers. The whole road walk must be the longest we've had, just under 3 miles. We finally made it back into the woods and began climbing steeply up to a ridge. Seal Tree realized he'd left all his electronics at the Doyle and called back there to see if any hikers were left. No such luck. His only recourse seemed to be to go back the miles (about 2.5 at that point) to the Doyle. To my amazement, he decided to push on 2.2 up and up to the shelter with us over easily the most challenging rocks we've seen yet before turning around. I would've just dropped my pack there and gone back, but Seal Tree is a different breed than me. He headed out from the shelter and apparently ran all the way down and back up, though he managed to hitch across the two bridges on the way back. But he was there and back FAST. crazy fast. The other three had taught me how to play euchre in the mean time. Doctor Trails and I lost by 1 point to frost and rain man. It's a good game, similar to pitch which i know. I had some fun. Seal tree showed back up and we all made dinner together and got into our bags. White Rabbit came in a little later with the information that apparently someone had set fire to Peter's Mountain Shelter, 7 miles away from us. Blues apparently came up to the shelter and found someone running away from the shelter having just set it aflame. We are really not sure what's going on, but I hope nobody got hurt and everything will be ok.