Date: 2005-06-20
From: Darlington Shelter

To: Duncannon, Pa.
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: broken clouds

I got a normal start this morning, 6:30. I ended up walking a tenth of a mile in the wrong direction. I quickly corrected myself.I am on Cove Mountain now, which is basically just a ridge line that you walk on for 6-8 miles. It's just chock full of rocks, although it's nowhere as bad as the worst of the Pennsylvania rocks, it surely is starting to give us a taste of what it's like. By the time I hit Port Clinton in a few days, I'll be in a river of rocks. That's what people usually complain about Pennsylvania. On the way up the hill on Cove Mountain I ran into Horizon and Montana Lush. Now they are close up too, and I will be seeing them at the Doyle Hotel along with Crazy Legs and Scavenger. Crazy Legs and Scavenger has sent their sleeping bags ahead because it had gotten hot for a couple of nights and they figured it would continue that way. Big mistake!! It can drop to 50 degrees on any given night on the rest of the Trail. Last night, Casey was using leaves to insulate himself, I thought that was funny.I must have snored up a storm last night. I didn't get to sleep until almost midnight, and I woke up at 5:30, the tent that had been pitched about 50 feet from me was now another 100 feet away. The guy must have gotten fed up with me, gotten up in the middle of the night and moved everything.It's going to be a pretty good crowd at the Doyle, which is what I have been looking forward to. The Doyle is a milestone that I have been wanting to stop at and take a near-zero day. I'm hoping to meet Kevin a little early, and meet Mike to hike Palmerton as well on a schedule that he can live with. It's a pretty cool day today. The battery died on my camera and my MP3 player. Now I have to listen to the radio on my recorder.   I did get into the Doyle. I dropped onto the road at about 10:30. When I got there, there were about a dozen hikers sitting there waiting for the place to open and book rooms. The bar and restaurant sections are no longer open on Sunday, so the place is pretty much shut down. You have to wait until Monday to get a room. I managed to book a room and sat down at the bar and had my share of Long Island Iced Teas and 22 ounce Yeunglings. I got my mail drops and went upstairs and started to look through them. I realized that I didn't need anything from them at all. So, I repacked them with a few other things.Montana Lush and Horizon walked in a couple of hours after I got there. They decided to just eat and keep walking by. They have some sort of agreement where they are not stopping in towns and he's not going to smoke and she's not going to drink. It sounds like they might be doing something good for each other. She walked up to use the bathroom in front of my room and I offered her the spare towel and washcloth that I had in my room. Crazy Legs and Scavenger also walked in. They got a room after a little bit of a hassle. I sat and talked with Crazy Legs for a while. He told me that he has made a decision to leave the Trail. He says that he is just not enjoying himself, and there really isn't anything to see here in comparison to the Pacific Coast Trail, which he has through hiked before. He is more than a little worried because he thinks Scavenger is going to take it pretty hard. He would basically be left to hike the rest of the Trail by himself. Crazy Legs hasn't told him yet, he's going to wait a while. He's thinking of getting off in Port Clinton, which is just 3 days north of here. The cool thing is that Bean Town is here. I had not seen Bean Town since Damascus, Virginia. Taking this week off has allowed alot of people to catch up. It's kind of good. Jersey Fresh actually walked through Duncannon and left yesterday. He's ahead of me, he was at this shelter last night. Maybe I'll catch up to him today, or in the next few days or so. It would be good to see him again, too.Almost everyone else that was at the Doyle I did not know. It was fun being there, although it was no where as much fun as it was last time because I hardly knew anyone there. It was still good to sit there and drink the beer and feel that I have earned the right to sit at the bar. At around 1 o'clock, I walked over to the Rite-Aid. It's a dangerous little walk because the bridge has no railing and there's a steep drop. I got some supplies for my feet: band aids and blister patches. I'm not getting blisters, I'm just covering stuff up in preparation for the rocks just to be safe. I'm not going to suffer. I got a chicken breast and a Hershey's from the grocery store next door to eat on the way back. When I got back, I put everything I didn't need in the mail drop. I called Kimberly at work and told her that I was sending it back and that she should hang onto it because I might have her reship it to Maine, where I have deliberately not sent as many mail drops. I then took a 3 hour nap. When I came back downstairs later and Bean Town and Rocket were there. We went over and got ourselves a pizza from the pizza joint. We came back and had a couple more beers and went to bed at 10:30.