Date: 2013-07-04
From: Stealth camp on a rocky ridge

To: Backpacker's Campground, Boiling Springs, PA
Miles today: 14.9

Happy 4th of July! And Happy 11th Anniversary of Tom & I's meeting!I woke up alive! Whew! After the weird feelings last night, I was pretty happy by this development. I was tired, and it took until 6:30 before I finally got stirring. There was an early morning fog hanging about, and the flies were all over me from the moment I stepped foot outside the tent. I shuffled down the rocky trail, shooing and swatting at flies. It got hot fast. I steamed and sweated, and I dreamed of the hotel room I hope to get a few days in Duncannon. I tried to call the Doyle Hotel, but I got no answer. I found that I had 5 voicemails from Tom. The poor guy had been trying and trying to call, but I leave my phone on airplane mode most of the time to save the battery. So all he gets is my voicemail. I sent him a message to say that I would leave my phone on. I was pillaging a blackberry bush near PA 34 when his first call came through. The cell reception dropped and with it the call. I stared at the screen and willed him to call back. Maybe he did, but the reception never picked back up. I stopped pillaging the blackberry bush and started hiking hoping that I would get to a place with better coverage. I climbed up a hill and soon the phone was a-ringing. I dropped my pack and started digging for my phone. This time it worked! I plopped down on the ground beside the trail and settled in for a nice long conversation. Unfortunately, the phone card ran out of minutes. Bummer. But just hearing his voice left me feeling happy and energized. Good thing because the trail took us through two rock mazes. I had read some of my fellow hikers' journals, and I had an idea of what I was about to face. Good thing. It was tricky weaving my way through. There were some rock scrambles, but rather than try to negotiate it with my pack, I took the pack up off and hefted it up on the rocks and then climbed up. Much better! It was fun, but it would have been a lot more fun if I had been able to scramble through without the hindrance of a heavy pack. Occasionally I stopped to eat blueberries. Yum! The trail took us up a really hot climb, up to Center Point Knob, the original mid-point of the AT. There was a rock monument and a poor Pantry trying to cool off. The temperature was mid-90s, and there was little water to be had. Anything you drank just seemed to ooze immediately out of your pores. My shirt was soaked through, and swear ran down my nose and dripped onto the ground. My inner thighs had started to chafe as had my armpits. Davy Crockett and I made it down to the Cumberland Valley at the same time. We hiked through the exposed corn fields. The sun was intense and bore down on our necks. I was completely out of water, but fortunately we only had a mile to go. The trail brought us right to the brink of town, right to the edge of shade. But since we were staying at the free campsite, we had to follow the blue-blazes as they led us sharply back out into the exposed fields. The guidebook showed that the campsite was right on the edge of town, but in reality it was more of a .3. We got out to the campsite and felt deflated. There was a small plot of grass area on slanted ground. There was a single plastic chair and a port-o-potty (I must say, it was the cleanest port-o-potty I think I've ever seen). The train tracks passed a few feet away. There was no water source. No one else was there. It seemed a little sad and a little eery, but luckily we had each other. We set up our tents and laughed at our situation. I grabbed my water reservoir and hiker wallet (a plastic bag with cash, credit card and ID), and we walked the mile into town to get water and something to eat. Our other option would be to hike the mile into town to get water to bring back to cook with. We liked the first option better. We ended up at Anile's, an Italian place, and also the only place open in town. I ate half of a very big pizza and drank an entire pitcher of water (the waiter set the pitcher on the table because he could see I was thirsty). We both really wanted a shower, but our options were limited. Fortunately, there's a nice cool, spring fed creek that runs right through town, about half way back to our campsite refuge camp. We shed our clothes and hopped in in our sweaty undergarments. The water was cold and the current was swift. We had to struggle not to get washed down stream. It felt so, so good. We sud-ed up and took a full bath. I washed my sweaty t-shirt to get some of the salt out. When it was time to get out, neither of us wanted to put our sweaty clothes back on, so we just put on our shoes and walked the last half mile in our underwear. The cars that passed us just smiles and laughed and waved. Unfortunately, Boiling Springs had no official fireworks show scheduled for tonight. We could hear some people at the farm nearby setting of firecrackers. So we listened to them crackle and pop, and we watched the fireflies bob up from the grass. When they light up they seem to bob up. It'd never noticed that before. Thank you, Universe. Thank you for a unique 4th of July.