Date: 2021-05-31
From: Stealth campsite south of Cove Mountain Shelter 

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 6.6
Weather: broken clouds

Woke to sun Yay! and blue skies Yay! The tent however was damp from the morning dew. We took a towel and wiped it down as best we could but knew we would need to stop and dry it in the sun at some point. The view was worth it though. The sun coming up over Duncannon was beautiful and the way it sparkled on the river.One thing I have forgotten to mention, I think, is that the Mountain Laurel are blooming. I have seen white and pink blooms. The mountains are covered with them!Shortly after we left our camp we met Faceplant going SOBO. She had planned to backpack for 4 days but by the time that she reached our camp last night she realized that she would rather go home the next day and garden instead. So she stayed at the shelter near by and was on her way back to her car. She said her sister called and they were doing a get-together at her parents house. Her mom is 90 and her dad 93 and they live at home and stayed isolated during the pandemic. She was excited to go home and relax with family. We wished her well. Boy, you could tell that today was nice weather and a holiday. The trail down to Duncannon was like Grand Central Station! Luckily most people saw we were carrying heavy packs and gave us the right of way. We had a number of folks stop and talk to us about our trip. We thought we would eat lunch first and then decide if we really wanted to stay or to hike on (we had the unplanned stay in Carlisle 2 days before). The restaurants we approached were all closed on Monday. So we went to the nearby park and laid out the tent to dry. David walked up (yes, uphill) to the local grocery store to get some resupply. Bagless stopped by to ask me for directions to the grocery store. Said he got his name because the Trailrunner thought his food bag had been left behind and after asking all the tenters except him, took it with him. They caught up together the next day though and he got his food back. I thought it was a funny story. There is also a beautiful mural painted on the side of a building that shows all activities that are in and around Duncannon. I took a picture of it but it has my thumb in it so I¢m not going to post it. :)There¢s an old historic hotel in Duncannon called the Doyle Hotel. It has been around longer than the Appalachian Trail. (It was built in the 1770¢s and was a shopping point along the Susquehanna River. It caught fire and burnt to the ground in 1803 and was replaced by the current building. It has had several owners, finally becoming The Doyle in 1944 after Jim ¢Doc¢ Doyle won $444,444.44 in the Irish lottery. He owned and operated the hotel into the 1990¢s. It is currently owned by Vickie, who is a hoot and loves to joke with the hikers.) It is a hiker tradition to stay there. For $35 (for a double), you get a bed with linen and a hot shower. The place is really, really old but the old bones are still there. In the community bathroom is an old claw-footed bathtub. I think David could have fit maybe half his body in it, it was so short. But I loved the old charm of it. It was getting chilly so David lit the little wall heater in our room. (Good thing because the huge window at the end of the hall was left open over night and it was freezing in the hallway but we were nice and toasty.)So we were just laying on the bed. David was snoozing and I was looking at my phone when we heard someone out in the hall calling all the hikers for a public service announcement. We thought maybe it had to do with what to do in the event of a fire or tornado, but, no. All the doors opened and there was a guy saying that Trail Angel Mary had dinner ready at her place and we all needed to get over there and eat or he was going to get in trouble. Haha  The others hikers said that they had already eaten and even though we had had a snack not long before, we weren¢t going to pass up the opportunity to meet the famous Mary. (A movie was made about trail angels. The filmmaker surveyed hikers to find out who the top 4 Trail Angels were and Mary was one of them. We¢re going to check the movie out when we get home.)We hustled over to Mary¢s place, which is over The Pub (bar and grill). We sat down to GIANT racks of pork ribs, potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, and a baked corn dish. In addition to Mary, there were also Just Greg, Matthewski (the guy who came to get us) and Jester (a triple crowner - meaning that he has thru-hiked the AT, the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail), and the CDT (Continental Divide Trail)).  We ate and laughed and told stories. Jester mentioned that he had taken his mother to France and Spain to hike the Santiago de Camino when she was 72 years old. We want to do that hike too so we grilled him on it. He gave us the name of his blog to check out too. We stayed until hiker midnight (9pm) and Mary said a prayer for us and then we returned to the Doyle still giddy about our wonderful evening. And now Mary¢s story:In 2001, Mary found herself homeless. She lived in a tent at the Riverfront Campground on the edge of Duncannon. She noticed that the AT thru-hikers would set up their tents near the front of the campground. Whenever she went to the grocery store she would buy bananas and give them to the hikers because they needed the potassium. She has been giving hikers food and assistance for 20 years. Several years ago she was inducted into ALDHC (Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Club) as a lifetime member. Our day was a NERO of 6.6 miles but well worth it!