Date: 2007-10-20
From: Duncannon

To: Alec Kennedy Shelter
Miles today: 3.9
Weather: scattered clouds

mi. 3.9sleep hammockdest. Alec Kennedy Shelter day 100 Wow my 100th day on the trail. Funny how I have been on the trail for that long and am only about half way. I just did some quick math and I am still sitting right around 15 miles per day to finish around the end of the year. I am still going to try to keep that average going. The bigger days should help. For the second morning in a row I still woke up early. I was up by around 7am. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. I laid there for awhile and decided to get up. Everyone else was still sleeping. If yesterday was any indecation, a meal here will be a while off. I also had some town chores to do. So I headed off sometime after 8am. First stop the PO. I mailed back my old maps and book. Yes I mailed home the free book I was reading. I didn't finish it. I got through all the parts he was talking about the river. The rest was more about the cites. I will finish it up when I get back. I just really enjoyed it and wanted to keep it. I was also carrying all my old maps since CT. I now have the maps through northern VA somewhere. I should have mailed the current map back. It is 1 sided and only good for 6 more miles. Oh well. After that stop I had to get some food in me. I remember the people at the Doyle saying there was a good place across the street. It was one of those great hole in the wall diners. Not even a sign per say in front. Everyone just knew where it was at. I enjoyed some coffe, biscuits and gravy, and homefries covered in gravy. That never sits in my stomach right, but I'll deal with that later. Torque has been taking about biscuits and gravey for awhile and has gotten me craving it. After that it was on to the library. I needed a new book to read. I walked over there and they were not open yet. In case I didn't mention this is a small town. The library is actually ran by a church. They take bok donations. They mainly cater to hikers, but I think others use it. They are only open 5 or so hours twice a week. I just lucked out and caught it just right. I decided not to sit out front waiting. I walked the 2 minutes back to Mary's. I was at her place and looked out and saw another hiker. I walked down to talk to him. He was asking directions. He turned out to be another southbounder. An older British guy by the name of Canvas Pack. He said he started out with an old one. He had been reading my entrys and was wondering if he would catch up. He needed to go to the library. So we walked over there. The woman working it was really nice. I said I needed a book to take with me and read. She showed me the free book pile. I was looking through that when she brings out a big box of books they had not catagorized yet. She said to look them over and if I couldn't find anything she would let me take a book off the shelf depending on what it was. I found an ok book. I was talking with her and she said that the building was actually the first building built to be used as a bank in the county. The church next door now owns it. She also showed me the register and asked me to sign it. I was told that the pastor of the church reads the entrys during the church service sometimes. Believe it or not, not a big strech here, but some hikers forget that they are writing in one at a church and tend to read things best left for other places. The paster there is a Asian woman. She said that she will read them and get to a word she doesn't know and ask about it during the service from the pulpit. Basically asking the congregration what an off color phrase or word means. That would be halarious, more so than my spelling. If I was going to be here on Sunday I would definitly attend to see that. I have been meaning to go to one it just usually doesn't work out. I was looking around the building and came across some shelves with older books. They had some real old good ones here. Sitting there I saw a book containing non other than The Adventures of Huck Fin. It also had 3 other classics from different authors. I felt bad asking but I have been looking for that book since NH really. She said I could have it, it is beat up and not an original anything. Wonder lady. Thanks again. This really is a good example of it all working out in the end. Almost as good as when my car got back into when it was parked, which is hard to top story wise. I mailed my book home leaving me with nothing to read. I am in town on 1 of the 2 days in the 5 hour time span the library is open. They let me have a book off the shelf. And it is none other than the one I have been wanting to read for awhile. After that I was ready to pack up and head out. It is a clear day and I am really feeling the itch to get out of town. I was border line wigging out this morning when I woke up. I think I am going to have some readjustment issues when I get back. Before we could leave we needed to help Mary pick up some of her stuff from storage. I didn't mind helping her at all. She goes way out of her way to help out any hiker with whatever she can. No way I was going to say no to her. In total I hung some hooks and helped her hang plants from them, change a wall light switch, move some boxes the day before, and then Torque and I helped her move some stuff out of storage. Torque helped her hang shelves yesterday. In return she shuttled us only charging gas money, feed us 1 huge breakfest and 2 huge dinners, and let us stay on her floor for 2 nights. After we got back Torque still needed to arrage to have his pack fedex'ed back. While he was messing with that I took a little nap. When I woke up Mary and Two step left to take care of some business. So I went across the street and got a chz steak and a soda, and came back and popped in a movie. After they got back we finally headed out. Just one stop to make. Torque needed to resupply. I had a ton of food from my maildrop. In the store we ran into Brian and Canvas Pack. Brian is heading out today and Canvas is taking a day or 2 off. Brian should only be a day or so back. We swapped cell phone numbers. I told him to let me know if he was only a half day back and I would slow up and let him catch up. He is wanting people to hike with. I seem to get along with him and he is hiking about the same miles. So the duo could become a trio sometime.   After getting dropped off we said our goodbyes to Mary. Thanks again for all the help. Another great person I am glad I got a chance to meet. Some northbounder I think put it right and gave her a huge compliment. She is basically a hiker who doesn't hike. That won't make sense to most of the people reading this, but the rest will understand. I really needed to get back in the woods tonight. Torque was only planning on going the .1 or so to the campsites just out of town. I needed to get farther in. I headed for the shelter 3.5 in. This ment a little night hiking. The terain is really opened up now. I cruised into the shelter right at dark:20. I managed to get all the way there without my headlamp. The moon is half full. It was only just after 7pm and finally getting dark dark. In retrospect I probably should have stealth camped somewhere. It turns out there is a big youth group here. I figured there would be people here, but I wasn't figuring this much. There was also a couple of overnighters. I went up and talked with them, they are tarping it close by. They pointed to a few open spots. The only downfall of getting here after dark is it is harder to pick out a good site. I found a good set of trees though. I would have liked to be a little farther away from them, but I am far enough. I opted out of dinner tonight. I am probably going to regret it tomorrow, but I wasn't feeling the hunger. Instead just coffee and a cherry pie. I did get a chance to call at catch up with one of my friends I hadn't talked to since Maine. Yeah I was that guy with the cell phone in the woods. The reception was better here than in town, plus the group of boys where way louder than I was. After that journaling and maybe a little reading. I'll leave you with a Mark Twain quote. It is a foreword to the book. I think I am going to start off my next online journal with it. To paraphrase him in the last book. I am putting it here not because it nessecarrily fits here, because it doesn't. Just because it is a good quote and worth telling. "NOTICE Persons attempting to find a motive in this narative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR"