Date: 2004-05-26
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 123.1
Weather: overcast clouds

5/20/04 ThursdayBack on the Trail after a ten-day break. I immediately crossed into Maryland as soon as I left Harpers Ferry, and was eased back onto the Trail with a three-mile flat walk along the old C&O Canal towpath. After that only gentle ups and downs, so all in all it was easy.A week ago I started seeing cicada larvae emerging from the ground, where they've been quietly living for the past seventeen years. This is the year of their cycle when they emerge from the ground to feed on leaves. Now the ground is littered with the empty shells of the larvae, and I'm seeing the fully-formed cicadas. I have yet to hear them, but that may be because it's wet out (I've missed the downpours of the past few days by being off the Trail). It will be interesting to see how far north this brood of cicadas extends.I now see a new set of people in the shelter registers. I'd gotten used to the same 16 or so names, and now there's a slurry of others I'll learn about. I'll also be hiking with a new group - at the shelter tonight are Unfinished and Rainbow Bright. Rainbow Bright is a fellow Cantabridgian!5/21/04 FridayMy muscles remember how to hike. I was worried about jumping back into twenty-mile days, but no problem. It doesn't hurt that the terrain is easy. And my new shoes make my feet feel happy!This morning I passed the original Washington Monument. Built in 1827 and resembling a squat stone milk bottle, it's no wonder another was built in Washington, D.C.. When I got there it was rining, so I tried to wait it out in order to take a picture. When it only started raining harder, I took the picture and then headed down the Trail. When I reached the bottom of the hill a mile later, it stopped raining and the sun began to peek through. Isn't that always the case.After the sun came out it turned humid, and midway up a big climb I was happy to come across a small waterfall. I took a quick shower under it, a great relief.The shelter I planned on staying at turns out to be three tenths of a mile from a road. This being Friday night, there were some weekenders already there, quietly playing cards. Then a rowdier bunch came up to the shelter. I decided to go back up to the Trail and camp at a campsite I passed on the way down to the shelter.5/22/04 SundayUnfinished and Rainbow Bright joined me at camp last night, and we built a fire and cooked dinner. It started raining cicadas - larvae falling out of the trees they had just climbed. We decided that cicadas are the most inept insect - they can barely climb (which they need to do in order to get to leaves to eat), they die before they molt, they die in the process of molting, and the adults fall out of trees too. The only reason they can survive is that one cicada lives and lays a billion eggs.It poured in the night, so it was humid again today; this seems to be a trend. However - this morning I crossed the Mason-Dixon line, and entered Pennsylvania. I'm in the North! Hurray for Yankees!We went to an Italian restaurant just off the Trail for dinner. The portions were immense: a medium calzone was the size of me. Imagine a Haiku stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella, and there you go. I bet a large is the size of a rhinocerous. I'd say an elephant, but I wouldn't want to exaggerate.After dinner we night hiked for a few miles to the next shelter. At the shelter was Shush, who I last saw when I passed through Damascus. He's been ahead of me ever since, but had gotten off the Trail for a bit and just got back on today.5/23/04 SundayToday I passed the official halfway point: 1,087 miles. Just past that point is a Trail tradition, the Half-Gallon Challenge. Hikers eat a half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting. I finished my carton of cookies and cream, but it was looking a little iffy at the end.At the park where the Half-Gallon Challenge takes place was Captain Hook. He's been ahead of me since Trail Days, and I finally caught up with him. When we'd finished our ice creams (well, Unfinished lived up to his name, but he blamed it on the bad flavour he had) we all went swimming in the lake in the park. Swimming in a kilt is fun!Captain Hook and I hiked to the next shelter, while Rainbow Bright, Unfinished, and Northern Harrier stayed at the park in a hostel there. Captain Hook and I met up with Shush at the shelter and ate dinner there (of course we were all hungry again, even after the ice cream).5/24/04 MondayI slept in this morning, since I was only hiking twelve miles into Boiling Springs, PA. Shush and I got into town first, and headed over to the corner restaurant for a second lunch and a smoothie. Captain Hook came in and met up with his girlfriend - he'll be off the Trail for three days.Boiling Springs is named after the springs that bubble up from below ground. They're not hot, but the pressure creates the bubbles.Norther Harrier, Rainbow Bright, and Unfinished joined us, and we spent the night in Boiling Springs. Since camping isn't allowed for fifteen miles after town, we were lucky to be put up by a friendly person in town, and we didn't have to pay for an expensive bed & breakfast.5/25/04 TuesdayA late start this morning, but we ate breakfast in town. Then came the flattest fourteen miles of the Trail: across fields and a flat valley until the next ridge line. We took a long break at the first shelter for lunch, then hiked on to the next shelter. The ridge line was a jumble of rocks - could this be the start of the notorious Pennsylvania rocks?As we neared the shelter a rumbling started across the valley, and it began to rain. One by one we made it to the shelter and climbed down a steep hill to get water, and then back up again. This shelter has signs warning about procupines - they'll chew anything with salt on it, so we have to hang all our gear.5/26/04 WednesdayA quick hike into Duncannon, PA, this morning. We ate a huge breakfast as soon as we got into town, then Unfinished met up with some friends, and Rainbow Bright and I went out for ice cream. I checked into the infamous Doyle Hotel (where people are dying to get in). As I was sitting in the taproom a local approached me and asked what I was doing. I replied that I was just sitting around, so in exchange for helping him move some new carpeting into a house across the street he bought me three beers at the Doyle (which is famous for its cheap beer). I drank one then, and got some tokens for more later. Yay, free beer! I'll stay here tonight, and hike on tomorrow morning.