Date: 2009-06-14
From: Still the Mayor's house

To: The boardwalk
Miles today: 341.9

...and I'm back!For those who didn't see it, I did a half-update last night, so read that before you read this.To pick up where I left off...Duncannon was awesome, not just because of the Doyle but also due to the generosity of one Trail Angel Mary. Mary has never hiked any big part of the trail, but a few years ago she started meeting them coming through her town and decided to start helping them out. I had originally met her at Trail Days where she was one of the scores of wonderful people cooking and giving out free food to hikiers. In talking to her, she mentioned that she lived in Duncannon and told me to give her a call if I needed anything. I wasn't planning on calling since I didn't really need anything, but I met her again in a restaurant in town. We talked, and she again asked if I needed anything. I said I was fine, just planning on going to the supermarket and such to resupply. At that point, she stopped me and said something to the effect of, "That's kind of a dangerous walk. How about this instead - I'm working from 9 to 4 tomorrow, so if you come by my work during that time I'll give you the keys to my car and you can drive down."The best part was that after driving Mary's car to and from the grocery store, I got to add my name to the collection of hiker signatures covering the entire body of the vehicle, which made me even happier.Post-Duncannon, Pennsylvania was harder. The infamous rocks finally kicked in north of the town of Port Clinton, and my feet definitely felt it. The hiking was fun though - hung out with cool people, slept in cool places, and generally had a wonderful time. Probably my favorite part of the trail in the state came a few days before the end at Lehigh gap. The gap is where the Lehigh river cuts its way through the eastern PA Appalachians, and is also a gigantic Superfund site. For 100 years, a nearby zinc smelting plant in Palmerton dumped heavy metals into the surrounding soil and burned enough coal to create massive acid rain that fell on the mountainside on the northern side of the gap. The result of this was an environmental mess, but it left a denuded rock face that offered a spectacular hike/hand-over-hand climb out of the gap. I unfortunately can't upload my photos right now, but a jist of it can be found here: http://avlgeek.com/hike/gallery1/IMG_0524.JPGSo, after some more hiking and whatnot, I found myself here, in the wonderful town of Unionville, NY. The trail in this section is actually still in New Jersey, but it's so close to the border that walking a few tenths of a mile north puts one in NY. When I got into town, I walked into the post office to pick up a maildrop (thanks mom!), and a man came up and introduced himself to me. He said his name was Dick, that he was the former mayor of the town, and that if I wanted I could come to his house where I could shower, do laundry, stay for the night and that he would give me dinner, breakfast and take me to a supermarket to resupply. Needless to say, my jaw nearly hit the floor. I know I've written this before, but it never ceases to amaze me the incredible generosity that I have experienced along the trail. I can't say that this trip has restored my faith in humanity as I had never really lost it, but it has certainly boosted it sky high to levels that I never would have expected.So that's pretty much my life right now. I've hiked over 1300 miles, I have 843.3 to go, and I still am in love with this trail. What more can a person ask for?