Date: 2004-05-20
From: Boiling Springs, PA

To: Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 25.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Huge day. As we were leaving Boiling Springs in the AM and once again only planning to hike to a shelter for the night, Boo's-Goose reminded me that it was only 4 more miles past the shelter to Duncannon - a 26 mile day. I replied cooly "I don't do 26 mile days." Apparently I do (black hole town phenomenon) but my feet have reminded me why it is entirely foolish. They protested in earnest the last seven miles and now I'm even considering buying new boots. I'm embarassed to admit that I think my feet have swollen and outgrown my boots causing huge pain in the outer two toes of my right foot, which was always bigger then my left. I vowed not to come home bigfoot but apparently there are powers greater then myself at work. We're going to take a zero day in Duncannon tomorrow - giving me time to rest my feet and collect my maildrop. Hopefully they will have shrunken to their normal size by the time we hit the trail again on Sat AM.Left Lelo's @ 8:30 or so and gave Lelo a grateful hug goodbye. Still couldn't believe or understand her generosity - but decided to stop questioning it and just roll with it. The first 12 miles of the day we through flat farmland. Dead flat - build me a runway flat. It was beautiful though rolling through field after field - some with tall grasses some with short. We were always traveling at right angles or parallel to the farms, like navigating the grid of NYC. Very linear and logical - I liked it. Fragrant flowers filled the small patches of mosquito filled woods. We passed cows, horses, roads, houses, barns, silos, and huge powerlines that made my Ipod hum in a really uncomfortable way. Pennsylvania is gorgeous. And there was tons of trail magik - three coolers left by the roadsides thoughout the day - one with candy and the other two with juice. The juice ones were courtesy of trailangel Mary fron Duncannon. She got the good juice too. It was cloudy and even a bit cool and I was grateful. If it were a sunny day we would have boiled down there in the fields.As we stood on the overpass above PA 11 eating our cooler candy I casually planted the idea of doing some BD miles and heading into Duncannon a day early to zero the following day. Semi-Joy's face lit up and we began to adjust our plans accordingly. It was about 1pm and we still had about 14 miles to go.Reached Darlington Shelter by 2:40 and just blew right by it. 7.3 more to Cove Mountain Shelter and then 4 more to town. We were getting tired and mildly giddy. Downhill then uphill and then along the ridgeline to Cove Mtn. This incline was rough too - they weren't even trying to ease the pain with a few switchbacks. You looked up and saw the trail heading up and away from you as far as you could see. It looked long and steep and it was. Nice views along the way though.Got to the ridgeline and finished the last 7 miles of the day wading through rocks that ranged from fist to washing machine sized but averaged a good soccer ball. They were real ankle busters requiring much more care and coordination that either of us had at that point. We swerved along the path like drunken sailors, stumbling, slipping and getting our poles caught in the cracks, but laughing the whole time. By 22 miles we were fairly delirious, but in a good way. My legs were like lead - but I was only exerting half of the effort of before. I would just pick 'em up and let gravity pull them back down again - let them fall where they may. My thoughts were fairly simple -don't fall, kill that mosquito, keep moving, how much further. We egged each other discussing what we were going to do once we got to town. The first thing I was going to do was sit down for awhile and stare into space like a zombie, but I didn't know that at that by then.We rolled into the Doyle Hotel @ 7:30pm. The place is just unreal. We entered through the bar and were greeted by the smells of fried food and liquor. There were blues blasting from the jukebox and more mullets and tatooes then I had seen in my life. It was seedy and run down and brimming with character - I instantly liked it. The hotel was built about 100 years ago by the Anheiser-Busch company as a distributor and hotel for the local railroad workers. In the 1930's Mr. Doyle hit it big in the lottery and bought the joint turning it into a hotel and bar. The paint is peeling, the original windows need to be propped up to stay open and the concrete overhangs are crumbling. Our room consists of 2 beds that are glorified cots, a stained carpet, a dresser and a single lightbulb in the center of the ceiling with a pull cord to turn it on and off. Bathroom down the hall. I felt like I was in a movie. The air feels thick with secrets in this place. 100 years of brawls, lovers quarrels, adulterous affairs, reunions, gatherings of mourning, and heartache eased at the bar. You can just feel it.We settled in and came downstairs to eat. Boo's-Goose and Early Bird soon joined us and about 20 minutes later a woman set up her guitar and speakers and began to sing the blues. She was awesome and had the place hooting, hollering, and stomping in no time. A man in overalls joined her for a few numbers sucking on a harmonica like a sour lemon. It never felt so good to have the blues.I crashed around 10pm or so - I was wiped. You'd think after a 25 mile day I would have slept well, but I was up after midnight till about 3:30am sitting in the hallway or on the fire escape journaling and reading. Listening to folks snoring down the hall. Finally got back to sleep and slept hard till 8am.