Date: 2016-04-28
From: S of Dietrich Monument 

To: Hamburg, PA
Miles today: 15.5

You had to have watched Popeye to know who Whimpy was. He was a cartoon guy that loved platefuls of hamburgers but was always trying to eat now and pay later.   Ergo, today's title. And what relevance does it have to todays hike you might ask? Well, today our target was Hamburg, PA. So if that stirs up visions of a lovely town in Germany, then obviously you are not currently a through hiker and don't have your food rage going on. Because when I hear the word Hamburg, I immediately want 10 hamburgers with fries.We hiked late last night but still had 16 or so miles to go before we could get to food, I mean town.   That's why Will came up with brilliant idea of getting up at 4 am and hiking by 5 am. This would get us to town quicker so we could take full advantage of our room and our rest time there.   This we did, and we were soon hiking merrily along with our headlamps on. Rocks have been an issue on this section of the trail so you really have to hike carefully even in the daylight, let alone the dark. But I thought the headlamps did a good job illuminating the trail and rocks and although there were a few stubbed toes, no one fell.But Will and I did get in a little snit after the sun came up.   I was in the lead trying to get us to Hamburg as quickly as possible and he wasn't hurrying fast enough for my liking. We rarely get in a set to. I am going to say that huge volume of sugar was a large contributer to this one. But we're not Ozzie and Harriet either. Even though Ozzie and Harriet weren't Ozzie and Hariet in real life. Anyway our first break was very tense and quiet. But at the end of it I asked Will for a Mulligan.   Which is a do over for all of you non golfer readers. He said yes, we put him in the front instead of me and that was that. While it was rocky on the trail today, it was fairly flat so we could make pretty good time. We were on the trail at 5am as I mentioned and coming down the last very steep descent at around noon and in all that time we didn't see one other hiker. I think we have pretty much passed through the bubble of flip flop hikers out of Harper's Ferry. The trail almost seems empty now. We walked past the Railroad station and up to Hwy 61. There was a Triumph motor cycle dealership. We thought we could stick our thumbs out for a ride to Hamburg there. As we set down our packs, one of the mechanics came out, asking if we were through hikers. When we said yes, he gave us both a piece of fruit! His trail name was Treesleeper. He had hiked in 99; and then in 2012 he started rehiking the AT. He got as far as the Hamburg area. He said he was offered this job riding Triumph motor cycles and then well, he met this girl.....So he quit the hike and took the job and the girl. He looked happy to me.Once we turned our attention back to hitching a ride a very nice fellow in truck pulled over and offered us a ride almost immediately. His name was Andy and he had already given 2 other truckloads of hikers a ride to various places today. At our request he dropped us off at the Walmart.   Then he offered to come by and pick us up when we were ready to go back to the trail. Talk about above and beyond the call of duty!   We sure did appreciate it. We dropped off my migraine script and then walked the longish walk to the Microtel. This is the only hotel in the area right now so they kind of have a corner on the market.   It was a bit after 1 pm but our room wasn't ready. Which was disappointing to say the least. We took care of washing our laundry though. By that time we could get in our room. Eating was next on the agenda. We headed over to Wendy's for a salad and sandwhich. And guess what? It was cold and rainy!! We had our rain gear on but we still had to run a bit to get out of the nasty weather and head back to our room. And you can bet that we said several times to each other how glad we were that we didn't have to sleep out in this cold, wet and rainy night. So, we're sleeping snug, warm and dry tonight and loving it!!Also, a very Happy Birthday today to my brother Doug.That's all for tonight my friends.   Catch you later! Road Runner