Date: 2016-06-12
From: Darlington Shelter

To: The Doyle Hotel - Duncannon, PA
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Up early today and on the trail by 7. Started with a good downhill, then back into some field walking. I stopped 2.3 miles in to wait for Kritter and meet up with Ed and Lyle. They showed up in the truck shortly after Kritter caught up with me. They brought us coffee and breakfast sandwiches which was totally awesome. Also totally awesome, they bought a couple of basic, lightweight day packs. I wouldn't really even call them day packs, but they are perfect for slack packing and light enough to hang on to.We transferee the essentials into the slack packs, then Kritter decided to just ride into Duncannon with the guys. He had beer on his mind! They took Peri (my pack) and we said our goodbyes as they would be on their way back to Michigan before I made it to town. Was great hiking with those two for the last couple of weeks!Then the work began. I had another 8.7 miles to hike, starting with a nice 1000 ft climb, then several miles along the rocky, windy ridgeline. It actually wasn't as rocky as I had expected, but it went on for more than 4 miles and was very tedious trekking. I tweaked my knee when a rock or stick or something slid out from under my foot. It wasn't bad, but definitely enough to remind me to be careful. Resting it tomorrow will be good. It was another hot day, but I was under a dappled canopy almost the entire time, and the wind was strong, keeping the harshness of the summer rays from draining me too much.But man! After the long day yesterday and the fairly technical hike today, I am whipped! I can really feel the effects of longer miles and can tell when my body is getting tired. It's not so much in the way I feel as it is in how often I trip and/or stumble. I will have to watch that and maybe plan shorter days as Pensylvania gets rockier and rockier. It's one thing to trip on a nicely graded, mostly smooth section. It's a whole other thing to recover from a trip when you are scrambling over rocks!There was a truly amazing view of the valley at the end of the ridgeline, but apparently it's popular with the locals and it is a Sunday. There were a lot of folks out and I didn't bother to try to get a decent picture. The mile long, steep decent off the ridgeline got me pretty good. Toward the end of the decent I was coming up to a road and noticed I hadn't gone over the last little 200 ft hill. I pulled out my Guthook app to check the map, and sure enough, I was on the wrong trail! But I wasn't going to go back up the damn mountain to find the trail when the one I was on was about to meet back up with the AT! The route I took was probably 0.1 miles shorter. So, the those hardcore purists, my hike won't be a thru hike unless I go back and pick up that extra 0.1 miles. Come to think of it, maybe I will tomorrow if I need something to do. Would probably be a much more pleasant stroll that it would have been this afternoon.Anyway, I got the the Doyle and Kritter was on the corner with a case of beer waiting for me. We were going to get a double room, and I was just going to have him pay the $10 difference for the upgrade from single since I know he's pretty strapped. But, turns out you can't stay at the Doyle without some form of photo ID. So he moved on. I mentioned a campsite at the edge of town, but he said he had a spot. With my zero tomorrow I don't know if I'll see him again, but I wish him well.I went up to my room (on the fourth floor, what kind of sick joke is that?!?) to deposit my stuff (my pack was waiting for me by the front door when I got here), and noticed that the sheets in the bed were totally filthy. Like grimy filthy. On top and under the top sheet. Now, I've heard the stories about the Doyle. I know it's a shithole, but it's a historic building and a very strong part of AT culture. I don't need much, so I'm okay with the spider webs and bare bulbs dangling from the ceiling, though I think they charge way too much for what you get. But in this case, I wouldn't have even put my sleeping bag on the bed. Still, I have my priorities, and all I really wanted was a coke! So I headed downstairs.I got a chance to ask if I could get a set of clean sheets so I could change them myself before I got a chance to ask for a coke. The guy questioned one of his staff, then gave me a key to a different room. Sooo... Still no coke, and I was hiking back up to the fourth floor to move my gear. The sheets were cleaner, and this room came with a few slider friends in the ceiling corners. Satisfied enough, I headed back down to the bar for my coke (which turned out to be Pepsi) and dinner --- an oyster poboy with fries. It was a little after 4, and I was disappointed to leave that they close the kitchen at 6, because really, this was lunch and I was famished! By the time I finished my food I was painfully stuffed! Of course now, two hours later, I'm starting to get hungry again. Guess that's the way the Hunger comes on.After a shower and some time lounging on the bed trying to decide it I was going to take a nap, I went back down to the bar for a quick drink. A refreshing gin and ginger, because there was no tonic to be had. The sun has just dipped behind the mountains, and the mountain breeze is blowing through my room windows smelling amazing, and an awful lot like the smell of the air in Whitefish. I'm looking forward to sleeping well tonight. I was fitful for a couple of hours last night because it was too hot. I shed all of my clothes, and that still didn't help. Eventually it occurred to my half asleep brain to remove my sleeping pad from my hammock, and that did the trick, but I only got a few hours of decent sleep. I think I might have a bit of a lie in tomorrow!