Date: 2003-06-17
From: Duncannon, PA

To: Doyle Hotel in Duncannon, PA(zero day)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Zero day in miles. I stayed at the Doyle Hotel. I went to the post office first thing in the morning to see if my bump box had come in. It hadn¢t. I needed a good full zero day which I hadn¢t taken since Waynesboro. I decided to just hang out and see if the bump box would come the next day. I really needed it. I really needed that backpack so I decided to kind of hang out. I got up real early. My eyes were wide open at 4:30 in the morning. At 5:00 in the morning it was already light outside. So, I just said ¢The heck with it¢. I got up and went across the street to Jodi's Caf© and had a breakfast of eggs over light with toast and this huge sausage that I did not like. All I can say is that it tasted like water. It was a very chilly morning. I was walking around in a sleeveless shirt and shorts and hadn¢t realized how cool it was. It was probably in the 50¢s. I decided to go ahead and walk up to the grocery store and Rite Aid which was about a mile down the road. It was not a good walk. There was a bridge that you have to walk over and there¢s no shoulder to walk on. So, basically you have to walk on the road during a very busy morning with everyone going to work. Cars are whizzing right by you within a foot of you. It¢s very scary stuff. I went up to the Rite Aid and it didn¢t open up until 9:00 and it was 7:30. But the grocery store was open so I went in there and I bought some more candy bars knowing that I was going to be leaving the following morning. I bought some manila envelopes to mail maps to Eddy, a big quart of orange juice which I guzzled and then I walked back down that crazy road to the Doyle. I sat around for awhile and then went upstairs to start working on my gear. I needed the replacement filter for the one I had lost and I had a replacement one in the boxes and this mail drop was the box it was in. I had a big bag you could put water in. So, I actually attached the filter inside the bag. Then I started packing a second box with all the stuff I wanted to get rid of. I wanted to bump ahead and obviously my bump box wasn¢t there so I¢m going to have to send it separately. I bumped it all the way to Arden, NY. I forwarded my box that was supposed to be coming to Arden, NY too because I didn¢t want to take any more chances of missing it. Arden, NY is a 250 mile walk from here. So, I¢m figuring in about 10-12 days I¢ll be there. It was still pretty early¢¦about 11o¢clock so I went downstairs and had a Doyle Burger which was very good. A half pounder with cheese. It was an excellent hamburger. I also had a couple of their Yeunling lagers. Then, I basically just watched all the other hikers start showing up. Which they sure did. A bunch of people that I¢d left a couple of days behind were starting to come in like Snort and Clover and a guy name Cuz and his buddy (who I can¢t remember). Truckin also showed up. I guess he had managed to get his mail drop back from the other place where he had to wait for it. We all had a really good time. We spent the day pretty much all hanging out with each other.   By the time that you get to sit at the bar at the Doyle Hotel you know that everyone there has definitely paid some dues to be sitting at that bar. I did mention to somebody ( I was talking out loud ) about my bump box not showing up and the problems I was having with the backpack and somebody suggested that I just go get another one from the outfitter. I had been at the outfitter the day before but Pat (the owner) said I know this guy who will be glad to take you. So he calls up the husband of the woman who works at the newsstand. His name was Greg. He came by and drove me in his truck over to a different Wildware than the one that Lydia¢s father had taken me to. Greg was a really nice guy. He was basically doing this out of generosity and wanting to help hikers. He told me a bunch of stories and some history of Duncannon as we drove along. He talked about past hikers he had known and all kinds of stuff¢¦the weather from last year (which was a drought) and this year there is just way too much water everywhere. Oh, also I had called Todd and had her overnight another raincoat. The dura-lite rain jacket that I had given her to carry when she comes out on the trail. I told her I had to have it because I lost the other one. So, I got that in the mail as well.   While I was at the outfitter I was seriously tempted to replace my marmot preset jacket that I had lost earlier. I changed my mind because it¢s a hundred bucks that I really didn¢t have to spend. I did end up finding a suitable backpack made by Equinox. Very lightweight with a nice hip belt. It weighed 22oz and that¢s what I ended up buying for $95.00. Then Greg took me back to the Doyle. I gave him 15 bucks for being so generous to give me a ride. So I went upstairs to play with the backpack and try to get it packed up and ready for the morning. My intention was to get up with the sun like I did the previous morning and be out walking by 5:30 and make 33 miles for that day. It didn¢t work out that way. I¢d pretty well packed up and I went downstairs and everyone was partying pretty hard. Four or five of us went over to the pizza place and ordered bunches of pizza and chowed out. There was a lady (the lady at the newsstand actually) who was going to have an ice cream party for whatever hikers wanted to go and walk to her house at 8:00. We were planning on doing that but we missed it because we went out for pizza instead. We were there until about 9 and went back over to the Doyle and there were probably about 10 hikers hanging out downstairs for awhile. We had quite a little party going on with many different kinds of shots being put out. Everyone got pretty well toasted. Oh yeah, Brie also was one of the people who had caught up and she was getting toasted with the rest of us. I played some more pool. Had a real good time. Too good of a time. I was pretty well toasted myself and didn¢t get into bed until 1 am.