Date: 2005-04-30
From: pen-mar park on pa. and md. border

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

APRIL, 30 SAT. DAY 23      made 18 miles today.         took off about 7:30 this morn. it is raining so have my trusty poncho on. michael right on my tail. don't think he wants to lose me. met 2 scout masters and 8 scouts. they were looking pretty miserable. wet and cold. tented last nite in the rain. they had no pack covers so there stuff is getting soaked. they said they weren't prepared for this rain. thought scouts motto was "be prepared". met manitou jim out for a couple days hiking. he knew some of the hikers that i knew. he section hiked for 8 yrs. said he is on the 15 year plan.    michael and i hitched a ride to what we thought was a hostel. it was closed. so went to a campground but then did not feel like pitching tents in the rain. so hitched a ride with guy named mark bard. he is a surveyer. he has a cabin up in the woods not too far from here. but no shower. is kind of primitive but offered to let us stay there. we decided we needed a shower so he took us into chambersburg to the ritespot motel. got a good hot shower and went across the street to the flamingo cafe for prime rib. was so good!!! best i've ever had. sound like my mom now. whenever she comes up to visit and has dinner with us she says it is the best meal she has ever had. still raining so it is nice to be in a warm dry place. sitting here watching baseball game. nats vs. the mets and eating chips and cheese and ate my last bagel. need to resupply. we had mentioned to mark that since we were only about 12 miles from gettysburgh battlefield we were thinking about hitching over there tomorrow. he said he would be glad to come back and pick us up tomorrow morn and take us there. so he will come and pick us up at 7 a.m. sun. morn. so i will tour gettysburg, come back to trail and go on. hope to get to next shelter then by dark. but michael is coming back to motel. his feet are killing him. i think he will be calling his girlfriend to come down and get him? MAY 1, SUN. DAY 24   staying at birch run shelter tonight. built a fire.      got up at 6 a.m. walked to conv. store about a mile down the road and resupplied. $22. then was going over to have breakfast but michael said he had called mark and that he was picking us up in 10 min. so packed up my stuff and got ready to go. got to gettysburg and michael said he was going to spend the day there and then go back to motel. so said my goodbyes to him. then mark took me on a great tour of the battlefield and i took lots of pics. i was reall interested in the monument where lincoln made the gettysburg address since i have done that so many times at the memorial day service at a cemetary near my home town. mark is a real trail angel. on the way back to the trai head we stopped by his cabin and had a cup of coffee. really nice cabin. then took me to the trailhead and off i went. today was one of the most favorite parts of the whole trail experience.   well groomed trail here. i am really loaded down with food now. and pack is extra heavy. probably have about enough to last me clear to port clinton. long ways to go but the days do go by. it seems i cant just take a day off. have to hike a few miles every day. can't stand to take a zero day. think mary is ready for me to come home. just met beanie and scott. section hikers. beanie has hiked most of the trail except forthe maine wilderness and damascus to spriner. met a bunch of middle school kids who are with outward bound from a charter school up in pa. they did not look like they were having too much fun but have only been out two days. met jaja spiderman. is 67 yrs. old. had knee problems and was off the trail for 3 weeks was nobo. but now is sobo from boiling springs, pa. to erwin, tn. then back to boiling springs and nobo. confusing? a young couple kirk and theresa started out with me at the trailhead and are out for 6 days. they were pointing for birch run shelter. saw 3 men at quarry run shelter putting a new roof on the shelter. they are with the potomac app. trail club. all volunteer and here they are on a sun. working their butts off. we hikers really appreciate the work these clubs do. good guys. they do good work. were quite a few day hikers out today. got on top of a ridge out here and called mary. mom was there so wished her a happy mothers day early. mary asked me when i was coming home. i told her i had to finish this thing. have to get it done. sun is shining and life is good today.          got to shelter at 4. made good time but was good trail all the way. nice shelter. in all by self here tonite. MAY 2, MON. DAY 25         staying at alec kennedy shelter. was cold this morning. made 26 miles today. got in at 5:45. a marathon with a 40 lb. pack. really tired. was alone in shelter for second nite in a row. not much activity up here. i am kind of in between the hikers.       using my smelly socks for mittens this morn. last nite had to get up 3 times to pee. hat that getting out of that warm sleeping bag and going out a ways from the shelter to pee. must have been all that coffee i drank this morn. was wishing i had my 20 deg sleeping bag back that i sent home. duh!             came in to pine grove furnace state park. old iron furnaces here where they used to take iron ore and process it during revolutionary war and civil wars. supposed to be a hostel and camp store here but none open and it is 11 oclock. hostel not open til 5 p.m. what a joke. lots of rules posted for hikers. don't do this don't do that, as if hikers are a bunch of bums.          met the outward bound group again. tough trail for the last 6 miles coming in to the shelter. still can't seem to take it easy. crazy. i always have good intentions but if i get to a shelter before 4 i always think of all that daylight left and what the hell would i do with all that time before going to bed. might as well be walking and getting in more miles. just notice a sign in this shelter that darlington shelter has been torn down and that was to be my next stop for the night. will have to camp i guess. my left ankle is hurting from rubbing on my boot. this has been going on now for the past week. very painful. rained off and on all day. MAY 3 TUES. DAY 26         made 19 miles today. staying at darlington shelter site but no shelter as it was torn down. guess they will build a new one this year. built a nice fire and it felt good.      sun shining today. good trail. saw a big pileated woodpecker. last nite i set up tent in shelter and put the fly over also. was toasty in there. got down in the 30's last nite.       just came out of the woods into a clearing and there was cornfields, a hog house and it looked just like iowa. smelled like it too. but here there are some wild roses. lot of rocks out in their fields. i remember when i was about 12 yrs. old going out to carl kings farm and picking up rocks out of his field for .50 cents and hour. and he had found a meteorite out there. wonder if he still has that? the kids in my little town used to go out in the summer time and work for farmers. mostly pulling cockleburrs or baling hay. i remember on time out at floyd winters farm pulling cockleburrs out of the corn when the corn was about 8 ft. high and i was such a little runt. anyway i couldn't pull some of those big ones out. i would pull and pull then land on my butt in the mud when it did come out. so most of the time would just leave the big ones. i got caught and was fired. lol. we got some jobs baling hay and was payed a buck an hour except for one old boy willard hartman, who always paid two bucks an hour. was unheard of and drew many complaints from other farmers in the area cause they thought he was spoiling us. willard was a good democrat and could argue most of those old stick in the mud republicans into the ground. also we got jobs on wire balers. had to sit down on the side of the baler and tie the wires that wrapped around the bales as they were coming thru. had to be fast. and was covered by about an inch of dust by the end of the day. i think we were paid seven cents a bale and could make a few bucks a day. i know my hands were raw and bloody at the end of the day. but most of the time i worked for my gramp or dad and uncle jim who were carpenters. got 25 cents an hour. i was 10 yrs old at the time. one time gramp took on a barn to build without telling my dad and my uncle jim. so happens that they had too many projects that summer and gramp was on his own for this barn. so he took me with him and we dug the footings for this big barn by ourselves. he always had to dig them 4 ft deep so would be below the frost line. he used a spade and i crumbed for him and was still a runt. so you could hardly see my head above the ditch on the last pass. anyway at the end of the week he gave me a raise up to 65 cents an hour. when dad found out about that he was furious with gramp. said you are going to ruin that kid. lol. one other time we built a house in alden for herman jass and i had to tend 4 block layers. so at the end of the week old herman gave me a $20 bonus. said listen kid if you ever want to come out and live with me on the farm i will take you in. he was a great guy. (as you can see a lot of thoughts pop up as you hike this trail)               just coming in to boiling springs and is a beautiful sight. nice little town. nice park along the side of the lake. boiling springs is named so because the springs bubble up into the lake. 22 million gal. a day. the water is 53 deg. but looks like it is boiling. the athletic teams here are named the bubblers. lol. people are not the friendliest. but did stop in to the app. trail regional office and they were most friendly. was looking at the trail register here and opened up the may 12 one. there was moonpie,sugar daddy "aka snuffy",deja vu, trekker, . they were there a month after i left the trail last year. made better time than they did.    am hiking thru the cumberland valley now. flat in this section. lots of farm fields. stopped by a cemetary. took my boot off, used my knife and sliced the boot from below my ankle bone up to the top in two places. what relief from all the pain i was having. i know what a dog feels like when you take a thorn out of its foot. should have done it a week ago. going to take it back to cabelas. just went by a house that had a sign out by the road fence with a profile of a dog on it and the sign read "i can make it to this fence in 10 seconds, can you? pit bull."lol. here comes a tractor with manure spreader. he didn't start it up thankfully til i was past him. most people around here are not very friendly. i suppose they have had some bad experiences with hikers. now i am walking thru a field full of cows. they must wonder what the hell is the matter with those humans. met a guy out maintaining the trail. told him i might try and make the cove mt. shelter instead of darlington. he said they changed the name from stella marks shelter to cove mt. shelter because some crazy guy killed some people there about 7 years ago. kind of scary. said not too many years ago a lesbian couple got shot up by some guy who went berserk out here on the trail. these pa. people must be nuts. got to darlington about 3:30. had to haul water for about a mile cause there was a sign earlier that said the spring there might not be running. no one here at campsite yet. pitched tent and built a fire. no privy here. there is one but is locked from the inside. must be full of shit. or maybe someone in there dead. hiker named red lily came in. at first was not going to talk to me but i forced him to.lol. is from n.c. he went on to next campsite. hiker came in for a break. was out for the day and headed home. has 1200 miles of trail done. will go down to smokies with a buddy in a few weeks. name half fast. had bought a usa today paper at boiling springs so read that and did the crossword. just like home. going to bed at 6 p.m. 3rd nite in a row alone.MAY 4, WED. DAY 27         made 16 miles today. staying at clarks ferry shelter. left a little before 7       nice day today. am walking thru meadow and grass is wet. cool this morn. hope my boots stay dry. just came across a tent and hollered at them. guy poked his head out. asked their names. overkill, lightning, and lucky charm. out on the trail for 6 weeks. ran into julius. had seen him about a week ago. he is going north he says but he was going south.???? when i asked about that he said don't worry about it. lol.    went thru a mile of nasty rocks. coming into duncannon and is terrible trail. the worst yet and am tripping all over the place. it seems the trail managers here take you over the worst parts on purpose. sadists!!!   stopped and did laundry. took a sponge bath while there. then went to the famous doyle hotel. a hiker hangout. friendly people. had a cheeseburger and fries. miss vicki runs the place. met a guy who is working in the area . he is originally from w.v. asked him what area and he actually is from jacksonburg. and that is where my old friend rodney martin was from. he said he new rodney. i told him the next time he goes home to tell rod that he saw a crazy guy from iowa out hiking the trail and he will know who you are talking about.    got some more food at conv store and a pint of icecream. went back to hotel and ate it. talked some more to the patrons. they were getting a little drunk by this time so time for me to move on. did buy a sub to take with me for supper tonight. mailed out some postcards and headed out of town. should have stayed at the hotel. got into clarks ferry shelter about 4:30. had a big climb out of duncannon. took the bandage off my right heel . had been on for 3 days. looks healed. put some tincture of benzoin on. will try to go without bandage tomorrow and see if it is ok. built a nice fire, read the paper i got in town, did the crossword. nice quiet eve. set tent up in shelter. went to bed at 7:30.    looking at the fire and was just now thinking about dad tonight. would go down to owasa where he lives once a week at least and in the winter time. he would always have a fire going in his old potbellied stove in the garage. so we would go out there and stand by the stove, of course turning now and then. warm the back and then the front. and he would talk, and talk. i wish i could go back in time just for one hour and listen to him talk again standing by that old potbellied stove. listen to him talk about those tales when he was in alaska and about all the places they used to work at. if i could have just taperecorded all those stories. i have thought a lot about dad out here on the trail and there were a lot of good times and memories with my father. i used to think about all the bad times but have decided to remember the good instead. i respected his hard work. i hope some day my kids will thind of me with some respect. he was really pretty smart for not having an education past 8th grade. he could cut rafters on the ground without even trying them out first. and was master carpenter.   he had to have been ashamed of me many times. i remember one instance. i belonged to a boxing club when i was 15 . i was in an exhibition match with bob thomas. dad and a friend of his came to watch in the old armory in ia. falls. bob hit me in the stomach and i was done for . then the boos came out cause i wasn't able to fight. i felt like i let him down cause that was the first time he had ever came to watch me do anything.   talked to mary tonight. she is missing me and i know i am missing her.