The forecast was for thunderstorms, and I did get a couple minutes of rain in the morning but when I put on my pack cover it stopped. About noon I got enough cell signal to recheck the weather, and they'd reduced the chance to 20%. Right after that I heard thunder. There were some nasty rock mazes in front of me but I powered through and made the shelter by 3:30. And then the storm passed by, lol. Supposedly there are more coming, we're under a watch this evening.
Scientist and Slider are here at Alec Kennedy shelter, also hikers The White Wolf, Hardware, Hots Pants and his girl Crumb, and a section hiker named Ryan. There's a whole crew of latecomers in right at dark as well.
7/1/15 - I was up at 4:30 today, no idea why. So I rolled over and tried to sleep. Finally gave up and rolled out at 5:45 and hit the trail about seven. It rained last night; fairly hard and there were a couple of close lightning strikes around 11:30. The trail today was really boggy all day.
From Alec Kennedy shelter last night, the trail drops into and across the Cumberland Valley and goes through the town of Boiling Springs. The Mid-Atlantic office of the ATC is located there.
Boiling Springs is named after the springs feeding the lake in the middle of town, which was dammed for a charcoal iron smelter. The smelter closed when the Bessemer process of smelting was invented but the lake remains. The town is very pretty but there is no lodging in town and the only hiker campground is located by the railroad tracks. One gets the impression that the town likes hiker money, but not hikers. I asked for some planning assistance at the ATC office and was told to "Google it". I learned later that other hikers had similar problems.
Darlington shelter is ten miles from Duncannon, so I plan a short day tomorrow. I'll resupply and bounce my possibles box forward to Delaware Water Gap, then stay one night and hike out. Then it's five days to Port Clinton/Hamburg and a modern hotel.
7/2/15 - Duncannon, PA
People kept arriving last night at Darlington shelter clear up until dark. Eventually I estimated about twenty hikers were in the campsite. Among them were Dr Pickles and Mockingbird, Boston, Chesapeake, Snackpack, and several others I've met before but can't remember names. I'd thought I was behind Pickles, but he apparently came down with a stomach bug in Waynesboro while I was in Fayetteville and had to zero three days. Boston also zeroed there after Dora's birthday party. Dora should have at the shelter but she's nursing a sore foot somewhere.
I woke up at five, I must have been really tired. I was on trail by seven and sweating almost immediately. The trail got rocky fast and then got really rocky, large angular cobbles. It still wasn't as bad as Loudoun Height outside of Harpers Ferry fortunately. I made the eleven miles in four hours and arrived in Duncannon. The area around the Doyle Hotel, like the hotel itself, is old and unfortunately rundown. It's close to the river, but the railroad is between the closest side of the street and the river. They've fixed up the old train station but nothing else. I expect the Doyle will be shut down soon, it's a flea trap. One of the Wild Boys told me they and Blackout checked in and then out almost as quickly after seeing the number of bugs and spiders in the rooms. The buyer I got was good, and Vicky and Pat the owners are nice people, but they need staff and money and apparently have neither. The local grocery store was kind enough to run a free shuttle at one and four, so I resupplied and got a ride from Trail Angel Mary to the Stardust Motel on the outskirts of town. While its 1960s old too, it's receiving care and has new carpet, working A/C, TV, microwaves and fridges and WiFi. So I'm set for tonight. Just need to reorganize the groceries and I'll be packed for walking out again tomorrow.
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