Days 14 to 20
May 4 to 10
Duncannon, PA to Port Clinton, PA
Biggest Day this period: 14.9 miles
Total Trail Miles Hiked: 193.9
The trail this week has been very rocky. Sometimes it is walking on small anglular one, other times we have had to crawl up onto big ones. It has required a bit of balancing and leaves our feet tired at the end of the day.
DAY 14 - SATURDAY 5/4 Zero Day in Duncannon
The trail went right through Duncannon making it a great place to take our first day off from hiking.
Hiker Friendly Towns- We have found the towns of Duncannon and Boiling Springs to be incredibly hiker friendly. Locals in both towns genuinely seemed to be happy to have hikers passing through their towns.
During this rainy off day we re-provisioned at an outfitter store on the main street, walked around town, and checked out the hostel where our crew stayed at. Kind of Outdoorsy seemed like a great hostel for hikers, offering many amenities not available where we stayed. We had our own room at an old hotel called the Doyle. The bar and restaurant at the Doyle was packed as the evening went on.
Food Storage- While at the hostel, we took possession of a bear canister. Bear canisters are considered a better method to protect your food from bears as opposed to hanging your food bag. After watching how easy it is to manage night time food storage using a canister, we decided to get one. One member of our crew sold us his. We purchased Yogi’s bear canister since it was too large for him. Now We need to work on being more efficient with our provisions instead of carrying so much extra stuff.
DAY 15 - SUNDAY 5/5 11.4 Trail Miles
A rainy day that required us to move slowly and carefully over wet rocks. This was the second rainy hiking day since starting the hike on April 21, which also involved a lot of wet rocks. Odd coincidence was that we met “History” on Day 7, our first rainy day, then it was time for her to return home on our second rainy day. I hope she enjoyed the museums of Harrisburg before catching her Amtrack on Tuesday.
Sunday’s hike was a very pretty one. In fact it felt like I was walking through a magical fairy land. I wanted to take a million photos to share all of the beauty. Saw several Eastern Newts. Slept in a shelter with several other hikers.
DAY 16 - MONDAY 5/6 13.4 miles
Our little crew of hikers tends to hike alone through out the day, spreading out as the day passes. Those of us with a Garmin InReach can send free messages to each other. Monday afternoon I received two messages on my Garmin In Reach within two minutes of each other that put me on alert: one hiker in front of me and one hiker behind me let me know that they saw a rattlesnake. I never saw any, but closely watched the ground until I got to our tentsite that afternoon.
DAY 17 - TUESDAY 5/7 11.9 Trail miles
Today we experienced trail magic twice! First there was environmental science class taking water samples along the trail. The teacher often brings extra fruit for thru hikers that she may encounter. Brillo, Trail Horse and I had been talking about how we crave fruit, and 25 minutes later we were eating clementines.
Then later in the day we spotted a cooler sitting along the trail. Inside were sodas and Gatorades with a note stating that more TrailMagic would be waiting for us 0.7 mile down the trail. It was so much fun hiking that distance after drinking a soda, wondering was was ahead. A section hiker named Jinx gave is root beer floats and watermelon! She also allowed us to grab other goodies, like homemade sweets and various things that hikers may need. One of the best things was sitting in her chairs for an hour. It was a great day hiking, of hiking, except for the final half mile which felt very vertical while carrying 3.6 liters of water… I was quite tired at the end of that day.
DAY 18 - WEDNESDAY 5/8 10.2 miles
I was exhausted during Wednesday’s hike. Since I felt better for a bit after lunch, I suspect that it is possible that I am not eating enough. Luckily this day’s hike ended at the 501 Shelter around 3:00. We all spent time drying out gear since it rained throughout the night and early morning. Around 6pm a Trail Angel arrived to pick us up.
Our trail angel is a section hiker that we met during our first week of hiking. She took is to a grocery store for provisions, then to her house for showers, laundry and an incredible dinner. She, her husband and their hiking friend are very generous people. Staying the night with them turned out to be what we all needed at that time.
DAY 19 - THURSDAY 5/9 14.9 Trail miles
After our trail angel fed us breakfast , we were shuttled back to the trail. Although our original plan was to hike 10 miles to a tentsite we all felt we had the energy to make it a 15-mile day, even with our packs filled with four days of food. There was rain in the forecast for this and the following day. The extra five miles meant staying at a shelter and making the following day’s hike a little easier.
DAY 20 - FRIDAY 5/10 8.8 Trail miles
Today was a cold and rainy day, making all of us happy to push the extra 5 miles yesterday. The high was around 52 degrees, but my hands were numb with coldness all day. At times my arms and core were cold too. Others from our crew did not have this problem. I was also very cold last night in the shelter, even though have a 15-degree sleeping bag, a bag liner, long underwear a long sleeve shirt, and a knit hat. In the middle of the night I added my hiking pants and puffy jacket in order to get warm enough to sleep. During today’s hike I walked quickly in order to try to get warm. I did warm up during the very steep descent into Port Clinton. It appears that the cold weather has driven hikers into town. Brillo, Trail Horse and I got the last room in town. Data and Yogi had to shuttle out of town to find a hotel for the night. At least we are all warm and dry tonight.
AT photos by state (this week is PA2):
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