Days 5 to 13
April 25 to May 3
Pen-Mar, MD to Duncannon, PA
Miles Hiked total: 123
Biggest day for the week: 14.8 miles
Day 5- Thursday We arrived at Zero-Day hostel in Pen-Mar Maryland. We went to Walmart and a restaurant with our hiking mates. Great comfortable hostel and host.
Days 6 & 7- Friday and Saturday On Friday morning, we entered into Pennsylvania and crossed the Mason Dixon line. We stayed at Tumbling Run shelter Friday night. This was a really nice shelter with a group tent site where our hiking mates and us hung out and had one final evening with Dragonfly since she was leaving the next day. We woke up to a cold and rainy Saturday morning. We continued on through the rain and ended up at a ministry hostel called Thru It All. We had BBQ and a free beer at an awesome spot on the way to the hostel.
Days 8 & 9- Sunday and Monday We had a sunny hike to Birch Run shelter next to a creek. Ragnar saw a rattle snake in the middle of the trail.
We are getting used to 10-mile days and the recent gentle terrain somewhat helps.
Monday was also a sunny day with pretty easy terrain and a snake chased me (Trail Horse), but it ended up being a common rat snake. We ended up rolling into Iron Masters Mansion where we stayed for the night. This is an old mansion owned by the state of Pennsylvania that has been converted into a hostel. We got the single private room where the others were in bunkrooms. Score for the Lee’s!
Day 10- Tuesday- Sadly this was the point that Ragnar left us. Before he left, he gave us a oyster shell to hang from our packs. It was great having him on the trip and we hope he can join us on the tail end of our hike.
We hiked 11.5 miles this day with a stop at the Green Mountain Deli for provisions and lunch.
Day 11- Wednesday- We hiked to Boiling Springs, PA. We were tired at the end of hike where the last mile was thru farm crops. Nice afternoon spent in town with the crew. Slept in campsite next to train track. Several trains came through during the night.
Day 12- Thursday - we woke up early to start our biggest hike yet of 14.8 miles. Our crew had the same idea, and all picked up coffee and snacks at the close by convenient store in Boiling Springs to fuel the long day of walking. This was a beautiful hike through farmland and woods with some very scenic views of barns and fields and other various crops. There was a small Mennonite stand next to one of the crossroads where we had ice cream at a picnic table, and then we had lunch at an old barn in the shade since this hike was mostly through farmland. We had to pack all our water for the trip since the creeks in the area were questionable due to farm runoff.
One of the biggest milestones was we crossed our hundred-mile mark of the hike. We are officially 5% done. We ended up at Darlington shelter just 10 miles from Duncannon, Pennsylvania.
Day 13- Friday We left Darlington shelter about 7:00 AM for our trek down to Duncannon. The day started with a very steep climb up and then it leveled off but stayed fairly rocky and then a incredibly steep descent into Duncannon. Lemonade and I have realized that going downhill is the most difficult part of our hiking. It doesn't necessarily get your heart rate up but it can be very technical and slow. We checked in to the Doyle Hotel here in Duncannon and got cleaned up and had a very nice meal with our crew.
Thoughts:
I think we have done a pretty good job at keeping our mileage between 8 and 10 miles. Fatigue is a common feeling at the end of the day but in general when we wake up in the morning, we feel refreshed and ready to hike on. Lemonade and I feel we can probably increase the mileage at a moderate rate.
Keeping milage below 10 Miles has been somewhat challenging since it has required us to stay at hostels more often than we expected. Once our mileage increases, we will have more flexibility on where we can stay.
Springtime in MD & PA: Springtime has been very beautiful in this area of the country. When we started the trees were just budding and we could see through most of the branches. Now the green has come out in force and the flowers and the greenery are vivid.
this week's photos are found in PA1
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