Wyatt On The AT

Welcome friends to the luxurious Doyle Hotel located in downtown Duncannon, PA. Providing a piece of luxury without all of the unnecessary distractions that detract from your hotel experience. Enjoy (somewhat) clean and (pretty much the opposite of) spacious rooms furnished in the latest fashions (of the early 80’s). Your dormitory size room is lavishly decorated with artistic cracks and plaster patches on the walls which compliment the almost kind of lacquered uneven wooden floors. Treat yourself with the latest technology in upright oscilating fans equipeed with working, hi, low, and medium settings. Escape from the imprisonment of air conditioning, television and telephones and relax to the soothing sounds of main street traffic and every single one of your neighbors. Speaking of your neighbors, why not get just a little bit closer to them since after all, you’ll all be sharing a bathroom.

Get into the spirit of community and enjoy playing such original Doyle classic games like “What’s that spot on my bed?”, “Fly and Mosquito Swatting Challenge”, “What disease is that growing on the shower wall?” and even “What gender are either of the people fucking next door?”

Enjoy your experience el natural or enhance it with the Doyle’s fully stocked CHEAP AS ALL HELL bar. Located down four precarious flights of stairs from your room, the bar can provide you with enough food and drink to get you hammered enough to make you feel like you’re a celebrity. And you ARE living like a celebrity! The Doyle has been compared to accomodations found in such movies as Fight Club and Castaway. Why leave with memories that will last a lifetime when you can leave with scars too?

Cheers to being a slacker and loving it. I had planned on doing 19 miles today, 12 miles, 2 hours of swimming and one italian restaurant later, here I sit, journaling away. I hiked the majority of my 12 miles with Samiam and Patch until we reached Caledonia State Park. Needless to say on a hot June day, swimming is a hard thing to turn down. Also in the hard to turn down list: concession stand. After paying for swimming and a pizza and hot dog, I quickly realized that perhaps I should have thought about hitting an ATM at some point. Broke as a joke I asked the lifeguards at the pool where the nearest ATM was and they confirmed wingnut’s guide in that it was approximately a 1.3 down the road past the italian restaurant. As luck would have it, my money source was located in a grocery store and Patch was jonesin’ for some cigarettes, so he accompanied me.

As it turns out, there is no ATM at the grocery store, however you can get cash back if you use your ATM card, so I got my money anyway. Full of cash there was only one thing to do on the way back to the park, grab some food to pack out from the italian restaurant.

On the way back from the restauarant, with my pack safely resting behind the front desk at the pool, I was reminded of why I don’t slackpack. It rained, and sans-pack, my options included get wet, and get wet.

Muprhy’s Law: it will stop raining when you get back to civilzation. Under the awning of the pool/park area, we tried to dry out as the rain stopped. Failing to do so, our next option was to hike. The plan was to go 9 more miles, however when I arrived at this wonderful Quarry Gap shelter, I had decided that after the swimming and road walking, I would stay here.

Quarry gap shelter consists of two shelters, as is common in PA, but what is not common is the connecting space between the shelters that extends to form a front porch as well. And that is by far not it, other features that make this shelter a winner, in no particular order, include:
1. Metal area on table for stoves
2. Hanging plants on awning
3. Four identical mousehangers with painted cans
4. About 50 or so pegs to hang stuff on.
5. Two clothes lines WITH clothes pins
6. Rockwork around the stream that flows right in front of the shelter.
7. A clean spring only about 10 yards in front of the shelter
8. Two candle powered lantern/light fixtures.
9. A maintained and landscaped garden.
10. A pea-gravel area in front of the shelter area.
11. A park bench
12. A mortar and stonework fireplace.
13. A skylight in the roof covering the picnic table.
14. A windbreak that can be rolled down in the picnic table area to protect from wind.
15. Two level, wooden tent platforms
16. A CLEAN PRIVY.

Ar har har, back on the trail. Only 8.3 miles today from the PA border to tumbling run shelters. My friend Mandy hooked me up with a ride out of sweet home York to PenMar state park so I didn’t have to worry about parking and scheist like that. So here, we go. How are the legs going to hold up? How are the feet going to hold up? How are ‘the boys’ going to hold up?

Fine, fine, and just fine. ‘The boys’ even got some extra exposure today, it was HIKE NAKED DAY. Yes, I hiked naked on hike naked day, for roughly 3 or so miles. When I got near the shelter, I was nice enough to throw a leaf stem through my hipbelt so that my “junk” was covered when I arrived.

I was kind of worried that I would end up in a weird crowd of people, since that had kinda happened when I came back from trail days. Fortunately for me, the new group seems to be pretty cool. At tumbling run shelters tonight are myself, Patch, Guideless, SooperJ, Mule, Just Visiting, and Fig. We’ve got a fire going, the people are friendly, and save for Fig and Just Visiting near my age, and there’s no sign of trouble on the horizon it looks like it could be a fun night.

I wonder what PA will hold for me, sure it’s my home state and all, but it’s also the beginning of the North. Could the North be that much different than the South as it comes to the AT experience. I mean, besides obviously holding superior military skills, being able to speak properly, having the cognitive power to understand that certain parts of animals are simply not meant to be eaten, and being at least somewhat resistant to the intellectual plague that is called NASCAR, what makes Northerneres any different? I suppose I shall see.

The unusual cold has definitely not left. Only 8.2 miles today, and I
planned on 20, but the cold and the rain had their own thing to say about
that. I pulled into the Hightop hut on the verge of shivering and just
planning to take a break. Ole Man, Navigator and Patches had already
stopped in for their break when I arrived. Navigator was slack packing,
and she picked a bad day to do so, since she didn’t have her pack and dry
clothes or supplies with her. As she tried to warm herself in ole man’s
sleeping bag, she announced that she was craving ramen and asked if anyone
had any. Fortunately I had a pack and offered a swap for “something”.
The swap was probably teh best swap I’ll get the whole trip, in exchange
for a lightweight, light-in-calories brick of ramen, I got a king size
snickers, which has a lot of both caloric value and weight. Navigator
also asked if she could use my pot to cook in since she didn’t havehers,
and considering the sweet deal I got on the trade, I was not opposed to
the idea.

After rinsing and returning my pot, the trio headed out to their car, they
were headed for a lodge tonight. I on the other hand knew I would be in
the shelter, so I bit the bullet and broke out my sleeping bag.

I awoke from my afternoon nap to meet Hot n’ Sweaty who was pushing oin
for the night, followed by Anj and Box o’ fun, Hemlock Muppet, Beem,
Birdie and Hunter, and finally mongrel after a long day. I kinda missed
the comradery of a pretty full shelter, tonight should be a fun night.

Sometimes when it seems like things can’t possibly get any worse, they actually do get better. I woke up pretty late today, due in no small part to the fact that there were several trains that went by through the night and apparently the owner of the motel doesn’t believe in sound insulation. Anyway, by the time I was awake, Swamp Fox, Rocky, and B-money were already gone. That was cool though, I knew they were early risers, and I wanted to get the most out of my hotel room anyway considering the extravagant price I paid for it.

I spent some quality time taking advantage of the flush toilet and the shower before returning to the other part of my room to catch Good Morning America on TV. Whilst dropping the kids off at the pool, I took the time to make a list of everything that sucked about the “Mom and Pop” motel and restaurant in lovely old Glasgow, VA.

1. They don’t accept credit cards
2. Rooms appear un-renovated since the 1970’s, probably earlier
3. My bed frame was broken and had to be positioned just right to avoid sleeping in a mattress hammock.
4. The bathroom light didn’t work.
5. My TV remote didn’t work at all, when I asked the owner to do something about it, he looked at me like I was crazy, when they did finally do something about it, they told me in a condescending way.
6. There are railroad tracks near the rooms and the sound of a train comes right through the walls at night.
7. The ac/heater unit has fixed settings which kept the room at around 74 to 75 degrees, wonderfully uncomfortable.

OK, I think that’s it. Long story short, this place was a ripoff, but enough about them.

After hitting the PO and the local grocery store (which turns out to be a half-assed place to resupply at best) I finally decided to take off after catching a wonderfully propagandist half hour of “The 700 club” (it’s always good to know how other folks are thinking). My hitch out of town came pretty quickly from an older gentlement in a Subaru WRX. Surprisingly, he drove the rally-inspired car like he was in a rally race, cheers to staying young at heart.

When I finally hit the trailI felt like there was molasses in my joints and lead in my feet. I’m not sure what it was, perhaps it was the breakfast that I choked down right before leaving town weighing heavily in my stomach, but I felt like hell. I practically crawled for the first few miles, hating every step. But then, epiphany. For some reason I recalled what my friend Zak who had thru’d in 2000 said to me and what I had been oh-so-excited to tell everyone else. Something along the lines of “It’s absolute freedom, if you want to hike, you hike, if you don’t, you don’t, if you want to go to town or go swimming or bask in the sun, you do it”. When I finished rolling that over in my head for the seventh or eighth time, I thought to myself. Hey stupid, you were quick to say that, so why not do it. You obviously feel like you’re in shitty shape to hike, so why not take a break.

I found a good spot to chill, sucked down some water, and then got to the business of doing nothing. I put my long lens on my camera and waited, sure enough my laziness paid off and soon flying below me was a buzzard. I got a decent shot of him, but that was just the beginning of my awesome day for photos. For the first time in a long while, I started to hike with my long (telephoto zoom) lens on my camera and it paid of significantly. I got a wonderful shot of a butterfly on a rhododendron flower, saw two snakes and got pictures of one of them and theng ot real lucky in the mid afternoon when I stumbled upon a deer. I thought it was REAL strange to encounter deer in the bright sunshine of day, but there she was, nibbling on some foliage right in the middle of the trail. I snapped off a few shots while she stood still, eyeing me up occasionally. But the real nice shot came when out of nowhere she sprinted into the woods, I’ve never gotten a decent running shot of a deer before.
Fast forward a little bit and as I round a bend I see Swamp Fox and Rocky, who I was sure were way ahead of me. Turns out only B-money was headed for the 20 mile mark, these two were happy with a roughly 16 mile day, and frankly so was I. So I set about hiking with them for a while and had great conversation and great hiking. Rocky even spotted the largest toad I’d ever seen on the side of the trail, and of course I snapped some pictures of him as well. So today ended up being not so bad after all.

All good things must come to an end. Today, after a great continental breakfast at the hotel, it was time to bid farewell to Seth on the way out of town. As we all passed the Econo lodge, Seth turned in to hang out with Not Guilty and then try to hitch a ride a few hundred miles up the trail.

Tunes and I pressed on to the trail head and after leaving my remaining rum and coke at the trail exit as trail magic we were onward north again.

After a few hours of hiking we came across a southbounder who asked us the unusual question “Are you guys here for the guy with the bee sting?” Tunes and I stared confusingly at each other for a while before shaking our heads no.

The man continued on to explain that up the trail we would encounter a poor guy who had been stung by a bee and was allergic. Sure enough a few minutes later we found one guy on his cell phone, one guy on the ground covered in a space blanket, and two female hikers. The hikers turned out to be B-money and Jukebox who had stopped to help out. As the victim’s friend stayed on the line with 911, we asked the guy if he was still cold. He was shivering and of course said yes, so Tunes and I tore into our packs to give the guy the insulating stuff we had. He was pretty swollen with hives from the reaction and was shivering and grimacing off and on. We talked with him to keep him calm, needless to say it was a tense situation. Eventually, the EMTs arrived after having to hike up the trail. The fellas got to work on him right away. The first ten or twenty minutes seemed to do no good, but after the EMTs gave the man one more injection he started to come around. By the time a second team of EMTs arrived with a stretcher, the man seemed to be doing good. Once our friend with the Bee Sting allergy was on the stretcher and our gear had been returned, we wished him our best and decided to continue on to the shelter.

Encountering someone in a life-threatening situation certainly makes you think. I thought for a while, and I think when I get back from the trail I might try and get my wilderness first responder certification. The feeling of helplessness when this guy was just lying there was pretty rough. It’s funny, when I was preparing for the trail it was really fun to make plans for trail life, now it’s really fun to make plans for the real world.

Finally, finally back on the trail. Woke up on Mountain Man’s porch today, said my goodbyes to him and then packed up with Matt and Beth (Now Reeses and Predator). After yet again another stop in the post office, we were off on our way up to where I left the trail oh so long ago.

As we arrived there were some section hikers coming off the trail. They had planned to call on a cell phone for their ride to pick them up and found the typical lack of signal on the trail. Let this be a lesson to everyone thinking of using a cell phone to call for a pickup, signal is spotty at best. Fortunately for them, we had the car still, so Reeses did a little trail magic and drove one of the fellas to the gas station to call their ride. After we bid the fellas adeux, we started up the trail.

You know, I really don’t feel that bad after over a week off. Reeses and Predator however, were a different story. Hiking now for them is like hiking for me on the approach trail. It was kinda nice to be reminded of what it was like a little under 700 miles ago. They’re still learning to appreciate the art of ounce counting, adjusting gear and listening to what your body tells you. To spice things up a little bit, they’ve even got their dog, Odac (short for Out Door Adventure Canine) with them. I’m sure hiking with the two of them and their dog will bring plenty of fun to the trail over the next few weeks.

For a while today I didn’t see anyone on the trail that I knew. That while lasted until about a mile before the shelter when I finally ran into Tunes, then Seth, then…Rocket, wait a minute, what’s he doing here? Rocket, formerly Red, had zoomed ahead, or so I thought. Apparently he did zoom ahead, then he took a ten day vacation and hit up Louisiana for a change of pace. Now that’s livin’ large. Anyway, it was good to see him again, and he informs me that Freeze Dried is somewhere nearby as well. aww yeah, it’s good to be around friends again.

In other news, Pickle branch shelter is pretty much not worth the .5 mile walk down to it. I question what the trail maintainers were thinking when they built this thing so far from the trail and water, but at least the privy’s nice.

Trail Days has officially begun. Woke up this morning in the place, still didn’t sleep too well last night, but got enough sleep to be up and ready by 7:30 for some breakfast at Dairy King. After breakfast with August and Baseline the migration began. We knew tent city would be open to thru-hikers so we packed up our stuff and claimed a decent spot. I set up my tent, then I set up my rainfly separately as its own tent to try and hold some space. By the time I was done with the tenting I felt like some lunch, so I hit the baja cafe. Just as I was on my way out it was time for a reunion. Jake, now Spruce Bruce, who I started with oh so many days ago, arrived in town. It’s hard to put into words what it means to be able to kick back with that guy again. We roughed out those first really tough days and that’s a bond that is hard to break. As I returned to the baja to hang out with the new guys in town, Skip, Jakes dad who I also met my first day out, drove by. Jake nearly flattened some poor guy coming through the door in order to flag him down.

When it came time to set up tents I took down my fake tent so Spruce Bruce and skip could have a spot too. Now I’m camped near the guys I was camped with on my first night, the irony is not lost.

Other things that happened today, I re-dyed the front of my hair blue, thanks to Penelope at the Old Mill who helped me out in getting the necessary supplies and Bubbletoes, who got to play stylist. I ran into a ton of familiar faces and heard about a lot of people that are off trail now. Hiker personalities that I hung out with today include Spruce Bruce, Skip Jake’s Dad, Domino, Lion King, Sunshine, Ski Bum, Seth (the mayor), Tank & Eric, Bassline, Rawhide, Bubbletoes, Six Piece, Clock, Sherlock, Taz, Wandering Bull, August West, and I’m sure many others who I can’t think of right now, but hell it’s trail days, just assume everyone’s here.

While hiking today, Imagine by John Lennon came on the radio. It’s kinda weird while you hike, you’re body has all of this blood flowing and your brain’s got to do something with it. My brain decided to take the song to heart and compare what Lennon’s singing about to a thru hike.

Really, the similarities are striking. Imagine there’s no heaven, imagine there’s no countries, imagine no posessions, all three are at least partially true on the AT. For me as an atheist, I’m often reassured in my atheism by the things I see out here, but that’s not how I took the heaven lyric to heart. Everybody out here had to be motivated by something, and for a lot of people that something was the realization of their own mortatlity. I know it was for me. Sure, I’m a young buck, comparitively at least, but I could keel over from some as-yet-undiagnosed heart issue tomorrow. When I decided to thru-hike, I decided to stop thinking about things and start doing things. To me, when people made the same decision I did, they did, if just for a minute, think to themselves that this world may be all you get and one might as well make the best of it. Imagine there’s no countries, well on the AT, there aren’t. I leapfrogged with a German hiker named Rhino for a while today. Besides being a great conversationalist despite thet language barrier, his dog was also awesome. When we met this guy, there wasn’t a second thought given to nationality, nor has there ever been on the AT, this place, this culture, is one of the most open-minded and open-hearted things I’ve ever experienced. Imagine no posessions. OK, this one might be a stretch, but when you think about it, almost everyone out here is at least temporarily a homeless person with their entire life on their back. Sure, we’ve got the things we won’t part with, sleeping bags, tents, packs, etc. But I’ve also seen some of the craziest generosity ever out here. If a hiker no longer has a use for something, it’s very common to immediately give it away. Price is rarely even considered. Whether motivated by the desire to drop weight or not, people still part with valuable items, and often truly just to help a brother out.

So other than those few minutes, hiking was well, normal today. Instead of doing the roughly 14 to the shelter, we did roughly 18 to camp in a nice open field right past the Keffer Oak, a giant tree that’s reported to be over 300 years old. The sky is crystal clear and you can see tons of stars. The ground is feather soft with a layer of grass underneath us. The only downside is some local yokel is apparently sighting in his gun nearby. Ahh, nature, interrupted by redneck.

I’m really beginning to enjoy these long days. Woke up at somewhere around 8 something this morning. I’m beginning to worry that I actually am getting used to sleeping outside and that I sleep much better out there than inside. Anyway, woke up at around 8 or so, so did everyone else in the shelter, and nobody left their sleeping bags until at least 9. Long days are great.
When we finally did start hiking, we had some gorgeous weather. Several times this morning Swan, Buck and I commented to each other about how perfect the weather was. Well, we should’ve known better. By early afternoon the sun went bye-bye and rain was beginning to look inevitable. Fortunately today we only hiked around 16 miles so we hit the shelter by 4:15. That’s not to say we didn’t get soaked in a few one minute downpours, but at least we hit the shelter with a decent amount of time left to dry off in the daylight.

Car talk was on earlier today and Hike-ku reminded me that Prairie Home Companion was on NPR tonight. This radio thing is coming in real handy. We’ve all been crammed in this shelter for a little over an hour now and everyone is getting sleepy early. I’m feeling the same way, so we’ll count ths one off like a bad 80’s TV show, “Good Night Swan, night Buck, night Spice Rack, night Switchback, night Cap’n Crunch, night Colonel Forbin, night Hike-ku, night Doc Chickadee, night Bonecrusher”.