What a day today was, it almost felt like two days. To begin our day we walked the 3 miles or so into the town of Boiling Springs, PA. There’s an ATC office right in town on the trail, so we stopped by and said hello. We dropped our packs there and walked over to Cafe 101 for some breakfast. We can’t recommend this place highly enough. I think it was the best breakfast we’ve had on the trail so far, and for a good price. Bear Bell got the eggs Benedict, and I got the backpackers breakfast which came with eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, and pancakes. To round out the meal we split a big blueberry muffin.
We rolled out of Boiling Springs by 10:30, and we were faced with 13 miles of flat, partially open farmlands as we hiked through the Cumberland valley. We did get a bit of trail magic in the form of sodas and chips. It was early on in the flat section, but the cold beverage was very much appreciated. As easy as those miles were, there were some brutal parts. The sun was beating down on us, and there were sections with no cover. There was also very little water through this section, so we had to carry a little extra. We finally made it to Scott Farm, a spot where we could fill up on water and have a snack.
The rest of the day we were climbing again, and if course it started to rain. We got lucky though, as it looked like the worst of the rain kind of straddled us, so we only got a few drizzles with some wind. The wind got so strong in fact, that at one point a tree limb fell just up the trail from us. That was a bit frightening, and kept us on our toes watching out for any other falling debris. The very end of our hike was a rocky ridge walk that we somehow moved quickly through. Just before we descended off the ridge, we were rewarded with a great view and the beginning of a sunset from Hawk Rock.
Not really sure what our plan was, we made our way into Duncannon, PA. It’s an old little industrial town that the trail goes right through. There’s a hotel in the middle of town called the Doyle, and it’s popular amongst hikers. There’s also a campground at the end of town that let’s hikers tent for $5. We opted for the cheaper tenting option since it wasn’t supposed to rain anymore.
It was an extra mile to walk through town, but we finally arrived at the campground. The AT hikers get kind of quarantined all in one small plot here, and the inside of the bath house reminded me of something out of a horror movie, with the shower curtains all over. Also, the campground is right next to some railroad tracks, and I was reminded of that scene in the Blues Brothers;
Jake: How often does the train go by?
Elwood: So often that you won’t even notice it.
In any case, it was only $5, so we made the best of it. We set up, rinsed off in the murder room showers, and took a walk over the river to the truck stop where we got some Subway. At this point it was 10pm, so we didn’t have a lot of food options. There were two adult entertainment venues that we passed, and one even advertised a grill, but we weren’t feeling quite that adventurous. We did grab a six pack of beer to go from a bar that was still open, and brought that back to the campground. We ended up staying up until 12:30am chatting with other hikers. It was nice, we hadn’t stayed up that late in a while.
Today was the longest day yet, just over 30 miles. Our feet hurt by the end of it, but any day that ends in town with food and beer is a good one. We’ll sleep well tonight for sure.
