My Trails

7/5/12 – 1140 miles
I’m at a place called the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon, PA. It’s kind of dirty, kind of ancient and run-down, kind of a fire-trap, but it is a thruhiker tradition to stay here. For $26 you get a room and a shared bath, shuttle to town, and an amazing cheeseburger at the bar(extra) . There is no A/C and no screens on the windows so I have many bugs in my room. I hesitate to do laundry because one mile out of town and my clothes will be soaked with sweat anyway. I will probably just rinse my shirt in the sink.

Tomorrow I enter the streatch of Pennsylvania trail famous for being filled with rocks. The trail is so rocky that many hikers leave the state with sore knees and bruised ankles. One hiker described the trail as if someone “sharpens” the rocks at night. I’m sure I will slow down for awhile in this section.

7/4/12 – 1137 miles
First, I just want to say what a great time I had when Nate and Karen joined me on my hike. I think we did too many miles for our section hike – it would have been more enjoyable for them to take it easy and avoid blisters. I’m pretty sure Karen was worried about slowing me down instead of her health. A few miles either way wouldn’t have made any difference to me in the big picture and I will know better from now on. I don’t feel like I hike any differently but I guess 1000 miles of walking has given me the endurance to keep going all day.

Hiking across the Cumberland Valley was brutal. The trail skirts many fields along hedgerows and cuts straight through in the boiling sun on others. It makes you appreciate the cooling canopy of deep woods like no other time. The only saving grace is the fact that you are walking level ground and not climbing hills.

I found a new strategy yesterday for hiking in the heat. I stop about 2:00 pm and rest for about three hours, resume hiking and then stop about 6:00 and fix dinner, and continue on in the cool of the evening till just before dark, throw up my tent and go to sleep. That, or some similar variation helps me beat the heat. I will probably use early morning and late afternoon to my advantage in this mid-atlantic region.

Thank you Karen and Nate. I love you.
Dad “Castaway” Grandpa

July 4th

As we were getting settled in our tent on the last night, Nate turned to me and said, “Grandpa sure kicked our butt today, didn’t he?”. I laughed and responded, “Indeed he did, indeed he did.”  It’s humbling but oh so cool to have your butt kicked by your 63 year old dad or grandpa especially when:

He has hiked over 1000 miles in 3 months!

He loves the adventure of the AT and interacting with everyone he meets along the trail.

He says things like “I don’t have far to hike today, ONLY 15 miles”.

He eats 3 peanut butter and fluff sandwiches as a mid-morning  snack every day.

He has morphed into a lean mean hiking machine. 

Many thanks for letting me share our brief adventure on the AT with you. It was so much fun reading your comments. Now Nate and I are going to go sit on the couch and avoid walking anywhere while we await Castaway’s next blog post. 🙂

Karen Meehan

July 3.

OUR HIKE ENDS
When I woke up this morning, I knew that trying to hike 13 miles with my 30+ pound pack and aching feet was not going to make for a very enjoyable day.  So, we devised a plan. We would hike a mile down the trail to where it intersected a road. Nate and I would stash our backpacks in the underbrush and mark the spot on our map so as to return for them later with the car.  We would carry water and lunch stuff only.  Nate would even be able to wear his toed “camp shoes” to hike in instead of boots as he had some blisters forming on his heels too. 

Once again, the weather was hot and sunny.  The trail took us through giant boulders and rock formations, up and down hills, and across meadows and fields.  Nate and I were able to keep up and enjoy the day.  Castaway hiked with his full pack on as he has no need to “slack pack” for ONLY a 13 mile hike.  🙂  As we were climbing the one giant hill, I started singing “I don’t miss my pack…not even one little bit” and I could hear Castaway chuckling behind me.

  We arrived at Boiling Springs in time to enjoy a meal with dad before dropping him off at the bed and breakfast, retrieving our packs, and heading for home. To help me rest my feet, Nate shared in the driving on the 4 hour drive home. When I saw a sign for a rest area 2 miles ahead, I said to him “I’ll switch with you in 2miles.”. He glanced over in mock outrage and said with  a panicked voice, “In 2miles! But it will take us an hour to go that far!!” ….and it would’ve if we were still on the AT.