4 May 2021. Day 37. 0 miles + 445.8 Miles = 445.8 Miles. More Than a Zero!

Kind of Outdoorsy

This was to be our home for two evenings. It’s an outfitter’s see store with two rooms in the back retrofited to sleep 15 hikers. I found a top bunk and stored my gear. Luckily we got there early enough that we didn’t have to fight for the shower.

The Bunk Rooms in a Hostel

That’s me on the lower picture attempting to catch up on the blog. (Pictures by Adventure)

How Often Do You See Fuel Cooking Canister in a Vending Machine?

(Picture by Adventure)

Forager

Just Tim

Train Groupies

It was very exciting. They sit here most every day waiting for the trains to pass. They knew every train number, the size and type of every engine and boxcar and the engineers. One of them had a walkie-talkie so they could hear the radio traffic between dispatchers and engineers. I’ve never been so excited….. “clear mile marker 1026…….” such a high! I’m going to get my Lionel out when I get home and set it up. The first thing I’m going to say is “clear mile marker 1026″…..

Of course I’m no one to talk. I’ve done re-enactments and I eat Twizzlers.

We Began Building a Large Boat and Commenced Herding Animals Aboard

We had arrived in the rain and after a short reprieve it hit again. The back of the hostel was under the road level and it turned out that the drains were clogged. The flood inundated the back room and bathroom.

Equipment that we had managed to keep dry on the hike was in danger of getting soaked inside. A wild scramble ensued!

Peters Mountain and the Susquehanna River

I was standing along the edge of the river looking at the next day’s challenge. Everyone always mentions this section. The beginning of Rocksylvania even though we’d been hiking rock ever since we left the green pastures. Tall rock steps and steep grades. I knew it would be a tough climb because many of the hikers had actually left their backpacks in Duncannon, gotten a ride ahead and then slack packed back downhill to Duncannon. That’s what I officially call cheating but doing a through hike is classified as hiking every foot of the trail within a year. It doesn’t qualify what has to be on your back or the direction.

Anyway I was standing there and my phone rang. It was brother Scott. “Mom’s getting out of rehab on Friday.” Well…….. that was good………and that was bad. At 96 we are not sure what her status will be post fractured femur. It’s possibly a transition time for her and the only way to know for sure where she is going to end up was to go home and assess her. Another break from the trail. Her request? “I want to go home.” At 96 she’s earned the right to at least give it a try.

So I worked out a ride to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to the train station. I got a train ticket from Harrisburg to Philadelphia to Providence, Rhode Island, then an Uber ride down to a rental car at the airport in Warwick RI and then a rental car to Scott’s. My hike is on hold.

Sparky. Who Volunteered to drive me to Harrisburg to Catch the Train

As Quiet as a Solo Hike

I slept, I wrote the blog, I ate a bag of Twizzlers and I worked on the Bible study. 8 1/4 hours later I found myself at the train station in downtown Providence at 9:30 at night. No Uber…… I tried to call… I tried to text, I tried to order another one….. the app wouldn’t let me sign back in. Someone was already using that email address. That’s right… it was me. After an hour and a half of waiting I jumped on a Southbound commuter train to the airport and my rental car.

You can see above…… I was once again hiking solo. Not a soul on the train. I couldn’t even find a conductor which was bad cuz I was suppose to pay for the ride on the train. We pulled into the airport about midnight. I finally found a conductor. “I’m supposed to pay one of you for the ride.”

“Well, she can’t get her app to work so I guess you’ve got a free ride. ”

I found my way to Enterprise. It was beyond late. “We’re about out of vehicles. You can choose between this red or white Chevy Spark. They were both the size of a Kleenex box. I picked white and then tried to squeeze my pack into the trunk space. The pack ended up riding to Scott’s on the back seat. I think civilization isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. I’m already itching to hike on.