Today was a bitterly cold morning wakeup but was quickly melted away with a hot breakfast and coffee in Boiling Springs.  We purposely got a late start so that the dew would have time to dry before walking through fields and farms of the Cumberland valley.

We were camped south of town and were greeted by three trains throughout the night.  The backpacker campsite is 50 yards from a very active track.

After hiking through town along the lake again we stopped at the local cafe and had pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast and way too much coffee.  We also dilly dallied a little bit because we were charging our phones.  We didn’t get a full charge but got us enough to make the next resupply in Duncannon tomorrow.

The hike out of town was very busy with Monday morning traffic but disappeared once we turned off the road into the woods.  The entire day was a mile of woods followed by a half mile of fields repeated all day long.  Not sure of the exact mileage but it was around 17 for the day.  The easy terrain is now behind us and we are only a few days away from where the serious rocks of PA begin.

We only had the last two miles not the in the valley to make it up to the first shelter from town.  We are camped out in our hammocks at the top of the hill and it is quite breezy.  There are two other flip floppers and about seven thru hikers up here tonight.  Most of the thru hikers are doing 25 mile days and today was no exception.  We are still nursing sore feet and are not quite up to full stamina yet so we stick to our 13-15 mile days.  But each day we improve.

The ghetto waist belt modifications on Karen’s pack seem to be helping her shoulders.  We will know better tomorrow since it will not be as flat as the terrain we saw today.

The weather was great.  We did not don the rain jackets except when we stopped a few times with a cool breeze blowing.  We were not hot and we were not cold.  It was overcast most of the day but we could feel the warmth of the sun.  Probably the best day we have had yet.  Tomorrow there is a slight chance of rain, but it is not supposed to be cold and hopefully it will come and go quickly if it t does rain.

Today was a long day.  We had a great campsite last night and got a late start at about 8 am.  The terrain started off pretty mellow but quickly got steep and rocky.  Our intent was to try to meet Don in Boiling Springs between two and three but the terrain slowed us down more than expected.

Even though I have hiked this section not too long ago and thought that I had remembered it pretty well, I don’t remember there being stiff climbs up to the rocky mountain tops.  Being a weekend, there were lots of day and weekend hikers out as well as two separate groups of kids bouldering on some of the bigger rock outcroppings.  They had brought giant pads with them and all of them fell repeatedly.  We sat and watched them for about fifteen minutes.  Both groups were doing negative climbs.  They were basically hanging upside down from the rocks.  I have no idea how they even got as far as they did.  We had a hard enough time just navigating the maze of the trail in-between the large rocks.

The weather was quite warm today and hardly a cloud in the sky but the breeze at the mountain tops was quite chilly and had us donning out rain jackets several times.  By about two in the afternoon it was finally warm enough to ditch the jackets for good.

We made it into Boiling Springs by 3:45 and Don was sitting on a bench by the lake waiting for us.  There were tons of people walking around town.  There either was some event going on or just mothers day celebrations.

Don took us to Walmart to resupply and get some foam and Gorilla tape to rig Karen’s pack to make the hip belt fit better.  Her waist is so narrow and the hip belt only goes so small because of the pockets on it, that it has been riding a little low on her and pulling down on her shoulders.  We put another layer of foam inside the belt to make it ride higher.  We have one more layer of foam and are keeping the Gorilla tape in case we need to add a second layer.  If this does not work, we will have to hit an outfitter to see about getting her another pack that fits her better.

Dinner tonight was at Chili’s and we had a good talk with Don.  He has started taking his boys hiking and backpacking to one of the shelters near here.  After dinner he dropped us off near the hikers campsite where we repacked and are ready for a day of hiking through farmland tomorrow.

After the crappiest day of the trip yesterday we probably had the best day of the trip today.  The cold rain of yesterday had us really bummed and if not for the nice big shelter our spirits today probably would have started of sour.  The morning was misty but not raining and pretty chilly.  We made good time to get ten miles to Pine Grove Furnace Stage Park for lunch at 1 PM.

This park is special to me because it is where my 2010 section ended and Karen’s cousin in PA picked me up.  It is also where I started in 2011 and my 1989 hiking partner, Donald, dropped me off and hiked with me for a day and a half.  It was weird because even though we had spoken a few times, we had not seen each other in over two decades yet it felt as if we were picking up a conversation from just a few weeks ago.  Since we are near where he lives outside of Harrisburg, we are planning to see him in Boiling Springs tomorrow.

Once we got to the state park, we dropped our packs and headed straight for the park grill.  It’s only open on weekends so we timed it perfectly.  Karen had a cheeseburger and I had a hiker burger which is a cheeseburger with a fried egg and bacon.  We shared a large order of fries and could not finish them all.

We were so stuffed that we did not even eat dinner tonight.  We just had two cookies and some cheese and cracker crumbs.

The park is also home to the official Appalachian Trail museum.  They have interesting artifacts from key figures from the trail.  One of the artifacts they have is a pair of Keds sneakers that Grandma Gatewood wore in the 1950’s.  They were huge!  They looked like a men’s size 12.

We are now camped beside a creek after about 17 miles today.  Tomorrow will be a shorter 11 miles to meet up with Don.  We have our hammocks set up facing each other again and we are in our cocoons texting and e-mailing home as a gentle rain is beginning to fall.

Cell service in a valley in southern PA in a dry hammock with a full belly.  It doesn’t get any better than this.

The weather forecast for the next two days is mostly sunny with very little chance of rain.  I am looking forward to tomorrow and seeing Don and Karen is looking forward to the day after where we walk 14 miles across the Cumberland valley through farmland.

Today was a very challenging day.  We knew it was supposed to rain all day but I don’t think we were mentally prepared for the cold.  It rained a few times in the evening but we were snug in our shelter with four other hikers and slept pretty well.  We set out early while it was not yet raining and three young hikers that starter in Georgia in March passed us like we were standing still.

We made the quarry gap shelters by 10 am just as the rain began.  These two shelters have a semi permanent caretaker that calls himself the innkeeper.

The innkeeper has flowers planted around the shelter and hanging baskets and really makes it seem not like an AT shelter at all.

We ate peanut butter and jelly and decided maybe we should cook a double batch of noodles since we would not want to stop in the rain.  That turned out to be a very wise decision.  It was another 7.5 miles to the next shelter and the rain was constant all day long.  We managed to keep our feet dry for about thirty minutes but that was all.  After they get pretty soaked you don’t really care where you step and be basically went straight through all the puddles just to keep going.  Luckily there is a cabin about five miles away where we could sit on the porch and have a quick snack before heading on.

We did finally make it to the birch run shelter at about 4:30 and we were both chilled to the bone.  I’m not sure what the temperature was but I am guessing about 50.  The shelter is quite new, quite large, and quite nice.  And it’s dry.  The picnic table is covered so as soon as we changed into dry clothes we immediately began cooking.  Mashed potatoes with tuna and chocolate pudding for dessert.  Another hiker gave us a cliff bar so that was second dessert.

We will likely have to have one big day either tomorrow or the day after in order to be able to hike across the Cumberland valley which is a 14 mile stretch with no water and no camping.  We also need to resupply in Boiling Springs.  We will see how the weather goes tomorrow and make our decisions then.  But for now it’s off to bed at 7:30, not quite yet hiker midnight.

We stopped a mere half of a mile from Pennsylvania yesterday to resupply in Cascade, MD.  We had a nice room in a private house with a fantastic breakfast that was within walking distance to a small town grocery.  We now have food for four more days of travel.  We also were able to walk one block for our first pizza of the trip and it was fantastic.  Yankee pizza does not disappoint.  We packed out three slices for lunch and it was just as good.

It was just a quick jaunt to the Mason Dixon line where we entered PA in overcast weather.  The weather never changed all day.  Late in the day around 4 PM we actually saw shadows on the ground for about fifteen seconds but that was it.

The terrain was good for much of the hike.  We keep building miles each day as we grow stronger and today was just over fifteen miles.  Karen is getting faster on the uphills but still hates them and is almost up to her normal speed on the flats.  Pretty soon we will be able to plan on fifteen to twenty miles as a typical days schedule.

Because of the weather we did not see or hear much wildlife today.  There were a few vistas but the weather was good enough only at one of them which was a pretty harrowing boulder scramble and Karen stayed at the base of that one but I went to see the view which was nice but completely forested.

We are staying in a shelter tonight because it is supposed to start raining about midnight and not stop until at least noon.

We had to break camp in the rain the other day and the tarps are still wet from that adventure and we don’t want to have to pack in the rain if we can avoid it.  Hiking in it is bad enough.  We are not sure where our destination is tomorrow so we will just play it by ear and see where we end up if the weather lets up.  The shelters have been very nice in southern PA so far so we are hopeful that we will find a nice place to stop.

Rain was forecast for the entire day but it was not only the morning that was dreary.  We hiked across a few fields in light mist but by the time we got towards our lunch spot it was overcast but dry and very cool.

There were several road crossings and several stream crossings and one stream was flowing so quickly we had to take our shoes off and don our crocs and ford across.  Talk about cold.  The water was so cold, the pain on the feet was intense.  It felt like they were being crushed in a vice.  It took about a minute to cross and we were glad to get our shoes and socks back on.  Afterwards we felt refreshed.

The climb up from there to our lunch spot was quite steep and at the brand new shelter we stopped at for lunch there as a crew of about a dozen hikers from a local club up there for their weekly hike.  We talked a bit before they left then we ate and left ourselves.  As we were leaving we met a young German girl and offered her an extra liter of water we had. The water source there was a very long climb half way down the ridge.

We made good time the rest of the day and are now at a boarding house so that we could resupply.  It was a nice little market and we now have apple pies and leftover pizza for lunch and dinner the next day.

We are only half a mile from the Mason Dixon line and will enter Pennsylvania in the morning.  Boogie hoo, Maryland is in the books.

We had a good day today.  We started out from the backpackers campsite just before 8 am in another misty day after a good hard rain last night.  It took quite a while to get the hammocks set up because one of the trees was way too big for the tree hugger straps so I had to join two of them together to make it around the tree and then we both were joined to the same suspension.  It worked, but if Karen shifted it would jiggle me and vice versa.  We both stayed warm and dry despite the rain but we had to pack them up soaking wet which is somewhat normal.

First stop of the day was the Washington monument in Maryland.  Not as big as the one in DC but it has a better view.  It was misty before we got there and we had great views of the countryside and just as we packed up to leave, the fog rolled in.  Perfect timing.

We went a few miles to the next shelter and had an early lunch of pasta salad and relaxed a bit before heading off to Annapolis rocks to watch the buzzards circle.  They allow camping there and have a caretaker to make sure it doesn’t get trashed like some of the impromptu cliff sites do.  It’s a neat site that is not scarred by graffiti.

We passed the campsite where most of the people we started with stopped to camp and pushed on a little further since it wasn’t even 3pm yet.  We passed a really nice spring and cameled up and headed out with four liters intending to either make it five more miles to the next shelter or stop to dry camp since the trail there was along a ridge line.  We ended going about 3.5 miles before finding a nice spot with lots of good trees and big rocks to sit on.  We were able to get the hammocks set up pretty quickly and get dinner cooked just before the rain let loose.  Now we have another two hours to hang out and chat before it gets dark.  We are set up about 15 feet from each other so we can see each other and chit chat.

We have seen a few hikers pass by headed toward the shelter and even though we are only about 1.5 miles away, we like our mountain top campsite and a little seclusion for a change.  People are nice but being alone is nice sometimes, too.  I think we did around 13 miles today which is good for this early in the trip.  Better to lay up and feel good tomorrow than have pushed on a little too early in the trip and faced an injury.

The forecast for the next three days is more rain all day and all night with only small glimpses of only 30% chance or less.  The rest of the time the chance is 70% chance or better.  We haven’t had to actually hike very much in actual ran yet (just mist), but it looks like our introduction to Pennsylvania will be a wet one indeed.

The second day started off slowly because of rain off and on all night and into the morning.  Luckily we were in a nice shelter and stayed perfectly dry.  We delayed as much as we could in the morning and finally set off at about 8 am.  It never really rained on us while we were hiking, but it was foggy and damp nearly all day.  We kept our jackets on until about noon and then it was warm enough to hike in the mist without getting cold.

We passed by several overlooks but we were socked in until about 1 pm.  We skipped going to one shelter that was a quarter mile off trail and had a snack trailside instead.  The next shelter we hit at 1:30 just as the sun was coming out.  It felt great to get the shoes off and let out feet dry out thoroughly.

I remember this shelter from hiking here in 2010.  There was an old 1940’s CCC shelter with a fantastic water source and a porch swing.  I stayed there then not knowing that 100 yards across the way was a brand new shelter that was built that very year.

This year the old trail was removed and the new trail to the new shelter was the one that was marked. The new shelter is fantastic and we had lunch and refilled our water.  The water source is still fantastic but the swing is gone.  The porch and roof remain for it but no swing.

We went a few miles further to Dahlgren backpackers campground which has hot showers and tent sites for free.  Even though we are only two days in, a hot shower always feels good.  A local lady came by passing out fudge and whoopie pies so that was a treat.

We are now nestled in our hammocks as the rain is starting to come down.  It is supposed to be a pretty bad storm so the tarp sides are pulled down low to try to protect us.  I have never had really bad weather in my hammock and this is the first trip with her hammock so I hope we survive the weather unscathed.

We are both a little beat up already, and its only day two.

Karen has a few hotspots on her toes and a general soreness all over which is to be expected.  My back is pretty sore and my hip flexors are a little stiff.  My feet are doing well, however.  We are not sure how far we will go tomorrow as it will depend a lot on how we survive the weather tonight.

Our official start photo cataloged with the ATC 2016 books.

We woke up at the hostel and had a nice breakfast with about a dozen other hikers, then set out to begin the journey.  Here we are at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy office for our obligatory photo for the hiker photo album.  They have been taking pictures of all thru, section, and flip-flop hikers for over thirty years.  My friend, Pat, hiked in 1984 and we looked his photo up.  We also looked up my 2010 photo.

We had rain most of the morning but then just misty overcast skies for the afternoon and drizzle just after dinner.  A perfect day one on the Appalachian Trail.

We spent an hour in the historic district looking at the old buildings and after less than a mile of hiking we decided to stop for lunch… In a restaurant.

We did not make it over the railroad trestle until noon and wandered three miles along the C&O canal then three miles up to Ed Garvey shelter.  A whopping seven mile first day.  We spent a good while snacking at Weaverton cliff overlooking the Potomac on the way up.

We are already starting to see familiar faces on the trail and the shelter is not full but all who are here are flip floppers.  But we are also meeting new faces.  No one has trail names yet but I did see just a day ahead of us is a Politzo and Gomez which is waaay to close to Blitzo and Gomez for my taste.  We will need new trail names.  Karen does not like Hobo Joe and Lunch Stop but I’m digging it.  I especially like lunch stop since we stopped for lunch less than a mile into the trip.

The next shelter was only four miles away but we decided to stay here to make sure we start out nice and easy.  I have not even looked to see what tomorrow will look like but we will try to keep it nice and short for another two days at least.  Maryland in general is easy hiking so limiting mileage will be hard since we wake up so early.  We will have to take every side trail and read every historical sign we find.  I know tomorrow we hit the Washington monument so we should stop there for at least an hour and tool around.

We decided to sleep in the shelter tonight instead of hammock it because it is supposed to rain tonight and it’s such a nice shelter it’s hard to let it go to waste.  There are two floors and we are on the top floor which had windows that make It look exactly like my uncle’s house.  The water source it excellent and filled my 4 liter bag in about 6 seconds.  The only problem is it’s at least 4/10 mile away and at least 300 feet down the ridge line.  It took me 20 minutes to walk down and back up.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same but Wednesday is supposed to be sunny and cool.  I’ll take that. Rain is a part of hiking but sunny and cool is so much better.