Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 87, Saturday, 6/11 – The camping experience was rather ridiculous last night. The campground couldn’t have been more than 20 yards away from railroad tracks, and the tracks were quite active. A train would go by every couple hours and would sound the horn at all the road crossings. Needless to say, I didn’t get the best night of sleep.

I hiked with Genie and Splitzy today. We hiked past a gas station on our way out of Boiling Springs. Genie had the great idea of grabbing hot coffee for the hike. We were passing a lot of roads today, so figured we would have an opportunity to throw out the trash when we were done. It was great hiking with a hot coffee in lieu of the typical dehydrated coffee that I add to my water bottle. Hiking with a hot coffee made the hike feel like a casual walk.

Genie, Splitzy and I had some great conversations this morning. We talked about how the experience of a thru hike provides beneficial perspective to life in general.

One topic was inflation, which is a fairly universal concern nowadays. The benefit of the thru hike is that it shows that a person can thrive with less. I find myself excited by gas station coffee, fresh fruit & veggies, and flush toilets.

Another benefit that the thru hike provides is the openness to new and spontaneous experiences. The AT is full of unknown. On any given day, I often don’t know where I’m going to sleep, or who I’m going to interact with. Regardless, everything seems to work out. Genie, who has thru-hiked before, said he had no problem moving to a new city to follow a career aspiration. He wasn’t convinced that he would have made that leap had he not had the experience of a thru hike.

We saw Ranger Randy on our hike! He got off trail for a bit, and is now hiking South Bound for a stretch, so we crossed paths today. We chatted and caught up for a little while before hiking on. I don’t remember the last time I saw Ranger Randy, but it’s certainly been a while.

We came across the Trail View Market, which was absolutely bizarre in the best possible way. It’s a small, farmers market type shop along the trail. There wasn’t anyone at the shed when we arrived, but there was a phone number to call. I called the number and let the person know we were at the shop.

I look down the hill and see this kid run, hop on a bike, and speed up the hill to the shop. Titus, a 12 year old farm boy, was the shop keep. I spent $5 for a quart of chocolate milk, a 1/2 pint of strawberries, and some strawberry ice cream. All the food was produced right there on their farm, and was delicious.

What a great experience for a young man to have. Titus had a ledger and kept detailed notes of who bought what. He was also surprisingly charismatic for a 12 year old. We were chatting with him about other hikers who had passed through his shop. He told us Ranger Randy had just stopped in. He knew all about Randy’s hike, why he got off trail, where he was going next, etc. I feel like most 12 year olds get talked at by adults, or the conversation is shallow, but he clearly had a real conversation with Randy. He also retained the information and was able to communicate it back to us in conversation. The social skills he is picking up at this shop will serve him well in life.

While we were eating our treats, a truck pulled up alongside the shop. Titus’s brothers showed up to restock strawberries. If I had to guess, his brother who was driving the truck was between 12 and 14 years old. I remember laughing and saying “Oh Wow.” The whole AT has a no-rules feel about it, and this place definitely fit that stereotype.

We left the Trail View Market and almost immediately ran into Danny and Loud Mouth. They were hanging under a bridge and offering trail magic to thru hikers. We grabbed some snacks, hung out for a bit, and hiked on.

We had a big climb leaving the Cumberland Valley. At the top of the climb, we ran into Oak and Twin Oak. They were the same folks hosting Trail Magic the day before in Boiling Springs. They were on a hike and had lugged drinks and candy up to the top of the climb.

I had to use a privy, and Oak said that the privy at the nearby shelter was exceptional. I took his word for it, even though I didn’t really know what he meant. I walked up to this privy, and it had a sign above the entrance that read “Taj Mahal.” It was huge compared to most privies. They might have built it to ADA standards, even though the privy itself was by no means accessible by wheelchair. So here it is folks, this is as nice as a privy gets on trail.

We had a great view of Duncannon below before beginning our descent. The climb down was quite steep, but stone steps had been placed to make the hike easier. We were all ready to be done hiking by the end of the day. We got into town just before 6:30pm.

Genie, Splitzy, and I hiked to the Duncannon Assembly of God (26 miles total to mile 1150). We are staying in the basement of the pastors house next to the church. To be honest, I really didn’t have high expectations for the stay. It’s a donation based place and located in a basement. I expected it to be a dirty, musty basement. It was the complete opposite.

The basement was clean, well lit, with a full kitchen, and had a clean bathroom with a nice hot shower. The church also stocks the kitchen with food for hikers. This was an incredibly welcoming place to stay.

Splitzy cooked up scrambled eggs with cheese and veggies for dinner. It was a nice change of pace from all the junk food we consumed throughout the day. I followed it up with a bowl of cereal. I then walked with Genie and Chef to the convenience store so we could grab ingredients to make French Toast for breakfast tomorrow morning.

What a day. I feel like today embodied so much of the AT experience. There was rain, sun, hiking in fields, hiking up hills, getting great views, running into trail magic, having feet pain, staying in a church, running into a friend I haven’t seen in weeks, and hiking along with good friends.