Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 92, Thursday, 6/16 – I had my alarm set for 5:00am this morning and still woke up before the alarm. The rain hadn’t started yet, but it was clear that it was going to any minute. We originally wanted to get an early start, but no one was too eager to hike out into a storm. Sure enough, it started to rain. Genie, Splitzy, and I waited out the weather and started hiking around 7:00am.

We only had 10 miles to hike to get to Hamburg PA, and it was almost all downhill. It was forecasted to rain during the afternoon, so we called ahead for a hotel room. For some reason, the hotels had no vacancies. Coincidentally, Half Time called me from town and asked if Genie, Splitzy, and I wanted to join them in their hotel room. What a fortunate turn of events.

We hiked into town and came across a candy shop that was right off trail (9 miles to mile 1220). The candy shop had a great selection of bizarre candies. I picked up some chocolate, peanuts, and a pack of Bean Boozled which is a candy product made by Jelly Belly.

When I left the candy shop, I found that Splitzy had already met a trail angel. Fallen Leaves gifted her with a dozen donuts and gave us a ride to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel, August walked by and gave us 2 slices of pizza.

We entered the hotel room to find Birthday Sandwich, Half Time, and Dog Fish. There’s only one bed and a couch, so it’s going to be a tight squeeze for the six of us.

I introduced the group to Bean Boozled. It’s a box of jelly beans that has tasty beans mixed with nasty beans, and they look identical. You don’t know if you’ve picked a nasty flavor until it’s too late. We made a game where everyone eats a jelly bean at the same time. By the reaction, it’s immediately clear who the unlucky ones were.

We then got Taco Bell for dinner and resupplied food at Walmart. Genie also helped me address a shoe issue. The treads, on my newish shoes, are delaminating and separating from their soles. We used a glue to try to address the issue. Hopefully I can squeeze some life out of these shoes.