When we reached the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia a couple of former thru hikers welcomed us to the suck. And despite a few low points in Virginia we had many more good timessince then. However I would say the complete suck started after Pine Grove Furnace in PA. So due to an absence of computer/library in awhile and the miserable times in this section I decided to do a summary blog post of the rest of Pennsylvania.
The beginning of this section started with some hot and humid days. The section up to Port Clinton was filled with PUDs and scattered rocks. The farther we got from Southern PA the more the rocks popped up and the Lea time the wad between rocks. The first town we came to was Boiling Springs. It was a huge disappointment. It is a designated AT community but we felt like hikers weren’t really welcome and they were trying to hide us. We encountered rudeness grin residents and weren’t welcome in a local restaurant. There was a free campsite but it was located next to railroad tracks with frequent trains coming through at all hours of the night.
After Boiling Springs the heat continued into our hike to Duncannon. We stayed at the Doyle Hotel which was very hiker friendly but a bit rundown. There was not much to do in town besides hang out at the hotel. After Duncannon the heat, rocks, and cicadas continued. In addition to the heat we faced isolated rain and thunder storms. The wet shoes resulted in blisters which lead to me falling and hurting my Achilles. On an afternoon after getting trail magic (one of the best so far) I realized I was not going to make it to the shelter before dark. We ended up taking a short vacation from the trail. We got a ride to Lickdale to stay in a hotel one night and free camping in Port Clinton for 2 days.
Port Clinton was a cute little town and close to the largest Cabella’s in the US. While there we got a fun visit from my college friends, Sarah and Elizabeth. Elizabeth took us to the Yuengling factory and we spent the night with her and Sarah in Readding.
From Port Clinton to Palmerton we were plagued with rain and mosquitos. The rain made rocks slippery and our feet were hurting. We went through some poorly maintained and poorly marked trail. By the time we reached Palmerton our feet were very sore with the worst yet to come. Palmerton was the first town we fully enjoyed though. From there we did 20 miles to Wind Gap. We camped behind a bar and they let us cook whatever we wanted from the kitchen for breakfast in the morning. Then it was 15 agonizingly painful miles to Delaware Water Gap (DWG). It included 5 straight miles of rock pointed straight up like daggers to our feet. We were so exhausted we took 2 days off. Those days allowed our friend Erik (aka Waffles) to finally catch up. And so ended our time in Pennsylvania. I apologized for typos but I typed this from my phone.
Fun Sized AT Adventure 