Day 96 - Blueberry Pancakes Marathon (5/10/2016)

Our neighbour at the campsite this morning decided to harmonize with the trains by running his diesel engine for about an hour beside my tent. Suffice to say that I didn't sleep well.

Pancake slept even worse and woke to find someone had hacked her iCloud account and was sending Chinese spam messages.

In that mood, we headed into Duncannon for breakfast. Popping into Goodies Restaurant, we found Flatlander and Shakespeare already there waiting for their food. As we sat down, the food arrived and the three biggest pancakes I've ever seen were placed in front of Flatlander, who had unwittingly also ordered two sides.

Her hiker hunger was being tested. Her thru-hiker credentials were on the line.

Immediately I decided to order three blueberry pancakes. I also had Pancake and Shakespeare trying to convince me to try something called "scrapple." Here is how the waitress described scrapple when asked:

"It's all the parts of the pig you don't eat."

I ordered bacon.

Pancake insisted on ordering scrapple so I could taste it. I did. It was as bad as it sounds. Only in PA would that be a normal thing.

My goal had been to do 20 miles or so that but, but Trout pointed out that we were in the Cumberland Valley. That meant everything was private farmland, so camping might be tough. PA is also a stand your ground state, which means that if an owner found me camping, they could legally shoot me. 'merica.

From far enough away, you can't tell how terrible Duncannon is.

I set out anyway. All of PA has been covered in stealth sites. Instead, it turned out Trout was right. There was no camping, and so I decided to just press on to Boiling Springs where there was another train-track-adjacent campsite available. On the way, I picked up with BXE - a recently retired math teacher from North Carolina who had come to the same decision I had, and was about to finish his second consecutive 30+ mile day. BXE had arranged a hostel though, so when we arrived in Boiling Springs, we parted ways. As I wandered campsite-ward, an SUV pulled up and BXE's hostel talked me into staying there for $12, where I could get a hot shower, and a quiet, warm, and comfortable place to sleep.

This would have been both warmer and more comfortable.

I got two of those things. The sleeping quarters at this "hostel" was a small shelter with three walls, two of which were trellis fencing. The beds were a triple-decker bunk bed. But before you go imagining a lofty space with high-ceilings, let me assure you: there was only space for a regular bunkbed. It was as if the bunks were designed by the same engineer who came up with economy class seating on airplanes. Imagine morgue drawers, but without the convenient drawer sliding mechanism. Also, the "mattresses" were just thin foam mats. So after bundling up in all of my clothes, and yoga-folding myself into the middle bunk, I realised that would have been much warmer and far more comfortable in my tent. The hostel was quieter, though. And the shower was hot (though I was about to go off trail for a few days of hotel, so that wasn't worth $12).

Anyway, on a more positive note I have a new "biggest day", and I've now completed the marathon challenge.

Start: Duncannon
End: Boiling Springs
Distance: 26.9 miles.