Foiled by a Padlock
It’s Tuesday, May 7, and I’ve made it to mile marker 549-ish on the AT. The two apps that I use to triangulate mileage don't agree on exactly where I am. The Far Out App says one number, and the AWOL Guide says another. It doesn't really matter, I guess, but it's around 549, and I’m at a random campsite on the side of the trail.
This section of the trail doesn't really have shelters or official campsites that are spaced very neatly. So my strategy over the next few days is to just make sure I have water toward the end of the day, and wherever it looks good to camp, I’ll camp. And this is where I ended up today.
I started my day at the Merry Inn Hostel, and I’d gotten a decent night's sleep. I'm very glad that I stayed at the hostel, because it rained a lot last night. I really appreciated being able to stay nice and dry and to start out with dry equipment and clothes.
For breakfast, I went to the Sisters Cafe, which was pretty much next door to the hostel. I got there right when it was opening at 7:30 and got myself an “Elevated Egg” sandwich, which had avocado, bacon, cheese, and some arugula on it. I also ordered a smoothie with chocolate, peanut butter, almond milk, chia seeds, and bananas. I wanted to really load up on calories for the day, and it was all delicious. I wish I could get that every morning!
Three of us who’d stayed at the hostel got an 8:30 ride back to the trail and it was at the Pat Jennings Visitor Center. I have no idea what the Pat Jennings Visitor Center is. And I have no idea why it is where it is, because the trail on either side of the visitors center is not particularly noteworthy. [Wife note: It’s named after a politician from the county it’s in.] At any rate, it's a convenient place to pick people up and drop them off.
As I was getting out of the shuttle, who did I see but Maple Leaf and Asstronaut? I keep running into those guys, which is not a bad thing at all. Lately, they’ve been hanging with a guy named Heavy and another guy named Pathfinder. So the four of them kind of make a crew. They'd stayed the night at the Partnership Shelter, which is basically right there in the parking lot.
The thing the Partnership Shelter is known for is that you can order pizza and have it delivered to the shelter. There’s no cell service, but hikers walk down to the visitor center and use the pay phone there.
As we all headed out this morning, it was very overcast, a little bit rainy, pretty cloudy and foggy. Everything was just sort of wet. The first four miles were the most challenging. Right out of the visitor center, the trail goes uphill, and we, or I — whenever I say “we,” I just mean the collective “we” of all us hikers — had some pretty steep climbs. I guess if there's going to be a challenging part of the day, it's good to get it over with early.
At one point, the trail crosses a service road, and immediately after that, the area to the right of the trail had clearly been burned. The left side wasn't at all, so I imagine that it had been a controlled burn. It was interesting to smell all the burnt vegetation as I was hiking along.
And then, at the bottom of the mountain, I came to the Settlers Museum, which I've seen in a lot of different YouTube videos by thru-hikers. It's a little bit of a confusing place, because no one ever seems to be there. It's just a nice old home and a blacksmith shop and a root cellar, basically all these historic buildings on a nicely manicured property, but there's no one around. There are signs that talk about staff and everything, but there are no hours posted anywhere, and you never actually see anyone who works there.
A little bit further up the trail, there's a one-room schoolhouse. Usually, the door is open, and there are big bins inside with Trail Magic for the hikers who pass through. Today, the sign on the door said the place was open and invited hikers to come in for Trail Magic, but the door was padlocked shut. So, no Trail Magic for me, I guess. [Wife note: Aaron, does this make you as ragey as it did me?]
A few miles later, the trail intersects with Highway 81, right off of an exit. The trail just kind of spills out, and there are a couple of gas stations and a truck stop. I immediately went into one of the gas stations and purchased a bunch of things to drink, plus some snacks and a premade sandwich. Then, I went up to the truck stop, where there's a Mexican restaurant, and a bunch of hikers were eating there, but I didn't feel like sitting down in a restaurant. I was just way too sweaty and hot.
But the crew I mentioned earlier was there — Maple Leaf, Heavy, Aastronaut, and Pathfinder — as well as a couple other hikers I haven't met yet. There was also a section hiker there named Two Packs. He got his trail name because whenever he’d go hiking with his wife, he’d always carry her pack for her, in addition to his own.
It's always interesting to me when the trail intersects with civilization. I think it’ll start doing that more often as the trail gets further north. So, until you get to Massachusetts, I think, when you’re going through Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and, to a certain extent, Connecticut, the trail is never very far from a town. That'll make resupplying easy, for sure.
Heading out, you basically cross through the parking lot of the truck stop, follow the access road down a ways, go under Highway 81, and then the trail goes back into the woods. Not long after that, I came to a field that seemed like a nice place to have my sandwich for a bit of a late lunch. So I found a spot to sit in this nice, breezy, cool, shaded area, but the second I sat down, I was accosted by bugs and spiders, and caterpillars and a slug started crawling on my backpack. It was nice for the first few minutes, but I ended up just gobbling my sandwich down so I could quickly move on.
A couple miles further down the trail, I stopped at an old campsite that used to have a shelter, but it had been taken down at some point. I was contemplating staying there for a minute, but it was super buggy, and I was immediately swarmed by mosquitoes, so I decided to keep going. I had a short climb, and then there was another small campsite off to the side and on top of a little hill. There was a breeze there, which usually means fewer bugs, and I had plenty of water, so I set up camp. And immediately, I had to retreat to my tent because I started getting eaten alive.
At one of the shelters, I’d found these lovely tins of tuna in the hiker box with all different flavors, so rather than dealing with heating anything up for dinner, I ate one of those straight from the tin. I had the Sicilian flavor, which had a little tomato sauce and some herbs and some olives. It was lovely. And while I ate, I listened to an episode of the Conan Needs a Friend podcast with Bill Hader, which was very funny. And now, I'm about to have a call with S.
Tomorrow, I‘m targeting doing about 15 miles. There’s a campsite I think I’ll end at that’s right next to a river, and the bridge to it has been washed out. So it’ll require fording the river. I’m curious what the water level will be when I get there. I won’t do anything stupid, of course, but crossing the river should be interesting.