A footpath of Faith: Our blog as we FROG, and share our tales on the trail,
in our OBOZ going NOBO as exHOBOS
Duncannon, PA to Pine Grove, PA - 50 miles
WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK:
FROG is not wasteful, even to my embarrassment. We met an amazing couple the day before we were to head out on the trail, Natalie & John while at The Doyle in Duncannon, PA, along with fellow hiker, Holiday. We sat with them as they were eating their dinner; Natalie had ordered a big and I guess too delicious-looking salad for FROG to let go to waste. So as soon as it looked like she was through with it, he was asking to eat her leftovers! Who does that? I mean, I understand if we had been hiking and were so hungry, but we hadn’t even started hiking yet! What if she was hoping to take it home and eat it later? Goodness! At least he asked, but, gee whiz, we just met her. I need to take him out more, so he knows how to act in public!
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You can’t say we were in HOT water! We stayed at the Red Carpet Inn in Duncannon, hoping for a nice hot shower before our journey north. To our dismay, it was ice cold! No matter how long we kept the water running, it never warmed up. And, no one to report it to, office closed up at night and early morning. Wellll…I suppose this is preparing us for cold baths we will have in the streams!
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No rest for the weary. Our friend, Beth, offered to join us at the start of our hike, walk a few miles with us and then take our car back to NY for safe keeping. Bus tickets were purchased, and plans set for her to take a bus to Harrisburg, and we’d meet her at 7:30 pm. Long story short, she arrived at midnight on a TRAIN! We had 6 hours sleep before the hike. Needless to say, we didn’t feel fully rested when our alarm went off!
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We’re not AT purists! (As noted before, an Appalachian Trail purist follows every white trail blaze and wouldn’t take any side detours that takes them away from the white blaze indicators.) After a breakfast at “Goodies”, we took the official trail, following every white blaze with Beth right by our side. It was very difficult in some places and the terrain wasn’t always favorable, but she did great. It took us 5 hrs to walk 4.5 miles. When she left us she took a side trail following blue blazes, not the official AT and what took us 5 hrs to do she did in 2 hours!!!!! What in blue blazes!!!! Oh! My! Goodness! Had I known! I’m not a purist, if it gets you to the same spot in less time, sign me up!!!!!
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I’m a stripper. We were told to “be bold, start cold” when dressing to hike. I never seem to be able to do it. I pile on layers and then have to stop soon to take off layers. Of course it happened, I got warm, so we stopped at a parking lot right before going into the woods for me to remove my pants (yes, I had shorts on under). When I started taking my pants off, behind us we hear a man sitting in his car start making the sound effects when someone is stripping. We all turn and laugh, and I say, “I’ll bet you never expected to see a show today?”
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We had a memory lapse. If I could remember, I’d tell you … It’s been 2 years since our last hike, and you forget how long it takes to build up enough strength and endurance to hike and carry heavy packs. We had high hopes to walk more than we did within our first 6 days, hoping for nothing less than 10 miles per day. Not realistic at all and at first we seemed discouraged but have since given ourselves grace to do whatever it is that we’re able to do in a day. “It’s not a race, go at your own pace.”
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Who forgot to pack those punching gloves??? Day 5, y’all, day 5!!!! Last hike we made it to day 44 before an all out argument on the trail. Nope! We had to do it one better this time. Trekking pole throwing, voices raised, tensions high … it wasn’t pretty, believe me. After almost 40 years together why hasn’t he figured out the “Yes, dear, you’re right?” It sure would eliminate some of our problems!
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Fooled us once, shame on us! To get resupply on water, in most cases you have to go downhill to where the streams are at. Ok, no problem. This particular sign said 300 steps, which usually means it’s a ways but follow the path, about 300 steps to the water, but it failed to mention it was 300 literal uneven rock steps! That’s 600 round trip steps!!!! It had been raining so add wet steps with wet leaves on each step! If we hadn’t needed water desperately, I would have quit mid-“stream”!! And to top it off, the pipe that the water was coming from once I got to the bottom wasn’t even close! I was completely spent after that adventure! Not to mention, HOT! Guess that makes up for the hot shower I missed.
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FROG’s into Rock-n-Roll! A nice sturdy log to sit on is always a welcome treat when tired. That is if you check first to make sure it’s a sturdy log! FROG sat, log rocked, and he rolled off! Face planted on the ground. It sure was a sight! This is going to shock y’all (except my sister and brother, I’m sure!) because y’all think I’m sweet as pie but let me tell you, I have a slice of meanness, I wanted to laugh because it was funny and I wanted to take a picture of him on the ground but because I have a reputation to maintain, I did neither. BTW, he didn’t get hurt.
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This will cramp my style! This is definitely a first for me. My first night out, bad inner thigh cramps. Every move I made brought them on. Didn’t matter how much water or electrolytes I consumed, they wanted to hang around and pester me through the night. Thankfully, knock on a log, they haven’t come back!
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Trail Magic!!!!! Most of you know what that means but for those that don’t, it’s free food given to hikers, usually by other hikers (they are called trail angels) that know how hungry you get while hiking. We stopped and talked to “Marshmallow” who was out hiking herself. She was a day hiker and when talking realized we had been out several days so asked if we were interested in some cantaloupe. You don’t have to ask a hiker that … we devoured her supply of fruit. It was so delish! The next trail magic story still blows my mind … only GOD!
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We don’t believe in coincidences! We met “Waterdog” and “The Purist” (you know, one of those that follow the white blazes … did I mention to you yet that I’m NOT one of those?!) They were fun to talk to and through conversation we realized they were Christians. We prayed with them, said our goodbyes and to enjoy the journey God had them on. Not even believing or knowing that the journey he had them on would lead them to us the very next day. They walk a much faster pace (they are SOBOS, yay for the SOBO!) and by their calculations we were about 2 hrs behind them (walking NOBO) so chances of our meeting, not possible. Nothing is impossible for GOD! Just as they got to their vehicle after their hike, we come out of the woods to the parking lot they’re at. What an encounter!!! It was like long lost friends meeting up again. And the kicker … they went to Wendy’s and bought us hamburgers, fries, frosty’s and sodas! Trail magic from true trail angels!!!
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Speaking of seeing old friends…remember “Holiday” we met back at the start of our walk? He’s a NOBO just like we are and because he walks farther than we do in a day we never expected to see him again. He happened to be walking SOBO so we ran into him again. So glad we did, he filled us in on going to a shelter than was another 5 miles away because they had an outdoor shower, and you could get pizza delivery there! Our pace quickened and we ended our first, almost week with cold sodas and a large pizza, with a somewhat cleaner body!
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Today we are resting in a hotel, several showers taken, laundry done and will be headed to the diner soon for dinner. “Tigger” did not bounce here and I’m missing him. Plans are to see him in 4 days. If we walked faster, I could see him in 2 days before the post office closes on Saturday. Hey! I believe in miracles! Nothing is impossible with GOD!!