[at-l] Duncannon... (long)

[Debbie_Smith@Millipore.com]

Hi Everyone,

Saw that Kahley had posted about the Doyle and figured I'd better post
stuff I've been meaning to tell you.

I went down to Duncannon this past weekend to hike with Bristlecone. What'm
I crazy??? I distinctly remember saying during my hike that if I EVER hiked
the AT again (okay, I actually said WHEN not IF) I would contemplate
skipping ALL of PA because I hated the rocks!  And there I was, climbing up
that hill again!  Yeah, nuts.

Anyway, went down Friday night, ate a big dinner of pasta and got up early
on Saturday to hike out in the heat.  Yes it was really hot.  Yes it was
really humid.  Luckily we were hiking up that hill at about 8:30 AM so I
didn't pass out.  All the rocks were there as I remembered and it was
really cool to hike with Bristlecone on part of his AT hike.  We took our
time wandering across the ridge.  The black raspberries are ripe and sweet
and we must have stopped 5 or 6 times to gorge ourselves on them!  Yummy!
And we almost got run over at the "dangerous road crossing" everyone warns
about... happened last year too.

Since the day was so hot and humid it was also hazy but we did have a few
views down to the river and Duncannon.  It's very picturesque.  Got to
Peters Mountain shelter and Bristlecone volunteered to go for water.  He's
a saint!  Really.  You'd understand if you've ever been there and needed
water.  Yes, the spring is still running strong but the shelter is ON the
ridge, and the spring is at the BOTTOM of the ravine... about a half mile,
straight down on rock steps.  Now the rock work on the steps is really
nice, but it's a bear!  I'd say about 70% of the register entries talk
about how far away the water is!  Didn't see any other thruhikers on
Saturday and we shared the shelter with a couple section hikers.  Up and
out early in the morning to beat the heat... Bristlecone hiked North, I
headed back south to Duncannon.  Nice, hot, sunny day again.  I passed a
bunch of thruhikers that day, including Rambler, Magnolia, Toejam and
Strawberry.  Everyone else was hurrying along and didn't stop to chat.

Well.  That was the hike.  Now for the town.  When I got to town I found a
note on the windshield of my car from Baltimore Jack.  He was in town
staying at the campground with a bunch of other folks.  I thought it was
strange that he wasn't at the Doyle, but went to see him at the campground
and had a really nice visit with him for a couple hours.  I can confirm,
first hand from Baltimore Jack that yes indeedy they DID find a body in the
Doyle that had been a body (instead of a person) for about 4-5 days!   I'll
spare you the gory details that Jack did NOT spare me.  However the main
tidbits were that Jack noticed a nassssty smell when he checked in.  Asked
the owners about the room from which the smell emanated.  The hadn't seen
the guy for a few days.  They couldn't open the door because it was bolted
from inside but also because the body was against it.  Long story short...
they had to go in through the window, found hundreds of flies, and a body
(in Jacks words) "bloated to the point that it was about to explode all
over the walls".  Yech.  And I got to hear about the "trail of goo" down
the stairs when they took the body out.  Needless to say they had to
evacuate the hotel because of the smell.  So just another story to add to
the charm, aura and mistique of the Doyle hotel!  Glad I could share.

Oh yeah, Bristlecone called form Port Clinton today.... had a nice hike
there... the highlight (besides the rocks of course) was that he saw a HUGE
timber rattler between some boulders... just underneath him as it shook
it's rattles at him.  Scared the crap out of him, but it was nice enough to
stay for pictures.  He said it was about 5.5 feet long, about 5 inches in
diameter, had 12 rattles and he has TONS of great pictures to prove it.
I'm glad it was HIM not me.

Have a great next couple weeks.... as of Saturday I'll be off hiking the LT
on a southbound hike.

Twilight
GA>ME '98


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