DUNCANNON, PA

Hi again. I've returned to the trail after my few days off in Philadelphia and am enjoying a beer and the free internet access at the Doyle Hotel and Bar in Duncannon, PA. This is a great town for hikers, a real town with laundromat and cheap hotel and a real bar. The Southern towns never had much in the way of bars. The first decent looking bar appeared in Boiling Springs, PA, but it was pretty upscale with lots of brass and country club furnishings - not exactly hiker digs. It was like being in that movie Caddyshack, and I'm Rodney Dangerfield. So, the Doyle is a great find. I took the train from Philly to Harrisburg and cabbed it to Duncannon. I will stay at a campground tonight on the edge of town and hike out tomorrow morning. The weather looks terrible for hiking - hazy hot and humid with plenty of thunderstorms all this week. Hopefully there will at least be a breeze on the ridgetops. Supposedly, the famous (or infamous) rocks of Pennsylvania begin after Duncannon. I've switched to my second pair of shoes and am feeling confident the new shoes will help the dulling pain in my soles that arose last week after my long mileage days. I know it may seem to some readers of this blog that all I'm doing out here is partying, but try and remember that its usually a week or more of solid hiking in between posts and when I get to a computer I tend to write about what I'm doing in town that day, which is often partying. Some folks from work asked me where is the introspection? Where is this alone-in-the-wilderness period? Well, I can honestly say it hasn't been that introspective yet. I'm discovering the Trail has several phases to it. The first part, the race to Damascus for the Trail Days festival was a physical challenge - 500 miles to toughen the body up. The second phase was the 500 miles of Virginia and this part was the mental challenge. Everyone is physically fit for Virginia, but the heat, less-than-spectacular scenery, never-ending forest, and lack of milestones was a trial for the mind to get through. I feel we've entered a third phase since Harpers Ferry, and I've yet to define it. It may be an introspective phase, it may not. Stay tuned. I can say that one challenge for me personally during this phase is visiting home. It was great to see Elizabeth and friends and my house and sweet kitteh Camille, and it was even fun to experience the disorientation of suddenly being in a huge city after being in the woods for so long. (We went out to a crowded restaurant for breakfast and all I could do was stare at all the other people.) And its such a nice feeling being at home and being able to relax and spend time with Elizabeth in a domestic environment - I could easily imagine saying I've had a great experience, hanging up my pack and calling it quits. But I want to finish this trail badly. Psychologically it will get tough. I've been walking towards home until now, but now that changes. I'll have to change my focus - instead of home on the horizon, it will be New England, and eventually Mt. Katahdin itself will rise larger and larger in the mind.