June 21

OToday's word is hotter. Its definition is - a greater degree of heat than some other thing. In a sentence - Today was hotter than yesterday.

With a high of 96, today was uncomfortably hot. I woke up at about six with the light beaming in through the antiquated windows of the Doyle. Since there was no air conditioning, the room was already 85 by six am. Nothing like waking up and sweating in a dusty, old room with a bright light in your eyes. I didn't want to use the communal shower, but I needed to cool down. After showering I headed to breakfast across the street at Goodies. This place was probably the only saving grace of Duncannon. The food wasn't incredible, but the pancakes were gigantic and the price was agreeable.

Starting the four mile walk on the trail out of town was the easiest start out of a town I've ever had. I wanted to get out and never come back. This town was so delightfully terrible that I passed four strip clubs on the way out of town. One claimed to have HOT dancers, ice cream, and BBQ. I believe two out of three.

When I finally got to the woods, it was already in the upper eighties with about 100% humidity. Duncannon has the lovely feature of being right on the bank of the susquehana river. City streets gave way to forest trail at the base of a large hill. Luckily, the best and easiest source of water was at the first shelter. This shelter was only about an hour of hiking up that hill away.

I thought the shelter would be colder than the surrounding area because it creates its own shade. I was wrong. I was really wrong. It was hotter in there by a lot. I literally jumped out of the shelter and setup my tent in the shade to guard against the bugs.

Things got really lazy after that. I stayed there four hours talking with Overdrive, Peach, and TaterTot, ate twice, played in the spring water, and took a small nap. Overdrive is a thirty some musician and pharmacist from Daytona Beach, Florida. I don't know too much about Peach other than she's a really nice, genuine soul. She's also super athletic. I think she swam in college? TaterTot is a woman in her late twenties with a bad case of wanderlust. She quit her art museum job to hike the trail, but the AT isn't her first big adventure. She's hiked across England, been to south America, and went on a research ship to Antarctica. She's pretty cool, but even with her experiences it seems we've nothing to talk about. It's the first time on the trail that I haven't been able to freely converse with a person about at least one thing.

After waiting most of the heat out I set off towards the next shelter. About a mile before the shelter, a generous afternoon hiker offered me some water and food as he got in his vehicle to leave. I took the water graciously, but now I wish I'd have taken the food too. :) Water was more important though because the shelter where I spent the night had a very steep walk down to get water. Due to his generosity, I did not have to get water from that shelter.

Shared the shelter with TaterTot and two ex-military looking fellows. Couldn't take them too serious because one had a dog named Jasmine.

Not exactly killer mileage, but I made it to Peters mountain shelter at 1152.1; however I did get out of Duncannon. That was enough for me.