Appalachian Trail - Day 072 - Middlesex to Duncannon

Day: 072

Date: Wednesday, 05 July 2023

Start:  Middlesex (AT Mile 1132.2)

Finish:  Duncannon (AT Mile 1149.5)

:  29.1 (Ascent 2372', Descent 2484')

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1933.9

Weather:  Sunny and very warm and humid.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal, toast & jam, waffles.  Later, ice-cream as well.

  Lunch:  Ham & cheese sandwiches 

  Dinner:  Gourmet pizza & fries/Doyle burger & fries, apple pie & rice pudding.

Aches:  Dave - a few niggles; Julie - nothing to report.

Highlight:  After we had been hiking for about 30 minutes this morning, having eaten our fill at the motel's continental breakfast (certainly quantity over quality), and as we passed a small farm gate store, we saw a young Mennonite boy (~10yo) coming flying up the driveway from his farmhouse on his bike and throw open the doors of the store and rush to stand behind the counter.  How could we resist?  Even though it was only 7:15am and we had just had breakfast, we bought and ate some of the homemade ice-cream (made by his sister) on the picnic table outside in the early morning sunshine. Later, his father drove up from the farm to deliver more fresh produce to the store accompanied by two other brothers, all dressed the same.  

Lowlight:  Not just a lowlight for today, but especially bad today, are the little gnats which fly right in front of your sweaty eyes as you walk along in the heat and humidity just waiting for their opportunity to land in your eye.  About the only way to get rid of them is to close your eye and slap yourself across the eye in the hope that you will crush the offending gnat(s).  Of course others immediately take its place.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke in time to arrive at the motel's continental breakfast at 6:00am when it opened.  It wasn't a particularly enticing spread, but we ate and drank our fill anyway, before returning to our room and then leaving to start hiking at 6:45am.

Initially, we had to walk along the very busy road (it was near a freeway interchange and there were vast trucking/transport yards) for 0.5 miles back to the trail but, once there, we were soon traversing rural countryside again though we could still hear the traffic noise.

After 30 minutes we emerged on to a road and passed a farm gate store where we decided to have a second breakfast (see above).  We really didn't want to lose another half hour, but the opportunity was too good to miss.

On resuming our hike, the trail paralleled the road through the farm country before following a creek downstream until we reached a point where the trail began to climb up to a ridge.  It was hot sweaty work, rewarded with a break near the top seated on a bench created from slabs of stone by the trail maintainers with a commanding view.

After a descent, we crossed another rural valley before a long climb up onto the Cove Mountain ridge.  We stopped at a viewpoint there and met three volunteer trail maintainers from the Maryland Appalachian Club whose clearing work we had observed on our way up and had a chat.

We had our lunch break in the woods atop the ridge shortly afterwards and then walked our last stretch of the day on a now very rocky trail (Pennsylvania is famous for its rocky Appalachian Trail).  We stopped at the Hawk Rock overlook which had a fine view over Duncannon and the Susquehanna River as well as to the west and southwest.  Then it was a long and steep descent to Duncannon where we followed the trail through town, picking up some cold drinks on the way, to our accommodation at the historic Doyle Hotel.

After checking in and showers, Julie went out in search of supplies for the next five days while Dave visited the nearby laundromat to do our laundry.  Later we had a nice dinner at the hotel.  We didn't see any thru-hikers on the trail today, but there were several at the bar.  This is the same hotel where Dave stayed when hiking the trail in 1986, though it has been renovated.