Miles: 1080.6 | A slow, grindy day with heavy resupply packs and uninspiring terrain leads us off-trail toward a promised hot meal, shower, and campsite near South Mountain. What we find instead is a smoky bar, unsettling vibes near a nearby mental health facility, and a rushed, half-working outdoor shower. After strange sounds and rising unease, we bail back to the trail and hike on, relieved to reach a quiet shelter and put the day’s weirdness behind us.
Our packs were heavy with our resupply and we were struggling. We breaked often and made slow progress. We did lots of road crossings this day and the terrain was lackluster. Soggy had told us about a restaurant we would be passing that was just a mile off trail that offered free showers and camping. We aimed for that, bear South Mountain, PA.
On our way to the restaurant we stopped at this really beautiful shelter.
Where we ran into Water Boy again. He ended up hiking up to the next peak with us. After that we came to the road to go to the South Mountain ‘Hotel’ which actually wasn’t a hotel at all. We had to walk through the South Mountain Restoration Center, unsure what it was at the time. It was creepy. It seemed like. I one was there and there was an abandoned building across from a brand new looking one.
When we arrived at the ‘hotel’ we left our packs outside and entered the only unlocked door:
Into a smoking bar... yes, apparently, you can still smoke in designated smoking bars in PA. Yeah, and they call this the ‘North’.
We got dinner in the bar anyway so that we could shower and camp, it’s expected that you eat at the restaurant or at lease get a beer to camp for ‘free’. We ate quickly with some locals, Kenny and Tammy.
They told us, through the smoke of their Marlboro Reds, that the South Mountain Restoration Center is a Mental asylum. They said it as quietly as possible without making any eye contact. The town was ashamed of it, they said.
We finished dinner quickly and went outside to take our showers. The concrete walled shower had no ‘dressing area’ and the shower curtain whipped with the wind. Miles held it closed for me while I showered first. The water flashed between hot and cold. But I smelled awful and I needed that shower.
When I was done (there were no towels) I used my washcloth sized paktowl to dry my whole body. It wasn’t great, I was still damp. I dressed quickly and went outside so Miles could shower. The water wouldn’t turn on as soon as he got in. I went inside to ask the bar keep, who had turned it on for us before, if he could fix it.
On my way back out of the restaurant I saw these two guys getting into a white sedan. As I rounded the corner of the building back to where the shower was I heard loud ‘pop pop pop’ noises. It sounded like gun fire. I ducked behind the concrete shower, startled. Miles yelled to see if I was ok and I told him I was. “What was that?” We wondered. It didn’t sound good. Miles finished showering quickly and we packed up our stuff.
Back past the Restoration Center and onto the trail we went, as fast as possible.
What a weird couple of days. We made it to camp by 8:30pm. Water Boy was there and we told him about our weird encounter. We set up Miles’ tent and shared it, too tired and grumpy to deal with both tents. We went to sleep quickly, done with the day’s bizarreness.