Miles: 1140.6 | A slow morning turns into a hot, exposed walk through farm fields and constant road crossings — a stretch of trail that feels far from wilderness. After resupplying and returning to Boiling Springs, the heat dictates an easier pace. Miles stops early to recover from a sleepless night, while I push on alone through golden hour. Camping beside a rare water source brings calm: cool stream water, cicadas at dusk, and an early, peaceful sleep that resets the day.
In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel. Because Boiling Springs’ outfitter didn’t have most of the stuff we needed (bug spray, bug net, fuel), we decided to stop at the nearby WalMart and then get a Lyft car back to Boiling Springs.
The Lyft Guy was nice. He told us about his time in the military and the crazy spiders he saw out in the Middle Eastern deserts. He said, even as scary as those spiders were, he was more afraid of ticks and Lyme disease. I was not surprised. Town people were constantly warning us about ticks. This far I had gotten 4 ticks embedded but none for more than a few hours, as far as I knew. I’d gotten many ticks in my lifetime. They were certainly a threat but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from hiking the way this guy had. It was food for thought, though.
He dropped us back on the trail in Boiling Springs and we headed out of town. The sun was really out this day. It was HOT. we walked slowly through open farm fields.
We crossed 14 roads in 15 miles... welcome to Pennsylvania. So far I was really not a fan of the state. It seemed like there was no true ‘wilderness’ in this section.
Just roaches, road crossings, and corn fields. I grew up across the street from corn fields, I could have just gone for a walk in my front yard for this experience! But lamenting gets you no where, only walking does.
Miles tuckered out early. He hadn’t gotten much sleep at the hotel because he spent most of the night using the WiFi to back up the photos on his phone to an online drive. His phone was broken and he didn’t want to lose the photos if it stopped working. He stopped at the Darlington shelter. I pushed a few more miles further because I felt good. We planned to meet in Duncannon the next morning. I continued through the Golden hour and the farm fields.
I set up my tent by a stream. We saw only one water source that day so I was thrilled to be able to camp by water. I sat and drank two liters by the quiet stream. A nice couple from Germany and their dog camped nearby. I laid in bed and read then fell asleep pretty early to the sound of the stream flowing and cicadas in the distance.