Trekking Macon: The Doyle Hotel in Duncannon, Pennsylvania

The Doyle Hotel

After a wonderful time in Duncannon, PA, I'm back in the woods. Word on the street is that the heat index is around 107 and our hangovers from beers at the Doyle aren't helping the situation. Currently, I'm up on a rock view point in the shade. Pants and Gribley are napping and I thought it would be a good time to catch up on the blog. We joke that out here blog posts sometimes feel like homework that we put off doing. However with my new iPhone and the improved cell service, I figured I can and should be writing more often.

Cool topography at the Doyle Hotel

Let's see, the day BeBop left we camped just outside Boiling Springs and hiked the four miles into town in the rain. We intended to just get breakfast and leave, but fell in love and decided to stay the afternoon & night. We stayed at the Allenberry Resort & Playhouse and it was fun & restful. We still planned to hike into Duncannon Tuesday night but that meant doing a big 25 mile day. We set out that morning and knocked out the first 10 miles. We met a trail angel and past thru-hiker, Mossy Brown, who offered to take our packs to the Doyle while we carried only water & snacks. It was still a long day, but we weren't nearly as tired as we would have been with our packs.

We got in around 9pm and checked in and picked up two large pizzas from the pizzeria across the street. We picked up some six packs, kicked back on the balcony overlooking Main Street, and enjoyed a warm summer evening breeze.

I woke up early yesterday morning and started writing this entry:

Pants at the jukebox

It's 7am, and I just woke up. I'm laying on my sleeping bag, on a bed, listening to the soft whiz of cars driving by. Both windows are open and I feel the cool breeze from the ceiling fan. Gribley and Pants are still sleeping and Tater is hiking in this morning.

Ha that's about as far as I got before everyone started stirring. Tater arrived shortly after and we all got up & showered, etc. Yesterday was the summer solstice, the hottest day of the year so far AND my three month anniversary of being on the trail - all good reasons to start drinking cold pale ales at 11am inside the Doyle bar (the only room with AC). It was a great day - I took a nap, we resupplied our food stash until Hamburg, and just hung out with other hikers who were just as charmed with the Doyle as we were.

To share some of the back story, the building was built in the 1700s but burned down. The current structure was built in 1905 and I don't think too much has been done since then by way of renovation or upkeep.. Run down but charming and oozing with personality. Downtown Duncannon reminded me of what Broughton Street in Savannah must have been like in the 80s.

The trail is still going well. It has really begun to sink in that I'm just a little over halfway of this crazy adventure. I've left the South and the area of the country that I'm familiar with. I'm excited and nervous about hiking north and towards Maine. That's about it for now but I'm hoping to write more frequently from now on.