July 2

1100

Had some bad news recently.  Our friend Rainbow Eyes got back on the trail a few days ago, starting out from Harpers Ferry, but he was back home again after injuring his ankle.  With his love for ice cream, the half-gallon challenge was just not the same, and now it will be a bit longer before he's back on the trail again.  Only thing we can do for now is keep on hiking north.  Passed another milestone early into the hike this morning.  1100 miles from Springer!  Around lunch time, we made it to a road crossing at PA route 34.  Two-tenths of a mile down the road was Green Mountain Store, where we all took care of our real food and beverage cravings.  I had an excellent chicken breast sub.  The selection of sodas were incredible, with many hard to find and/or unique choices.  I had a Frozen Run Birch Beer, locally made in PA, that was the best Birch Beer I've ever had.  The store there had a pretty good hiker resupply.  I would highly recommend this place to other hikers for a break and short resupply.  Pretty hot this afternoon.  Climbing through the 'rock maze' section was fun, and made the heat a bit less noticeable.  Got pretty low on water, so I stopped at Whiskey Spring Rd.  It was a nice stream, but since it was coming from a pipe that went under the road, I broke out my new Sawyer Squeeze filter for the first time and treated the water that way.  Late in the afternoon now, I was hiking with Apache, and we came down off the mountain ridge into rolling farmland.  The trail zig-zagged around several farmer's fields.  According to our guidebooks, there is no camping allowed in this area for a stretch of about 20 miles or so.  One option for hikers is the 'backpacker's campsite' just south of town near Boiling Springs.  We passed that by.  The town pool looked so inviting.  Getting out of the heat is thought number one.  The town of Boiling Springs was beautiful.  The trail went right through town, past a large spring-fed pond full of ducks and swans.  The water was nice and cool.  We debated taking a dip, but we figured that behavior might be frowned upon.  Instead we stopped for a break on the porch of the ATC Mid-Atlantic Regional Office.  It was closed for the day, but we got water from the faucet, checked out the hiker box, looked at the register, and relaxed.  Apache and I talked about walking a mile down the road to a resort that had a great hiker rate.  Our other friends stayed back at the backpacker site.  Another hiker we had just met a couple days ago, Kazoo, wanted to come with us, so we all walked down the highway to the Allenberry.  This place is a resort destination, who's clientele is usually of the fly-fishing scene that is tremendously popular in the area.  They have a playhouse on the grounds as well.  We didn't catch a show, but it would have been fun too.  They offer a really cheap rate for hikers.  We checked in to our room, hit the pool and hot tub for a bit, then went downstairs to the 'lounge'.  Things were a little dated, but there was foozball, air hockey, billiards, pingpong, a computer with internet access, and an entertainment center.  We googled the closet pizza joint, and got Pizza Hut to deliver to the hotel.  Then we stayed up late watching Jurassic Park on VHS.  It was awesome.  The theme music from the movie had been running through our heads for a lot of this trip, so watching it took care of that fix for us.  Excellent destination for hikers.  I would strongly recommend for anyone passing though Boiling Springs.  We wanted to move in.  Maybe get a job there.  Haha!

On the trail through beautiful Boiling Springs, Pa.