Day 87- Nero In Pine Grove, PA

June 27, 2015

William Penn Shelter(1189.3) to PA 645(1191.4) 2.1 Miles

It just dawned on me that I only have 999.9 miles left until I summit Katahdin. I'm more than halfway through Pennsylvania and the rest of the states will come fast and furious. 

Today was a really short hiking day. With bad storms expected to start early, most of the hikers were scrambling to get off of the trail. I had arraigned a ride into town with a friend of China Rock's. I only had to walk two miles to a parking lot to meet them at 9:00. I tried to sleep in, but was still up at six. I listened to the rain from my hammock and finally got up at 7:30. As I was getting ready to pack up, South Paw, called out to me. She had decided to join us in town today. I guess hiking through the freezing rain no longer sounded like fun. 

Not great hiking weather

We made it to the parking lot in thirty minutes, that might be the fastest I've hiked two miles. We waited for ten minutes for China Rock and her friend to pick us up. They were a few miles away picking up another hiker named, Griffin. Once they arrived we were on our way to Pine Grove, which was only four miles away. China Rock and her friend were planning on hiking for a few hours so they dropped us off at the Econo Lodge. Our guidebook had their price listed as $50, which seemed fair considering it wasn't super nice. I had a mail drop waiting for me there and it was next door to a dollar general, which is great for resupply. 

As we tried to check into the Econo Lodge we were informed that the price was $110. We quickly decided that was not acceptable and went back out into the rain. There was a Comfort Inn next door that was listed at $65. As we walked in we were certain we could get a room there, but the front desk clerk took one look at us and said they were booked up. At this point I was pretty sure this town was not friendly to hikers. We went to next door to McDonalds to regroup. The only other hotel in town was a Hampton Inn that cost $200, no way we could afford that on a hiker budget. As we ate breakfast we talked over our situation. South Paw called her dad to see if he had hotel points we could cash in and I checked online for deals. I found one room at the Comfort Inn for $90. South Paw's dad couldn't help us out, so I quickly booked the room. I was looking forward to seeing the look on the front desk ladies face when we walked back in. The only problem was, check in wasn't until three and it was only ten. We hung out at McDonalds until two. To kill time we ate lunch there as well. It was an interesting morning. 

When we walked back over to the Comfort Inn the front desk lady rudely informed us that they still didn't have any rooms, I smugly informed her that I had a reservation. She spat back that the room wasn't ready and we had to wait. We settled into the lobby and waited for forty five minutes. Finally our room was ready and we headed upstairs to get cleaned up. 

We spent the rest of the day relaxing in the room, only leaving for a quick trip to Dollar General. We ordered in dinner from a local Italian restaurant and watched trashy stuff on tv. It was a nice relaxing day. I'm so glad I wasn't hiking in this weather. It has been raining since 4:00 this morning and the current temperature is 53 degrees. What the heck Pennsylvania, don't you know it's summer. Where I come from, when it rains, it's still 80 degrees out. I'm starting to regret sending home my insulated jacket and long sleeve shirt. I might have to reevaluate that decision. The forcast for tomorrow is partly cloudy with a 65% chance of showers. A vast improvement over today. We will enjoy a nice continental breakfast and then continue our trek north. 

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow