Saturday, June 27, 2015

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

8 comments:

  1. So sorry that you encountered such rude folks, but glad you weren't camping in that weather! Can't believe those temps!!
    Such words of wisdom from Mr. Longfellow!!!
    Hope you have a great day tomorrow Yoda!

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  2. I love that quote!! You can't do much with rainy weather. But, glad that you stayed in town today out of the storms. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Glad you got a room even though you had to share with a couple of others.
    It was great to talk with you today. Always like when you have good reception and we can get caught up.
    You are really getting the miles in and hopefully you stay well so you can preceed on. Happy feet makes the difference!!
    Congratulations o under a 1,000 miles!! You are doing awesome.. Just keep thinking, I will finish in time for annual beach trip!!
    I can't believe rude people at hotel. Glad you out maneuvered them and booked online.
    Rain, rain go away and come again another day. Happy hiking tomorrow. LY

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  3. Wow, I'm embarrassed by the rude and awful folks you ran into today. Hope you can have a better trek through PA going forward. Let me know if I can be of any help.

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  4. Good thinking booking a room on line! It cannot have been the first time that hikers came to that Inn so you would think that they were used to dirty people, particularly with the weather being wat it was. Glad that you managed to have a dry place to sleep and an easy day. I saw that Airlock did 25,6 miles, which is a record for her.
    Groetjes, Anja

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  5. Sis, that's how these yanks can be. Lot of rude people in this state, too bad they are along the trail when just about everyone else has been nice. See you Wednesday we hope.

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  6. Yoda- 1 Comfort Inn- 0
    grdesk@choicehotels.com is the email for customer service for Comfort Inn. Thanks for the heads-up for booking online and unseen (and un-smelled!) when traveling through Pine Grove, PA.

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  7. Rebecca, Claudia, Molly and Geoffrey all say PA sucks.

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  8. That was pretty rude of them. Glad you out foxed them and I would of loved to see her face when she realized it was you again. LoL Congrats!! Some how less than 1000 miles seem like your on the down hill side of this hike...

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