Leaving Duncannon – Fox’s AT Thru Hike – Day 69

I usually have an alarm set for 6am and wake up before then. Last night I intentionally set it to 7:30 and slept in today. I just felt like I needed to rest. It took us until 8:30 to get on the road, due to a lost object.

Leaving Duncannon, you travel through most of the city. The children were waiting for the school bus and one of them wished me a good day. Both bridges over the river have protected pedestrian paths, a nice change.

Once you have crossed the train tracks, the climb begins. The hill felt bumpy and I was moving slowly. Looking at the map, the climb wasn’t that hard. I’m just struggling to get speed today. I tried to speed up on the flat section and managed just 2.5 mph in my third hour.

On PA 225, Twizzler was making magic on the trails. We talked about the weather and all the options for camping and getting out of trouble. The first shelter was 11 miles one day, and the next was 18 miles after that. A 29 mile day was out of the question.

Coming out of the magic of the actor trail, I started looking at the radar. I want to have my tent up before the vanguard of the storm arrives. But, the radar indicated that this could happen in less than two hours. In the end, I stopped at the Peter’s Mountain shelter. There were a few factors that led to an 11 mile day.

1. I’m super slow and I think I need to rest more.
2. I don’t want to set up my tent while the storm comes.
3. Snow Fox is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, and at my current pace, I’d skip our meeting point.

Some days, you just have to slow down.

• Breakfast: cereals
• Dinner: Cheese, crackers.
• Snacks: pretzels, chewy oat bars x2, cereal bars x2
• Bonus: apple, soda, banana bread, twizzlers (Thanks Twizzler!), beef jerky, pop tarts
• Known today: Koba, Twizzler
• Days without a ramen bomb: 69
• Today I’m grateful for: Fresh Twizzler Apples

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any products or services you purchase using links in articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price they would otherwise pay, and their purchase helps support The Trek’s ongoing goal of bringing you quality backpacking information and advice. Thank you for your support!

For more information, visit the About page of this site.