Day 17- The Doyle

When I woke up this morning, I could barely move my feet. Even the tiniest movement was painful. My forty year old body is taking its sweet time to adjust to what I'm doing. It feels like my blisters have blisters. 

Coin and I tend to talk more to the older hikers when we're around them. We are definitely in the minority in our age. Most hikers are either in the 18-25 or the 60+ category. As middle-aged men, we have more in common with the older ones. One of them that we met imparted this wisdom on us- "Take lots of zeros while you're getting going. Your body will adapt to the trail, but if you push too hard too fast, you'll end up washing out with an injury." Seems to be true so far, I can feel myself getting stronger and I've definitely lost more than a few pounds already. 

So in light of me being barely able to walk and us needing to resupply, we elected to spend another night at the Doyle. The Doyle has been a hiker haven for years and years and been around for over a century. The AT goes right past its front door in Duncannon. It offers a cheap room, and a shower to many a weary hiker. It's old and very shabby but the food at the bar is good, and the people that run it do so with love. Not the Taj Mahal by any stretch but hey- I didn't decide to walk 1160 miles for comfort. 

We hit the grocery store, restocked our food supply and sat on the balcony and played some "Lost Cities" a card game Coin introduced me to which is quite good. Tomorrow morning, we'll head back to the trail, weighed down with too much food and hopefully my feet will cooperate. 

-XL