Three Hundred Zeroes by Dennis Blanchard

Author:Dennis Blanchard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, travel, maine, backpacking, brothers, massachusetts, pennsylvania, virginia, author, tennessee, west virginia, north carolina, new york, new jersey, hiking, georgia, non fiction, connecticut, maryland, trail hiking, appalachian trail, new hampshire, white mountains, vermont, purple heart, bears, trails, traveling by foot, travel essays, travel mishaps, rattlesnake, travel adventure, adventure humor, travel books, amateur radio, ham radio, hiker, qrp, springer mountain, katahdin, thruhike, heart surgery, travel north america, hammock, trail angel, zeroes
Publisher: Dennis Blanchard
Published: 2017-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 7: Honoring my brother, Thomas J. Blanchard, USMC, K Co, 3rd BN, 5th Marines, 1st MARDIV, III MAF. Killed in action, 7 August 1968. Panel 49, line 23.

Can’t Get There From Here

With trail angel Russ’s help, it took less than a few hours to get from Duncannon, PA to D.C. Returning to the Trail took more than fourteen hours. Sunday morning I escorted Jane to the airport via Washington’s subway system, the Metro. It was tough to see her go knowing that it would be five weeks before we would reunite again, in Connecticut.

Since I was not leaving D.C. until that night, I returned to the condo. Even after hours of planning, the best connections I could find required my taking a 3 a.m. Monday morning Amtrak train to Philadelphia, PA, connecting to an Amtrak train to Harrisburg, PA, arriving there around 7 a.m. On Sundays the Washington Metro stops running at midnight which meant that I had to get to Union Station before then and hang around there until the 3 a.m. train. On schedule, the train departed Washington and was full. The young man I was sitting next to had a bad case of sneezing and coughing; I kept thinking this was going to be trouble later, but I never did catch it.

In Harrisburg, I contacted someone listed in the Hiker’s Companion for a shuttle to the Trail. He arrived at noon and I made it back to Duncannon by 2 p.m.. I immediately started hiking. The Trail crosses the Susquehanna River just north of town. The scenery is stunning and the Trail climbs quickly once across the river. I made the eleven miles to Peters Mountain Shelter well before sunset. It felt good to be back out in the woods and the injured ankle was feeling great.

Peter’s Mountain Shelter had a tiny shelter nearby that was built by Earl Shaffer, the first person to ever do a thru-hike of the A.T. in 1948. Earl’s shelter is very primitive and is a little taller than waist high. The original dirt floor had been replaced by plywood. A few weeks after I passed through, the shelter was de-constructed and moved to a history museum of the Trail.

To access water at Peter’s Mountain, the Trail maintenance crews have placed over 300 stone steps down to the spring; I made certain to get plenty of water, as it was a very steep, long climb. At this shelter I met a new thru-hiker: “White Lightning” and a couple from earlier in Virginia, “Lemur” and “MacGyver.” White Lightning had a similar injury to mine; he had pulled tendons in his leg and was having trouble walking. Fortunately, I had plenty of water and saved him the trip down all those steps.

Strike Two

The next day I was ambling toward Rausch Gap Shelter, lost in thought, when off to my immediate right I heard the alarming sound of a rattle! An angry four-foot long, black timber rattler was next to my right leg, maybe four feet away.

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