Making up miles is the right thing to do!

Last Sunday when my hiking buddy Dan and his friend Eunice and I hiked the final miles into Duncannon, we went first to eat breakfast and then to do laundry. While we were doing laundry I started to feel sick and my stomach was cramping! In short time I had to get to a rest station! I had a couple of episodes in the next hour or so. After we finished the laundry we went to the Doyle hotel. It is and has been an Appalachian Trail icon for years. The hotel was built in 1903 and was once owned by Augustus Busch, the beer family! In the past 30 or 40 years it has fallen badly into disrepair and is now just a shadow of its former glory. I think there must come a time when the current owners will have to either spend tons of money renovating or they’ll have to elk it or shut it down. The rooms really are atrocious and bordering on becoming health concerns. Ok, enough about that! Back to my issues with my stomach. Not having any where else to go, I secured a room at the aforementioned hotel. This is how I know how bad the rooms are. I rested as much as possible and during that time my family was watching the weather we were expecting and contacted me to see if I’d rather be in a nicer hotel. Well, long story short, on Monday morning I went to Hamburg and checked into the Microtel there for two nights. I am now well rested and my stomach is fine, but now there is a gap in my thru hike. I have unhooked miles between Duncannon and Port Clinton. Some would say, well just go on from there. I can’t in good conscience do that though. I feel I need to make up those miles. That’s why for a few days anyway, my North bound NoBo Hike has become a SoBo South bound hike. I just think it’s the right thing to do.