The Great Wander of 2026
Day 17: June 10th, 2026
States Hiked: Pennsylvania (16 total so far)
Trails Hiked: (redacted) Neighborhood, Appalachian Trail: Boiling Springs to White Rocks
Distance Hiked: 1.3 miles, 7.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 36 ft. elev. gain, 771 ft. elev. gain
Cumulative Wander: 119.9 miles
Duration: 24m, 2h 25m
The Appalachian Trail was once again calling my name.
Annapolis Rock wasn't enough for this trip, so I searched different areas that went through the area where I grew up. The previous summer, I'd covered nearly 20 miles, starting from the place that connected my neighborhood to where my friend in 6th grade lived. Now that I say that, maybe I really was more into this at a younger age than I realized...
But first, I was going to partake in something that Minnesota and Wisconsin just don't have figured out, to my utter and continuing incredulity... diners.
In addition to thinking Kwik Trip is remotely the shit (it'd be a third-rate Turkey Hill at best in Pennsylvania), for some reason the greasy spoon diners that were plentiful both where I grew up and in Washington just don't seem to exist where I live. So, when I'm back in the area, I always go to Sheetz, I always pick up Grandma Utz's kettle chips, and I need to go to a diner. Not that places like Original Pancake House aren't really good, if you can get there at 6am before the line backs up, but sometimes you just want to get the 7.99 special and have a waitress who has seen some things, probably smoked a pack of Marlboros, and has no time for your bullshit. After a little stroll in the neighborhood waiting for everyone to wake up and be ready, that's exactly what we did. With how much the Midwest loves their food, it's beyond me why there isn't a diner in every little township like there is in Pennsylvania.
Now that I had three days' worth of calories from one of those establishments, the urge to hit the AT as well as perhaps add another mountain to the list was overwhelming. I hadn't been to Boiling Springs since a breakup in 2011, and I wondered if it was still the beautiful town I remembered, or if my unfortunate ending there had pierced the veil.
Nope.
While the town's population made me more nervous than it did back then, Boiling Springs feels like one of those colonial towns that never truly adapted to modern times, so something as rugged as the AT going right through it made thematic sense.
Heading back from the access point, I noticed that the road to my right was the place where the aforementioned dissolution transpired. 15 years later, I was in the best shape of my life, both mentally and physically, and memories like that could no longer derail my entire week.
Getting to the top of Center Point Knob wasn't too difficult, about what Annapolis Rock was minus all the tourists. But at the top, the AT blue blaze led me to the White Rocks, which both seemed gorgeous and terrifying, as I'd heard enough stories about rattlesnakes living under such.
I decided I'd tempted fate enough times this trip. Not like I'd run into a tornado or anything later...
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