Day 340
7 hrs, 6 .9 kms
Day totals: 10 hrs, 16.9 kms

Actual date: April 28, 2015

After my conversation in Orrstown, I imagine that all of these villages scattered around the Cumberland Valley must have had shops and businesses and an active social life among the residents. Now many of these towns don't have a single shop of any sort--in fact, many of them are unicorporated--so they aren't even "towns" by my book.

Right up the road is one of those: Pleasant Hall--which does have a post office, a fire station and a picnic area where I can take a quick break.

Upper Strausburg isn't a "town" either, but back in 2007 I Parkbenched it (before I set the "incorporated towns only" rule, so this counts as a post-visit. I find that I notice things I didn't back then--like a half brick, half log cabin... a large house with multiple entrances marked "Eagle Hotel, established 1793" . Perhaps this was a stopping point for folks crossing the mountain.

My plan is to cross the mountain to explore the "real" Appalachia a bit. But not quite yet: I want to add one more post-visit: Roxbury, just 6 kilometers to the northwest, following the base of the mountain.

It's quite a nice walk, with the wooded mountains to my left and a panoramic view of the vast, fertile Cumberland Valley to my right. I notice a cultural divide as well: to my left are mainly trailers and smaller homes passed on from the more rugged mountain pioneers. To my right are the more lucrative cleared farmlands with large barns and farmhouses.

I'm looking forward to crossing over these mountains to experience that world a bit more.