Wide River To Cross

Well I find myself at home in Newtown Square after a week of PA hiking. I passed through Boiling Springs, Duncannon, Lickdale, Hamburg, Port Clinton, PA...up on ridges, through the valleys to the next ridges, across rivers, ad infinitum. Truthfully Pennsylvania has been a gorgeous state - sometimes rocky, both literally and figuratively, sometimes you're walking through beautiful farmlands on rolling hills, sometimes you're walking through old coal settlements...but I'd describe it most accurately right now as 'the middle'.

They say the first month of the trail is the physical challenge and once you're in shape it becomes much more of a mental challenge and I find myself in the thick of it - especially after having come home last weekend briefly and being confronted with all the comforts and 'stuff' from real life I've momentarily left behind. I've been hiking for two and a half months now and some of the novelty of getting to a town or a cool new shelter or the next shower or a vending machine has really worn off. Suddenly a town means spending more of the dwindling funds, the shelter means dealing with the skeeters while trying to sleep, the shower means 5min of cleanliness before the 'hiker funk' kicks back in, the vending machine means I chug the 20oz coke so I can throw the bottle in the trash before moving on - less baggage.

The hike just doesn't seem as 'fun' as it once did. The weight of the rest of the trail is hanging over me as I do the math and see I need to average 19-20mi days to reach Maine in time. I want to stay ahead of that average but it doesn't seem to pan out as such and I get anxious - probably for no real reason. The mentality is that I want to 'knock out miles' but there's that nagging sense that I should just calm self and focus on enjoying the present - but how much enjoyment do I really deserve when it was my choice to be unemployed and walk through the woods this spring/summer? It's just a weird spot to be in when you're free to choose your own schedule, but as a person who enjoys a sense of purpose - I always have Maine on the brain. It's been a weird and kinda difficult couple weeks and I do get the sense that other hikers are going through it as well which is a mild consolation.

I happened upon a few fellow hikers, a young married couple from the next town over at home, that were waiting on a ride to Philadelphia when I met up with them at a road crossing. My overwhelming feeling was that I was absolutely in the right place at the right time, that I should take this ride home for a day or two and really check out from the trail, that I need to recenter. After all, there still is so much to look forward to - the Delaware Water Gap, the Mohican Outdoor Center in Jerz, the Berkshires, the mighty Whites, the 100 Mile Wilderness...the elusive Katahdin. And I'm going to go ahead and say that life is still pretty damn good. I just know sometimes it takes stepping back and looking on the experience from a different place/perspective to remember this.

I've met some pretty amazing people that do some pretty cool stuff. You find a lot of folks out here who are just the types that make things happen for themselves - the travel, the cool jobs, the atypical life experiences...it's inspiring. The mountains and folks that live in the surrounding regions have been wonderful - more welcoming towards strangers than I imagined people could be these days (bah, what does 'these days' even mean?) I'd say that more than anything else, this hike has reminded me that at heart people are generally good, they are trusting, they are generous even when they have little, they want to leave you with a good feeling about the place they live, they want to help you connect to that place, they want to see the good in people too. Aside from that not-small life lesson, it's also been interesting to see how little you can actually live on. How attached I am to the tiny alcohol stove (thanks Hustler!). How the 'one's junk is another's treasure' concept functions so seamlessly in hiker boxes where people leave things they no longer need and they're picked up by others.

Yeah. Halfway.

Enough deep thoughts by Jack Handey. I leave you now with an NPR article on the AT that just popped up after they interviewed thru-hikers in Harpers Ferry a few weeks back aaaaaaand the Public Enemy song that's been running through my head when I scramble over PA rocks - Harder Than You Think. 'Cause, as with most things in life, if I'm gonna get through this damn thing...it's gonna be with the help of Flava Flav.

(sidenote: the young married couple in the video from the NPR article, Quixote & Panza, are the wonderful folks that offered me the ride home when I needed it...great people)

O'Governor Sanford, Where Art Thou

Thought I might as well throw out a 'typical day' of food, routine & miles for the folks at home in case you're actually interested:

* 6am, up with the sun. Before getting out of the ooold sleeping bag I briefly ponder what I may have to look forward to that day - a town? a swimming hole? an overlook? my last pack of pop tarts? just miles and miles in the green tunnel?

* Onto breakfast. As of late it's cereal of some sort of granola persuasion (with water instead of milk, oy) while I boil water with the alcohol stove for my instant coffee/hot chocolate caffeination concoction. Definitely worth a pause to enjoy the hot beverage. If I'm within a few days of leaving a town, I may be lucky enough to still have a banana or apple lying around. Fresh fruit is a novelty (and is heavy to carry). In case you're curious, here's a nutrition chart on whiteblaze that pretty much lists common backpacking foods - as far as what folks eat out here I've found it to be pretty dead-on. Greenlite does this interesting shake in a gatorade bottle of protein powder, powdered milk, cappuccino mix and carnation instant breakfast - chock full of 'get up and go' apparently.

* Pack up camp. Deflate the sleeping pad (always a process), get life together, go fill up on and treat the water from the spring, get my pack packed properly to distribute the weight, test the safety whistle, pop a quick sign of the cross, and away we go.

* It's ideal to knock out 10mi or so before taking a break but that depends on when you come upon the first shelter or what the terrain is like. Often we'll stop and camp right before a climb to save such good times for the morning legs. It's also nice to stop at shelters because there's a picnic table - something bout sitting down at a picnic table to spread your food out that makes you feel downright civilized. First snacks? Generally a cliff bar or the aforementioned poptarts - something to really give you that jolt. If it's a rough day I'll get another round of coffee going, just for good measure. Maybe knock out 3-4 more miles before lunch.

* Lunch!!! Lunch implies some sort of bread product (be it bagels, tortillas, english muffins, hamburger rolls) with cheese and/or peanut butter. Trail mix, dried fruit, something involving chocolate and or extremely processed sweets (really do eat a lot of crap out here...lots o'habits to kick before Maine). Maybe send off a signal with the old SPOT GPS messenger, write in the trail register, what have you. I'm not really big on napping in the middle of the day so I'm never apt to stop for too long.

* Moving right along. Maybe another 10mi to go which averages out to 3hrs and change of further hiking. Ponder where the stopping point will be for the eve, what I'm going to make for dinner, maybe put on some tunes for the final push. The afternoons have been getting a little hot and humid but as long as there aren't any long stretches in the sun it's not so bad - always a stream to stop and sit by for a few minutes or a cool breeze kicking up just when you need it.

* Dinnaaa!!! and stopping for the day. Always set up the sleeping situation first, whether it's tenting or sleeping in the shelter for the night with the mice. The 'main course', if you will, is usually a lipton rice side or a risotto or a trader joes precooked sorta thinger or a dehydrated pasta meal - anything that just requires boiling water (I'm a one-trick pony with cooking out there). Greenlite's into corn pasta which supposedly metabolizes really quick for high energy - I had never heard of it before but there are some hikers who swear by it. Sometimes there's a fire but often you're just too tired to want to put in the effort. Sometimes you hang a bear bag. Sometimes you couldn't care less about bears. (Though I'm pretty sure they're always watching...really). 'Hiker midnight' is 9pm and I'm usually not in bed too much later than that. Dreams are usually strange because I feel like I'm waking up here and there in the middle of the night when I sleep in the woods - that's just the way of it for me.

* Rinse and repeat.

There's No Place Like Home

Round 2.

* So from Luray we had the rest of Shenandoah Nat'l Park to finish up - a few more waysides to hit up for blackberry milkshakes, a thousand more deer to trip over, a few more Skyline Drive crossings. Shenandoah was some pretty great hiking with all the distractions, milemarkers telling you where you are and how far you have to go (some of us enjoy that), wildlife and easy grade as far as the climbs and descents go...can't ask for much more.

* Front Royal was a pretty wonderful top off to Old Virginia with coin laundry, a stay at a quirky B&B, another ABC store (woot wooot!), lunch with Dad and Paula!, I mailed my lease and first month's rent up to Massachusetts...highly productive. The trail also went by the National Zoological Research Center or something of the like which apparently is affiliated with the National Zoo in DC. Greenlite's friend who lives in the area says he's convinced it's some sort of covert gov't operation in there - that cell phone service is all wonky anywhere near there, that nobody goes in or out...kind of like Wonka. We were on our toes as we walked by.

* The very end of the trail in Virginia is called the Roller Coaster - it's 13.5 miles of continuous 500-700ft ascents and descents. It suuuuuuuuuuuucked. There are no views at the top of your climb. There no flat spots. You're just dying to get out of Virginia and into sweet sweet Harpers Ferry. The trail maintainers in that area leave signs to mock you like 'welcome to the roller coaster bitchez...see you in WV if you make it.' Anyway...that's over.

* HARPERS FERRY!!! Walking into Harpers Ferry felt a wee bit like walking home. Seeing the canal path and train tracks that run straight to DC was very nostalgic for me and even MORE exciting were the visitors that awaited us there. Thanks to Jess and Susie for organizing a crew and thanks to all that came out to camp! Twas a wonderful, rainy, buggy, Jim Beam and BOones Farm-filled evening up at Huckleberry Hill campground on the C&O canal. All in all Harpers Ferry is one of the most beautiful places around at the confluence (my favorite word!) of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers and OH the history - visits from Jefferson, John Brown's uprising, Yankees and Rebels during the Civil War. There's also a nice outfitters there to stop in and switch out some gear. The woman that worked there was currently bemused by a few folks that had just been in there before us. Apparently some guy had just been in that had done a demonstration at an elementary school of being a 'frontier man' a la Daniel Boone. During the gun powder segment he accidentally 'blew himself and 3 children up'. No permanent damage was done apparently but it was quite the odd phrasing and her entertainment at this episode was muy interesante. I was sorry we had missed the recounting of the blowing up from the guy himself. Anywho, that was an aside.

* Spent a night in DC in the old apartment in Bristol House! It was odd to get a slice of the old life but very good to see some old friends and experience civilization.

Welp I have to get going though there's more to write. There's been a few more bears in my life, a lot of footstep, new shoes (thanks mom!) and a stop in Newtown Square as I previously told you. Time to get back on the road though out to Fayetteville, PA to get back to the trail. It's pouring. I don't want talk about it much. Miss everyone!! I really do. Peace a'pizza.

Mason-Dixon

Greetings greetings and sorry it's been a few weeks here. Since I last updated I've crossed over from 'Appalatcha' into 'Appalaysha' as I crossed the MD-PA border and hit the North.
I've turned 25.
I've experimented with trying to make buttermilk biscuits with an alcohol burning stove.
I've lost a sock that was near and dear to m'heart.
It's rained.
Fireflies have come out.
I met a SouthBounder who genuinely thinks he's capable of sorcery.
I learned that I was the 332nd thru-hiker to reach Harpers Ferry, WV this year and have their picture taken for the books at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Visitors Center. I have no idea what this number actually means to me, but Harpers Ferry - at mile 1013 - is the psychological halfway point and apparently only 50% of us will reach Maine from here.

Much more to write but I'm actually in good old Newtown Square, PA right now taking a much needed 24hr break from trail life and I have pancakes to tend to. So I'll get back to the blog later today.

Drop Your Reds, Drop Your Greens and Blues

Hunkering down for another night in Luray, VA - home of the world(Virginia)wide famous Luray Caverns, the recently renovated and beeeee-autiful Mimslyn Inn and various antique stores and home cookin' establishments. Really can't complain - but back to the past few days in and out of Shenandoah:

* Bears. Lots of them. Baby bears, Mama bears, Papa bears, Sister bears, Brother bears, scaredy bears. On the road, on the trail, having picnics, climbing trees - but still generally fleeing from you upon sight. So bears and I are buddies these days. I've even worked the courage up to try to reach for my camera instead of running away (which, again, is what you're not supposed to do). Unfortunately I haven't been fast enough on the camera just yet. Fear not though, more bears to come...

* Deer. More specifically - fawns. Saw three fawns today near Skyline Drive and HOLY CRAP are they adorable. They're all wobbly on their legs, still have their spots and seriously are the cutest things I've ever seen. Putting Bambi back on the 'to watch' list when I return to society.

* Skunks. Copperheads. Saw one of each. Skunks, cute from a comfortable distance. Copperheads, terrifying. Snakes suck. It's been a pretty sweet week as far as wildlife goes though.

* Hikin' on the full moon. A fellow hiker planted a little idea in our head a few days back about seeing how far you could hike in 24 hrs under the full moon we had two nights ago. Turned out to be 51 miles after starting out from Blackrock Spring Hut at 8:30am to the Skyland Resort (read: breakfast!!) at 8:30am the next morning - not that there weren't breaks and an hour and a half nap from 3:30-5AM on the bathroom floor at a campground we passed right next to the trail. Also turns out dawn is a real adrenaline rush when you think you're not going to make it any further. While I generally have been less than a fan of the woods at night over the years, it was actually a pretty cool experience. Nothing like catching a glowing pair of green eyes with your headlamp off to the left of the trail...following you. While I tended to imagine the worst, I later on realized these were deer. Some other hikers who attempted the same thing that night actually saw a bobcat and stepped on a rattler during their own little adventure (insert shiver up your spine here). Another weird/cool moment was at a crossing of Skyline Drive where the trail emerges into this big meadow under the full moon with a fairly large old graveyard right across the way. At another point we were on the side of the ridge with the lights of Luray and other towns in the valley sprawled out below. Maybe some of these were hallucinations - who knows. Either way, it was a solid night.

* To any DC folks reading - I walked by Pocosin Cabin, Rock Spring Cabin and the Corbin Cabin trail (like hell I was going to walk all the way down from the ridge to the holler) over the past couple days. If I closed my eyes I could almost see Susie climbing a rock, Walker throwing an ax, Sean almost falling off a cliff, Jess opening a fresh box of wine, Lydia manning the wood stove, what have you. It was a wonderful feeling. Also on a long exploratory drive with Greenlite's parents who are visiting the trail right now, we went by Woodstock Tower Rd (read: A-FRAME!) but on the other side of the ridge. Another familiar sight.

* Gosh, what else. Pretty views, relatively gentle hiking compared to earlier parts of the trail, and getting ready for Virginia's swan song. I'm West Virginia bound. In two days I'm meeting Dad in Front Royal and can't wait!!! In 9 days I hit a quarter-century. Whoa. Will my joints start falling apart? Will I start reminiscing about the '90s? Did anybody see Zack Morris on Jimmy Fallon the other night?? (Thanks Cliff...really.) On that note, laaaters.

Hollers and Waysides

Welp, this morning I'll be heading into Shenandoah Nat'l Park from Rockfish Gap, where the Blue Ridge Parkway ends and Skyline Drive begins. Currently stopped off in Waynesboro, VA 5mi west of Rockfish Gap where the Grace Lutheran Church runs a wonderful hiker hostel in their basement...really. They have showers with clean towels, cots you can set up in a big room downstairs, a big screen TV, computers, snacks, COFFEE, CEREAL WITH WHOLE MILK...I'm in Lutheran heaven right now - all donation-based. Otherwise the 'Boro has been a wonderful stop-off to briefly get out of the rain.

Rain. Thankfully I got a taste of what it would be like during my freshman DOC hiking trip where it poured most of the time. It generally brings a whole new world of strange blisters, pruned hands, shelters that are full and mighty slippery rocks. I used to think that when the birds started chirping again the clouds were about to break but I'm pretty sure birds are full of sh*t these days. Anywho, the weather's supposed to take a turn for the better these next few days and I'm pretty sure someone up there will give me clear (blue?) skies for Shenandoah so I'm a'ready to stop whining.

SNP - Skyline Drive stretches for about 100 miles from Rockfish Gap (not too far from Charlottesville) to Front Royal, VA and winds atop the ridgeline with beautiful overlooks over the surrounding farmlands and neighboring ridges. The trail will cross Skyline maaany many times over the next 4-5 days or so and the park is famous for its waysides, tourists and 'thousand-mile stares' from the thru-hikers - beginning the final push to get through Virginia. I don't even really know what a wayside means just yet but someone told me it means food so I'm down. And as I've said a million times I'm mighty excited to finally see some familiar territory and inch back towards the Mason-Dixon Line. The South has been really amazing and the people have been so wonderful, but it's high time I got excited about moving to New England so I think I'm walking in the right direction. I leave you with a few links and videos this mornin'.

Interactive AT Map from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Whiteblaze.net - online community of AT enthusiasts

A youtube vid of Roscoe Holcomb playing a few songs on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest in the '60s. An oldtime banjo legend.



Enjoooy the weekend and Stephanie Madison hope you had a wonderful birfday!!

They Call It That Good Old Mountain Dew

Mmmmmmshowers. Stopped last night at the Dutch Haus Hostel in Montibello, VA, which proudly boasts 3 paved roads. TWO DAYS FROM SHENANDOAH!!! Toot toot, beep beep. Actually crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway on and off for the past week has been pretty cool because it reminds me so much of Skyline Drive - and it was like I could finally see a paved road that would take me straight up North to familiar territory. Pretty sure they were both built around the same time by the CCC in the mid-30s. Also heard that the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway was the hot button issue that caused the two main visionaries/engineers of the AT - Benton MacKaye and Milton Avery - to never speak again.

So the going's been pretty tough over the past few days with the 90 degree heat and humidity. The 3000 ft climb up from the James River was pretty killer and while I usually love a good exposed ridge, that sun really sucks the life/will to go on out of you. They say your first month is the real physical challenge and then it really becomes a mental game - particularly in Virginia with its 600+ mi of trail. In other news though, I hit 800 miles yesterday and am pretty pumped for all the waysides in Shenandoah. Life ain't bad.

Few folks on the trail I've met over the past week. It was pretty cool to meet Windbreaker, a hiker a few years younger than me from outside of Asheville, NC that carries and plays a 2lb banjer. He went to Appalachian State in Boone, NC and said he took an Appalachian Studies course which segwayed into an Oldtime Music course which inspired him to take up clawhammer banjo. Nothing like reaching McAfee's Knob outside of Catawba, VA right after sunrise which is probably the best view I've seen yet on the trail and having Windbreaker bust out a morning song on the 'jo. Think I put a few pics up on facebook of the knob. He also makes banjos so I'm pondering trading up for one of his once I get back to the real world. Anywho it was a wee bit inspiring on the banjo front - think I'm going to check out where the Oldtime jams are when I get up to Amherst this fall.

Ahhh let's see...otherwise things are generally peachy. Still caffeinating each morning and dodging bears. Actually I have yet to see a bear in awhile but turns out the snakes are starting to kick in which kinda kills me. Thus far I've only seen black snakes but I almost stepped on a 5ft-er or so yesterday which made me scream - nothing of the poisonous persuasion but those rattlers and copperheads are out there. Sweet sweet Virginia. Alright I think I should get going but miss everyone! Ooh and here are a few links to fellow hikers trail journals that have been going my way in case you're interested:

Greenlite
Buckeye
Flex
Matt from DC

I'm outta here.

Thanks Fies, More Photatoes

Quick stop in Glasgow, VA this morning near Natural Bridge to check the oooole email and upload some more pics! You can check'em out on facebook hopefull at this link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2077191&id=501939&page=2

Special thanks to Clare for posting about her time out here. She pretty much achieved trail angel status in no time with the beer and rainbow rice krispie treats. As for progress - getting mighty close to Rockfish Gap and the southern end of Shenandoah. Have been criss-crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway for the past few days and it's been gorgeous. Much more to report soon but uploading the photos has sucked up my internet time at this fine library. Will update again Waynesboro, VA. VERY MUCH looking forward to hopefully seeing Dad up near Front Royal and some DC folks up near Harpers Ferry!!! Makes it much much easier to push the big miles. Okay, time to hit the trail.