Melting in Massachusetts

So the melting started in CT, just not as bad.  We left Kent and went 10 more miles to the Silver Hill campsite.  On the way there, I seemed to go slower than usual because of my heavy pack and trying not to bust up my feet in new boots. We had a good climb out of town and then eventually a downhill that was a bitch and a half going down “96 steps” or rather messy rock boulders.  But then we had an awesome 3 mile river walk along the Housatonic River.  Then we did the final climb up to the campsite about 8:45ish.  Since according to the guidebook, the campsite water source was a broken hand pump, we stopped half way up the climb to pull water from a nearly dry, very mosquito-y stream.

The campsite was awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed it in the morning when I saw it.  It had a small pavilion, a picnic area, a WORKING water hand pump, annnnd a swing!  That day we did a slow day, only 12 miles to Belter’s campsite which had one of the best springs in a few hundred miles.  We thought it would be a relaxing 12 mile day, but no…it was a rough section with maybe a quarter mile total of flatness the whole time.  It took forever and sweat was pouring out of me. We heard some fireworks, but couldn’t see any.  I was so tired I slept straight through it all.

In the morning, we started a marathon of getting up really early and going as far as we could before the heat set in fully.  During the day, it was really hot, but had a slight breeze.  We ate lunch in a cemetery that day because it had a water spigot so we could drink a few liters of water and not have to purify it.  After that, we had a large climb up to Lion’s Head and another Bear Mountain, this one however was not touristy and it had a rocky descent worse than the “steps”.  The drop did take us down into Sages Ravine and into Massachusetts to have 10 states down.

 It also allowed the guidebook to be correct about one thing…mosquitoes are everywhere and the gnats just kamikaze dive-bomb your head into your eyeballs so you have to pick their guts out in pieces.  We did camp there and luckily the campsite was elevated so the bugs weren’t so bad but I did enjoy sitting in my tent and watching all the bugs trying to get into the bug netting.

 From there, it was another early morning and the longest day ever.  It was also the HOTTEST, most sweltering, oppressive, sweaty day on the trail. It reached 101 degrees F.  And of course we had 2 large mountains to climb the first thing which were the largest since Virginia.  The climb up Race Mountain was awesome but I thought I was at the top about 4 times then it came to this sweet exposed drop off and we continued to climb along it to the actual top which was covered with blueberries and 2 baby garter snakes.  From there we could see Mt Everett which was also exposed rock scrambles all the way up.  By the time I got over both it was already 11 am and the heat was brutal.  We were all stopping at every water source and drinking water.  I was constantly drinking and the sweat poured out in buckets…I could taste the salt pouring out of me.

 Then we walked along a very bumpy ridge to the “Jug End” which was another rocky drop off that we had to climb down.  Of course the spring at the bottom was dry, so we walked 4 miles through fields without tree cover shade and the heat literally waved upward  at you.  I ate lunch in a gazebo near a road where the owner of the “corn crib” opened up because I looked desperate for water.  She filled up all my water bottles and I bought some Oreos and Gatorade from her.  I waited an hour to see if the heat would cool down slightly, which maybe it did slightly but barely.  Then I slowly climbed up East Mountain and along the ridge to camp at a really buggy shelter.  I drank 9 liters of water that day and was still dehydrated.

Around 4am I heard a strange noise. I first thought it was a bear, then thought it was something smaller trying to get my food bag (which I just mouse bagged over at the shelter) then I somehow convinced myself that it was a railroad and went back to sleep for an hour and a half.  When I went to go get my food bag, I realized it was a porcupine.  But not just any porcupine…it looked like a demonic zombie porcupine that was going to make a terrifying noise and bite your head off, or just stick you with its 30,000 quills.

 This was another long day and yet another early one because I was afraid of the heat. Luckily, I got most of the first climb done before 8 am, then went swimming in a pond for a short time and picked some blueberries.  Eventually we got to the Upper Goose Pond cabin for a good 21 mile day.  I did see an owl about a mile before it.  Then when we got there, we went swimming for about an hour then chatted with the care takers.  Sleeping in the bunk room with a kind of mattress was awesome…I passed right out.

From there, we headed for Dalton for another 21 mile day where we stayed at this guy’s house who just lets hikers come, sleep, shower, and do laundry for free.  Talk about trail angels.  We definitely hit up Mill Town Tavern for the first beers in 10 days.  It was needed.

 In the morning, I borrowed a bike to run to the post office and switch my packs out and got my mail drop.  I wanted the waist band padding of my Gregory pack back.  We hung out until Diesel came and picked up our packs so we could slack pack for 23 miles to North Adams.  It was so nice to catch up with him in the morning.  It got better when he met us 17 miles at the top of Greylock Mountain, the first over 3,000 footer since Virginia as well.  Since  it’s touristy, there was a road to the top, so we took an hour break with him up there with snacks and soda. We descended the 6 miles to the bottom without packs to meet him again.  In true AT fashion, it’s saying it’s going to drop about 3 miles out, and it goes up about 300 ft instead, then drops even more.  It was really steep.  I was so happy I didn’t have the heavy pack full from that mail drop because if I did, my knees would have tweaked out then.

 After talking with Diesel more at the bottom, Abolitionist’s parents came and picked him, War Cry, 10 Fiddy and me up and took us all to a cabin they rented in Vermont. Trail-wise we are about 4 miles from the Mass-Vermont border.  We took today off and are taking tomorrow off to in order to see the world cup game…¡viva España!

Climbing…in Connecticut?

So sorry for the lack of updates.  In the last 11 days we’ve gone 208 miles in this ridiculous heat wave.

After a much needed beach break in New York and getting to visit Alex, we headed back to the trail with the intention to push to Vermont.  We started out early and got onto the trail to do a 20 mile day up and over Bear Mountain which was the biggest tourist trap.  It was “wilderness” for the city folk which means there was a road to the top – god forbid anyone would have to climb to the top…you know, the exercise  thing.  Anyway, it was actually a much easier climb than West Mountain or the Lemon Squeeze beforehand, or the climb to the campsite after Bear Mountain.  My favorite conversation on top of Bear Mountain was one I overheard in Spanish and it went like this (translated for your entertainment by me)

 kid: mama…what’s that smell?

mama: I think it’s the hiker over there with the big backpack.

kid: why does she smell?

mama: because hikers don’t shower a lot.

me: actually, I showered yesterday, but I’ve already hiked 16 miles to here today and I have 4 more to go.

kid and mama: (faces blank)

me: (smile and walk away with pack)

 Anyway, the next day we took it easy and only did 12 miles to a campsite by a road because Abolitionist got sick with basically the same thing War Cry and I suffered through in NY.  Now this campsite was an experience for 2 reasons:

 1) There was a Jewish campsite of about 20 middle school boys.  Their counselors did invite us over to eat the leftover food and we watched them play a game with something about trees and sitting in a circle which somehow ended up with them all sitting on each other.

2) That night we heard some small animal be brutally and slowly slaughtered for about 25 minutes in the middle of the night quite close to our tents until we heard its last deathly screams being drug toward the Jewish boy’s camp.

 The next morning, we got up to do another 20ish mile day to tent near the Morgan Steward shelter.  From there, we did yet another 20 to camp near the 10 mile river campsite after the 10 mile mountain that was not 10 miles, it was actually 3 miles.  Good job Connecticut.  That was the start of the guidebooks problems with CT.

 That was the Friday before the 4th of July weekend so everybody and their dog were out camping or hiking.  However, it was not as packed as Memorial day weekend…maybe because everyone was home grilling.

 The cool thing about that campsite was when we rolled in about 8 pm, we saw two people who looked familiar, so we starred trying to figure it out and they were doing the same thing until we realized we hadn’t seen each other since Georgia.  Damn.  It was cool to know they were still on; we met them before trail names.

 Anyway, we got up mad early for us to get into Kent, Connecticut before the PO closed.  It was only 8.5 miles in, plus a .8 mile road walk and it was nooooot an easy 8.5 miles.  It shot up, then down.  It was a hot day getting into Kent where we were going to go in, re-supply, and leave again since there were no cheap places to stay.  I headed straight for the outfitter because that’s where I had arranged with the boot company Soloman to send me new boots.  I got the first pair to last 1,456.7 trail miles which I determined a success since the last 2 pairs I’ve blown out in about 700ish miles.  They were the same pair which the “I’m a thru-hiker” line worked to get me another free pair as long as I send them back…i.e. 15 bucks to ship them back.  Not too shabby.

 The funniest part was finding 10 Fiddy by the PO and going to the coffee shop with him to catch up on the last 800 miles since I’ve seen him.  All four of us hung out in Kent for awhile until we hitched back to the trail.  Kent was however, a very hiker friendly town with a hilarious mix of hiker funk with New England preppyness.

Entering civilization makes you sick

After hike naked day, we arrived in Unionville where we stayed at the Outhouse, formerly known as “the Mayors” house.  The experience can be characterized by the following rules:

1.) Do not use words with over 3 syllables (or else you owe Bill, the 81 yr old cook a quarter)

2.) Do not call Butch “sir” (or he will punch you in the face)

3.) Treat the house like you would treat your own (unless you start throwing furniture)

4.) Only do #1 in the downstairs toilet

Included in the $10 donation: shower, place to sleep, dinner, breakfast, soda, a beer (the next 3 are  50 cents each) and a highly entertaining experience.

It was a word-of-mouth-only hostel which is in it’s last year and we had heard about it from the sobo with the iguana.  The hostel had such a reputation that 26 hikers managed to show up, creating a large bubble.  It was then I realized that we are about to be taken over by the vein…slowing down has its downsides I guess.  No, not really.

In the morning, we headed out, stopped at the general store, and tried to stagger how we were all leaving, albeit unsuccessfully.  I ended up walking out with Traveler and Hopi and we took a break in a few miles with a new group of hilarious just-out-of-high-school hikers Dark Star, Scruggs, Castor, Upgrade, and Cornie.  We all ended up walking through these large farmer’s fields and swampy area more or less together until we hit the boardwalk where I caught Abolitionist and War Cry for lunch.  Since Walking Man and Grace n Glory were being slack-packed by the Outhouse, we ran into them and after Grace n Glory (a woman in her 50s), who hacked up a bigger flem-ball than I have ever seen of a cat, told us there was an awesome Farmer’s Market .1 off trail about a mile after the mile-long boardwalk.

We all headed there and I split a watermelon with Castor.  Eventually, we headed out up Wawayanda Mtn (yeah, try and pronounce that one 5 times). Then from the top of there it was about 3.5 to the Wawayanda shelter.  It ended up raining about half way up the climb and at least drizzling through the whole night.  It was a nice needed free shower since by that time it was so hot that I  had negated the shower from the Outhouse.

I ended up sheltering that night because I hate setting up a tent in the rain, but that was a last straw moment on the bugs.  The amount of mosquitoes were ridiculous, it was like they spawned out of thin air and were mutating blood sucking monsters worse than Freddy Krugar…they can haunt you when you sleep and when you’re awake.

From there, we hiked 10 miles the next day to another ice cream place where they even had vegan sorbet.  It was not the easiest 10 miles as it was awesome exposed small rock scrambles.  But awesome, and the sorbet was a good reward.  We took a solid 2 hour break there and ended up getting kicked off a picnic table, so we pulled out the z-rests and sat on the ground instead.

We planned on doing 6 more miles that evening, yet when we got 4 miles in and were about to cross a road, we saw a guy chilling with his pick-up and backpack and we started talking to him.  It was Paddio, a thru-hiker in 2000 who was out doing trail magic and he cooked us up all kinds of good stuff out of a grill in the back including some trail bombs and a concoction named after Crazy Horse.

Instead of doing the 2 more miles, we hung out with him for a long time blasting Johnny Cash and then went a quarter mile to camp near a waterfall.  In the morning, we got up early and hiked another difficult 8 miles of rock scrambles to NY 17 where War Cry’s sister picked us up and took us to their parent’s house here in Long Island, NY.  So, we’re taking the weekend off.  Thursday, we spent doing laundry, taking showers, watching ridiculous amounts of soccer that we missed and his mom had DVR’d, and chilling.  We went out to Nick’s, an Italian place for dinner with one of War Cry’s friends, then came back and watched more soccer.

Unfortunately, Friday, both War Cry and I were really sick with a 24 hour stomach bug and lounged around all day throwing up while Abolitionist ate enough food for all three of us.  And of course we watched more soccer, until we ran out and then watched an America’s Funniest Home Videos marathon until we fell asleep.

Yesterday was an awesome beach day which included swimming, lounging, burring Abolitionist in the sand, and some people watching that wasn’t thru-hikers…how entertaining.  Especially the guido Jersey shore guys attempting to play frisbee behind us.

Now, we have just finished breakfast and are watching the England-Germany game after the US disappointed us yesterday, then we’re not sure!  Awesomeness.

International Hike Naked Day :)

Coming out of Delaware Water Gap was much easier than expected, the 800 ft climb or so meandered up with manageable rocks.  We left a little after 10 after talking with Miles  awhile about the world cup since he had been a bit behind us.   He had already scoped out the entire town for a TV which would not be on until 11:30.  We ended up only hiking 10 miles and staying at the Mohican Outdoor Center where we camped for free.  Our original plan was to go 2.4 miles more to a fire tower, but since we saw about 10 weekenders heading there, we stopped early.  It did give us a chance to spend almost 2 hours lunching at sunfish pond, a glacial pond, one of New Jersey’s “7 wonders” which I didn’t know existed since my opinion of Jersey was pretty low, apparently like Wazi’s.

It ended up being a good idea because it was really rocky with little tent space.  On the way up there, when we walked back to the trail, we ran into Bowtie who we hadn’t seen since Harper’s ferry with Fusion (who started April1st…wtf) and Thrasher.  We had lunch with them at Blue Mountain Rd where there was a hand pump for water which 6 thru-hikers couldn’t figure out but 4 city kids could.  Ha, fantastic.

We took our sweet time on Sunday too, trying to avoid the massive father’s day crowd. We had only done 3.6 miles before noon.  Then right after the only big climb of the day it down poured for 10 minutes killing the heat of the day for another 10, but then the ridiculous sweat producer came back.  We ate lunch at the shelter, then hiked up to Sunrise Mountain and sat there at the pavilion for awhile.  We had some awkward conversations which some girl overheard who we didn’t realize was there, well awkward for her from her facial expressions.  Then we passed into a parking lot full of bikers, one of which said “you guys hike up there, from like the woods??”

We managed 6 more down to Rutherford shelter where there we about half the amount of people as the last one which was clearly the “let’s use father’s day for a father son bonding thing”.  By the end of the day, I saw 1 rabbit, 1 wild turkey, 2 snakes, 3 bears, and a shit ton of squirrels and chipmunks.

This morning we let everyone file out of the shelter area and we listened to Amy Goodman on the crank radio. Then we prepared for the holiday…summer solstice or hike naked day 🙂

We went about 8 miles of the day naked…the events of the 8 miles will be left to your imagination.

At least we didn’t have to deal with monkeys

After the USA England game, Miles, Abolitionist and I only made it 6 miles out of Port Clinton to the first shelter due to absurd beer sweats.  The first 2 miles or so was alright but I think when hiking tipsy it exacerbates the hangover because we were definitely hung-over by 6ish and we were 9 miles behind War Cry and his 3 friends from high school hiking for the weekend.  We stayed there that night and around 9ish, after everyone had gone off to their tents and Abolitionist and I were reading the log in the shelter, a ripped guy claiming to work for the blue mountain trail club came in and started talking to us.  We couldn’t figure out if he was just really drunk or if he was tripping acid but the conversation ended after we said “take care” and he said “oh I’ll give them hell!” as he walked away.

In the morning, we got up via the mental alarm clock around 5:15 am and started hiking just after 6 to catch War Cry.  This way we managed to catch the sunrise at Pulpit Rock and a good early morning on The Pinnacle.  We hiked through quite a few rocky sections, then got maybe 3 miles of it on a smoothish over grown fire road.  We reached the Eckville shelter and tent area and met up with the gang, then after a short break we went up the 2nd 1000 ft climb of the day, but this one was far hotter.  To the point that hiking in just the bikini top was almost too much and I was dripping buckets of sweat.   We watched one of War Cry’s friend wring probably 8 oz of sweat out of his shirt.

We did 11 more miles that day to arrive at PA 309 where War Cry’s friends’ car was parked.  We did manage to make it to the Allentown shelter for a late lunch but we were all almost out of water and the first spring .25 mile down was a stagnant puddle of mosquitoes so I had to go down to the second, half a mile down to get 3 liters for us.  It was not the easiest getting down a small rock scramble in crocs…

Their car was parked at a B&B/restaurant/bar so we all went in with Traveler in tow and got burgers and beer while listening to some live music.  They even had a veggie burger!  We decided to stay because the Celtics played the Lakers that night and we convinced the owner to a.) let us camp in the backyard and b.) to keep the bar open past 8 when the game started.  So, we watched the game and as long as we kept drinking, he kept the bar open.  After the Celtics won awesomely, we went and set up our tents in some misty weather.  Apparently we missed quite the rain while listening to good Tom Petty and American Pie covers.

 In the morning, all 3 of us were slow until we had a liter of gatorade, yerba mate/coffee and breakfast.  We managed to leave around 10:30ish.  Here is where some of the bad rockiness started.  We traversed “Knife’s Edge” and “Bear Rocks” and the rocky sections in between.  Eventually, after a 2 hour lunch break which was really a “let’s lay on our zlites and take turns cranking the radio” break.  It was fulfilling; we got some bluegrass, some country, some lady gaga (which yes, Allegra, I now appreciate its catchiness because it was in my head for the next 9 miles).

We continued and eventually hit the shelter we were looking for but it looked like a snake pit.  It did not take much convincing to where we got a massive amount of water and walked a bit further to a campsite.

 Due to Siren’s advice (the guy with the iguana), we dutifully did the climb out of Lehigh Gap (half a mile before we camped) in the morning. Basically, it was a mile long boulder rock scramble, which was awesome in the beautiful summer day.  But wait, there’s more!  When we reached the top, there was a large blueberry patch!  We paused, the packs came off, and then we were filling every container we had with blueberries.  After an hour of picking blueberries and hoping a bear would not want to pick any at the same time, we walked more, taking a detour around the zinc mine spillage.  We hit a power line near some shade and a mile from the next gap’s road.  There we ran into some sobo sectioners who said the next spring we were relying on in 6 miles was dry and the next water was in 12 miles and we were all almost out.  Shit.  Next plan: walk to the road, hitch to the corner market, get water and continue.  And that’s what we did.  It worked surprisingly faster than expected due to Abolitionist’s bandana that said “hiker to town” and “hiker to trail”.  The next 11 miles were brutal for the rocks and we started that after a slow morning.

When we finally got to the shelter, we were beat.  On the way, I did see bear number 4 – not a small one either, it was definitely fully grown.  We set up tent camp and all went to bed early, beat from the rockiness. 

We were so tired, none of us woke up even until 8 and didn’t manage to leave until just before 10  am to do the 20.5 into Delaware Water Gap, the town .2 mile from the PA-NJ border.  The whole day was just rather shitty.  There was one climb out of Wind Gap where we got poured on, and that wasn’t too bad, but it was literally all rocks which just drained you.  And it wasn’t the rock scrambles that are mad fun, but just flattish ground covered in the “I’m-trying-to-kill-your-ankles” rocks.  The only big highlight of the day was seeing a rattlesnake in Wolf’s Rocks which I almost stepped on until I scurried up a few boulders away from it.  We took one break at the shelter 6.5 away from here for a late lunch break.

Yesterday we got here to DWG around 6, took showers, and headed to Doughboys Pizza where we ate and watched their 2 TV’s, one set to ESPN to get the world cup updates, and the other set to CNN to find out the disastrous real world news with the oil spill.  But wait, there’s more!  The radio was also on with none other than Lady Gaga.

Today we decided to zero to give our feet a rest and to hang out with War Cry’s mom and little sister who came and took us to a laundry, grocery store, lunch, and the outfitter. After they left to make soccer practice, we went back to Doughboys to watch the Mexico vs. France game in which Mexico embarrassed France to a 2-0 win.  Now we are waiting here at the basement of a church hostel for the potluck hiker dinner in 15 minutes, then it’s off to find the Celtics game.

Ortho fix

I hesitate to post this update for fear of sounding like the genuine AARP member that I am, doing just what I always detested in older folks when I was younger – dwelling on my aches and pains.  But, dear readers, since I promised you an update, here goes….

I saw an orthopedic surgeon yesterday.  After reviewing the many x-rays and checking out my feet/ankles, particularly the right ankle, which remains quite swollen and painful, he deduced that I most likely have multiple tears in the tendon that surrounds  the ankle, causing the swelling.    All, of course, due to the fact that I tried what I ought not to have done – according to him and the last two internists I saw – long distance hiking over uneven terrain, with a heavy pack and very flat feet, which tend to roll to the inside as I walk.  So, ok, perhaps I bit off more than I could chew, so where does that leave me?  With a very tender foot and a chronic ache.  Now, I’m not used to anything going much awry with me, so I haven’t much tolerance for it continuing.  His solution was to try things in stages, from easiest to most difficult, which I appreciate.  So now, I’m on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and wearing a horrendously ugly, clunky and uncomfortable “boot” on my right foot for the next six weeks!  After that, he’ll reassess how the ankle looks/feels and decide if I need reconstructive surgery to get the ankle back in shape.  I’m hoping for the boot to work, so I’m going to be a good girl and wear the thing as directed.  Perhaps it will even illicit a little sympathy!

The hardest thing about it all is not being able to do any PT – no running, no cycling (sorry Carol) and even walking is now a chore.  Auucckkk!!  Hopefully Floyd won’t see me in this dilapidated state, seeing all his hard work at training go out the window for a while.  Instead, I continue to try my best to support Veggie as she continues on the trail – well over 1,200 miles now and finishing her 7th of 14 states.  She thoroughly enjoys your comments on her entries, so comment away!

Game Time

After an awesome zero day in Hershey Park which included some badly needed haircuts, we headed out for a short 13 mile day.  While the terrain was not terribly difficult, our attempt to finish 5 6-packs the night before left us with the beer sweats.  We got to the fist shelter 6 miles in and took luxuriously long naps and then knocked out the rest the end of the day.  But the excitement didn’t end at Hershey Park, because we then had a nice 4 mile day into Duncannon or rather Drunkcannon where we went to the Doyle Hotel.

Now the Doyle is more of a trail legend because it’s very run down and has a bar on the first floor. When we split a room 4 ways between me, Abolitionist, War Cry, and one of War Cry’s friends Chris, the room was a whopping 12 bucks a night.  However, P-Nut’s comment in the next register summed up the Doyle the best, “I’ve seen privies cleaner than the Doyle.” 

We showered and hung out at the bar where we got some food and checked the internet. There we began watching an ominous looking bite on War Cry’s ankle.

The next day we ate breakfast at Goodies and noticed the size of the bite had grown significantly and when Doc came in with Sticks, Whiggy, and Absent, he told him to get it checked out. Since Chris conveniently had his car there, we drove to Harrisburg and got War Cry into a walk in clinic where he got some antibiotics. Apparently it was just a bite that got infected because if it was a serious bite he would have felt symptoms far faster. 

From the clinic, we headed to Port Clinton to see First Man and deliver his awesome new ULA pack because it didn’t make it to Duncannon before he left. We went to Cracker Barrel, and then onto Cabella’s which has over 800 stuffed animals, one of which was a polar bear. It was huuuuge. We went to the bar to have a beer with First Man before saying bye to him again along with the 25 mile per day bubble up there. Then we headed back to the Doyle to finish our zero day. 

We left Sunday after breakfast and did 4 miles up some nice rocky terrain to the first shelter. Chris day packed up there with us and then walked back down. Not too long after we were there, it started down pouring. So we held off the storm there with Miles, Sticks, Absent, Whiggy, Spark, and Caboose. Then when it stopped raining about 40 minutes later, it turned into a nice afternoon. However, War Cry’s ankle was swollen, red, and purple and we ended up staying there to allow the antibiotics to kick in more. We shared the shelter with an ancient woman who was 72 doing the whole AT in 2 sections named Listener. We also listened to an awesome NPR podcast that night on medical suicide.

On Monday, we ended up doing 25 to try and see Bloomer, but we missed him by 2 hours. We did however meet the long-distancer named Siren who had a 5 pound iguana on the top of his pack named Mo. That night we stayed at Rausch Gap Shelter and I heard one of the top 3 snoring freight trains on the trail.  

We took a nice slow morning there and then hiked until we met 4 of War Cry’s Bloomington friends hiking south toward us. On the way we saw a cute baby skunk which we dutifully gave a wide range since according to the Audubon book they can spray up to 15 ft. We met them and hiked about 2 miles, then ate lunch. We continued afterwards up a steep (for PA) climb then about 5 miles to the William Penn Shelter where we all set up a small tent city and hung out for the night. The rocks have been getting progressively worse and dementedly more fun at the same time. 

Wednesday, rain, rain, and more rain was predicted.  I got up and out early and hit the 501 shelter 4 miles down about 9:40 or so. It was only spitting on me then, but not long after Abolitionist got there behind me, it began down pouring which it did until 5 am Thurs morning.  Instead of heading on we all stayed there which was a wise move considering the slipperiness of wet rocks. We ordered Italian for dinner since the shelter was .1 off of a road.  There were 21 of us there, 5 of which zeroed there when they heard the forecast.

Thursday morning, Dream Catcher came in who I haven’t seen since Erwin, TN at Uncle Johnnys.  He had been ahead of us, but apparently he took a 20 day break.

At 11ish, Alli drove over and brought some delicious fruit. We hung out and talked for a few hours before I headed out for 15 miles. It was awesome to see her and chat about Chile 🙂 

Then I set out on an adventure.

I didn’t know it would be an adventure when I started, but it definitely turned out to be. I went about 3 miles and talked to some guys high off their asses chilling on a rock overview, then walked another 2.5 or so to a boulder field.  There I bounced around on the boulders for about 20 minutes or so just for fun.  Then my mistake was coming off the field differently and seeing a sign saying “boulder field” which I hadn’t seen and I headed for the white blaze near it.  With my absent mindedness, I accidentally went south for about a mile or a mile and a half uphill back to an overlook, and then I realized I’d seen it before.  I had to sit there for awhile so frustration would pass and I didn’t do anything stupid.  So I went back down the rockiness to the boulder field, past it, up the other side, and continued past a hobbling old man, and past the main road of the day.  Now here is where the adventure continued. I was walking walking walking then I see a double blaze which in this case means turn, so I pay more attention but then I see this big white ass and two legs in the air. Fantastic.  Luckily, they were just finishing, but the pants were still down and there was an awkward acknowledgment of “oh shit”.  The guy pulled his pants up and turned, where I saw his sketchy mustache and a Bon Jovi shirt in which Bon Jovi looked more like Jesus because his hair was so long. They were literally a foot off the trail and didn’t even lay down a blanket…nice job Bon Jovi Jesus. 

Eventually I got to the shelter just before 10 and set up my tent, ate a tortilla, and some unfrosted blueberry pop tarts…yes they are vegan.

Yesterday was a nice 9 miles into Port Clinton where even after a lazy morning, I got to the bar only 15 minutes into the Uruguay vs France game.  After the game and several beers, I picked up my 3 packages from the post office and headed off to camp at the pavilion with everyone.  I did my laundry in the creek as well as giving myself a bath there with some dr bronners and then hung my stuff out to dry. 

This morning, I packed up, sent some stuff home, and now am sitting at the bar for the USA vs. England game.  We only got to see the last 30 min of the Argentina vs. Nigeria game because it opened at 11.  GAME TIME 🙂

PA Trail Angel

It was back to the trail for me on Tuesday, but unfortunately, not as a hiker.  I’m Mandy’s official Trail Angel Mom now.  I drove up to Carlisle, PA looking for the trail as it passed over Route 11 via a foot bridge.  Found the bridge but it certainly was not obvious how to get to the trail….almost one of those Maine jokes “you can’t get there from here”.  Spotted a private driveway as the closest and most likely point of entry and hesitantly drove up the drive.  A dog standing at the top of the drive made me think twice, but when it didn’t move I realized it was one of those fake numbers.  Go figure.  Luckily, the homeowner was just getting out of her truck so we struck up a conversation.  Turns out she’s a long time hiker and enjoys supporting the hikers who pass her way.  She showed me a very short path that led right to the AT and just like that I was back!  What a joy to see white blazes again!  I was meandering around for no more than 10 minutes when a thru-hiker showed up.  I introduced myself as Penguin, and hadn’t even gotten out that I was Veggie’s mom, there to pick her up for a few days, when he said “Oh, you’re Veggie’s Mom!”.  She apparently mentioned to all the other thru-hikers she met for the past few days that I’d be there and might have goodies to share.  We posted a sign saying “Trail Magic” with an arrow down the little path to the car.  Before long I had about 10 hikers come out of the woods, including Mandy and her current hiking companions, Abolitionist (formerly K25) and War Cry (formerly Magellan), all with huge grins once they spotted the cooler of beer and bag of cookies and other goodies.  What fun to just hang about yakking about the trail, learning who they all were and what their stories were.  Even had a few that I had known from my time on the trail, including Filo, who I thought should be called Rawhide (nasty blisters), who we hiked with at the very start and Hollywood, who I last saw at Wood’s Hole, on my second aborted attempt.  They managed to finish off all the beer and cookies after about an hour and a half, so then slowly began putting their boots and packs back on for the rest of their day’s hike.  I packed Mandy and her companions into the car for their Carlisle adventure.

It started by a quick trip to the Navy base to replenish the beer and to buy tickets for Hershey Park.  Then it was off to Kathy and Ken’s house.  Ken was my Command Master Chief a few years back (just retired) and they were the most gracious of hosts.  Opened the doors of their new house to three very scruffy and smelly hikers, who promptly dropped their packs down and began strewing gear everywhere.  Ah, such are thru-hiker habits!  First things first, they quickly pulled out their grungy clothes to throw in the washer and hit the showers.  Since all clothing was in the washer (they carry very little), they paraded around wrapped in towels – what a sight!  But it got better, since I had asked the boys if there was anything in particular they wanted/needed while they had an easy way to get around and they both piped up that they needed haircuts.  They were looking a might scruffy and with the heat, the long hair was driving them crazy.  Well, as luck would have it, Kathy is a hairdresser!  She was so wonderful to let us impose on her talents – she pulled out her clippers and scissors, plunked the boys down one at a time, just draped in their towel and proceeded to cut.  Both boys wanted versions of Mohawks.  I thought that a bit odd, but they looked great once she completed the cut and they were thrilled.  Mandy even had her trim her bangs and the bottom of her hair.  After that, it was on to the food fest, otherwise known as dinner and continued munching.  Kathy had prepared a great barbeque and even had veggie burgers for Mandy and me as well as several vegan salads.  We finished off the meal with strawberry shortcake I had brought.  You’d think that’d be enough, but a few hours later, there was Abolitionist downing a few more hotdogs.  Ah, to be able to eat without worrying about the calories!

With lots of beer and a good night’s sleep in beds, they woke up raring to go.  We made it to Hershey Park by 11 am and spent the next 6 hours wandering the park.  I was their Park Sherpa – I’m not fond of roller coasters so it worked out well for me to carry the pack with towels, etc and to hold cameras, wallets, glasses, etc.  They enjoyed every ride, but I think the hit of the day was the hour they spent floating on the Lazy River.  We ended the Park visit with a tour through Chocolate World which we all found rather disappointing and very commercial.  Then it was off to Borders so they could purchase a few books.  Now that it stays light later they have time to read.  War Cry bought a great book to identify all the flora and fauna along the trail.  Not a bad idea, since they’ve been seeing a good number of snakes and the berries are beginning to ripen.  Last stop of the day was to hit a Chinese Buffet for dinner.

Once back at the house it was time for the hikers to restock their bags to get as much in order as possible, since they were to leave the next morning.  I gave up and hit the sack about midnight and left them to their goal of polishing off as much of the beer as possible.  In the morning the last of the gear was stowed, a final look around for gear astray, then it was time for farewells.  The hikers left the house with remnants of trail dust, and lots of sheets to wash, but hopefully, good memories for them and our marvelous hosts as well.  It was a short drive back to the trail and the hefting of packs to head back out. 

It’s bittersweet to see Mandy go off once again, since I truly wish I could be out there with her, but it’s amazing to see how well she’s managed this first 1,120 miles.  I have every confidence she’ll make it the full 2, 179 miles.  Me?  I just returned from yet another doctor visit, more foot/ankle xrays and a referral to an Orthopaedic Surgeon, since yet another opinion was stated that “your feet are not made for hiking”.

Hiking AND Hershey Park??

After having moved from hostel to hostel in 3 miles of flat walking next to a river, we arrived and had a blast for another town night.  We decided to only go a nice 15 mile day to Rocky Run Shelter which was so new that it seemed like you were sleeping on someone’s living room floor.  This was also the last day walking with First Man who has a beginning of August deadline.  Before the slow parting of ways, we ran into Nickel going south to Harper’s Ferry and we caught up briefly with him in one of our many breaks.  After an epic parting of ways, First Man went on to start his 25 mile per day regiment and we went to Rocky Run.  There was also one of the most awesomely beautiful springs ever perfectly piped to the point where you could almost take a shower from it. 

When First Man left to go ahead, there was some trail name changing to show the recent changes.  Magellan became War Cry and K25 became Abolitionist.  Dun dun dun.

The trail through Maryland was awesomely flat in most parts minus maybe two 1000ft climbs and one 3 mile stretch of boulder hopping.  There were also long stretches of mountain laurel lining the trail.

We had an amazing lunch break at Annapolis Rocks which ironically faced left away from Annapolis.  But, on the bright side, we had a sweet 2 and a half hour lunch break lying all over the boulders.  There was the second awesome spring of the day, almost the same as the last.  We listened to an oldies station on the crank radio and devised one of our most brilliant plans yet.  Luckily, there was enough cell service to work the plans out via text messages.  From there, we headed 6 more miles to the Ensign Cowall Shelter and ran into Bronco giving ridiculously awesome trail magic including a cooler full of soda, pizza, rides to town, and a general good time. 

According to the weather band, there was going to be a huge thunderstorm with a threat of hail.  That meant that everyone gathers around the shelters.  That night, we fit 14 people and a dog in an 8 person shelter.  Surprisingly, it was not the snoring that kept me awake at first, it was the chorus of farting as everyone tried to sleep.  The epic hail storm was actually not so epic and it was fine by the morning. The problem: everyone and their brother was around each other and nothing was nice and spread out.

To alleviate that problem, we did another nice and relaxing day of 15 miles to Deer Lick Shelter.  We had a large lunch break at Pen Mar park and crossed the Mason-Dixon Line which disappointed me in that it was not marked at all.  While we did manage to avoid the large bubble of thru-hikers, we did not avoid the beginning of the massive wave of bobbling Memorial Day Weekenders with no trail manners and large groups.  Then on came the boy scouts.  Ick.

Deer Lick actually had two shelters meant for 4 people each.  Abolitionist, War Cry and I took over one and only made room when Felo and Sidetrack caught back up to us and we squeezed the 5 of us in one.

From there, I headed out to do 9 miles to hit PA 233 to meet Jeremy who was coming to hike the weekend with me.  I got there, had my lunch break, and waited until he was ready.  Then we had a nice relaxing 7.5 miles to the Quarry Gap Shelters which were ridiculously nice…they even had flower boxes, a board game, and an outhouse staffed by a book.  Jeremy also resupplied me for a few days and brought some Mike’s Hard Lemonade, 2 liters of wine, and a bit of Tequila for the weekend since I FINALLY finished my 21 day antibiotics Saturday morning.

We all had a blast on at the nice shelter.  It was so hot out; I did sit in a cold stream for a bit.  There were not too many swarming weekenders.  The next day, we headed another nice relaxing 13.5 mile day.  At our lunch break, we ran into ridgerunner Darrel, a friend of War Cry’s and he told us there were 70 people at the shelter in which we ate lunch.  Damn boy scouts!  The last 6 miles were actually awesomely easy and the trail was wide and pine needlely.

We relaxed at the Tom’s Run Shelters.  I decided to tent to try to avoid some bugs which did work well.  I also managed to successfully lay up to my neck in a freezing cold creek to cool off.  Then for the second night in a row, we ate couscous ramped up with fresh peppers and mushrooms and garlic powder all thanks to Jeremy.  Awesome.  Something fresh.  Sweetness.  That night, Felo and Sidetrack caught back up again and we hung out with them and eventually met Sonic, a gigantic dude with half dreaded hair from Washington State with a 5 pound jar of peanut butter.

In the morning, we passed the official mileage halfway point and then took a break at Pine Grove Furnace Park where the General Store has a half gallon ice cream challenge.  Unfortunately, there was no soy or rice dream, so I watched Abolitionist and War Cry start working through a half gallon of ice cream each.  They made it in 42 and 31 minutes respectively.  Sonic somehow slammed through one in 14 minutes, then got half way through a second half gallon…or 6 pounds of ice cream.

Jeremy and I headed on because he had to make a shuttle time with Trail Angel Mary.  We walked until we found a creek with a swimming hole and ate lunch there.  When we continued, the one spot of rain predicted got bigger and started a rumbling thunderstorm.  Since we were near route 34 and there happened to be some kind of thing to get out of the rain and sit in, we went and sat out the 45 minute storm there and called Trail Angel Mary to pick him up 2.5 trail miles early at route 34 instead of 94.  There, War Cry came soaking wet and sat with us for the second half of the storm, then Abolitionist, also soaking wet, but at the end of the storm.  When Trail Mary came, she brought us some fresh fruit and a bottle of ice water…awesome!

Then we did the last 7 miles to Alec Kennedy Shelter where we bunked with Trail Trash, Easy Hiker, Felo, Sidetrack, Hobbs, Moose, Tumbleweed, and Skyrocket.  It was thoroughly refreshing to just see thru-hikers for once. 

In the morning, we took an easy morning and didn’t leave the shelter ‘til 9am.  Then we managed to do all 12 miles of the day by about 1:20pm with a break about 4 miles in.  There, we met my awesome mother with a cooler full of beer, cookies, and fresh fruit.  Here came in our brilliant plan.  My mom picks up Abolitionist, War Cry and I and takes us to her friend’s house, Master Chief Rummel.  Tomorrow we will head to Hershey Park for a zero day.  We got some nice showers, laundry and HAIR CUTS  Annnnnd massive amounts of food that we have been talking about eating for at least a few days.

John Brown’s body lies amoldering in his grave….

HARPERS FERRY!  i.e. mental halfway point.

We managed to leave Ft Royal about 1pm after doing the badly needed laundry and we sat by the road eating lunch.  I had found some amazing falafel and tahini at the natural foods store and in contrast K25 got a burger so big it would barely fit in his mouth because it also had ham, bacon and egg, lettuce and tomato.  Eventually we got a hitch from a biologist and snake fanatic Tom, who gave us a ride to the trailhead.  Unfortunately by the time we got to the first shelter, it was pouring rain.  Again.  After a long break and a second lunch we headed off to the second one where we called it for a short 11 mile day out of town.  Robo Jesus and his dog Patches made it there too, then Stealth camped a bit further because he was still fighting off Giardia.  There were 2 sectioners going south, a guy going north, a hammocker going south, K25 and me.  The mix was fine until one of the sobo sectioners seemed to hack up a lung in the morning while we were still eating breakfast.  In the morning it was really only rain coming off the trees but I was super glad I wasn’t tenting because the rain woke me up 3 times in the night absolutely down pouring. And of course my boots were still wet in the morning.

Sunday was just rainy.  We managed to get about 12 miles before it started raining again.  At mile 13 for the day there was our lunch break shelter in which we had a leisurely 2 and a half hours.  While we chilled in the shelter eating, stretching, watching the rain make everything muddy, examining our pruney feet, a few others came in.  Slow Mosey mosied in about an hour after me when I had only passed him 3 miles before. Then came the nobo sectioner from the last shelter.  Finally in came two sobo section hikers who didn’t look older than 14 named Kiwi and Strawberry.  When I said I was Veggie, they went “ohhhh,  Wazi says ‘catch-up’!”  Hmmmm.  Maybe.  We’ll see since he’s about 140 miles ahead of us.

When there was a break in the rain, we went for it for the last 7 miles which were aptly entitled ‘the rollercoaster’ created and maintained by Trailboss.  Ha.  It actually wasn’t that bad, it was just a series of 500ft up, 500ft down, where you got down to flooded streams and had to precariously cross them using slippery rocks.  When I got to the shelter it was just Robo, Jesus and Bloomer.  Apparently K25 wanted pizza and went 3 miles more to the Bear’s Den hostel.  I just shared the shelter with the other two because Igot downpoured on 1 and a half times in that 7 miles and it started again right as I got there.

I got up early in the morning and was moving by about 7:10 because I didn’t have to cook breakfast. Instead I ate an entire box of unfrosted strawberry pop tarts.  Yes, all 8 pastries.  Yes, the unfrosted strawberry and blueberry ones are vegan.  On Monday there were an absurd amount of small section hikers out for no apparent reason.  It was Monday.  It was very overcast.  It could quite possibly rain. Streams were flooded over.  There was an absurd amount of mud.  USUALLY these factors prevent day and section hikers, but no, I passed 11 of them in the first 14 miles.

It did start to amuse me as I passed people with a day pack or even with just a bottle of water going uphill.

I did learn that a box of pop tarts in its entirety will last you about 13 miles then you get hungry.  Pretty impressive, usually I’m hungry around mile 7ish.  After a lunch break, I headed down the ravine a quarter mile to get water.  Then I headed out to do the last 9.5 miles into town.  My plan was to make the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy) by 5pm when it closed, but I got there at 5:25.  I did, however, run into Hollywood there.  Caught one.  He even got new shoes…so much for the others being held together with dental floss, 550 cord, and duct tape going to Katadin.

When that was closed, I walked to the Town’s Inn where I got a bunk, threw my stuff down, and headed to the bar/restaurant called the Secret Six across the street where I had dinner with K25, First Man, Magellan, Pipesmoke and his wife.  At the table next to us was Bowtie, Pop Pop, 2 brits, and Shlep. We were there till it closed around 9.  Apparently Harper’s Ferry closes at 8 in general…it was creepy with all the museums and old buildings.  Then we listened in on the tour of the town for 8 yr olds and learned that the real words to that song “Battle Hymn of the Republic” actually goes “John Brown’s body lies amouldering in the grave…”

This morning, I walked the mile to the post office to get my mail drop, went to the ATC to get the traditional halfway picture, then went to the outfitter to talk to them about my pack.

One of the strap supports on the waist band had ripped on the seam and the pack was rubbing my lower back into a blister, so David from the outfitter and I called Osprey and after a 10 minute conversation we got a return authorization number and I could switch it for a new pack or one comparable.  I opted for a comparable one with a slightly different suspension system.  Ssweet.  Osprey rocks.  Pack number 3 of the trip.

After taking care of the errands, the stomach needed taking care of so I ate lunch at the Secret Six tavern again with First Man, Magellan, K25, Miles, and Bloomer.  Somehow Robo Jesus didn’t manage to find us until we finally walked out of town a little after 4pm.  We walked a grand total of 3 trail miles then a mile up a road to another hostel.  For the first time on the trip I got a shower two consecutive days in a row!