Dried

June 27

Miles: 17 (1273/2189)

Location: Leroy A. Smith Shelter

Weather: Nearly perfect, slightly cooler than last few days, a couple of very short rain showers

Complaint of the Day: I could easily say rocks yet again, but that is getting repetitive. So let’s go with water, namely the lack thereof. There was a 17 mile stretch today with no water source anywhere near the trail. I left this morning with 3 full liters (6.6 pounds), twice what I normally carry, and I was almost completely out by the time I got to the shelter. Then once at the shelter the water source was a full .4 miles down hill. Not fun.

This morning started off with a climb down to the road at Lehigh Gap and then up the hill on the other side. The way down wasn’t bad, but the way up was crazy! It was half rock scramble and half bouldering route. And it was steep. I’m sure it would have been a fun and exciting day hike if I hadn’t been carrying my 40 pound backpack. As it was, it was pretty scetchy. And difficult. But exciting. Once at the top, I was rewarded with a nice flat and easy ridge walk with lots of black raspberries.

And not only that, but I even found a few patches of  blueberries. Nice snacks. Other than that, though, today consisted of a LOT of rocks. I hope to leave the rocks behind soon. 

Rockin

June 26

Miles: 17

Location: George Outerbridge Shelter, near Palmerton, PA

Weather: Perfect, once again.

Complaint of the Day: Rocks, of course.

The trail got REALLY rocky for big stretches today

Today was supposed to be fairly easy. Seventeen miles over flat terrain with good weather… No sweat. Normally I could finish a day like that by 4:00. But today was probably the rockiest day yet and my pace suffered. The trail alternated between the little rocks that constantly tried to trip me or twist my ankles and the big rocks that I had to scramble up and over. I could barely ever get into a good hiking rhythm. The day was slow and frustrating and I didn’t get to the shelter until almost 5:00.

There was two instances of trail magic today. The first was a big setup in a parking lot next to the trail where a couple of former hikers were making sandwiches and passing out fruit, homemade cookies, sodas, and candy bars. Luckily I passed by right around noon when I was starting to think about a lunch. I got a good meal and snacks to go. The second trail magic was here at this shelter when a couple of day hikers from town walked by as I was cooking dinner and they just handed me a bottle of soda and a candy bar they had carried up the side of the mountain just for any thru hikers they might meet. Pretty awesome.

Tomorrow will be similar to today, possibly harder. A couple of steep sections and a lot more rocks. And very limited water sources. Thankfully I only have to go 17 miles again. 

Aggressive

June 25

Miles: 22 (1240/2189)

Location: Allentown Hiking Club Shelter

Weather: Perfect. Warm, but not to warm. Sunny, slight breeze.

Complaint of the Day: ROCKS! So many rocks. “Rocksylvania” really started to earn it’s reputation today. Not fun.

Last night I told myself that I was going to sleep in as long as I could so I could make use of the comfy bed as much as possible. I only planned to go 16 miles today anyway. But then this morning I was wide awake at 5:45. I stayed in bed until. 6:00, just on principle, but then I got moving. I was out the door and on the trail by 7:00. The weather was perfect. The trail was flat and easy and I made great time. I decided early on to go past the original 16 mile goal, but then I had to figure out how far I wanted to go. I eventually decided to go for a big day. There was a shelter at 22 miles from my starting point. That was the goal. I have been talking to much about how my average isn’t enough, so I decided that today I would do something about it. 

I did it. I went the full 22 miles, but it wasn’t easy. The last 7 miles or so were just a giant mess of rocks. Some stretches had big boulders to get over. Some had piles of smaller, pointier rocks. But they were everywhere and they really slowed me down. I finally got to the shelter at about 6:30 this evening, and my feet are really feeling it. 

Tomorrow will be shorter. I really can only go 17 miles tomorrow with the way the water and shelters are spaced. That will be enough.

Restful?

June 24

Miles: 9

Location: Port Clinton, PA

Weather: Hot. Also muddy from all the rain we got last night. 

Complaint of the Day: Let’s go with the muddy trail. It poured much of last night as I slept in the shelter and I woke up to the trail being one giant mud puddle this morning. Hopefully my shoes will be dry by tomorrow morning.

Today’s plan worked much better in my head than in did in practice. I had hoped to get into town by 11:00, hitch a ride to Walmart, grab lunch, get a few things at Cabela’s, and be back to the hotel by mid-afternoon for several hours of napping. Sounds easy enough. But I got into town. A little late, spent some time getting a haircut (first one in almost 3 months!), and then had to wait a bit to get a hitch down to Walmart. Then getting over to Cabela’s was harder than it should have been. It is so close according to the map, but everything was designed for cars, nothing is pedestrian friendly. This was even more apparent when I tried to get back to the hotel this afternoon and had to walk along the narrow shoulder along a pretty busy highway. Thankfully I was able to get someone to pick me up after about 20 minutes of trying.

So I eventually got back to my mediocre hotel room at about 4:30. I took a much needed shower (first real shower in almost two weeks!) and then had plenty of organizing to get done for tomorrow. I barely had time for a nap before dinner. I honestly had more time for napping yesterday after I hiked 15 miles. And I still haven’t figured out how to get laundry done around here. Oh well. It will be good to have a real bed tonight. Back to the trail tomorrow.

Splurging

June 22 & 23

Miles: 18 & 15 (1208/2189)

Location: Eagles Nest Shelter, near Hamburg, PA

Weather: Lovely but warm yesterday, wet and rainy today

Complaint of the Day: Rocks, again. It’s not that the rocks are terrible, it is that they don’t end. Every step needs to be carefully​placed to avoid twisting an ankle. It is hard on my feet as well as mentally tiring.

This is what I mean when I say the trail is rocky

Yesterday I made it to the 501 Shelter, the other shelter on the trail that is close enough to both a road and a town that hikers are able to order delivery pizza. I did just that. I once again had an entire large pizza all to myself. It was glorious. 

Today I only went 15 miles. I did that because the next town- Port Clinton/Hamburg is 9 miles from here. And pushing on a few extra miles to stealth camp away from a shelter or water source just wouldn’t be worth it. Especially since I’ve decided to stay at a hotel in Port Clinton. I need to go into town to get groceries at Walmart and pick up a few things at Cabela’s ( world wide headquarters and largest of their stores!). And I’ll need to get a real meal at a restaurant as well. By the time I get into town and do all of that, most of the day will have been spent. Instead of pushing on after that, I am going to splurge nand treat myself to a real hotel room. It has been two weeks since I last slept on a real bed. I look forward to spending several hours doing nothing but napping and watching meaningless TV. 

Pushed

June 21

Miles: 18

Location: Near Rausch Gap Shelter

Weather: Beautiful, and then​ down pouring rain, and then beautiful again

Complaint of the Day: I could say rain, but it was a fairly short lived storm and I haven’t been rained on in over a month. I’ll go with the rocks all over the trail, despite the fact that Pennsylvania’s rocks have not yet been as terrible as pretty much everyone told me they would be.

Today was a pretty straight forward day. Eighteen miles over mostly flat terrain. I cruised and got to my goal by 4:00. I celebrated with a nap. Now on to the bigger discussion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What exactly is my goal for this trip? Am I here to do the entire Appalachian Trail? Am I here to simply have a good time while doing a really long hike? What do I I need to do in order to consider this hike a success? What am I willing to give up to reach that success? 

My current goal for myself is too finish the hike and summit Katahdin in time to make it back to Anchorage by the end of August. I have a couple of friends getting married on September 3rd and I would very much like to be back for them. Plus, my boss at the science center has said that she is really hoping that I can be back by early September or else the center is going to be in a bit of a bind with scheduling.

Getting back to Anchorage by the 1st of September means that I should probably try to summit Katahdin by August 27 or so at the latest. And I should probably try to give myself a buffer in case bad weather prevents me from reaching the summit on my first try. I’ve done the math and it looks like I need to average a little over 15 miles a day from here on out to make it there on time. That sounds pretty doable; I finished the first half with an average of a little over 14 miles a day and that includes quite a few shorter days when I was just starting out. But I also need to consider the fact that the hardest part of the trail– the White Mountains in New Hampshire– is still coming up. Experienced AT hikers claim that it is not at all uncommon for hikers to only be able to do 10 miles a day through the Whites. That means I really need to make big miles now while the trail is easier in order to keep my average up for when things get tough. 

In a couple of days I will be at Hamburg, PA, which is a good sized town with real grocery stores and hotels. I am really considering splurging on a hotel room and taking a half day on a real bed watching TV and enjoying free WiFi. I haven’t had a real bed in almost two weeks so I feel like I have earned it. But only doing a half day will drop my average since Harper’s Ferry down to just over 16 miles per day. I feel like I have been pushing myself pretty hard the last two weeks; having my average come out to only be slightly more than what I need it to be is a little demoralizing. 
What will I do if I can’t make it to the end of the trail by the end of August? Will I just go as far as I can before heading back? Will I rent a car and skip ahead a couple hundred miles to make sure I reach Katahdin? Will I just keep going and finish when I finish regardless of what my boss and friends want? I don’t know, but I suspect that I will have to decide sooner or later.

Pushing Through

June 20

Miles: 15

Location: Peter’s​ Mt Shelter (just north of Duncannon PA)

Weather: a little warm for my taste, but otherwise nearly perfect

Complaint of the Day: The water source at this shelter is a quarter mile away, down a very steep hill. Someone counted that there were just over 600 steps down to the spring. Not at all what I want to see when I come in to camp after a long day of hiking.

Today I slept in a little bit- almost 6:30- and then I hiked into town. I didn’t need to do much in town, groceries mainly, but I also went to the laundromat to clean my clothes. My clothes were fairly smelly, but I was a little reluctant to spend my time and money at the laundromat knowing that all my clothes are just going to get crazy sweaty and smelly within a day or two regardless of what I did. But I went anyway, as much for the chance to fully charge my phone and extra battery as much as anything. 

I was tempted to stop in Duncannon and stay at one of the cheap hostels in town, but I have too many miles to go to take a day off here. Instead I pushed on another 11 rock filled miles to this shelter. Maybe I’ll splurge and get a hotel room in the next town.

I feel​ like I have lots more important thoughts to share, but it is getting late and I can barely keep my eyes open as it is. You will just have to wait.

Rehydration

June 19

Miles: 22 (1143/2189)

Location: Cove Mountain Shelter, south of Duncannon, PA

Weather: Cooler and cloudy, then big rain storm, then warmer and super humid

Complaint of the Day: I won’t complain about the rain because things have been pretty dry lately and the storm hit while I was stopped for a lunch break at a shelter. So instead, how about road noise? This is a fairly rural area, but there are several highways around here. I passed over three separate four lane highways before noon today and I was never far from the sound of cars.

I got up really early this morning and got on the trail by 6:15. I really wanted to get most of my miles done before the storm hit. This morning was super easy- flat and no rocks to trip me and the weather looked like it might clear up. I had big dreams about possibly pushing through to a full marathon day, 26 miles, which would have put me into Duncannon. It would have been a really long day, but I would have been able to finish it with real food and beer and a nice hotel room.

But then I stopped for lunch at a shelter and the storm hit. Pouring rain, high winds, the usual. No hail though. I sat there with a few other guys waiting for over an hour for the rain to stop. It was a good chance to take a nap. By the time the rain quit though, a good chunk of the afternoon had passed and my dream of a marathon day was pretty much toast. But that’s​ okay. Twenty two miles is enough today. 

The rain slowed me down a bit today, but I am actually glad we got it. Things have been dry in Pennsylvania so far and nothing makes you appreciate water like being a backpacker. Just this morning I came across two streams that the guide book claims are reliable that had dried up to almost nothing. That makes me nervous. I may have to start carrying extra water to ensure that I don’t go thirsty unless it starts to rain a little more often.

Boiled

June 18

Miles: 12

Location: Boiling Springs, PA

Weather: Really hot– high near 90. Really humid. Sunny. A little breezy.

Complaint of the Day: HEAT! 

My options today were limited. There is a long stretch of private land coming up that doesn’t allow camping along it. That means I could choose between doing a 12 mile day or a 26 mile day. While I like the idea of doing a full marathon day at some point, today was absolutely not that day. Today was just too painfully hot. Twelve miles was enough. 

One new thing today: corn fields. Also wheat, soybeans, and clover fields. For about a mile today the trail followed a path between a couple of farm fields. It reminded so much of my home in Michigan. It was a big change from the miles and miles and miles of forest and mountains. It was nice, except that it meant that there was no shade. That didn’t help.

Tomorrow there is supposedly a bunch more open fields. And thankfully it is supposed to be noticably cooler. Unfortunately, there is also a good chance of thunderstorms, possibly even hail. Not a great day to be hiking out in the open. I’m going to try to get up really early tomorrow morning and hopefully get most of my miles done before the storm hit. 

Half Way

June 17

Miles: 17 (1109/2189– Crossed the halfway point!)

Location: James Fry Shelter

Weather: Very warm, very humid

Complaint of the Day: Eating a half gallon of ice cream makes my stomach upset

Today I crossed the halfway point of the trail. Kind of a big deal. I celebrated in two ways. First I completed the half gallon challenge at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in which I had to eat a half gallon of ice cream in under 30 minutes. 

 I finished the first quart and a half of raspberry flavor without any trouble, but that last pint of apple pie flavor started slowing me down quite a bit. It didn’t help that my cheap plastic spoon broke halfway through. I finished it off, but it took me 32 minutes to do it. Close enough. I’m just proud I didn’t puke at all. It did screw with my stomach a bit though, to the point where I wasn’t​ even hungry for dinner. 
The other big way I celebrated was by having my friend Lauren drive out from Eastern Ohio to join me for a short section of the trail. After meeting up with her at the state park, we continued up together for another 7 miles to the next shelter. She is going to have to turn back tomorrow to be at work on Monday, but it was good to see her again.

There is plenty more write, but it is getting late and I need sleep.