It's been a while ;)
Hey guys-- I'm not about to go in-depth with everything that's happened the last few weeks so I'll wind up touching briefly on the awesome stuff-- I'm still having an awesome time and i'm walking on pretty strong even though i'm alone much of the time. It's been tough to update for the mere fact libraries are never open as i go through and i'm on some adrenaline kick that i don't stop in towns long enough to really sit around. I spend a great deal of time on the phone though, it makes the lonely times much easier to deal with.
The Shenandoah's were pretty sweet-- at first I was just bored as heck as i went along and i pulled a 20 without really trying. I made it to the first shelter and found a couple who were section-hiking. The guy was in his mid-20's and the girl a little younger-- I talked with them for long enough to hear some pretty great stories. The guy (fountain pop) was a long-distance bicycler who did a trail across the country. I asked enough question to realize i was interested in possibly doing the trail someday as it coincides with the American Discovery Trail quite a few times. We were sitting around when a massive copperhead snake came out from a hole under the shelter-- fountainpop quickly hit it with a privy shelter and asked me "could you help me out?"
"certainly."
I grabbed a huge stick around the side of the shelter and started wailing on the pinned snake-- it's mouth opened, it bit at the stick and soon was pretty well dead. The whole time I swung, I was thinking of the movie office space when they crush the copy machine to death.
Second day was superb, another easy mileage day and some great times. I caught up with a kid named Sleeping Bear and that night was the last I saw him. We had a rain storm come through that night and the rest of my time in the Shenandoah's was all fog and rain, all the time. During the day I had to take a dump by a view and had a bear come up the trail right next to my pack-- the bears act extremely different in the Shenandoahs because they just don't care that you're there. I saw quite a few in the park and I'm now up to 13.
not much else came of the Shenandoahs, it was a blur. i had some annoying tourists, got lost during a 28.5 mile day during the fog and dark and wound up having to camp only to realize i was a mere 50 feet from the shelter. Front Royal was a terrible town and people yelled stuff at me in the streets-- before i knew it, i was in maryland and then out again. i slept on a pavillion in pen mar park after a wedding and slept on the balcony with flowers from the wedding all over the floor. I ate epic AYCE Chinese food, continued to sleep in places i really wasn't supposed to and never got caught and i haven't seen anyone I know that were behind me. i've passed numerous people-- through PA I saw a kid named Waterboy who i hadn't seen since Fontana Dam. I met a kid named Ping who pulled a 20 while i pulled a 29-ish mile day. on the way, while we hiked, Ping almost stepped right on a rattlesnake-- that was the second one I saw on trail and that's been it, fortunately. I hung out with Wild Thing who yellow blazed often to get to the end of PA and was one of the most amiable folks i've ever met-- he had a hell of a good time. I've eaten some great pizza, did the half-gallon challenge (eat a half-gallon of ice cream in under 40 minutes) after eating two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, stealth camped nearly every night in PA, saw a wicked ugly porcupine that looked as scary as the girl from The Ring.... just so much. The rocks in PA weren't terrible but there were spots that weren't fun-- Lehigh Gap was scary and Knife Edge was frightening, the worst of which was Wolf's Rocks that i did in the rain and hurt my shoulder after falling. New Jersey is already done, it started out rocky, went smooth as butter in the middle and finished ridiculously hard yesterday with walking on pure chutes of rocks and climbing a ladder into new york. on my way into New York, I saw my first ny black bear-- at the sound of my poles clanging together, it ran off just like all of the others.
I saw some great rocks around a place called The Pulpit in PA-- they glistened in the sun like emeralds-- I had the kindest people pick me up: police, locals, sweet old women that were excited just to meet a hiker and i also am beginning to appreciate that people say "Wow" when i mentioned i've hiked up from Georgia. All-in-all, not being cocky, I'm proud of what i've done and i only hope my body can hold up through the rest of the trail. It is getting more and more difficult.
The Sobo's have both been kind and asinine. The good side of them would be the amiable folks i met in Delaware water gap-- Cloudkicker and Rocket-- they were so great i wished i could just turn around and hike south with them instead of going north to the unknown but that would be one certain way to not complete my thru-hike. Rain has been nasty but the sun comes out long enough to get everything dry-- an afternoon storm doesn't seem so scary when you've got sunshine on the way at SOME point and you always know the lightning and booming thunder will cease just like the sun-- it becomes one big circle.
Music is in my head all day, I've grown to be more in my head all day as i barely get to speak to anyone. i meet a few groups and pass through past them soon enough. i'm closing in on people like Firefox, Desperado and Micro-- it seems like a few short weeks and i'll be in the same spot they are. I'm not far behind but the locals like to remind me i'm at least behind. i'm doing near-20 for average all of the time, i try not to waste time but some mornings it rains and you just have to convince yourself to try.
I have New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, new hampshire and Maine and i'm done-- it's not even that far on.
And it's all so beautiful-- give me luck and hope and i'll make it ;)
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