Probably done for the summer

I think I'm finished hiking for the summer. I might make it out in the fall though! Cooler weather would be nice.

I went out and hiked 95 miles (all of CT and half of MA) in a week. My knee was really bothering me the last couple days of it, so I came home to make sure that it would be okay. It is okay, but it took a few days of ice and rest and stretching to get it to quit hurting when I walked down stairs. I saw lots of red efts, ate lots of blueberries and got lots of mosquito bites while I was out. It was a lot of fun. I also put in my longest day so far on the trail, 21.4 miles on a mostly rainy day. That is 11 hours of hiking, eating while I hike and taking two 10 minute sit-down breaks. I was only going to do 18.6, but I saw that a person I had met on the trail was 1.8 mi further so I pushed on to have some company. It was worth it, I like to hike alone sometimes, but on a rainy day I'd rather have someone to hike with. The next day was rainy and it was nice to have the company.

I should put pictures up. I'll do that sometime next week. I should also update my sidebars and tidy up the blog in general. I can use it to keep track of my section hikes and see how much of the AT I've done. While I decided that I'm not a thru-hiker (right now anyway), I would like to finish the AT in sections. It is a bit inconvenient to do the southern half, but if I do it in large chunks it won't be too bad. I'm getting to like taking busses everywhere.

Update...

My friend and I went out and hiked, but not quite as far as planned. We did 36 miles of trail, but went home early due to the weather being in the high 90s that weekend. First day was 13 miles with nice weather. Second day was 17 miles with very hot weather, we didn't take enough water and there wasn't another water source for 13 miles...5 of our first 6 miles were over rocks with no sun cover. Needless to say it was a very long hot day. The next day we did 6 miles into town where we were "saved" by her mom. We spent the rest of our weekend inside with the AC and going to get vegan goodies at Vegan Treats.

It was fun and we would do it again. I also had a really bad head cold the whole weekend (it lasted long past the weekend too), and wasn't eating much while we were out. I'll be better prepared for hot weather next time.

Next time. I was going to go back out tomorrow, but am delaying it a bit for a bunch of reasons. I'm going to go back out the week after next. Then I can stay out for 3-4 weeks before I want to be home to do some other stuff. So I'm still section hiking and I'm really looking forward to getting back out and hiking. I hope the weather cools off some before I go, it would be nice if the thunderstorms would stop as well.

I do have some cool pictures from my last hike, but they are still on my camera and I don't have the cord with me right now. I'll get those up before I leave again though.

Back to the AT

I'm leaving tomorrow to hike the last bit of PA with a friend (I'm skipping the middle half of PA for now). She'll be with me for a few days and then I'll most likely continue on my own for a while. Not sure how long, I guess I'll find out when I decide to come home again. I'm looking forward to it. It will be fun to be out there with someone that I know. And I can pick up my mail in Delaware Water Gap! The states get pretty small here, so if I stay out for a little while I could get through a few of them (NJ, NY, and CT).

I'm totally slacking, I should have put up some pictures while I was home. Umm, here are a few.

My alcohol stove, titanium pot (.86 liters), and tin foil windscreen.


Dinner= cous cous in a freezer bag, add hot water and stick in a hat to keep warm while it cooks. My spoon is in there too. Yummy! Never thought I'd be eating out of a hat though. This was every night, except the one night I had rice instead of cous cous which was a nice change.


My hammock in the wild. It worked great...I stayed dry while it was pouring rain outside. The clothes that I hung didn't fare so well, woops.


I saw trees and fields while hiking. Here is a pretty good representation of what I saw the whole time. I think I'll be seeing fewer fields now, but just as many trees. Lots of rocks in/on/as the trail too.

Off the trail

I'm off the trail, for now at least. I took the train home from Harrisburg, PA yesterday. So I'm hanging out in Boston now. My roommate let me in last nite since I didn't have a set of keys with me and my kitties were happy to see me.

I might get back on the trail. I might just hike sections of it over the summer. I'm not quite sure yet, but I don't have to decide right away.

I hiked 136.6 miles in 11 days (12 if you count the day I took off) with a 30 pound pack. This morning I got up and ran the easiest 2.5 miles I've ever ran. I was barely breathing hard, so I know that I'm in much better shape than I was 2 weeks ago! I'll have to keep running and working out so that if I do decide to get back on the trail in a week or two I will still be in good shape for it!

Doyle Hotel - Duncannon, PA

I made it to the Doyle in Duncannon today! Bar downstairs with cheap beer, and tator tots, plus a cheap room (Gobbles and I split the cost of one with 2 beds - $30 total!). I'm taking a day off tomorrow to rest my feet and recover a bit and get some food for the next week or so.

I hit my 100 mile mark early yesterday. I've been doing pretty big miles for just starting out, but so far the only problems are the freaking huge blisters on my right foot and the medium blisters on my left foot! I've been stretching and making good use of my trekking poles so everything else is feeling pretty good.

I've been hiking with Gobbles and Maytag. I also keep seeing a few people that don't have trail names yet, including 2 guys hiking with a cute dog. That makes it much better than hiking alone.

We hiked through some farmland yesterday. It was really pretty, but also really muddy. Finally a non-raining day, but my feet were completely soaked from the mud. Today was better, my feet dried out and now my shoes are just dirt crusted.

Met some of the guys that started in GA the other day. They are good to talk to, have lots of advice. They are doing huge miles, 20+ almost every day, up to 30 miles some days.

It was great to take a shower today and I'm going to get to do laundry!

Great to hear from you all in the comments! I'll try to figure out a way to get pictures on the blog, I haven't been to a big enough store to have the doohicky that I need to do it easily. Plus most hotel/hostel computers don't allow it. I have been trying to send somewhat frequent text messages to the blog, so keep checking the sidebar for those!

Bye for now! Laundry time!

Free State Hiker Hostel

I put a permalink to my "schedule" in the sidebar. Makes it easier for my mom to find I'm sure!

'm finally dry! I'll give a quick run-down of my first few days hiking.

Day 1 (5/14): Got up, had breakfast, packed my pack, decided that I needed new stuff sacks so I got them at the outfitter and repacked my pack, went to the ATC headquarters and got my picture taken and left with a handful of strawberries toward the trail. Got on the trail. Went a couple of miles and started getting tired, went a bit farther with Time Travelor. Stopped for lunch and sent a text to the blog. Hiked the rest of the way to the Ed Garvey Shelter, stopping at every blaze for a drink/break whenever I had to go uphill. 6.4 miles hiked, made it to the shelter with plenty of time to relax and make dinner. There with Breezer, Kirby, Cookie, Skippy, Emily, and some people tenting. We were all in bed by 8:45pm (I wasn't tired yet). I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to a mouse chewing on my hair (I slept in the shelter).

Day 2 (5/15): Up at 5:45am. Made/ate oatmeal, packed and going by 7am. Hiked much better today. Fewer breaks and faster miles. Stopped at a state park and took a 45 minute break with Emily (she was waiting for a ride). Then played leap-frog with Breezer for the rest of the day. Ended up at Dalgren Camping area at about 2pm, hiked 10.9 miles. There were hot showers! Chris, Andrew and Champ (dog) showed up later and then another couple doing a section SOBO. We hung out the rest of the afternoon. I slept in my hammock for the first time. It was comfortable, and since it started raining soon after I went to bed (9pm) I am glad to say it was dry. I was woke up about 4am by a critter of some sort nosing around below me, I tried to ignore it, but since my pack was on the ground below me I got up which scared it off. My food was all hung in a tree out of reach!

Day 3 (5/16): Woke up 5:40 and it was still raining. Moved everything into the bathroom to pack it up. Ate a tortilla+pb for breakfast and still didn't get going til 7:45. I left with Chris, Andrew and Champ. They were planning on hiking 19 miles today so I thought it would be good to keep pace with them. My shoes were dry for maybe the 1st mile, then I had wet feet the rest of the time. My pack cover worked great and I had my rain jacket on. My hat was also great in keeping the water off my face and neck. Pants were damp, but not too bad. It rained for about the first 8 miles, then mostly let up (just showering a bit here and there to keep us wet). We made it 13.7 miles by 2:30. I stopped here at a hostel and they moved on. I am doing laundry, ordered food and hanging out now. I need to figure out when/where to do a resupply. I might try to do a small one in the morning. My hiker appetite is only starting to kick in. I just downed a bag of fries and a burrito (I was hungry enough that I didn't notice it had mushrooms til I was half done and didn't care until I was 3/4 done) and am getting ready to dig into the 2nd burrito (no mushrooms, only beans and rice). Yesterday I was having to force myself to eat enough, I think I managed 2500 calories. It is less of a problem today.

The miles are getting easier! I only have one blistery looking spot on my foot...I'll take care of it. And I've been able to shower every day so far (this might be the last one for a while). I'm a full day ahead of schedule and am looking forward to seeing what is ahead on the trail. I expect it will be more trees and rocks.

Oh, I saw a deer, lots of chipmunks, tons of bugs including huge bumblebees, a bunny, and more bugs. Saw some ticks, but not on me.

Bye!

I leave tomorrow for Harper's Ferry! I'm doing a million things all at once, but wanted to get on to say hi and bye.

Gotta get packing again!