The Point of No Return

Greetings (I have started almost every post with "hello," so I figured some variety would be appreciated).  We have hiked a considerable distance in the last two weeks since I updated this blog so brace yourselves for a somewhat lengthy post.  This time-frame is going to have to be come the norm since we have reached the beginning of the sparsely populated area of the trail.  We hiked into Hanover NH today, hitting mile-marker 1747.7, leaving 442.1 (ONLY 400-ish MILES LEFT!!!).

We left Kent CT feeling great and ready to go.  Only 50 or so miles of the AT are in CT, so we crushed this state.  Two nights out of Kent, we spent the night in Sages Ravine on the CT-MA border.  This has to be one of my Top 10 spots on the AT.  All ferns and pines, with this beautiful brook running through it.  Needless to say, it was gorgeous (excuse the pun).  Sadly, my phone glitched, and I lost all photos of Sages Ravine.  I salvaged a picture of the border sign, but that is it.

After that, one of the pleasant surprises was that we fell in with some hikers our age.  I have mentioned Crispy and Co. before, who are mostly early/mid-20's, but we ended up with some fellow pre-collage hikers which was fun.  There was Firefly, a German student sectioning from Harper's to however far he could get in two months before his visa expired.  We hiked with him on and off for several days.  The best moment we  had the epiphany that what every hiker needed was a Harry Potter wand.  Think about it, no need for a pack!  I want food, accio pizza!  I want my tent and sleeping bag, accio tent and sleeping bag!  What I would do for that... oh well.  Afer a couple attempts to see if a trekking pole would suffice instead of some sort of unicorn hair/phoenix feather/dragon heartstring stuff, we surrendered to the laws of physics and the universe and gave up on the wands.

However, our spirits were revived by the most awesome shelter ever:  Upper Goose Pond Cabin (this is ranking up there with the Fontana Hilton, Overmountain, and Partnership shelters).  This two-story cabin is situated on this this crystal-clear lake in the middle of the mountains.  It has bunks with real mattresses (most bunks on the trail are just boards and you lay out your pad), canoes, swimming, a awesome porch, and best of all, each morning the caretaker cooks up this huge batch of pancakes and coffee.  While each hiker only gets three pancakes, these pancakes are huge.  Those three pancakes were the best pancakes I have ever eaten.

(In the corner, left to right: Dungeon Master, Firefly, Tenderfoot)

Here we met up with Dungeon Master, another 19-year old hiker (named because he runs D&D on the trail).  We hit it off with DM and hiked from Upper Goose to Dalton MA.  The AT runs right through town, and this trail angel who lives right off trail lets hikers sleep in his yard.  The three of us crashed there for the night and gorged on some epic New York style cheese steaks.  We zeroed the next day, resupplied, hung out at this guys house and munched on the leftovers from Dalton's We-Became-a-ATC-Certified-Trail-Town.  No one know what that means aside from the fact that you get to hang cool banners from your lampposts with the picture of a hiker and lettering that says, "AT Trail Town."  We really didn't care, but there was lefter hot dogs, fruit salad and more, so cheers to Dalton's Trail-Township!

It was here in Dalton that I learned that one can get wasted on non-alcoholic beverages.  I was on the porch messing around on my phone, slowly sipping this half-gallon of chocolate milk.  I was late, and I got this spacey feel.  Next thing I know, I open my eyes, I am curled up on this porch bench with my head on this cat, and I hear Mom's voice.  "Hello?  Levi, are you there?"  I have never felt so disoriented in my life.  I had no idea where I was or why I heard Mom's voice.  I stumble off to bed and crash.  Come to find out, somehow I must have or must have bumped the button to call Mom and that's why I heard her voice.  Anyways, I got chocolate-drunk if that is a thing...

The next day was Eclipse Day.  So Tenderfoot, DM, and myself hiked up Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in MA, where an elderly couple was nice enough to lend us their glasses.  We were not in the path of totality, so there was no discernible difference in terms of lighting, but the glasses revealed the true awesomeness of it.  After that, we hiked to North Adams and stealth-camped in this pavilion in the park.  Turns out the YMCA was running a summer camp at that pavilion.  So we are just waking up, cooking breakfast, have all our gear spread out, and this counselor and the kid show up.  They were cool about it, nevertheless, we beat a hasty exit to the parking lot 150 yards away and finished up breakfast there.  As we sat there, the kids walked by to the public restroom and we overheard some of the discussion, and we ha made these kid's day.  The hobo-hikers in their summer camp, what a story for Mom and Dad.

(Behold VerMUD)

We pushed on ahead to VT, DM slowed to take it easy so we parted ways.  Vermont is also called "Vermud" and for good reason.  Our first night in VT, it rained buckets.  This meant that the next 40 miles consisted of mud.  No bog bridges, no stepping stones, nothing.  It sucked (literally and metaphorically).  Each step is less efficient because when I push down, the ground moves, not me.  And then you have to pull your foot from the ankle deep morass each step.  We still hit 20-ish every day, but it took all day.  But after that muddy section, VT has been awesome.  Beautiful, rolling hills, easy access to non-trail food (restaurants and farm stands galore), and cool weather. We summited Stratton Mtn., which is the place where Benton McKay had the inspiration for the AT.  Also, the trail magic up in the Northeast is pretty solid.  We regularly scored trail magic at least every other day and I must say, I will miss that.

No one in our everyday neighborhoods just sits on their front porch and waves you down as you drive by to offer you scrambled eggs, cupcakes, soda, and a hot coffee.  Nobody just leaves a bunch of bananas and a cooler by the road.  Maybe with friends yes, but defiantly not with strangers.  Out here, you end up sitting on porches, in yards, in houses, with people you have never seen before.  You talk and eat together.  You get fishing stories, family stories, hiking stories, travel stories, jokes, nuggets of wisdom, life hacks, plain-old goofy ideas, political opinions, philosophical opinions, religious opinions, opinions in general.  Yes, I will miss that the most.  It is one of the best elements of the trail is the community  that has sprung up around it.

This post had probably gone on too long, attention spans are wandering (average span it said to be 8 seconds, 20 minutes if you make an effort to refocus), and lunch calls (I am at a library that sits just across the street from a pizza join that gives a free slice to thruhikers).   We have 440 and change left.  Coming up are the Whites and South Main, reputed to be the toughest section yet.  Milage-wise, we are not far, effort-wise, we still have a way to go.  But we have made it this far, we crossed the point of no return when we hit Springer Mtn. We hike on.  Katahdin or bust.

Bonus pics:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
-Psalm 19:1

Upward and Onward

Hello friends and family!

After another somewhat longish pause in the updates (It must have been unbearable, I know because I have gotten multiple people asking me, "when are you going to update your blog?"  Understand that this is a trail, and we are roughing it with only semi regular access to wifi and even less regular access to computers.  I know it's hard to imagine, but I only have certain windows of time here and there to do this...)

We had left Crispy's house hit the trail (due to a miscommunication, we were 15 miles north of everyone else). Doing the math, we only had o average 15.5 miles/day to get to Katahdin by September 30, though we tell ourselves 16 because it makes the math easier.  That means if you pop a couple 20+ days here and there, we can take more neros and zeros.  This revelations was invigorating.  We did 20 right out of the gates and camped in New Jersey.  PA is behind us (thank goodness), and another state bites the dust.

The next couple days were beautiful.  We hiked along ridges that were very similar to the Roan Mountains along the TN-NC border, which is one of our favorite sections.  The weather played nice. It would comfortably chilly in the mornings and pleasantly warm in the afternoons.  We had clear skies, gentle breezes, and starlit nights.  The terrain was not any extra difficult, so we just breezed through NJ.

The most memorable part of NJ is I found Excalibur.  Quick backstory: I started the trail with two trekking poles.  They lasted all the way up until we hit PA's rocks.  The day I fell, one of my poles bent so much that it looked this: L.  When I attempted to straighten it, it snapped.  I did the next section with only one pole.  But, as we hiked along the shore of Sunfish Pond, a glacier lake in the mountains, I saw a lovely specimen of wood in the water.  I pulled out this stick, cut it to length, and dubbed it "Excalibur" after King Arthur's sword given to him by the Lady of the Lake (pet peeve warning: the Excalibur is not the sword he pulled from the stone, that sword was unnamed and broke in an early combat with the Black Knight, the Sword in the Stone is Uther Pendragon's--Aurther's true father--sword).  I started the trail resolved not to naming my gear, my resolve not to name my gear dubbed my other trekking pole, "The Pole Who Must Not be Named," "Voldy" for short (a Harry Potter joke).

We also enjoyed the product of Jersy cows at a lovely evening at a creamery just 300 yards from the trail.  I have no idea if the cows are technically Jersey Cows, but we were in NJ, and the shop said their milk was from local cows, which means the cows are in NJ and thus Jersey Cows.  Whiles at the shop, we scored some hardcore trail magic.  This guy had a whole trash bag full of  goodies.  I landed a 2 1/2 lbs of mini Snickers/Twix/3 Musketeers/Milkyways.  I refrained from consuming all of them in under 24 hours.

As far as states as a whole go, NJ ranks first.

Then we hit New York.  The border was on this ridge and we come around the corner to behold this flag mounted in the rocks with the lake valley spread out beneath us.  After that, the next two days were awful.  The heat returned, and with it the climbs.  No more gently rolling ridges, now it was more like hiking massive crenellations.  But all was redeemed when we got to Black Mountain.  we were less than 40 miles from New York City, and Black Mtn. was a popular spot to camp since you could see the city's skyline.  We spent an enjoyable nigh watching a beautiful sunset, a blood moon rise, and NYC's lights shine with a half-dozen SOBO thruhikers (Ever since we hit NJ, we have been hiking through the SOBO bubble).

We pushed on for Kent, CT, arriving early evening.  With another state finished, we celebrated with pizza (a whole pizza apiece) and then stealth-camped on the outskirts of town.  We have resupplied, eaten, rested, and now we are preparing to push on.  Ever onward, ever upwards, to Katahdin or bust.

 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
-Phil 3:14  



Bonus: if you are ever bored, you can go through and count to see how many times I use parentheses in this post (but if you at that bored, you really should get a life).

Living On a Prayer

8/14 AUTHOR'S NOTE: I originally published this on 8/3, but technology did its thing and the blog failed to update.I learned of this early on but was in no position to do anything about it.  So to those of you who have spent the last week-and-a-half in anguish, you have my deepest sympathies.

photo courtesy of Yardsale, 

left to right: Checkpoint, Young Buck, Yardsale, Tenderfoot, Snow, Crispy, yself

Ohh, We're half way there
Livin' on a prayer

Yes, we are officially halfway (I have had that stupid Bon Jovi song stuck in my since for days now, though fitting, it is now beginning to be irritating). Harper's Ferry was the psudo-halfway, but the is for real. Even better, less than two weeks later we passed the 1200 mile marker so we have less than a 1000 miles to go.

It has been a while since the last update so let me start at Harper's.

We hiked out of town late in the afternoon, in the heat of the day. Though it was hot, we felt pretty good since we each ate a whole  calzon before leaving. The town was neat and it felt like we were walking the streets in a town straight out of the 1700's. Our ambitious plan to hike 12 miles out fell apart when Crispy, Snow, Yardsale, and Thumper caught up to us and they stopped to swim in the river. So rather than hike 12 miles, we hiked 2 out and than swam for a couple hours and them did a couple more to the closest shelter.

(cool shot of Harper's Ferry)

Now you need to understand that for the next week there were heat advisories out every single day (it had been hot since the the Shenandoahs). We then started this hiking style I titled the "Mexican Philosophy." Basically you hike 10-12 miles then stop around  1, take a couple of hours just to rest, then hike another 10-12 starting around 4.

The next day out of Harper's we hit the oldest monument of George Washington in the US (see below). Two days out of Harper's found us in Waynesboro, PA (not be confused with Waynesboro, VA) where we spent 5 hours in this Walmart. We had done our 10, hitched in, and then just chilled.

We did normal mileage for the next couple days as we enjoyed the legendary Pennsylvanian terrain. It would be a nice service road flat as a pancake, straight as an arrow and then you'll take a hard turn and then you'll be scrambling over rocks or tripping in a boulder field. I fell, snapping a trekking poles, and bruised my hip. I'm all right, but that day was rough (I had sprained on ankle, bruised the bottom of the other foot, kneed a tree, all the while sweating buckets and being buzzed by Kamikaze bugs)

Day two out of Harper's we hit the real halfway point. Directly after that is a store where you celebrate your achievement by eating a half-gallon of ice cream... The famed "Half-Gallon Challenge." Here are our times:

-Young Buck, 19 min
-Snow, 25 min
-Yardsale, 35 min
-Checkpoint, 45 min
-Myself, 55 min (though last, I had told myself I wanted to finish under an hour--personal goal achieved!)

Crispy and Tenderfoot did not finish.

After we were rested off the ice cream, we pushed on. After several solid days we made it to Duncannon where Tenderfoot and I got stuck for a day while we waited for a package of mine to catch up. Fortunately there was this church hostel where they let hikers crash. It's their basement where the youth groups meet. It had all the important stuff: shower, fridge, small kitchen, wifi, and ping pong. So we hung out and played ping pong.  After I got my package came in, we headed out.

Crispy and Co. had come through and passed us while we were in town. We caught up with them about three days later at Elkelton shelter. Turns out Crispy's aunt was relatively nearby and she had invited him and fellow hikers over. So we fell in with Crispy, Yardsale, Snow, and Young Buck and have spent the last day and a half eating (we even had real Philly cheese steak from nearby Philadelphia) napping, and swimming. 

The other item of note is Thumper (an eccentric hiker) had just caught and killed his third copperhead snake. We all were at Elkelton, and he had gone around corner to skin the snake. Minutes later he comes around the corner with a bloody knife and says, "guys, it was pregnant." We all thought he had gone to nap in preparation for his 70 mile day, so we were disturbed until we understood the context of the statement. He cooked it up and it tasted decent.

The only other item of note is that we camped one night at the base of powerline towers.  So I did the logical course of action and n=knocked off one more item from the bucket list and climbed the tower.

That's all for now. We leave tomorrow to head back to the trail. We only have about 20 miles of PA then we have completed 7 of our 14 states (GA, NC, TN, VA, WV, MD, and PA). The end is in sight... kind of. We still have a long ways to go, but we have come a long ways. We got this.

Take my hand, we'll make it I swear

Ohh! Livin' on a prayer