We continue our journey north and are now more than half way through Vermont. So far it has been quite wet and has apparently been so for the last several weeks, despite our rather dry and dessicated experience in nearby New York. Saturday, and part of Sunday, however, we are out of the rain on a 'zero' day spending time with our friends
Deb and Tim Shafer in Williamsville Vt.
Our hike up Greylock was quite spectacular. The weather was perfect with low humidity and outstanding views, especially north to Vermont. An extra bonus from our stand point was the lack of tourists on the summit. Normally there are two roads up to the top, but these are undergoing major renovation through 2008 and are closed to traffic. Consequently, the only people on the summit were those who walked there. We did see at least 20 or 30 day-hikers, but the lack of traffic and smog was not missed.
The next day we hiked the remaining 7 miles in Mass. to cross the Vermont border, but could not pass up the opportunity for a mid-morning second breakfast at Friendly's in North Adams, as it was only a half mile off the trail.
Once we entered Vermont we were greeted with wet and very muddy conditions. I think hopscotch would best describe our hiking technique over the past several days, as we desperately tried (unsuccessfully) to keep our boots from disappearing in the muddy
quagmire (and us with them.) The trade off is the obvious change to a New England landscape which is a welcome change for us.
We are now climbing real mountains, walking through wonderful pine forests and are enjoying fully the sense of being home in a familiar environment.
We camped on the summit of Bromley Mountain, a popular ski area in Southern Vermont. We set up camp on the landing stage for the superquad chairlift. There we fully enjoyed the views of the surrounding mountains, the sunset (see picture), and the stars and moon as they appeared that night. We were rudely awakened at 3:30 am by another rain shower and had to beat a hasty retreat into the warming hut which is left open for hikers.
We are finding and camping at more mountain ponds. A swim at the end of a long day is incredibly refreshing ( and maybe cuts the odor a little bit).
We were surprised the other day by a visit from another college friend of mine, Al Henning, who like Brian Litscher sang with me in the Dartmouth Aires. Al was flying back to Hanover from California and spoke to me while he was awaiting a connecting flight in Atlanta. I told him of our location on Bromley Mountain and our expected
itinerary for the next day. After finally arriving in Hanover at 3am, he must have started driving at 6am and found a road that intersected our trail then started hiking south to meet us. It was a surprise and a great treat to talk and catch up on old times as we hiked back to his car. This was Dartmouth dedication above and beyond!
We are back on the trail today and expect to tackle Killington and Pico Peak tomorrow, the first time above 4000 feet elevation since North Peak of the Three Ridges in Virginia. Once we reach Route 4, it's up to Middlebury by bus for a day so Dewey can visit a few friends at the language school. We hope to finish Vermont and roll into Hanover by Friday. More updates to come.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Dalton Mass.,Vermont looms ahead in 24 miles
Sean posted his update this morning but I thought I would add my own two cents to the blog. It has been quite a while since we have been afforded internet access, and we apologize for the lack of news over the past several days. Tomorrow we expect to tackle Mt. Greylock, the highest mountain and point of the AT in Mass. We spent last night with my college friend and fellow Aires singer Brian Litscher, and his wife Marie. They rejuvenated us with steaks on the grill, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and a soak in the hot tub. We took our time getting out today, while shopping for groceries and finding Dewey a new pair of trail runners (his last pair had 750 miles on them!). We got on the trail and hiked 10 miles to Dalton (big day, right?) and are holed up tonight with Tom, who offers his house to thru-hikers as a place of respite, providing beds and meals. He has been doing this for twenty-five years, and accepts no donations or fees! We have had it good for the past two nights and its going to be hard to get used to 'roughing it' again on the trail. However, we expect to camp tomorrow on the shoulder of Greylock, and to be in Bennington by Monday evening. We'll continue the hike north through Vermont, and will get picked up by our friends Tim and Deb Shafer, by the end of the week; themselves returning from a four day backpacking trip on the northern Long Trail. Ah, it's great to be back in New England where we have friends and family. We had a wonderful dinner with my sister-in-law Patti in Great Barrington, enjoying stone fired pizza that was out of this world. We had originally planned to return to the trail that evening after dinner, but ended up opting for a motel instead as post-prandial lethargy took hold. This turned out to be a very wise decision, as it rained cats and dogs within 15 minutes of our check-in.
New Jersey and New York passed relatively quickly. NJ was pleasant with fairly gentle terrain. New York posed very significant challenges at times, with sharp rocky climbs and scrambles. Of course we hit this in the middle of the heat wave that Dewey described. After crossing into New York, we spent the next 6 miles on open rock ridges, which just concentrated the heat even more. Far below us was wonderful- looking Greenwood Lake. We reached the road, nearly dying of heat exhaustion, but were successfully resuscitated by a nearby creamery that had the best ice cream, or so it seemed at the time. It was then that we decided to pull an emergency motel stop on the lake with the Antons, who were very lovely people. We called and they gladly came to pick us up (and later gave us a ride back to the trail the next day) and brought us to the motel. A swim in the lake fully restored us. That evening we mt Debbie Holton-Smith, a friend from our Dartmouth-Hitchcock days who met us and took us out to dinner. It was great to catch up after so many years. The following day was the worst of the heat, registering at 98 degrees locally holding our mileage down to 14 miles that day, the shortest mileage day since we started the AT. Luckily we found a trail angel- Patty-o -just after entering Harriman State Park. He provided food cooked on a small grill and cold beverages. He also suggested we camp at Island Pond, only 1.5 miles up the trail from there. This was the best advice, as the lake was wonderful for swimming and we camped on a grassy knoll with a wonderful view.
The last day of the heat wave was not as brutal so far as the temperatures were concerned, but the humidity could be cut with a knife. We found ourselves being chased off Bear Mountain by a severe thunderstorm, which necessitated yet another unscheduled motel night in Fort Montgomery.
It was about this time that it seemed to dawn on us that maybe we could just simply plan on staying at motels every night, and forget all this camping stuff! In the meantime, we had also discovered that every day at noon we seemed to cross a road which inevitably had a deli within a half mile. We took it on ourselves to sample every deli, for the good of trail. Thus between the motels and the delis, who needs to carry food? Dewey was particularly enthusiastic about the delis; prompting our theme song:
New Jersey and New York passed relatively quickly. NJ was pleasant with fairly gentle terrain. New York posed very significant challenges at times, with sharp rocky climbs and scrambles. Of course we hit this in the middle of the heat wave that Dewey described. After crossing into New York, we spent the next 6 miles on open rock ridges, which just concentrated the heat even more. Far below us was wonderful- looking Greenwood Lake. We reached the road, nearly dying of heat exhaustion, but were successfully resuscitated by a nearby creamery that had the best ice cream, or so it seemed at the time. It was then that we decided to pull an emergency motel stop on the lake with the Antons, who were very lovely people. We called and they gladly came to pick us up (and later gave us a ride back to the trail the next day) and brought us to the motel. A swim in the lake fully restored us. That evening we mt Debbie Holton-Smith, a friend from our Dartmouth-Hitchcock days who met us and took us out to dinner. It was great to catch up after so many years. The following day was the worst of the heat, registering at 98 degrees locally holding our mileage down to 14 miles that day, the shortest mileage day since we started the AT. Luckily we found a trail angel- Patty-o -just after entering Harriman State Park. He provided food cooked on a small grill and cold beverages. He also suggested we camp at Island Pond, only 1.5 miles up the trail from there. This was the best advice, as the lake was wonderful for swimming and we camped on a grassy knoll with a wonderful view.
The last day of the heat wave was not as brutal so far as the temperatures were concerned, but the humidity could be cut with a knife. We found ourselves being chased off Bear Mountain by a severe thunderstorm, which necessitated yet another unscheduled motel night in Fort Montgomery.
It was about this time that it seemed to dawn on us that maybe we could just simply plan on staying at motels every night, and forget all this camping stuff! In the meantime, we had also discovered that every day at noon we seemed to cross a road which inevitably had a deli within a half mile. We took it on ourselves to sample every deli, for the good of trail. Thus between the motels and the delis, who needs to carry food? Dewey was particularly enthusiastic about the delis; prompting our theme song:
back to back
deli to deli
well I don't give a damn
about PB and jelly
back to back
deli to deli
it was pastrami jamboree
With any luck we should be to the New Hampshire line in 12 to 14 days, covering the 150 miles that Vermont has to offer. We may slow down a bit, now that we are in the interesting part of the AT. More updates to come!
Friday, July 20, 2007
The New England Home Stretch
After three months of hiking, I have exciting news.
WE HAVE CROSSED INTO NEW ENGLAND!!
In the time since our last update in Vernon, NJ, we have breezed through New York, Connecticut, and are now in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where one of my dad's college buddies is feeding us steak and giving us a dry place to sleep for the night. It helps that the further north we go, the more people we know. We met up with a number of people between New Jersey and Massachusetts. In Warwick, NY we went out to dinner with one of my mom's best friends named Debbie who I haven't seen since I was in diapers. And two days ago in Great Barrington, MA my aunt Patti picked us up at the trail head and shuttled us around town and bought us pizza. Although this past stretch of trail was not particularly challenging terrain-wise, the weather nearly killed us. We faced a brutal heat wave with temps that reached into the upper nineties. Then, as if the heat wasn't bad enough, mother nature opened the heavens on us for two days straight. It was frustrating at times, but we pushed through. The fact that we are rapidly closing the gap between here and Katahdin is a huge psychological help.
The past week or so, for whatever reason, we have managed to stay with the same group of hikers instead of blowing past them like we normally do. It has been really nice because allows us at least some social interaction when we stop for the night. Our group includes: Bonafide, a middle aged woman from Florida who hikes with an overprotective Portuguese Water dog named "Bone." Little Red and Wolf hail from Durham, North Carolina. Little Red gets her name from her red hair which you can pick out from a mile away. Wolf, her boyfriend worked for an environmental consulting firm in Durham, and before that had spent ten months as a soldier in Iraq.
We have also had the pleasure of hiking with Ziplock and Nitro, a young couple originally from Nashville Tennessee. Nitro wears her hair in braids while Ziplock sports a bushy brown beard that sticks out form the sides of his face, and a blue bandanna around his head. He is affable, with a great sense of humor and a quick smile, and has a remarkable gift for telling stories. Every night, after stoves are put away and the rays of the sun start to disappear behind the canopy of the trees, he produces a small backpacker's guitar and sits and sings Grateful Dead tunes in a soft tenor, as if trying to coax us all to sleep.
Finally, there's Steven. We have been hiking with Steven since we first ran into him in Duncannon, Pennsylvania. He is an odd sight for sure, as he wears a hiking kilt, a button down collared T-shirt, and sports a mohawk dyed electric yellow. Once you get past his odd appearance, he is very nice. He refuses to take a trail name for some odd reason, and now has about ten different ones following him up the trail, and gets a new one every time he goes into town. We were present on one such occasion, when at a bar an inebriated older gentleman staggered up to Steven and slurred, "You look like...an...Electric Lizard." Despite our best efforts, we could not get the name to stick.
Anyway, Steven is a wonderful fellow, originally from Kentucky who is easy going and fun to hang out with. We didn't really get to know Steven until New York, after a particularly brutal heat wave that threatened to kill everyone on the trail forced the three of us to retreat to an air conditioned motel called Anton's on the Lake. There we took a swim and tried to recover from our collective heat exhaustion. Two days after we got back on the trail, my dad received a frantic call from the motel's owners. They were livid because Steven had apparently left without paying his bill and wanted us to say something to him. When we approached him about it, Steven exclaimed, "What do they mean I didn't pay? I couldn't find them that morning so I just left seventy five dollars in cash in the maid's tip envelope!" I believe the whole mess was sorted out in the end.
WE HAVE CROSSED INTO NEW ENGLAND!!
In the time since our last update in Vernon, NJ, we have breezed through New York, Connecticut, and are now in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where one of my dad's college buddies is feeding us steak and giving us a dry place to sleep for the night. It helps that the further north we go, the more people we know. We met up with a number of people between New Jersey and Massachusetts. In Warwick, NY we went out to dinner with one of my mom's best friends named Debbie who I haven't seen since I was in diapers. And two days ago in Great Barrington, MA my aunt Patti picked us up at the trail head and shuttled us around town and bought us pizza. Although this past stretch of trail was not particularly challenging terrain-wise, the weather nearly killed us. We faced a brutal heat wave with temps that reached into the upper nineties. Then, as if the heat wasn't bad enough, mother nature opened the heavens on us for two days straight. It was frustrating at times, but we pushed through. The fact that we are rapidly closing the gap between here and Katahdin is a huge psychological help.
The past week or so, for whatever reason, we have managed to stay with the same group of hikers instead of blowing past them like we normally do. It has been really nice because allows us at least some social interaction when we stop for the night. Our group includes: Bonafide, a middle aged woman from Florida who hikes with an overprotective Portuguese Water dog named "Bone." Little Red and Wolf hail from Durham, North Carolina. Little Red gets her name from her red hair which you can pick out from a mile away. Wolf, her boyfriend worked for an environmental consulting firm in Durham, and before that had spent ten months as a soldier in Iraq.
We have also had the pleasure of hiking with Ziplock and Nitro, a young couple originally from Nashville Tennessee. Nitro wears her hair in braids while Ziplock sports a bushy brown beard that sticks out form the sides of his face, and a blue bandanna around his head. He is affable, with a great sense of humor and a quick smile, and has a remarkable gift for telling stories. Every night, after stoves are put away and the rays of the sun start to disappear behind the canopy of the trees, he produces a small backpacker's guitar and sits and sings Grateful Dead tunes in a soft tenor, as if trying to coax us all to sleep.
Finally, there's Steven. We have been hiking with Steven since we first ran into him in Duncannon, Pennsylvania. He is an odd sight for sure, as he wears a hiking kilt, a button down collared T-shirt, and sports a mohawk dyed electric yellow. Once you get past his odd appearance, he is very nice. He refuses to take a trail name for some odd reason, and now has about ten different ones following him up the trail, and gets a new one every time he goes into town. We were present on one such occasion, when at a bar an inebriated older gentleman staggered up to Steven and slurred, "You look like...an...Electric Lizard." Despite our best efforts, we could not get the name to stick.
Anyway, Steven is a wonderful fellow, originally from Kentucky who is easy going and fun to hang out with. We didn't really get to know Steven until New York, after a particularly brutal heat wave that threatened to kill everyone on the trail forced the three of us to retreat to an air conditioned motel called Anton's on the Lake. There we took a swim and tried to recover from our collective heat exhaustion. Two days after we got back on the trail, my dad received a frantic call from the motel's owners. They were livid because Steven had apparently left without paying his bill and wanted us to say something to him. When we approached him about it, Steven exclaimed, "What do they mean I didn't pay? I couldn't find them that morning so I just left seventy five dollars in cash in the maid's tip envelope!" I believe the whole mess was sorted out in the end.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Pictures from PA visit 6/29-7/2
Kathy and Tim Boley's Lancaster B&B
Route 309, near New Tripoli PA
Back on the trail
Sean catches up on the latest news
Mark edits the blog
Rest and relaxation
Sean gives up the i-pod for NPR
Mark needs more calories!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Update: July 8th, Vernon, N.J.
Just a brief update as we are about to leave New Jersey behind us; to let you all know that Dewey and I are still alive and continuing on our northern trek. Since our last update, we completed Pennsylvania with little further ado. The weather was kind to us with sunny dry, low humidity days. Fortunately, the reports that the rocks got even worse during the last 50 miles after Lehigh Gap proved totally exaggerated, as many reports of this type tend to be. The climb out of Lehigh Gap was awesome and wonderful, over large open rocks, with wonderful panoramas. We found it was interesting as we continued along the ridge-top for the first two miles, as it was almost completely devoid of vegetation. We later learned that this was the consequence of a Zinc mine that had been located in the valley below. The ash given off by the processing completely killed all vegetative life, leaving a stark rock-filled landscape, now on the super-fund clean-up list.
We spent two days at Delaware Water Gap, Pa. The second day was an unanticipated 'zero' day for us, as Dewey had a few essays to complete at the library 4 miles away for a job application. We spent the second night at the Episcopalian Hiker Hostel. This was a real treat, as the congregation put on a hiker feed on Thursday nights, more than justifying our second day there.
We entered N. J. the next day by crossing the Delaware River over the I-80 bridge, with all it's highway noise. We appropriately photo documented the event somewhere in the middle. On the other side you enter Wadsworth State Park and enter a beautiful forest, gradually climbing the ridge on the other side. The trail quickly loses the sounds of the highway and hugs cascading waterfalls through beautiful lush green forests. You quickly pass by Sunfish Pond, which is the first glacial pond left by the glaciers. Although it is posted prohibiting swimming, the temptation proved to be too great. The summits of the ridges were different than Pa., offering a lot more open grassy tops with vistas all around. However, our old friends the Pennsylvania rocks seemed to follow us as well, for at least the first two days. New Jersey has been interesting, with varied terrain, fields and forests, and it's occasional delis at the road crossings. Last night we managed to lose a shelter location (although we followed the map location to a tee) and found ourselves camped (perhaps illegally) by the shore of a beautiful lake, where the shelter was supposed to be located. We enjoyed a brief swim and a good dinner. Today the high heat and humidity returned to last for at least the next couple days, but this is summer, after all.
Tomorrow, within 10 miles, we will leave N. J. behind us for the 90+ miles in New York that remain, before we find ourselves home in New England. There we will finally have much family and friend support as we continue our march to Maine. More updates to come!
We spent two days at Delaware Water Gap, Pa. The second day was an unanticipated 'zero' day for us, as Dewey had a few essays to complete at the library 4 miles away for a job application. We spent the second night at the Episcopalian Hiker Hostel. This was a real treat, as the congregation put on a hiker feed on Thursday nights, more than justifying our second day there.
We entered N. J. the next day by crossing the Delaware River over the I-80 bridge, with all it's highway noise. We appropriately photo documented the event somewhere in the middle. On the other side you enter Wadsworth State Park and enter a beautiful forest, gradually climbing the ridge on the other side. The trail quickly loses the sounds of the highway and hugs cascading waterfalls through beautiful lush green forests. You quickly pass by Sunfish Pond, which is the first glacial pond left by the glaciers. Although it is posted prohibiting swimming, the temptation proved to be too great. The summits of the ridges were different than Pa., offering a lot more open grassy tops with vistas all around. However, our old friends the Pennsylvania rocks seemed to follow us as well, for at least the first two days. New Jersey has been interesting, with varied terrain, fields and forests, and it's occasional delis at the road crossings. Last night we managed to lose a shelter location (although we followed the map location to a tee) and found ourselves camped (perhaps illegally) by the shore of a beautiful lake, where the shelter was supposed to be located. We enjoyed a brief swim and a good dinner. Today the high heat and humidity returned to last for at least the next couple days, but this is summer, after all.
Tomorrow, within 10 miles, we will leave N. J. behind us for the 90+ miles in New York that remain, before we find ourselves home in New England. There we will finally have much family and friend support as we continue our march to Maine. More updates to come!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Kathy Finds the Mountain Men
After 11 weeks of the single life, I got tired of talking to the dog and decided to make a pilgrimage to the AT to find the mountain men, and to provide some trail magic. (Sean's requests were for: 1. The NY Times, 2. Economist magazine, 3. several books, and 4. last, but not least, chocolate chip cookies. These requests were granted, with the addition of clean clothes for "city life" so I would not be embarassed to be seen with them in public!)
So, after winding my way from Maine to Massachusetts to New Jersey, I ended up in New Tripoli, PA on Route 309, waiting for Mark and Sean to arrive. They were standing in the parking lot of a hotel-restaurant, and were a sight for sore eyes. They were a blast to the noses as well, as they were quite pungent, to put it mildly! We all piled into the car, and headed for Lancaster, PA, for some well earned R&R at the Boley's. Great food, showers, laundry, and conversation occurred over the weekend, as well as a trip the the local theater for a performance by Bill Cosby. As Sean has described, Mark was the skinniest I have ever seen him. I did not complain once about the amount of food he was eating; actually I was encouraging him to eat more! That is a first :)
He also had a fever, so my nursing skills were put to use, and gradually he improved over the weekend. Grocery shopping ensued, with the addition of some Indian food in a box that looked like good easy trail food. A change for the tast buds seemed appropriate. Tim Boley also donated some MRE's (Army issued meals ready to eat,) which Mark and Sean reported to be very good in their phone call last night. Kathy and I delivered them back to the AT on Monday, July 1st, waving and honking the horn as they trudged off into the woods.
So, after winding my way from Maine to Massachusetts to New Jersey, I ended up in New Tripoli, PA on Route 309, waiting for Mark and Sean to arrive. They were standing in the parking lot of a hotel-restaurant, and were a sight for sore eyes. They were a blast to the noses as well, as they were quite pungent, to put it mildly! We all piled into the car, and headed for Lancaster, PA, for some well earned R&R at the Boley's. Great food, showers, laundry, and conversation occurred over the weekend, as well as a trip the the local theater for a performance by Bill Cosby. As Sean has described, Mark was the skinniest I have ever seen him. I did not complain once about the amount of food he was eating; actually I was encouraging him to eat more! That is a first :)
He also had a fever, so my nursing skills were put to use, and gradually he improved over the weekend. Grocery shopping ensued, with the addition of some Indian food in a box that looked like good easy trail food. A change for the tast buds seemed appropriate. Tim Boley also donated some MRE's (Army issued meals ready to eat,) which Mark and Sean reported to be very good in their phone call last night. Kathy and I delivered them back to the AT on Monday, July 1st, waving and honking the horn as they trudged off into the woods.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Pennsylvania Rocks
Greetings from Lancaster Pennsylvania! Since my last entry we have made it through Maryland and all but fifty miles of Pennsylvania. We expect to be in New England sometime within the next two weeks and we have never been more excited.
Unfortunately, these past few weeks have been the hardest part of the trail so far. Not hard physically, just mentally exhausting. I was warned this would happen in Georgia, by a former thru hiker. She was a middle aged woman from Florida who had hiked the trail with her husband back in the eighties. Her trail name was "Gorilla" because as she put it, "I loved bananas and I didn’t take shit from anyone." Anyway, she told me something that makes more and more sense the farther I hike. She said,"the first thousand miles or so is all physical, the second half is mental" You can see this in the numbers of people who complete the trail. Every year, more than 1,500 people set out from Springer. Of those people, only five to six hundred make it to sign in at Harpers Ferry. Of those that make it, only fifty percent make it to Maine--approximately 200-300 each year.
Now that we have more than 1,200 miles worn into the soles of our shoes, Gorilla’s words make even more sense to me. I understand why so few people make it to Maine and I think it mostly has to do with Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, for lack of a better word, sucks. Now, I don't really hate all of Pennsylvania (after all, this is the state that gave us the Philly Cheese Steak, the Amish, and provided the inspiration for the Rocky movies) just the mountains. They are really boring, and consist of forests that have been decimated by gypsy moths, long, flat ridges with few, if any, views, and nasty, sharp rocks that leave you sore and frustrated at the end of the day. Pennsylvania has been hard on us and we are glad to be closing in on the border. The only thing that has kept our sanity in tact is that we can feel ourselves getting closer to home. The thought that we will soon be in familiar territory gives us that extra bit of mental stamina we need to put one sore foot ahead of the other and fight this rock-induced mental torpor.
I have also found that I am a different person now than when I started. I don't mean that I have "found myself" or any of that other touchy feely BS but rather, I am physically a different person. My upper body has shrunk, my legs now resemble tree trunks and I have lost nearly fifteen pounds of weight (and I didn't have all that much to lose in the first place) My dad has lost almost twenty pounds. When my mom came down to see us, she scolded him, "you have lost waaay too much weight...you should eat more" My friend Rene, who thru hiked the trail last year informed me that this transformation is a normal part of hiking, but it is different for men and women. Women, she said, finish the trail looking trim and tough. Men, on the other hand finish looking like Tyrannosaurus Rexes.
Birdman:
As I have mentioned several times previously, you really meet some strange characters out on the trail. Take Birdman, a grad student from the University of Maine in Orono (who incidentally lives right down the street from my family), he is a brilliant naturalist who hikes with binoculars around his neck, and listens to the thousands of birdcalls uploaded to his ipod while he hikes. If you see him hiking he'll periodically dive off into the woods for snakes and gets really excited about seeing new wildlife. Two weeks ago, we arrived in Pine Grove Furnace state park the geographic mid-point of the AT. There we found a few of our friends milling around the camp store ravenously eating hamburgers and fries. Suddenly, another thru hiker came over and said, "did you hear what happened to Birdman?" We shook our heads collectively. "He had to go to the hospital for eating poison ivy!" Apparently a friend of his had told him that the Native Americans would regularly eat poison ivy. Unfortunately, his bad decision caused him to break out in a full body blister and had to be rushed to the ER for treatment. Apparently he is planning to get back on the trail.
Challenges of the Trail:
Another little known tradition of the AT are the annual challenges that boredom addled thru hikers invent to amuse themselves. The time honored challenge is one called the four state challenge where hikers camp at the Virginia-West Virginia border and then hike the 46 miles through Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland and camp in Pennsylvania. They usually start at three in the morning and routinely don't finish until eleven at night. In this same vein, I heard of a group of hikers promoting a new challenge called the “one night in New Jersey” Challenge where you do two consecutive 35 mile days through Jersey. Needless to say, I opted out of this particular challenge.
One challenge that I did participate in, however, was one with a long and distinguished tradition among hikers called the Half Gallon Challenge where hikers time themselves as they attempt to eat an entire half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. The record is three minutes (although he melted the ice cream first and drank it). Eating that much ice cream is an ordeal unto itself. It takes most people over an hour to finish. I sat down and finished the 3360 calories of ice cream in a lightning fast 28 minutes flat. Everyone was astonished…and a bit disgusted.
That’s all for this entry. With any luck my next update will be from New England!
Unfortunately, these past few weeks have been the hardest part of the trail so far. Not hard physically, just mentally exhausting. I was warned this would happen in Georgia, by a former thru hiker. She was a middle aged woman from Florida who had hiked the trail with her husband back in the eighties. Her trail name was "Gorilla" because as she put it, "I loved bananas and I didn’t take shit from anyone." Anyway, she told me something that makes more and more sense the farther I hike. She said,"the first thousand miles or so is all physical, the second half is mental" You can see this in the numbers of people who complete the trail. Every year, more than 1,500 people set out from Springer. Of those people, only five to six hundred make it to sign in at Harpers Ferry. Of those that make it, only fifty percent make it to Maine--approximately 200-300 each year.
Now that we have more than 1,200 miles worn into the soles of our shoes, Gorilla’s words make even more sense to me. I understand why so few people make it to Maine and I think it mostly has to do with Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, for lack of a better word, sucks. Now, I don't really hate all of Pennsylvania (after all, this is the state that gave us the Philly Cheese Steak, the Amish, and provided the inspiration for the Rocky movies) just the mountains. They are really boring, and consist of forests that have been decimated by gypsy moths, long, flat ridges with few, if any, views, and nasty, sharp rocks that leave you sore and frustrated at the end of the day. Pennsylvania has been hard on us and we are glad to be closing in on the border. The only thing that has kept our sanity in tact is that we can feel ourselves getting closer to home. The thought that we will soon be in familiar territory gives us that extra bit of mental stamina we need to put one sore foot ahead of the other and fight this rock-induced mental torpor.
I have also found that I am a different person now than when I started. I don't mean that I have "found myself" or any of that other touchy feely BS but rather, I am physically a different person. My upper body has shrunk, my legs now resemble tree trunks and I have lost nearly fifteen pounds of weight (and I didn't have all that much to lose in the first place) My dad has lost almost twenty pounds. When my mom came down to see us, she scolded him, "you have lost waaay too much weight...you should eat more" My friend Rene, who thru hiked the trail last year informed me that this transformation is a normal part of hiking, but it is different for men and women. Women, she said, finish the trail looking trim and tough. Men, on the other hand finish looking like Tyrannosaurus Rexes.
Birdman:
As I have mentioned several times previously, you really meet some strange characters out on the trail. Take Birdman, a grad student from the University of Maine in Orono (who incidentally lives right down the street from my family), he is a brilliant naturalist who hikes with binoculars around his neck, and listens to the thousands of birdcalls uploaded to his ipod while he hikes. If you see him hiking he'll periodically dive off into the woods for snakes and gets really excited about seeing new wildlife. Two weeks ago, we arrived in Pine Grove Furnace state park the geographic mid-point of the AT. There we found a few of our friends milling around the camp store ravenously eating hamburgers and fries. Suddenly, another thru hiker came over and said, "did you hear what happened to Birdman?" We shook our heads collectively. "He had to go to the hospital for eating poison ivy!" Apparently a friend of his had told him that the Native Americans would regularly eat poison ivy. Unfortunately, his bad decision caused him to break out in a full body blister and had to be rushed to the ER for treatment. Apparently he is planning to get back on the trail.
Challenges of the Trail:
Another little known tradition of the AT are the annual challenges that boredom addled thru hikers invent to amuse themselves. The time honored challenge is one called the four state challenge where hikers camp at the Virginia-West Virginia border and then hike the 46 miles through Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland and camp in Pennsylvania. They usually start at three in the morning and routinely don't finish until eleven at night. In this same vein, I heard of a group of hikers promoting a new challenge called the “one night in New Jersey” Challenge where you do two consecutive 35 mile days through Jersey. Needless to say, I opted out of this particular challenge.
One challenge that I did participate in, however, was one with a long and distinguished tradition among hikers called the Half Gallon Challenge where hikers time themselves as they attempt to eat an entire half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. The record is three minutes (although he melted the ice cream first and drank it). Eating that much ice cream is an ordeal unto itself. It takes most people over an hour to finish. I sat down and finished the 3360 calories of ice cream in a lightning fast 28 minutes flat. Everyone was astonished…and a bit disgusted.
That’s all for this entry. With any luck my next update will be from New England!
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Lehigh Gap, PA June 30,2007
It's been some time since we've been able to update the blog, as internet access have been somewhat difficult to find. We got into Duncannon on a Sunday, and could only have access to the hotel's computer, for which they charged a nominal fee of $2 for 30 minutes, so needless to say we didn't try to update there. We've now made it to within 13 miles of Lehigh Gap, and it's only 50 miles to the New Jersey border, and two weeks or less of walking til we're home in New England. Currently we are resting two days with friends in Lancaster, Pa. while I get over some kind of viral thing, and regroup for the next part of the journey. Kathy (no trail name), has been making a southern tour visiting friends from her childhood in N. J. and arranged a rendezvous with us on the trail. She brought us to Lancaster where Tim and Kathy Boley, recently relocated from the Bangor area, have graciously hosted us, showing us the highlights of Lancaster Co, and Amish Country. We've taken advantage of being in a home to wash down the backpacks and reconfigure our equipment. With the heat and humidity during the last couple of weeks, both the packs and ouselves were a little ripe. A bath with Mr. Clean and a little bleach and things are good as new (for the packs, not us!) It turns out that Dewey was not sized correctly when he was sold his Osprey pack, and as he lost weight, the pack became more and more uncomfortable. Although we bought the pack at EMS in Boston, the EMS store here would not trade out unless we could show them the the receipt. However they did give us a 20% discount on a new pack, and Dewey figures he can sell the old one on Ebay. So now we have both switched packs on this trip; no wonder the outfitters along the trail seem to do so well.
Pennsylvania has proven to be every bit the challenge that we expected it to be. Apparently the statistics indicate that of the people indicating intentions to complete a thru-hike who reach Harper's Ferry, about 50% are successful in doing so. We also learned that many of the people dropping out this year have done so in Pennsylvania.
The initial half of PA was quite a pleasant surprise. The trail runs through several state parks with beautiful forests and ridges. We stayed in a nice hostel in Pine Furnace Park, set up in a historic building built in the early 1800's rumored to have housed Martha and George Washington for a night. We learned on arriving there however that the house was built 15 to 20 years after George's death. We stayed overnight in Boiling Springs, and took advantage of the local pool with water slides for a great cool down and clean-up. Although there's no place to stay in Hot Springs, one of the two B+B's in town opens it's back yard to hikers who want to tent. There were at least eight tents there the night we stayed. The weather to this point was great with low humidity, excellent for hiking, while we hiked twenty five miles or so across flat farmlands and fields to the Duncannon area.
We arrived as expected in Duncannon, and spent one night at the lovely Doyle Hotel (another story!) The hiking from that point on can only be described as tortuous. The mountains are long flat ridges about 1500 ft high. The amount of climbing is actually minimal, so you would think the hiking would be easy; not so unfortunately. The weather turned much more humid and hot, actually breaking previous records for this part of Pennsylvania. It is amazing how much heat alone can sap your strength. Things (like backpacks) just never seem to dry. You feel damp while trying to sleep at night. No matter how many times you rinse your clothing in the stream, you can't quite shake the eau de mildew that seems to overtake everything.
The second recent challenge has been the Pennsylvania rocks. As we have discovered, many trail legends of what lies ahead have proven to be nothing, or less of a big deal than as billed... up to now. The rocks are every bit as hard as we've heard. These rocks can go on for half a mile at a time, are 8 to 12 inches in size, and usually roll when you step on them, posing significant threat of ankle injury. While rolling on the rocks, you have to also be wary of Timber Rattle Snakes, which are quite common in the area. We came across a warren of seven such snakes the other day sunning on the rocks in the middle of the trail (see attached picture update. If you hear a rattle, while rolling on a rock, you know you might be in trouble. (Note to self; but don't worry, 30% of bites do not inject venom, and there hasn't been a fatal snake bite in PA in over 25 years!) The frequency and length of exposure to this kind of terrain is increasing the farther north we go , and is supposed to become the most challenging beyond Lehigh Gap. The rocks apparently continue for a day and a half in N. J., then finally disappear.
Our third and final challenge in this state has been the lack of interesting topographical features. Most of the time we are walking in the woods, with little view, on largely flat terrain. Of all the states to this point on the AT, Pennsylvania has proven to be the most difficult challenge to hurdle.
Luckily, the weather has cleared and the humidity is gone. The next several days look great. Once we leave Pa., we will rack up the states quickly. We have only 77 miles in N.J., and 90 miles in N.Y. before we are back in New England. It's interesting to note that a little over one quarter of the entire trail length runs through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Katahdin is almost on the horizon. More to come!
Pennsylvania has proven to be every bit the challenge that we expected it to be. Apparently the statistics indicate that of the people indicating intentions to complete a thru-hike who reach Harper's Ferry, about 50% are successful in doing so. We also learned that many of the people dropping out this year have done so in Pennsylvania.
The initial half of PA was quite a pleasant surprise. The trail runs through several state parks with beautiful forests and ridges. We stayed in a nice hostel in Pine Furnace Park, set up in a historic building built in the early 1800's rumored to have housed Martha and George Washington for a night. We learned on arriving there however that the house was built 15 to 20 years after George's death. We stayed overnight in Boiling Springs, and took advantage of the local pool with water slides for a great cool down and clean-up. Although there's no place to stay in Hot Springs, one of the two B+B's in town opens it's back yard to hikers who want to tent. There were at least eight tents there the night we stayed. The weather to this point was great with low humidity, excellent for hiking, while we hiked twenty five miles or so across flat farmlands and fields to the Duncannon area.
We arrived as expected in Duncannon, and spent one night at the lovely Doyle Hotel (another story!) The hiking from that point on can only be described as tortuous. The mountains are long flat ridges about 1500 ft high. The amount of climbing is actually minimal, so you would think the hiking would be easy; not so unfortunately. The weather turned much more humid and hot, actually breaking previous records for this part of Pennsylvania. It is amazing how much heat alone can sap your strength. Things (like backpacks) just never seem to dry. You feel damp while trying to sleep at night. No matter how many times you rinse your clothing in the stream, you can't quite shake the eau de mildew that seems to overtake everything.
The second recent challenge has been the Pennsylvania rocks. As we have discovered, many trail legends of what lies ahead have proven to be nothing, or less of a big deal than as billed... up to now. The rocks are every bit as hard as we've heard. These rocks can go on for half a mile at a time, are 8 to 12 inches in size, and usually roll when you step on them, posing significant threat of ankle injury. While rolling on the rocks, you have to also be wary of Timber Rattle Snakes, which are quite common in the area. We came across a warren of seven such snakes the other day sunning on the rocks in the middle of the trail (see attached picture update. If you hear a rattle, while rolling on a rock, you know you might be in trouble. (Note to self; but don't worry, 30% of bites do not inject venom, and there hasn't been a fatal snake bite in PA in over 25 years!) The frequency and length of exposure to this kind of terrain is increasing the farther north we go , and is supposed to become the most challenging beyond Lehigh Gap. The rocks apparently continue for a day and a half in N. J., then finally disappear.
Our third and final challenge in this state has been the lack of interesting topographical features. Most of the time we are walking in the woods, with little view, on largely flat terrain. Of all the states to this point on the AT, Pennsylvania has proven to be the most difficult challenge to hurdle.
Luckily, the weather has cleared and the humidity is gone. The next several days look great. Once we leave Pa., we will rack up the states quickly. We have only 77 miles in N.J., and 90 miles in N.Y. before we are back in New England. It's interesting to note that a little over one quarter of the entire trail length runs through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Katahdin is almost on the horizon. More to come!
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