Half Way to Sanity

Hello from mile 1193. By the time you read this, I’ll be making my way through the NY-NJ corridor. It has been 343 miles since the last update and a lot has transpired. Some of which includes falling six times, lots of rain, one bear, two rattlers, a back injury that took me off the trail for 5 days, foot blisters that took me off for two days, many amazing people and Pennsylvania.

   new when I started

Pennsylvania has been by far the hardest part of the trail to date, and my least favorite. The reasons? Hard to find or a pain in the butt to get water and ROCKS, lots of rocks, tons of rocks more rocks than I saw in the first 1,022 miles of the trail. I have been either climbing up and over garage-sized boulders or hopping from one knife-edged boulder to another. Torn my feet up and my equipment. Busted a tent pole, developed a leak in my air mattress, imploded one hiking boot, busted my third water bladder and trashed both of my hiking poles. Glad to be leaving PA – for both physical and financial reasons.

But a lot of the physical and wallet pain have been offset by the tremendous people I have come across these last 300+ miles.

I’ll start with PETRA. A striking woman from Germany. She is in the U.S. on a vacation/sabbatical. When I emerged from my tent one morning in the Shenandoah National Park, she invited me to her campsite for breakfast. After a 90-minute conversation, she walked me to the trailhead and serenaded me with a beautiful song!

Then there was “Rodeo,” a fellow thru-hiker, and the first woman that I have met from Texas on the trail. She will always be remembered for the quote: “The Tex-Mex we’ve been eating out here is crap.” The pride of Cut-N-Shoot.

Jill B. the ultimate trail angel. A friend to all hikers, she provides shelter, car rides and food to hikers. She even hiked a case of cold beer to a shelter on the trail. Many thanks Jill!!

Fellow hikers MacGyver and Lemur. To date, they are the couple that bicker at each other the least that I have met on the trail. In addition Mac-G has the baddest outdoor skills of any A/T hiker or anyone else I have ever met. I have been hiking with them off and on for the past 800 miles and their assistance has been invaluable.

Lastly, I want to mention the incredible people at Pocono Foot and Ankle Consultants. Dr. Lisa Dadson, Larry Troutman, Gesila Smith, Pat Kelly and Ev Smith. I am forever in their debt for their expertise, generosity and their compassion. I was blessed to meet these fine folks and am forever in their debt for “re-conditioning” my feet and getting me back on the trail.

Okay, one more shout-out. Bobby, a trucker from NJ, had eaten breakfast at the same place that Mac, Lemur and I had. When we walked out, he jumped out of his truck and approached us staying: “I think what you all are doing is great, and I wanna buy your breakfast.” I told him I couldn’t let him do that, but I would take the cash and make a donation to Gilda’s on his behalf. Fine by him. Here’s a guy paying $5.00 a gallon for diesel, and he wants to buy three rag-a-muffin hikers breakfast – everyone should chew on that for awhile.

I’ll see you down the trail.

fungus face

wolf spider