Northbound By Foot
An Appalachian Thru HikeArchive for June, 2011
6-29-11 Skydive Sussex
Zero Day
How can you look at this guy and not laugh? Ha. We spent the day at the Sussex airport where Chutes did some chuting. He squeezed in 4 jumps and enjoyed every second of it. I, on the other hand did some quality lounging. I sat around the jump zone, then drove to the post office to get my new shoes and sat there for a while waiting from their extended lunch break to end, then I sat at the little market while I downed a pint of ice cream and finally I sat around for a while back at the jump zone until Chutes returned to the soil. I throughly enjoyed every bit of my immobilization.
We capped off the day by rolling into the drive in movie theater to see Transformers 3. It was pretty good, but I started getting a bit tired at the end. I mean it wasn’t over till like 11:30 and that is well past hiker midnight! Tomorrow will bring me some more quality lounging as Chutes continues to fill his skydiving fix. Char and Steph will be here tomorrow night and then it’s back on the trail. For now it’s sleep. Check out my new shades. Loving Life.
6-28-11 Here’s To The Spear Family
Pochuk Shelter to Spear Family Home: 14 miles
No rush today. We laid in our hammocks delaying the foot on soil march as we only had 14 miles to do by 3:00 pm. After a quick spray down with deep woods bug spray we set off down the trail. It was about 6 miles to our first stop of the day at the Heaven Hill farm for some treats. Fresh fruit and ice cream would do just fine before we ascended upon Waywanda Mt and our largest climb in some time.
The trail took us 1,000 feet up a rocky path that never seemed to reach a true summit. Once up there we were at our destination before we knew it. The plan was to head over to Dutch’s house so that we could borrow his car for a couple of days. Dutch’s brother Josh picked us up at the trail and took us to the house. We can’t say thank you enough as the Spear family provided us with laundry, a shower, a great dinner and a comfy bed to get a good nights sleep. Thank you so much. The plan is to head over to Sussex, NJ tomorrow where Chutes will drop out of an airplane. If he’s lucky he will get a few jumps in on Thursday as well before we pick up Charlotte and Stephanie from the Newark airport so that they can hike a few days with us. We are extremely excited about this. Keep those packs light girls. I know my brother would love to carry some extra gear though!
So, here’s to the Spear family who has been far to kind. You guys are awesome. Loving Life.
6-27-11 Bad Habits
Rutherford Shelter to Pochuk Shelter: 17 miles
I may have failed to mention this before, but believe it or not the majority of hikers out here smoke cigarets on the trail. Now here’s a fun fact for you. Sixty percent of the time smoking cigarets gets you over the mountain ever time. Crazy huh. I did find it strange that so many people smoked out here considering the aerobic activity that we are undertaking. I found it so odd that I decided to give it a try.
Just kidding mom, but I did drink those two tall boys. Here’s how real men hike.
If you didn’t already know it Jersey is a swamp. About half of the day was consumed by walking on board walks and navigating mud pits. A couple times we even had to make some Indian noises in order to keep the gators away and to stay true to our seminole roots. Booo gators. Sorry, had to throw that in there. Anyways, the Mosquitos were bad today, my feet hurt and I pulled a few more ticks off me. The good news is that we finally had a gorgeous day of blue skies and gleaming sunshine so it was a good day. Loving Life.
6-26-11 Skeeters
Campsite to Rutherford Shelter: 24 miles
So much for a couple short days. Oh well. We take the day as it comes and today brought 24 miles. It was a chilly morning as our hammocks were covered in wind-blown mist coming up the west side of the ridge. I never enjoyed donning a cold wet shirt in the morning. Sometimes you just have to throw it on and start hiking and so we did. After a few miles the Mosquitos started swarming. At one point we had to fan them off each other as we filled our bottles at the spring. Our backs were literally covered with Mosquitos biting us through our shirts. This ensued for the majority of the day.
We hit a fire tower after lunch and actually found it to be open. If the timing was right this would have been a pretty sweet place to spend the night. It had a working telephone, outlets, an AC unit, binoculars and endless views of Jersey. After placing a few calls we moved on and ended up startling two large black bears. One of them was even wearing a pretty tracking collar. They ran as we approached, but who could blame them. We are some scary looking dudes. It was probably the beards. Anyways, water was scarce this afternoon so we ended up walking an extra 3 miles. Once at the shelter I yanked a tick off my leg and popped some nasty blisters between my toes. Ouch. Two more days in these devil shoes before switching back to what I know works. Don’t laugh, but I’m listening to some classical music right now as I wind down from the day. Zoning out and Loving Life.
6-25-11 Hot Dog N Pie
Delaware Water Gap to Ridge Campsite: 16 miles
So, the last time I wrote was Thursday night after our 100 mile stretch. My feet were hurting pretty bad. They still are. Anyways, Thursday night brought some pretty nasty storms throughout the night. On Friday we stumbled 10 miles into the Delaware Water Gap. It was a wet and misty morning as we made our way out of the mountains. We decided to take the rest of the day to rest from our long stretch.
After some much needed R&R we grabbed a hot dog and pie special for $2.49 at a local bakery before heading back out.
This was truly a match made in heaven as Chutes opted for a double! The apple pie was quite delicious. After filling up we headed out and the plan was to only walk 10 miles. Even though my feet were still hurting we ended up walking farther. We left town after 12:00 and still did 16 miles. I suppose we just can’t do short days. Typically we will look at the guide book and figure out some new master plan that will cut a day out. It is for this reason that I expect that we will be in Maine before we know it. It really isn’t that we are trying to rush or anything. We simply walk our pace and take the day day as it comes. I don’t know if I was always moving around when I was a kid, but I definitely find that there is no idle Jer now. Mom, was I always on the move when I was younger? Well, I finally stopped for the night as I am laying in my hammock. You know I’m making moves and Loving Life.
6-23-11 Ibuprofen
Palmerton To Campsite After Wind Gap, PA: 26 miles
I guess the tittle should tell you what kind of day today was. My good friend Ibby Profen got me through the day even though he had a hard time masking the pain. This morning was quite interesting as the trail decided to take us bouldering with our 30 pound packs on. Now, if my feet weren’t killing me this section of the trail would have been pretty cool. It was about a thousand foot climb and I mean climb. There was no walking here. After this the entire day was consumed by walking on small sharp rocks that are scattered over the trail and their sole purpose is to pome the heck out of your feet. A fellow thru hiker mentioned that one could look at it as they were there to massage your feet. I have never considered myself as a pessimist, but this was one crappy massage.
As we hiked for about 12 hours today, the rain chased us into our hammocks as the darkness started creeping into the woods. Tomorrow will be a short day into Delaware Water Gap for some much need R&R. Of coarse the rocks will lay the foundation as our welcoming carpet into town, but we are about 10 miles out of New Jersey. A new state and a new trail. Now we get to deal with the Jersey bears! Eyelids are heavy and this post is over. Loving Life.
6-22-11 Perseverance
Eckville Shelter to Palmerton, PA: 25 miles
Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. ~Author Unknown
This is by far the hardest thing I have had to do. The past few days have been nothing but pain and anguish. My feet are sore, my body is tired and somehow I stopped, took a deep breath and realized that I truly enjoy taking myself to the limits. It has been said that you really find out what you are made of when you are at your limit and I believe this to be true. After tomorrow we will have hiked 100 miles over 4 days of foot-blistering rocky paths. Every step I take is pain yet I can’t help but smile because I know I am putting myself to the test and I will persevere.
You may have heard this before but it really is not the physical aspect of the hike that wears you down and causes one to question sanity. It is the mental aspect that creeps up on you in your hardest moments. As you walk all day there is plenty of time to think about loved ones and question, “what the heck am I doing.” It can be hard at times and today was surely one of them. It is because of the adventure and hard times that I smile and know that I will persevere as tomorrow is a new day. Unfortunately, tomorrow will bring more rocks and hard miles. These are miles earned. Sorry for the tirade. By the way today we hiked. As always living it up and Loving Life.
6-21-11 PA Rocks!
Eagle’s Nest Shelter to Ericville Shelter: 24 miles
I mean no disrespect to anyone from PA, but the only thing that PA rocks are your feet.
Now, we have walked on a fair amount of rocks today and our feet are good and sore, but I’d have to assume they are going to take this giant pile of rocks and spread them over the trail. There is surely a trail maintainer in PA that is laughing at the rock-scrambling thru hikers. We survived the rocks and made it to a shelter in someone’s back yard. This was a nice surprise as there was a cold water shower and a flush toilet!!! I haven’t used the toilet yet but I’ll be sure to flush it purely on principle. Sleep may not come easy sleeping on this hard wooden bunk. Hoping for the best and Loving Life.
6-20-11 Negatives
Lickdale,PA to Eagle’s Nest Shelter: 26 miles
Our feet were somewhat sore from the long miles so we decided to go into Lickdale to take a break. The reason I named this post negatives is due to the fact that when you take a zero day you typically come out a bit out of shape. My feet felt better this morning, but I spent the entire day with sore shoulders and now my inner thighs a good and sore. I have come to the determination that the correct way to rest is to take a few shorter days and a Nero into town. Will we implement this strategy? Probably not, but we’ll see what happens. We just get set on doing big days so that we can carry less food. It is a good plan in theory until the miles catch up to you.
So, today we walked 26 miles over a long rocky path. It wasn’t a bad hike as we just dropped under the 1000 mile mark to Maine. We are now only triple digits away from our final climb on the AT. This is progress. This is prospect. This is bedtime. Loving Life.
Hersey Porta-potty:
6-18-11 Hybrid Hiker
Peter’s Mt Shelter to Campsite by Loud Road: 24 miles
Today we walked. There really isn’t a whole lot to say about today other than we walked. The excitement came when Chutes almost stepped on a rattle snake. We knew it was a rattle snake because it rattled at us… Anyways we turned to climb down the rocks around the snake and another rattle snake cornered us in. Hmmmm. Then I stepped down and almost landed on what I presumed to be a copperhead. Did I mention that I hate snakes. Needless to say we survived.
Since that was today in a nut shell I will fill you in on what I call the hybrid hiker. My brother calls it auto pilot. See figure A.
When you truly master this you can consider yourself a true hiker. The idea is that when you drive a sweet little Prius and your chugging up a hill the engine is cranking away. Then you plateau and the engine shuts off, but your still cruising. To put it figuratively, it’s days like today that I drive my Prius down the trail. You can only think about the same things over and over out here before they drive you mad.
Anyways, tonight I will drift off listening to the loud cars and motorcycles. There is not a Prius around. Mañana. Loving Life!
Northbound By Foot 