Warthog and I both woke up at 6a. We were emotionally preparing ourselves to get moving and then realized it was an hour earlier than we planned. We gained an extra hour of sleep – thank the Lord! I switched sleeping pads with Warthog because his was entirely flat. We have a warranty claim in with Big Agnes. I can’t wait for our new ones to come in. The other day, he patched eleven holes in one pad alone. It’s not holes we are punching in them, it’s the little dimples in the mattress that are giving way. Somehow it seems like when one gets fixed, another goes. They were fine for a couple of months. However, lately Warthog will have to refill his once or twice through the night. Even then, he still wakes up on the ground. We hope that the new ones will be good through the rest of our hike.
We were leaving camp around 8:30a. Wonder Woman, Snow Monkey, Warthog, and I were together. Kirby stayed back. He was supposed to be meeting a friend from the area for the day. Atlas and Lotus are back in Harpers Ferry. They will be there through the weekend, putting them almost a week behind us now. Atlas has his parents in town and Lotus has been having some serious issues with her foot. I miss them and hope new shoes will be the solution for Lotus. I want our tramily all back together again!!
The terrain today was fairly low key. There were a couple of hard pushes, but they didn’t last long. The rocks are starting up now as we near Pennsylvania. It was a little bit difficult to follow the trail at some points, there was no defined path, just boulders. We took our morning break at the edge of a creek. We sat on a tree that had fallen, our feet hung down hovering over the water. After a bit, Warthog climbed down and tried to find a crawfish in the water for me. Sadly, he couldn’t.
After about nine miles we hit a local park, complete with flushing toilets, a playground, and picnic tables. We sat at a table and enjoyed the opportunity to have a real seat. After a few minutes, one of the other people in the park walked up and offered the rest of his pizza. We gladly accepted the two slices and devoured them swiftly. A few minutes goes by and he did the same with his second pizza. We shared with other hikers but there were still some left for us, oh lucky day! We took an almost two hour lunch break. It was 3:30p when we were leaving, we still had nine miles to go for the day.
Just after lunch we hit the Mason Dixon Line and the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. That makes six states down! Immediately after that we started our hardest push up for the afternoon. We conquered it without a break, but stopped at the top to have a rest. We are all still tired. Lately, I’m almost always tired.
I hoped to play podcasts for the rest of our hiking today, but my speaker is broke. That means we’ll have to make a trip to a Target and without a receipt, convince them to replace it. It’s only been two weeks that we’ve had this thing. At the end of the afternoon, we hiked making our own podcast. I was the host and each of the hikers were our guests. It was ridiculous and fantastic all at the same time. Either way, it killed the last 2.6 miles/hour and made the time fly.
Tonight we are at a really beautiful shelter and camping area. They have designated tent pads again. There are two shelters. There are well done campfire rings and people have even cut logs to use for firewood. When we arrived, a ridgerunner greeted us and directed us where to go. So far Pennsylvania, I’m impressed. Except for the rocks. I don’t like the rocks. And I know I’m not even close to truly experiencing the rocks that you have ready for me.
We got settled in. Also sharing the site is a newlywed couple we’ve seen a few other times on the trail. They are on their honeymoon. They don’t have trail names yet because they kind of keep to themselves, you know… because they are on their honeymoon. I suggested Alice and what’s his name from the show “The Honeymooners”. She said she’s thought about it before. Maybe we’ll see them down the road and they’ll have stuck with it!
As I cooked dinner, Warthog fixed my trekking pole that snapped on the trail. He put a small stick on the inside with Shoe Goo (an adhesive we bought for my shoes) around the fracture. He also put the goo on my old trail runners. I’ve heard Pennsylvania will claim a pair of shoes, and I don’t want it to be my new ones. I’m hoping the old shoes will get me through the rough terrain and I can just toss them at the end.
We were in our tent around 9p tonight, a bit earlier than normal. Tomorrow we have a trip into town for a resupply and are still hoping to get in a total of eighteen miles for the day. We are starting to get nervous about making it to Katahdin on time and all feel the need to pick up the miles. I’ve heard from previous thru-hikers the extra miles will naturally happen. However, we seem to be stuck on the fifteen to eighteen miles a day range. It’s still respectable mileage, but our zero days add a bit of a crunch on our timeline.
Tonight, the rainfly is off and the trees stand tall around us. Their leaves are silhouetted against the blue night sky. I love staring up at them as I lay in my tent, sort of like they are an adult backpacker mobile. It’s therapeutic for me and again, I consider myself lucky to be here, to see this. To fall asleep to this.
-ansel