I’m not going to even include a photo of the rocks! I hate them that much! Read this next part in Forest Gump’s voice: I hate rocks! All rocks! Pointy rocks. Little rocks. Big rocks. Flat rocks. Rocks that roll. Rocks that shift. Boulders. Pea gravel. You get the idea. Today was hard. Which is…

What a day! I hiked by myself today (Rolling Stone went to town and Mallory had a sleep in). I woke up early and was on trail just before 7am. I planned to make it to a shelter 13.3 miles away. The trail changed character all day long! Which made for an interesting, but tiring…

Hiking with new friends is a great way to make 13+ miles go quickly. Today I hiked with friends I made while zeroing at the hostel yesterday, Rolling Stone and Mallory. We hiked separately for the long uphill that started our day (me dragging up the rear of course). At the top of a climb…

I took another zero on Memorial Day. This one was due to weather – thunderstorms, some severe, moved through the area last night and all through the afternoon. Again the mountain just didn’t seem to be the place to be during high winds and lightning. I did my laundry again. I only have one set…

I woke up feeling good this morning – the best I have felt since before I got sick. I was on the trail around 7:30am and when I got to the first open ridge, the photo above was my view. I should have been able to see for miles, but this warm fog had filled…

I hiked just over 5 miles today at the pace of a geriatric snail. I didn’t start until noon because I made a trip to the post office to mail home some unused items (long johns and winter top of my hammock). When I started hiking May 1 temperatures got down to the 40s at…

Today I hiked just over 7 miles to Duncannon, PA. The trail goes right through the town and there are a couple of hostels and resupply stores catering specifically to hikers. their laundromat is called “Trail Laundry” and is right on Main Street as is our hostel (this is important later) So the hike was…

Today I found out I am a purist, at least when it comes to hiking the AT. A purist is a hiker who thinks you have to hike every step/mile of the trail. Some believe you also have to hike it continuously. I am not so much of a purist that you have to do…

Today was a topsy-turvy day because everything I did was the opposite of what I have been doing. I hiked south back to where I got sick instead of hiking north. I didn’t wear a pack and the trail was flat going through fields instead of rocky going up and down mountains. I was slack…