it has been too long

I just wanna take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who was consistently reading my blog..
After my iPad decided to crap out on me, it became increasingly harder to put effort into writing about my adventure. I was always behind and trying to play catch up while typing everything out on a phone is terrible. At this point I have been home for a few months now. The initial honeymoon feeling of the trail has worn away a tiny bit, but hasn't even remotely been forgotten. I miss the trail and the experiences I had every day. I will try and go back and retell some of my few final stories from the trail, no promises on as many juicy details this time around though. For now, I just wanna say, for anyone that might be considering the trail, do it. There has been nothing in my life that I have achieved that has been as rewarding. Great change will always take adjustment, and going to and from the trail is no different. But, when all is said and done and the smoke clears from the summit of katahdin, standing next to that northern terminus sign is the most fulfilling feeling one can ever have. knowing you beat the odds. through storms, snow, wind, and terrible blisters, you beat the odds..

The trail has truly changed my life, and I am eternally grateful. I will go through all of my trail notes in my journal and be sure to finish out this blog before January is over..

Rain rain go away

MA

Well I have made it to MA. I am trying out a new post system, it just takes me a lot longer since I have to type it up on my phone. Missing that full iPad keyboard right about now. For the last 2 weeks the landscape has been beautiful. Open pine forests are quiet and peaceful with soft pine needle floors. Any mountain overlook that greets us has been a clear view of all the surrounding areas. My little troupe has been very lucky with weather the past month or so. Any time there has been any questionable weather, we have found space in a shelter or managed to find a local person willing to let us escape the rain on a porch. Yesterday was a downpour though and it looks as though today will be the same. I haven't had to use my rain jacket much because past rains have never been cold. A warm rain that merely stole all the salt off my body and refreshed my morale as well. Yesterday was not at all that way. 

Lightning would flash across the sky then would come a thunderclap no more than a second after. The rain was heavy and cold while the fog made for less than morale boosting conditions. It's not every day that a vicious storm hits, it's even harder to go further on a day like that when you make it to a shelter and have temporary escape from such fury of nature. Short days will happen, and yesterday was a very short day. 

Ok I am gonna lighten the end of this post with some random fun. 

Recently a hiker friend showed us a video of him crossing a state

Line and doing a little dance to music to celebrate. He has since joined my group and we are now doing fun little dances to celebrate crossing state lines. The aptly titled "crossing into MA" dance is on YouTube. But you can find it below. It's silly. But we have to find all the amusement we can out here.

http://youtu.be/_oXRQY-5Sk4 

Hopefully I can keep this new post system working a little bit quicker than previously. I am no longer distracted by my books. Still mad about that but oh well. 

Depressing news - death of the iPad

I am sorry to announce to my readers that I may not be able to update my blog as much. I know that posts had been few and far between but today my iPad has died. It is by unknown circumstances that it has frozen and failed. It refuses to turn back on and as such I have lost many posts, pictures, and videos that I have made or collected on this trip. I am excruciatingly crushed by this not only at the loss of my irreplaceable documentation of my trip, but also because of the books I have been reading along the way. I swear if anyone ruins game of thrones for me before I finish reading the series, I will end you.. 

I promise to update as much as I can in the coming weeks. I pray that I try to restart my iPad tomorrow and this was just a temporary nightmare... 

Cooking

Recently I did a post about grocery shopping. I only included how I shop and eat and failed to bring on the craziness that is other thru hiker meals...  

The majority of what people eat out here could be considered abominations of huge culinary world, but because we as thru hikers are only able to push calories into our engines and go, sometimes some bad concoctions are continuously implemented.. Take for example this first recipe

Take one regular sized tortilla

Slather with peanut butter

Slather with Nutella

Sprinkle peanut M&M's 

Center one full sized snickers bar

Roll up like burrito and enjoy 

Not to your liking?

How about no. 2

Take one tortilla 

Add one spam single 

Slather in peanut butter 

Add hot sauce 

Crumble and sprinkle corn chips 

More hot sauce 

Roll up and enjoy 

A lot of our cuisine involves tortillas 

No. 3 

Boil 20ish ounces of water 

Make ramen

Add entire packet of instant potatoes

Add hot sauce 

Stir into noodly potato mixture...

I'll see what other crazy food inventions I can seek out from my companions in e coming weeks 

Grocery shopping

As a hiker, one of the most exciting trips I make while in a town is to the grocery store. At the beginning of my trip it was a continuous game of trial and error to distinguish what I needed versus what I wanted to eat on the the trail. A few weeks back I got moused, a term we use when a mouse eats through a food bag and thus renders the food bag less useful. The food bag I lost was much smaller than its current replacement, and as such I have been buying more food. Hiker hunger hit me light a freight train and that little bag was just not cutting it anyway. The problem that I am now facing is the weight of my bag overall has gone up significantly. Without water and with the minimal amount of food I a carrying at the beginning of the trip, I was under 30lbs. With water and then all the food and extra snacks I have to carry, I am now something closer to 40lbs. While a lot of heel go people I hike with have a much lighter pack the weight does not bother me. When you need something as a hiker your body learns to adjust quickly. 

Now back to grocery shopping... The trips to the grocery store are both the most exciting and most difficult decisions for me to make. I have to take a trip down every aisle just to make sure I am not missing anything, and at the ffont of the he store I have to sort through what is reasonable to carry and what are hungry impulse purchases and cut the latter. 

Just so you have an idea of what I eat on the trail

Snickers bars 

Pay days 

Pasta sides 

Easy Mac 

Peanut butter 

Sandwich rounds 

Sleeves of tuna 

Oatmeal bars 

Oatmeal 

I swear after this trip if I have to eat any more peanut butter or oatmeal I might die... 

Thoughts on PA

Put of everything I have passed over thusfar. This is probably my least favorite state. I am not a huge fan of the rock scrambling that it had to offer. Not that rock hopping isn't fun, it just loses it's allure when you have to do with for .3 or more mile stretches. another reason I am not a huge fan of Hutu state is because my brand new shoes that I had acquired right before, we eaten alive be the ferocity or the rocks. The shoes are luckily under warranty and because falling apart far too soon for it to be considered "not defective", so REI will be receiving a call from me any day with my receipt number. Another reason I am a little judgmental about PA is how little I feel I actually saw of the state. A much energy and focus is being put into looking down at one's own feet that you miss everything but the views from the top. I could have very well walked past a silent parade and never have known the difference. 

Update on my injured hiker friend

Mocha pot has had the full array of test done on his spine and ribs and is on his way to making a full recovery. Initially there was some fear that he would need surgery, and thankfully that is not the case. He is resting and rev covering at home currently. A few of the group were able to visit him in the hospital before he went home but we have no pictures of him in recovery as of yet.