The title alone should give you some idea of what has happened over the last few days. Let me back track and elaborate a little though.
6/24
Today marks the longest hiking day that I have ever done. I don't quite remember what my last record was, but it has bee no roughly shattered now. The day started easy enough. A past thru hiker (shepherd) who had returned to do a section, offered my group the opportunity to slack pack something like 10 miles before taking us into town to eat and resupply. Now I should explain that while was redoing a section of trail he was using his car as a support vehicle. He would hike forw ard and hitch back to his car thus allowing himself the opportunity to make bigger miles by not having to carry any weight. I graciously accepted his offer to slack pack and set off hiking at something like 6 am. I wanted to get into Waynesboro, PA and then get back to the trail with enough time to make significant miles by the end of the day. I arrived at the pickup point with the rest of the group around 10:30, we had taken our time because of a Chinese food buffet that opened at 11. After resupplying and overeating at the buffet, shepherd agreed to take us back but was going to do his own section of hike consisting of 25 miles of trail. I asked him if he would let me slack pack again for the 25 mile section and he said yes, so starting at 2:30pm I began what could only be described as a 25 mile trail run. I managed to make the entire 25 ish mile trip by 9:50 pm. So what should have taken the better part of a whole day walking, I managed to accomplish in under 8 hours after already completing 10 miles and after eating at an all you can eat buffet. Needless to say I have yet to have a night on this trip where I was more exhausted. The final mile count at the end of the day came to 35.9 miles. I didn't even remotely have enough strength to want to find a campsite, luckily shepherd allowed me to cowboy camp in the bed of his pickup truck. A Successful day to say the least.
6/25
Today
marks three months being enveloped by cold, disoriented by the green tunnel, continuously equipped with dirty clothes, and having been carrying my whole world on my back. I love this adventure. My morale runs just as high as it did when I started, though I will say my personal goal for the trip has been somewhat adjusted(the only part of this trip I even remotely see different). I envisioned the trail to be this hyper introspective journey of personal pilgrimage through the wilderness for 2,200 miles. While in a nutshell that is what the trail is. it completely is, and is not at the same time. I never thought I would make such close friends and grasp such enjoyment out of this extended trip. I looked at the trip like an extended run through the woods, a south to north endurance race of sorts. I saw the trip as a mental endurance race just as much as a physical, and at the beginning of my trip treated it as such. I have been wrong so many times it is immeasurable. Add one more to the "I was wrong" column.
I love going off on a tangent of how much I am truly enjoying this trip, but for the sake of my writing lets get back to the 25th of June. It worked out by some miracle and luck that on this same day I managed to cross the halfway point of the trail.. Halfway on the trail should have a better marker. All we get is a laminated piece of paper saying we made it half the distance. I realize that my expectation at this point is probably a little too high, but I wanted fireworks and a parade. Ok maybe not a parade but a little more than a piece of paper please. The traditional thing to do when you pass the halfway point of the trail is to go to a small store right after the marker and eat a half gallon of ice cream. I came half way, now let's celebrate with a lot of calories. I am sure that of the flavors they had to choose from, I certainly picked the hardest to consume in record time. Moose tracks is not something you wanna try and ingest at high speed.... Ever.. Thick sections of fudge are not nearly as enjoyable once they begin to melt..
These two days in a row make for enormous checkpoints on the trail. There are no more 500 mile sections like Virginia where nothing will happen. By the time this is posted I will already have crossed into 2 more states. And will only be a few more days from another. The trail has a long way to, go but my body is ready and I no longer have any plans to take extended trips off the trail.
A few day trips here and there are what make the trail and the experience. I haven't visited many of these northern states and because of that I wanna spend as much time exploring them as I can. I cannot however lose site of the trip/goal I started. If anyone has any good day trips I can do off the trail I would love to hear about them.
The only 1 I currently have planned is to go into NYC on the train. I may even try to get on good morning America just to hold up a big AT sign. It's all about the little things after all.
I don't know if I have told to joke yet, but here goes.
How do you tell the difference between hikers?
A day hiker will see a skittle on the ground at a shelter and walk past it.
A section hiker will see the skittle, grab it, brush it off, and eat it.
A thru hiker will grab the skittle, eat it, and brush away the leaves looking for more.
I can somewhat attest to this, but while my 5 second rule may be somewhat askew, it is not digging in the dirt for candy...
More fun and random updates soon.
