Month: May 2021

Start: Sandy Spring (AT mi 1210.5). Stop: Port Clinton/Shuttle to Rock ‘n Sole Hostel (AT mi 1220). Today’s miles: 9.5 miles. Total AT mileage: 195.3 miles

What a day, what a day.
I got up at 6:45 this morning and started packing up. For a first, I was too hot already to drink a cup of coffee, so instead I drank a ZipFizz and ate a cliff bar. It actually held me over quite well, so I may end up switching up my routine for this instead of breaking out the JetBoil to “cook” breakfast every morning. Another perk: I was on the trail by 7:40, so it helped speed up my morning process.. and it would have been faster still if I had actually filtered all my water yesterday instead of being lazy and going to bed, lol!

Cholula and Curmudgeon left a good 15-20 minutes before me, and stayed ahead of me all day. I knew they didn’t want to waste money on a hostel for tonight, because the only one available was a bit pricey, and curmudgeon’s birthday is coming up so they already had plans on getting a private room in the next town. I texted Lizard the second I got service to see if she wanted to get the hostel with me, and about yelled with happiness when she texted back yes! Hahaha it’s so funny how you get excited about the silliest of things. I knew I wanted to charge my anker battery pack, shower, and get some laundry done.. but I didn’t want to pay the shuttle fees alone, because it would have put me out over $100 for one night in a bunk bed, but since she wanted to, too, I’d have good company AND save some money!

Because of the excitement knowing I’d be showering and feeling clean soon, PLUS the excitement of getting into town today, getting a free shuttle to Cabela’s, AND Taco Bell.. I was on cloud nine trampling over those Pennsylvania rocks. I had not one care. I was slightly limping, and occasionally cursing when my foot would slide the wrong way on one rock to be stabbed by another.. but I was happy as hell!

The trail seemed to have more patches of “smooth straight aways” aka: 5-10 steps before a sole and soul crushing rock would pierce through the bottom of my shoe, and slightly less “every step is a rock hop.” It made for a quicker day for me than previous days, and I was able to get down to the outskirts of town (where Lizard, Cholula and Curmudgeon were all sitting at a picnic table) by 12:30 ish. With easier terrain I’d have been faster, but such is life. The Cabela’s free shuttle doesn’t come until after 1pm.. so it felt like I was right on time. And just before I made it to them, the trail has a very very steep downhill.. almost a bit of sliding involved (dear Lord thank you for not letting it rain lately, or that thing would have been plain awful). On my tap tap tap—- sliiiiideee— tap tap tap—- sliiiiiidee down, a snake also decided to slide downhill! It literally swept past my feet, rolling, ended up on its back, belly up in front of me-I’m full on terrified screaming, and trying to stop so I don’t slide into it- and then it pops over onto its belly and slithers over some. I managed a full stop and had enough time to work on some deep breathing while it was still too in the trail to move past it. I get my camera out and get some pictures as it’s finally going off trail-and just as quickly as he came barrel rolling out with me-he was gone completely from view! SOOO crazy!

We get to the hikers pavilion in town, where hikers can camp for free, to wait for the shuttle to Cabela’s. While we’re waiting, Curmy noticed 2 snakes on a rock in the stream. I take a picture of them.. they’re kind of far, so I couldn’t see colorings well.. but right as I turn on the video, one slides to the middle, one goes up to the same spot, and then one of them jumps off the rock into the water and starts swimming! I captured it all! (I’ll upload it to FB) While I was still in shock, horror, and slightly mesmerized, another, smaller looking snake came swimming fast as ever down stream too! Too quick to get a picture of him.. he reminded me of walking on those moving walkways in airports.. you feel like you’re zooming. Lol, I know, I’m weird.

Anyway, we got to Cabela’s, found some stuff we needed, and realized how much I must stink to the nicely dressed and cleanly washed folks in there shopping. I almost felt embarrassed, and then Lizard was like, “No, we’re hikers, we earned this.” Damn right we did. We’ve been working hard as hell. And my shower is coming soon!

After we shopped, we hung out at the picnic tables in front of Cabela’s like true hiker trash. Our phones were charging, and we door dashed Taco Bell to us so we wouldn’t have to walk to it. We smashed an ungodly amount of Taco Bell, so much so that as I’m typing this at 10:15pm (way past hiker midnight by the way), I’m still not hungry.

Craig, from Rock ‘n Sole hostel picked Lizard and I up from Cabela’s a few minutes after the shuttle took Curmy and Cholula back to the pavilion campsites. He even swung us by Walmart so we could quickly grab a few things we couldn’t get from Cabela’s. He’s an incredibly nice guy, and the hostel he runs with his wife is absolutely awesome. It’s on their property, has 6 bunks and a little kitchenette. His wife is going to make us breakfast in the morning, and I don’t care what it is-I know I’ll love it!

We showered, they’re doing our laundry, and we all hung out by a campfire for awhile and chatted.. Seth is another flip flopper we met here, and has fun to get to know a little bit-as much as you can in an evening anyway.
I’m all tucked in my nice comfy bed, and can barely hold my eyes open. Sweet dreams, y’all.

Start: Port Clinton (AT mi 1220). Stop: Windsor Furnace Shelter (AT mi 1225.9). Today’s miles: 5.9 miles Total AT mileage: 201.2 miles

Today just felt.. easy. Not necessarily the terrain or anything, just that the day had a chill, easy vibe. I woke up at the hostel all cozy and comfy. I was the last to wake up, but the other two were super quiet. Seth was mouselike in his packing and Lizard was still laying in her bed. When I went to the bathroom, it almost seemed like there was a relief that I was awake and everyone could move about freely and get ready for the day. I won’t lie, I was tempted to curl back up in my blanket.. but there was no point really.. my brain just always wants 5 more minutes of sleep lol

By 7:30 Craig sent a message saying coffee was ready, so the 3 of us walked over to their front porch where they set up a nice table for 4 for us. We met his wife, Jody, and she cooked us breakfast. It was delicious! And so charming in every way! We had fresh fruit, an egg, sausage, and cheese bagel, orange juice and coffee and water. Seth had toast with jam with his fruit. We were entertained by their 14 year old yellow lab, Sugar, who was quite the cute old gal.. even in her little coughing fits.. and their cat came out to greet us, too.. although Lizard and Seth took more to him than I did.

Craig took Seth to the trail first, and then came back for the two of us.. which was nice because we had no rush to get ready and could stretch and just relax. We had no where to be until 1230 when the post office in town opens, so we were taking it easy.

Craig dropped us off at the hiker pavilion, where Curmudgeon, Cholula, NoFilter, Crinkles, Derby, and Randy were. It was a great little morning reunion! While half the gang went to Cabela’s on the free shuttle, our little tramily went to the barber shop down the street to hang out. Sounds weird, yes, BUT this place was awesome to us! They gave us free coffee and cookies, let us love on their “mascot” dog, and literally hang out with them while they would randomly cut hair. We sat in chairs and talked and charged devices, read Chinese astrology things and had a fantastic time. What else was there to do while waiting on the post office to open?

When it got close to opening time, we moseyed over to a candy shop, and spent more than we should have on a sugar high. Leaving there, we walked down the main road to get to the post office and passed FarOut, HotSauce, Towely, and someone else I can’t remember.. we all caught each other up on the last couple days, told all about cabela’s and Taco Bell.. man i hope they catch us tomorrow, I really enjoy all these people!

Finally, we make it to the post office. The guy behind the counter hands me my one box, and I’m thinking there’s NO WAY my tent is in that little box. YALL! My new tent packs SOOOOO TINY! Just seeing it’s littleness in the box made my heart so happy I decided to make the switch! I sent my old tent home, a whole 4 pounds, and now I have this new one that comes in UNDER 2 pounds with the stakes and bag and everything! I’m amazed!

We repack our new things, Curmy and Cholula head on to the trail while Lizard and I finished rearranging, then we followed soon after. We followed the river for a half mile before going though an underpass. The beams had someone’s handwriting absolutely everywhere. Craig told us about this, that it was the homeless man’s writing, like his manifesto. He passed away last year, and from reading some of his writing, it was quite clear he suffered from mental health issues. His words were very dark and paranoid, it made me wonder if he was traumatized early in life and that’s what triggered the delusions and psychosis, or if that was there all along, part of his genetic make up that would have showed itself with or without trauma? Fascinating to think about, but also so very heartbreaking that someone lived under a bridge and was plagued by the awful thoughts and feelings he was writing about.

Anyway, after the bridge the trail went steeply up and then continued up some switchbacks. Lizard quickly left me in her dust while I huffed and puffed my way up. Once I made it to the top, I decided to put on my audiobook. The day was chilly, especially compared to the last week of flat out hot, and it kept threatening rain.. although none really came. The woods felt dark and almost mystical. I became so transfixed into my audiobook (The Starless Sea, a very mystical book itself), and because of how the weather felt and the way the scenery looked, the words playing in my ears seemed to transport me into another world all together. The miles flew by, in my head. Luckily it was only a 6 mile day to camp (because we got such a late start), because I glanced at my watch and realized I was hardly walking 1.6 miles per hour! This book had me totally sucked in!

Once I got to camp, the others were setting up and chatting.. I got to set up my new tent! It’s not 100% perfect tonight, but it’s pretty darn close! It feels HUGE and so spacious! I’m so happy I made the switch!
We all ate dinner around an awesome fire Curmudgeon built and we chatted about any and everything. It’s funny how I set out to do this “alone” and I’ve rarely been alone and never once actually felt that way. There is such a sense of community with fellow hikers, and this tramily I’m in is a pretty sweet one. We know we won’t stick together every day, per se, but we all agree it’s nice to come together at the end of the day. I’m definitely the slowest hiker in our little group.. but I kinda like showing up after everyone else. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like I don’t miss anything this way. If something happened ahead of me, I’ll come across it.. it’s like I feel safe knowing where everyone is.

Anyway, I’m off to sleep in my new tent 😉 let’s all hope I staked it out correctly and the whole thing doesn’t fall on my head at 4 am.. hahaha

Start: Windsor Furnace Shelter (AT mi 1225.9). Stop: Unnamed Campsite (AT mi 1235.5) Today’s miles: 9.6 miles. Total AT mileage: 210.8 miles

I woke up today around 7am, fighting the urge to roll over again and go back to sleep. It was overcast and still kinda chilly.. perfect sleeping weather, but I had to pee. All hope of that happening disappeared.

By the time I visited the privy and got my food bag, everyone was starting to get out of their tents/hammocks. We ate breakfast together, packed up slowly, and then dispersed into the woods. An 8:50am start today, my latest (besides yesterday of course) in a while.

I started up my audiobook and started being transported back into another world entirely. I crossed rocks and smooth ground, creek beds and gravel roads. It was overall very easy moving terrain, but once again, my audiobook had me moving slowly, soaking in every word. I scrambled over some boulders, looked at the lookouts, and spoke to hikers crossing my path, but I was so engrossed in the book that when I crossed a creek bridge and heard a loud “PBS!” I wasn’t expecting it to be Curmudgeon and Cholula! I never even passed the sign for the shelter, so surely this isn’t where we’re camping?! But I looked down at my watch and I’d gone the right amount of miles. This was home for the night.

I stopped the book and it was a struggle for almost an hour to not put my headphone back in my right ear, but a book is a book and will be ready to play tomorrow. The time, conversations and moments with my new friends won’t last forever and I need to enjoy them while they’re here.

We soaked our feet in the creek, then discovered bones and fur from a small deer that’s been scavenged. As we were sitting on logs crossing the creek, FarOut, Hot Sauce, and Towely came strolling through and set up camp with us! Some other guy is literally in a hammock very close to my tent, so close in fact that I switched direction so my head isn’t as close to him as it would be laying the other way.. but that’s the way it is in smaller camps. There’s another 3 guys just down the way, too.

All of us ended up eating our dinners and then Lizard made an awesome fire. It did what good fires do and everyone ended up coming around it to chit chat and get to know each other. I laugh so much with this tramily and (Using Lizard’s term) extended tramily. It’s exciting to have such a good group of flip floppers, it’s also exciting when NOBOs camp with us and are friendly and tell us what we have to look forward to when we flop down to the sections they’ve already done. I’ve got a mental list of places to see, stay, and avoid. It’s both cool and sad, because they’re crushing 20-30 mile days, so unless they happen Zero a lot or something bad happens, our chances of meeting again are slim.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain starting in the afternoon.. as I type this I swear I hear rain drops hitting my tent, but they’ve already stopped. We’ve been so lucky to have only had rain that first week, but it looks like our luck is running low. There’s a section ahead called “knife’s edge” where all the rocks are jagged and known for stabbing feet no matter which way you try to traverse them. Everyone pulling big miles are trying to pass that section (14 miles ahead of us) before the rain comes in tomorrow.. we are planning a 13 mile day to just before and hoping the rain eases off for us to do that section the following day.

It is what it is. If you spend time stressing and trying to reroute your miles to not have to do something in the rain, I feel like I’ll never make it to the finish of this trail. If it rains while I slip and slide on rocks, I guess it rains. I’ll just pray that I don’t get seriously injured and no one else does either. As clumsy as I am, it’s a crapshoot if I’ll fall on dry trail. Hahahaha

As I lay here in my tent and hear all the people moving around, I think I’ll listen to my book until the sky is all the way dark, then put in my earplugs. Sweet dreams 🙂