Category: Appalachian Trail 2021

Start: Rutherford Shelter (AT mi 1336.1). Stop: Pochuck Mtn Shelter (AT mi 1353.1). Today’s miles: 17 miles. Total AT mileage: 328.4 miles

I slept decently well, minus the whole flat pad thing (it was flat before midnight.. I tried to quietly sneak out of the shelter to pee and then came back in and blew it back up.. and nothing in a shelter is quiet. I feel so bad for being so loud). Also, a whippoorwill decided to go batshit crazy right by the shelter and then right by FarOut and HotSauce’s tent, at both 8pm and apparently 4am-when FarOut actually got out of her tent and tried to scare it off with sticks and whisper yelling. I guess I do sleep some-because I missed all of that (although honestly I wish I would have seen her flipping out at the bird, she’s a sassy one! Hahaha).

We all got up after 7 and ate our breakfasts together. The plan was to hike 11 miles into a town, eat pizza and drink beer, get a quick resupply, and then hike the 6 miles to the next shelter out of town. Cool. In my head, we’d be there by 1 pm-MAX.

Well, the trail had other plans. We left out around 8:30am. We stopped to get snacks and use a real toilet at a state park headquarters with a little hiker store attached. There, while we were sitting around talking, I ordered myself a new pad. Every single air pad has at least 5 bad reviews for air leaking. I’m petrified I will have spent good money on a new pad and still end up in the same predicament. I’ll be so livid! However, I’ll be saving 3 ounces so maybe I’ll appreciate the switch.

From there we leapfrogged each other until we got to a cool tower with an outlook to a big monument across the way. Very pretty site. Actually, so much of today has had pretty views. After being in Pennsylvania where everything kinda looked the same and the views were always meh or non existent, New Jersey has really stepped it up. It feels like at least more than half the time a big climb gives some kind of view. Although, to be fair, it is very irritating to see the road you pass go right around the big mountain you go straight up and then down, just to cross the same dang road again on the other side, with not one view from the top.. which has happened at least once today, if I’m not mentally blocking out all the others.. it’s slightly demoralizing. It’s fine. I’m fine. Lol

Oh-and this morning while we were doing breakfast things, I thought to myself, “I’ve fallen at least once in every state I’ve hiked through. Maybe New Jersey will be my turning point!” I purposefully didn’t mention this out loud, as to not tempt the fate of the trail gods. About 3 miles into today’s hike-I busted it hard. I reopened the almost healed scab on my left knee, and also hit a rock over my right eye, right along my eyebrow. I contemplated not getting up once I did it. No one was around and I knew I was ok, I didn’t lose consciousness or anything. But I was mad. And wanted to pout.. however, falls are apart of it and I’m clumsy as hell so I highly doubt it’ll be my last, so I got up and dusted myself off. Lucky for me a few minutes later Derby came hauling through like a damn train (he’s got some quick feet), and he checked out my eye to make sure it wasn’t cut or anything. After he passed, I checked again with my camera phone lol talk about being vane. Good lord. This is not the place for vanity in the slightest!

FarOut and HotSauce made to town just before Lizard and I did, and we made it just before the rain got heavy.. it didn’t last very long though, luckily. We resupplied, and then got beers, and went to the pizza place down the street a little to eat on their porch. It was incredibly good. I got 2 slices of huge pizza, plus some garlic knots. It was so so worth all the soreness in my knee, shin, face, life hahahah. FarOut and HotSauce got a whole pizza-so I had a piece of that, too.

While we were sitting there, Towely appeared. I swear that man is into magic or something. It’s like he just shows up. Every time I think he’s ahead, he comes walking up behind me.. when I think he’s behind me, I end up walking into him. So strange, but always a happy encounter. Anyway, he decided to stay there in town and the 4 of us started our hike to the shelter.

It was a glorious, mostly flat, gentle 4+ miles though town, swampy bogs that had planks to walk on, dirt paths around a pond.. and then the very last little bit was a treacherous incline on a steep grade with slick leaves, rocks, almost mud from the recent rain. Every bit of my happy go lucky beer buzz was gone, evaporated.. all the nice dried off in town clothes were slap soaked with sweat like I’d just went swimming in the swamp-I probably smell like I did, too.

But, when we got to the top.. it was so worth it! Almost everyone was here! I set up my tent quickly, because space was sparse. Here’s the rundown: tenting is Cholula and Curmudgeon, FarOut and HotSauce, Smiles, DoubleDecker, Push, TownLegs, TBird, Poptart, 2 tents I don’t know, and Finch. Hammocking is Lizard. Sheltering was just Derby and Professor, but since we got here and set up, 3-4 other people appeared and some may be setting up a tent and some might be squeezing in the shelter. It’s a smaller one, but it’s nice.

I’m going to do some reading before falling asleep, mainly to keep myself awake long enough to stretch my shin a bit more. It hurt more today than yesterday, but nothing like the 2 days prior to that. I have compression sleeves coming with my air pad. I hope they help!

Start: Pochuck Mtn Shelter (AT mi 1353.1). Stop: Warwick Drive Inn Movie Theater (AT mi 1365.1) Today’s miles: 12 miles. Total AT mileage: 340.4 miles

I slept something seriously awful. Which is frustrating because I should have slept so good at the campsite I was at! It was perfect! But, as the daily trend goes, my air mattress was flat, super fast this time.. so I was rolling around on the ground trying to get comfortable. As some point I ended up cuddling my deflated pad when I got cold, while laying on said cold ground-awesome.

I heard movement around me by 6am, and decided to get up to pee-it’s not like I was going to be falling back into a comfortable sleep anyway. I ate breakfast with some folks and then packed up.

The day got hot, fast. And then I was walking on a boardwalk, which looked beautiful but was without any kind of cover. I was toasting. As it kept getting hotter and I kept growing irritable (Quality sleep really does make everything better), I was thinking I no longer wanted to walk 1/2 mile past the planned shelter, hitchhike 3 miles to a drive in movie theater and camp there. The only issue with that was that I had already talked it up and got all of our tramily wanting to go.. ha. Last night at camp, Finch was telling us that was their plan (Finch, DoubleDecker, TownLegs, TBird, and some others).

After 6 or so miles, I made it to a farmers market/flower shop that sells cold drinks, ice cream, donuts, etc.. it’s name is Heaven Hills Farmers Market I think. Now the memory is a little fuzzy. They had tables and chairs outside and a pretty grassy area. Perfect for us hiker trash to spread out our damp gear and rest. I got there and Poptart and Professor and Frosty the SlowMan was already there. Poptart shared a huge chocolate chip cookie with me and then I got a Gatorade and an apple cider donut. The three of them didn’t want to go to the drive in either.

Shortly after I devoured my treats, Lizard got there. She too was backing out of the drive-in because she has a hammock and we all assumed there wouldn’t be trees at the drive-in for her to set up on, so she’d have to sleep on the ground. FarOut and HotSauce appeared. They too were hot and irritated and saying they didn’t think they wanted to go. Haha weren’t we a fun bunch? So now, the only ones who hadn’t backed out were Derby, Cholula, and Curmy-and all three of those speed demons haven’t been seen since their breakfast departure LOL

After almost an hour and a half of sitting at the little market filling up my water bottle for free, chugging it and repeating, I set out for the rest of the hike, fully planning on getting to the shelter and calling it a day. At the road, I ran into Fixit. We hiked together through the sun, into the canopy and to the start an apparently very popular day hike climb to a view. The AT follows this same trail, but at the top where the view is, the “tourists” hike back down and we follow the white blazes over. The climb was a beautiful 1.5 mile rock hopping, switch backing trail slap full of every single resident of New Jersey. People were all over the dang place. I got many side eyes.. not sure if it was because of my smell or that they thought I was nuts for carrying such a big “day pack” lol

About half way up, Lizard a passed me. She lives up to the trail name in more ways than one.. she seriously glides over the rocks like they’re not even there! I texted Cholula and Curmudgeon while going uphill to let them know we were reconsidering the camping plan. They were ALREADY THERE! Derby, too! Cholula sent me a picture of a bacon and blue cheese burger at the cidery across the street from the drive-in. Damn, she knows the way to my heart already! Haha

At the top, FarOut and HotSauce caught me. We started on a gentle decline with soft ground.. crossed over creeks on small wooden bridges.. and when we got to one, we cross the bridge-stopped and looked at each other- and then all 3 decided to get in. Why the hell not? It’s hot, we’re disgusting and smell bad. Our clothes are gross. We deserve this perfectly clear creek bed with a little rushing waterfall! The water was ice cold and everything my sore feet and muscles needed! I didn’t sit in, because of my knee bandaids and shin splint KT tape that FarOut has lent me again.. so I just take my shirt off, stand in the water and use my bandanna to carefully wet and wash everything but the majority of my left leg. I should have dunked my head, but that thought didn’t cross my mind at the time.

As the three of us are soaking up every second of the water, I catch myself starting to reconsider the drive-in. My whole mood has shifted, it’s getting later in the day and it’s still close to 4 miles away-so we wouldn’t get there until later, which means it won’t be as hot in an open field with sunshine on a blistering day. Not to mention that burger looked real good. Like REEEEEEAL good.

As we were drying off, Professor came up and mentioned trail angels just ahead at the road, with a grill and cold drinks! Then, minutes later, Finch text me telling me the same thing and that it won’t be hard to hitch into town. So, the three of us haul ass to the road (and really I mean they did and I chased them for half a mile-it’s fine). HalfBaked and 2 of his buddies had set up a canopy and were grilling burgers & hotdogs, plus had pickle spears and Gatorade’s, sodas, and beer! What a flipping delight! I got a Mountain Dew, pickle and a hotdog! Talk about a turn of events today!

As we were hanging out, I text Cholula to let her know that we were pretty sure we were coming, but that Lizard was ahead of us and probably was still a no. Seconds later, Lizard text me to say she was at the shelter and thinking she wanted to go to the drive-in-mosquitoes were out like crazy by the shelter. YESSS! We were all back in!!

Minutes of hanging out and talking with HalfBaked and his little crew, Quicksand and Hawk showed up! These two are the YouTube celebrities on trail that I’ve met weeks ago. I can’t remember if I mentioned them, but Hawk is set out to get the record for the most thruhikes of the AT. They are so much fun to be around-such positive vibes. They both said we have to do the drive-in, that it’s a once in a life time experience like no other-alright, we were definitely sold now!

We all head out, Lizard had gotten to the road and hitched into the drive in. The trail angel, Mario, that took her came back to the trailhead and was hiking in to the shelter to cook steaks for the hikers with his friends. When he passed us, he gave HotSauce a beer and then told us to wait by his van-He literally went to the shelter, dropped off the coolers he was toting, walked back and drove us to the drive-in! Talk about an angel! Holy crap! He ended up calling us his heroes, because we’re able to do something incredible that he’s currently not in a position to be able to do. So. Damn. Nice.

We got to the drive-in and picked out our spots on the hill at the back.. along a tree line, so Derby and Lizard were able to hang their hammocks! It was slightly sloped ground, so those two had to be the most comfortable by far! Lol In attendance of our hiker trash tent/hammock city besides myself were Lizard, Derby, Cholula, Curmudgeon, a couple I didn’t know, FarOut, HotSauce, Smiles, Push, DoubleDecker, TownLegs, TBird, Finch, and Tie-dye. What a group. Half of us went over to the cidery place and had dinner and drinks. It was a beautiful outdoor set up, tables under umbrellas and string light. Very cool little spot for sure!

We all came back to the drive in, FarOut got a radio from the security guy and we watched the new Cruella movie sitting under the stars on a hill back behind all the cars. We were far enough away that we could actually watch all three screens playing. What a day. It’s amazing how easily things change when you accept that you’re going to be miserable at times but don’t let it control all of your choices. I crawled into my tent before the movie was over, put in my earplugs and fell right to sleep on my flat pad.

Today was a good day.

Start: Warwick Drive-In Movie Theater (AT mi 1365.1) Stop: Wildcat Shelter (AT mi 1376.8). Today’s miles: 11.7 miles. Total AT mileage: 352.1 miles States Completed: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey

There are good days on trail, and then there are *not as* good days on trail. AKA: today kinda sucked. Which annoys me, because technically the day was beautiful and would have been a fantastic day if today was spent say—on a boat, or swimming off a dock, or absolutely anything other than backpacking over more freaking technical rock scrambles. Ugh.

Well, let me back up. I woke up on my flat pad sliding slightly in my tent.. I had previously woken up to restake one side of my tent when the whole thing slid down hill, sometime say around 2:30am. I also had the pleasure of waking up multiple times before that because of the movie playing and the cars coming and going with their headlights shining at the tents. We expected that though.

I was all the way awake and back from the port-a-potty before 6am. I packed and Lizard and I walked to the bagel store in the shopping center next to the drive-in. Everyone but FarOut and HotSauce beat us to it and were waiting by the grocery store for the ride they arranged yesterday. We didn’t prearrange anything yesterday, personally because I wasn’t really sure what time I’d wake up and I didn’t want to feel rushed if I didn’t have to.

We got our bagels and drinks, were sitting there eating inside when I pointed to the 2 trucks outside and jokingly said to Lizard, “one of those need to take us to the trailhead.” Well, one of the guys in one of the trucks (the bigger one) came in and got a coffee. He saw us and our packs and started asking questions.. and then-I’ll be damned if he didn’t offer to drive us to the trailhead! He was meeting a friend in the state park on the way to go bike riding. PERFECT.

As he drives through the parking lot, I see our group of friends: Curmudgeon, Cholula, Derby, TBird, TownLegs, DoubleDecker, Smiles. All still waiting for their ride. It either came early and took some of the other hikers before these guys got there, or she hadn’t shown at all. I giggle a little and point them out to our new trail angel, Mike. We tell him we know them and their ride must have failed, and would you believe he stopped, moved around some stuff, and we packed every single one of them in! Seriously!
He drops us off and we head out at different speeds and paces. I start off decently quick for me, my shin isn’t bothering me, life is good.. but I’m already starting to get sticky and it’s not even 8am yet. It’s going to be another scorcher of a day. Which is great when you have a pool or lake or beach or air conditioned anything. When you’re carrying all you own on your back and your back also has your shirt sweated to it like it’s painted on-it’s flipping awful.

I slowed my pace after a bathroom stop and wrote out yesterday’s blog post. I typically do this at the end of the day before bed (like I am now) but I was watching a movie and 3 beers deep before that first glorious slip into sleep. I just couldn’t even attempt to recall my day-and I’m not ashamed of that for half a second. I slowly walked and wrote, the trail was soft and kind, and I was still in the belief that it might not be that hot or hellish if the terrain is like this and the canopy of trees keeps my body shaded.

I got to the New Jersey/New York state line just before 10 am.. Curmy, Cholula, Lizard, TBird, TownLegs, Poptart, and Frosty were there. I got some pictures of the stateline and sat down for a break to finish writing the post and upload some pictures. It was beautiful, we finished another state, one which was very kind to us after Pennsylvania. We were only planning to get to the next shelter, a whole 11.7 miles total, which feels like a “low mileage” day these days. Plus, somewhere up ahead was a creamery to hangout and eat icecream at. Cool.

I sat, I wrote, I smiled. And then I walked into New York and all hell seemed to break loose. It was a lot of walking on huge rocks, much like Stone Mountain.. like-rocks that just don’t seem to end. Which was fine when my shoes had tread on them. They don’t now. It’s terrifying to go to climb a scramble and have your foot slip, and then have the foot that’s supposed to catch you slip, too. These rock walls had pretty views, but they were so very exposed. I actually had to put on sunscreen, although with the way I was profusely sweating, I couldn’t tell you how useful it was.

It went on and on like this for what seemed like eternity. Rock walk up to rock scramble requiring you to throw your trekking poles up and drag yourself up to them, rock walk into a patch of woods just long enough to make you cuss when you see you’re going right back out to another rock scramble. Over and over and over again. It was like heaven greeting you to walk back into the shade of the woods-but even then you’d pour sweat like you just stepped out of a shower.
I caught up to TBird and TownLegs at a creek crossing. They showed me where to go down to get “into” the small waterfall. And oh boy did I! I spent a solid 30-45 minutes in that little spot. For 10 minutes at least I stood in the water with my head in the waterfall just drenching my scalp. I flung my hair back like how those Instagram models fling their hair in fancy pools.. except no one was there to witness it LOL

I was completely content for a solid 15 minutes after I got my shoes back on. Then it was right back into the sun and I could no longer tell what was water from the creek and what was sweat. I was chugging water like a lunatic. And then, only 2 hours into New York, I rolled my ankle. I had just been then thinking about how good my shins feel and how thankful I am to the people that helped me with it.. Lizard, TBird, and HoneyBadger for the stretches, FarOut for the KT tape. When I rolled it, I felt and heard the pop and crack.. I saw only white and then when my vision returned I almost puked. I leaned on my trekking poles and hobbled over to some shade about 4 steps away, and in clear view of the new rock scramble ahead. I tossed town my poles, my bag, and sat and gently as I could and propped my foot on my bag. It wasn’t swelling like I thought it would, so I was starting to think I didn’t roll it as bad as I thought I did-but that original pain was something sickening.

I decided I’d finish working on uploading pictures on the blog for yesterday’s post, and rest my foot for a while. Not too long after the whole incident, maybe 10 minutes-you know long enough to have the “what if I just ended my hike? What if it really starts to swell? How will I get my ass off this mountain if I can’t walk?” questions come up- FarOut and HotSauce appeared. I was instantly happier, and suddenly less worried about my predicament. They sat with me a few, told me about their morning of trying to hitch in and it taking awhile and then how irritated they were with the heat, too.

Eventually, we got talking about the creamery and decided the best thing to do is to carry on, as long as I could walk. HotSauce helped me stand and test out my foot-no sharp shooting pain and I was able to hold pressure on it. Ok, cool, I just panicked because of how painful it had been. I can walk on it! So we moved on to rock scramble after rock scramble followed by a slew of cuss words from my mouth. They were kind enough to stay just ahead of me until they were sure I was ok. We took a break for water and a snack, and then after what felt like a lifetime, we got to the creamery (they a good bit ahead of me).

Everyone we knew practically was there. I got in line, TownLegs got me fresh water.. ok, life is getting better. Professor came strolling up slowly and I ended up getting his ice cream for him so he wouldn’t have to stand in the line (it was at least 15 deep), and he got me some trail magic AND toted my pack up to the “hiker hill” all of our people were at. I had ice cream and Gatorade and water surrounded by people l enjoy a whole hell of a lot.

Afterward, I took it very slow on the last 2 miles to camp. I called and talked to mom, thankful for the easy terrain. Which then changed into another rocky disaster with a mile left to go. Awesome. Professor caught up to me and we caught up to lizard. We slowly made our way, the steep drops of the rock edges being the hardest on my ankle. Cholula called and told me there’s a side trail to look out for that will re-route me around the really rough rocky spots. I told Professor but lizard already got away from us, although I’m pretty sure she loves the challenge the rocks bring. I told Professor about the side trail and he opted to go with me on the easier terrain “to make sure you’re ok,” lol – Professor is a total badass, out here hiking the AT at 70 years old. He took a bit of a beating from the rocks today, too, and even broke one of his trekking poles. I felt better having him hike with me.

We met Lizard where the 2 trails meet, and she said it was tough for sure, confirming my decision was the right one for me. We let her head out in front of us and slowly made our way to camp. We set up, ate dinner, talked. Professor is staying in the shelter, but the rest of us (Poptart, Frosty, a couple I don’t know, Lizard, Derby, Cholula, Curmy, FarOut and HotSauce) are all camped down the hill a bit. Poptart let me use some cortisone cream on an awful heat rash I’m brewing (well, it’s already brewed and it’s along my panty line on my butt, waist and hips, and let me tell you, that rash did NOT help improve my mood today lol). I’m laid out in my tent, thankful it’s not see through-as I’m trying to air out all my ailments without my sticky/sweaty clothes on. If a bear runs through camp tonight, it’ll be real awkward for me. Seems worth it, though.