Tomorrow morning we'll be taking off to Maine to begin our long walk home. As you may or may not know, we are flip-flopping on our hike in order to avoid a number of problems we feared we might face. We have already completed the entire trail from Springer Mountain Georgia to the Brink Road Shelter in New Jersey (which accounts of exactly 1308.3 miles). However, now that we are approaching September, the prospect of hiking through Maine in late October strikes fear into our hearts. This situation also puts us in the ideal situation of walking south as it gets colder, and of hiking through New England during the fall foliage season. Most significantly though, the chance to "walk home" is just something we couldn't pass up.
While Maine and New Hampshire pose great threats physically, the fact that we'll be walking home can hopefully drive us past any challenges we face.
I also will try to be a little more consistent in my posting, so keep coming back for updates and hopefully you'll be receiving them and i'll see you in exactly 870.0 miles!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Day off in PA
Glass half full, it now spillith over. Nearly 1300 miles into the trip, we can feel the scales finally tipping in our favor (800 miles left). My last update was a couple hundred miles back, so there is obviously a lot to catch everybody up on. Hopefully, this entry will begin to do that (and a hopeful perspective future one can finish it off).
Ill start from where i am now, and work backwards. We've made it to the Poconos house, and right on schedule may i add. We arrived wednesday night, and will be leaving tomorrow (at least i will, full explanation coming). Josh's family was up visiting, but left for the Weissman's lake house thursday afternoon. This left us with a delicate situation in which we wanted to all see our families, without restricting the others from seeing theirs. The plan we finally settled on, was that Josh would go with his family to the lake while Jake would attempt a historic 40 mile hike from my Poconos house to his lake house (he made it). The plan concludes with me hiking with Belle (my sister) for two days. Her and I will hike short days tomorrow and sunday until she gets picked up by my parents. Both of us are looking forward to it, and i think it will be fun. Josh will be meeting up with me Sunday evening by hiking a long day to catch my progress from the 2 days with my sister. Should be a fun weekend!
Our recent days have seen us receive a loud of guests to hike with us. It bega with Jacob Price (Josh's brother). He did a great job, hiking about 100 miles and keeping up with the big boys. It was also really nice to have some new company with us, as he hiked for over a week and we got used to him. Next to join us was Adam, who spent two full days hiking some of the toughest terrain in PA. Then came Eli, who hiked a day with us. On the trail it is especially nice getting all these different personalities, because as you can imagine, we are quite used to our own.
Of course, you can always find the day-by-day updates of our trip on Jake's blog (linked to the right), but a short overview of the states and terrains we faced are as follows:
Pennsylvania-Rocky but moderately flat
Shenandoah- Flat and beautiful. Well carved trails, and lots of cute bears
Thats about it for regions. Two very long, pretty nice places to hike.
We also hit Harpers Ferry during the downtime of this blog. This was nice because it was our first chance to see our families (at least Josh and I). As we walked north toward Harpers Ferry, My dad, sister Eve, Adam, and girlfriend Tanya walked southbound to meet us on the trail. They did, and Tanya even carried my pack all the way to town (she is perfect!). We stayed in a nice hotel, and spent a day in the nice historic downtown which was relaxing.
Those are most of the major events of our time since i last posted. While i'm sure there are more stories to tell, this entry will end with one last story. One night Jake was so scared spiders would climb on him one night that he set up his tent inside a shelter, something considered grossly taboo, and undone among thru-hikers; but who can tell Jake what to do when spiders are around (answer: no one)
Ill start from where i am now, and work backwards. We've made it to the Poconos house, and right on schedule may i add. We arrived wednesday night, and will be leaving tomorrow (at least i will, full explanation coming). Josh's family was up visiting, but left for the Weissman's lake house thursday afternoon. This left us with a delicate situation in which we wanted to all see our families, without restricting the others from seeing theirs. The plan we finally settled on, was that Josh would go with his family to the lake while Jake would attempt a historic 40 mile hike from my Poconos house to his lake house (he made it). The plan concludes with me hiking with Belle (my sister) for two days. Her and I will hike short days tomorrow and sunday until she gets picked up by my parents. Both of us are looking forward to it, and i think it will be fun. Josh will be meeting up with me Sunday evening by hiking a long day to catch my progress from the 2 days with my sister. Should be a fun weekend!
Our recent days have seen us receive a loud of guests to hike with us. It bega with Jacob Price (Josh's brother). He did a great job, hiking about 100 miles and keeping up with the big boys. It was also really nice to have some new company with us, as he hiked for over a week and we got used to him. Next to join us was Adam, who spent two full days hiking some of the toughest terrain in PA. Then came Eli, who hiked a day with us. On the trail it is especially nice getting all these different personalities, because as you can imagine, we are quite used to our own.
Of course, you can always find the day-by-day updates of our trip on Jake's blog (linked to the right), but a short overview of the states and terrains we faced are as follows:
Pennsylvania-Rocky but moderately flat
Shenandoah- Flat and beautiful. Well carved trails, and lots of cute bears
Thats about it for regions. Two very long, pretty nice places to hike.
We also hit Harpers Ferry during the downtime of this blog. This was nice because it was our first chance to see our families (at least Josh and I). As we walked north toward Harpers Ferry, My dad, sister Eve, Adam, and girlfriend Tanya walked southbound to meet us on the trail. They did, and Tanya even carried my pack all the way to town (she is perfect!). We stayed in a nice hotel, and spent a day in the nice historic downtown which was relaxing.
Those are most of the major events of our time since i last posted. While i'm sure there are more stories to tell, this entry will end with one last story. One night Jake was so scared spiders would climb on him one night that he set up his tent inside a shelter, something considered grossly taboo, and undone among thru-hikers; but who can tell Jake what to do when spiders are around (answer: no one)
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