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Franken-Wha?

Well, we were back on the trail last week and were making some good miles. While the nights were starting to get cold, the days were still sunny and warm. True fall weather. The kind I have been in love with as long as I can remember. The trail is covered in leaves and at times treacherous due to leaf/acorn combinations, but the colors are truly magnificent. It was about mid-week when both Jen and I started to get some ominous emails and texts concerning severe weather headed our way. We were frantically Google-ing when cell service permitted and checking the weather channel as much as possible. The gist of what we were reading resulted in a “wait and see” mentality, something we have become quite used to on the trail.

Shenandoahs? Check!

I am sitting at Rockfish Gap, over I-64 having just completed the Shenandoahs! We have had a great week back, knocking out 20+ mile days each day. We even passed by the trail Emily and I first hiked on 3.5 years ago when we talked about doing the AT together! Now we are headed south, trying to beat the weather as we go.

Lazy days

After some deliberation and a valiant (though failed) attempt at slack packing through the Shenandoahs we have decided to take the next few days off. We realized we were very close to home and wanted to take advantage of time with our parents while we were in proximity. Hopefully a few days of rest will heal some of the aches and pains and we will be ready to rock the last 900 miles!

The Roller Coaster

Yesterday Emily and I did the “roller coaster”- a 13.5 mile section with over 10 climbs and ensuing descents. The trail makers were forced to create the trail up and over these “view-less rocky ridges”, which is how our book described them. We did a 4 mile warm-up before starting the coaster in the morning, making it a 17.5 mile day. We got into camp past dark last night and agreed it was one of the toughest days in a long while! Here is the
map with the elevation profile:

Fancy Dinner

Thank you to my brother Tony and his girlfriend Kim for our awesome dinner tonight. We felt so fancy having freeze dried meals including a burrito that was one of the best things we have had all trail!

Maryland in a Day

Jen:

Today was an amazing day, as Emily and I were able to accomplish one of our huge goals of this trip- hiking the state of Maryland in a single day. There are a variety of “challenges” along the trail that you can choose to participate in, including eating a half-gallon of ice cream at the halfway point, hiking four states in one day and completing all 41 miles of Maryland in a 24-hour period. In all of our planning we knew that the Maryland challenge would be something to shoot for when the time came. However, injuries, hospital stays and lower-than-planned mileage had us doubting ourselves. After my foot gave me trouble a couple weeks ago I put the thought of doing such a big day out of my head, thinking that the possibility for injury was just too high. We stopped even discussing it, though I could tell Emily was holding out hope that things might turn around.
Then yesterday evening

The Wentzels!

My mom and dad came into Harpers Ferry, WV last night to visit Emily and I for the night. We celebrated our 42 mile day and it was absolutely wonderful to see them! Here we all are after lunch today:

Photo Diary: Pennsylvania and Maryland

Emily, Jen and Bear at the 1,000 mile mark!

 

Beautiful trail in PA, with a Bear in the middle!

 

The nightly pack line up at a brand new shelter- Rausch Gap in PA.

 

The famous Doyle Hotel- lived up to it’s reputation (good and bad!)

 

On the front door of The Doyle- fair warning!

 

Evening Uno game with E-ticket, Lead Dog, Gritz and Smiley.

 

We go this-a-way.

 

3:30am start to our Maryland Challenge- to hike the whole 41 mile state in 24 hours or less.

 

And….complete! 41.8 miles in 17 hours and 2 minutes. Yay!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milestones

It has been a good week. We have almost made it through the dreaded PA, and have accomplished some big milestones along the way. We have also met some amazing people and have had a small trail family while hiking.

Shortly after starting our way through the rocky trail of PA we met 3 young men who are also headed south.