My Trails

7/12/12 – 1244 miles
One thing about the trail in the north is that you go by more towns. Sometimes the AT goes near a restaurant, and for a hungry hiker, it’s hard to pass them up. I was hiking with SimpleC and his girlfriend when we passed by Blue Mountain Summit Restaurant & BB, an expensive but nice establishment just outside Andreas PA, and decided to stop in for lunch. Needless to say, it was two hours later when I finally dragged my stuffed body back to the trail to finish the days hike.

With a bloated stomach and extra water, I proceeded to hike through a particularly difficult section called the Knife Edge. Pennsylvania rocks ate tough anyway but the Knife Edge lived up to it’s name. Jagged boulders jutting at sharp angles lined the ridge for maybe a quarter mile, and naturally the white blazes led up along the very top of the rocks.

I had filled up on water at the previous spring because of a long dry stretch, and the heaviness of my pack left me with no balance across the boulder field. And my trekking poles were useless on the steep face of the rock. It took me a long time to negotiate the Knife Edge and I hope there is no more like it.

7/11/12 – 1211 miles
I’m taking a zero day here in Port Clinton, PA. The rocks in northern PA. are very numerous and stick up at odd angles, giving the knees and ankles a workout. These mid-atlantic states are where we can make good mileage – building up a head-start into the mountains of New England where the terrain will cut our progress down to a crawl – but I felt I needed a day off so I took it.

A few nights ago, I was camped with a German guy named Sonic. At about 10 pm he asked me if I was awake. I said I was. He had left his new camp shoes at the shelter 8 miles back and had to return to get them. I let him borrow my headlamp because his wasn’t very bright, and he hiked back through the night – along an extremely rocky section – to retrieve his camp shoes. I hope I never have to do that.

The shelter I’m using is a one-person, free-standing, two-piece tent made by Big Agnes. I started out with a one-piece tarp tent that was very light but had a couple flaws. For one thing, every time it rained you would get a mist from the condensation as the drops hit the nylon. I never could get used to that. And my tarp tent took up more room to set up. Good tent sites are something of a premium out here and the one-person tent fits where my other tent didn’t.

I can usually get everything inside my tent at night. I usually hang my food from a tree in a bear bag, and my extra clothes make a pillow for my head. The tent has a small vestibule but big enough to cover my pack.

7/7/12 – 1175 miles
At present I’m not carrying many extra clothes. In warm weather, all you need is two shirts and two pairs of shorts. One pair I always keep clean so that I have something clean to put on in town after I take a shower. I have three pairs of socks that I rotate after two days on each. Two pair of underwear (eww! ). I keep my puffy jacket just in case there is a cold snap.

For rain gear I’m trying out an emergency poncho. Anything else is too hot. I do use a pack cover even though the rain will eventually enter the pack in an all day soaker.

For a sleeping bag I try to use the lightest material that will keep me warm. Some hikers are using a light flannel blanket now but I have a light bag that weights only one pound. Sometimes I just sleep on top of it if it is warm weather.

My air mattress is a Neo-Air Extreme, one of the lightest (and most expensive) blow-up sleeping pads made. Some of the first Neo-Airs were noisy and puncture prone, but I’ve had good luck with this one. It gets used every night I’m on the trail.

I will tell about my shelter system next.

7/6/12 – 1159 miles
There have been some questions about the gear I’ve been using. It’s still a work in progress but here are some details on what I carry and why.

My pack at the present time weighs about 22 pounds base weight. That means that with no food and water I’m one of the lightest hikers out here. There are a few that carry no tent. When you add food and water the weight will increase depending on how far it is to the next resupply. The most I usually carry is 30 pounds.

I started out with an alcohol stove. The weight of alcohol is almost the same as a canister of iso-propane so I switched to my MSR stove (4oz) for the convience of quicker cooking. When that was stolen, I replaced it with the same thing. Most of us have one pot for cooking. I also have a cup for coffee in the morning. I still make things that you can eat by boiling water, but the mre are too expensive for a steady diet. I will sometimes boil noodles, then transfer them to a baggie, add cheese and butter, wait about ten minutes and eat. I also make oatmeal in a baggie, too. Then I have no mess to clean. Other foods I eat include: Knor rice and pasta sides, Oriental noodles, tuna, chicken, jerky, pepperoni, summer sausage, and mashed potatos. For lunch I usually have peanut butter and fluff(I started this) on bread, thins, or tortillas. For snacks I eat a lot of granola bars, dried fruit, and lots and lots of Rice Krispy treats. Next post will be about sleep system.

7/5/12 – 1140 miles
I’m at a place called the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon, PA. It’s kind of dirty, kind of ancient and run-down, kind of a fire-trap, but it is a thruhiker tradition to stay here. For $26 you get a room and a shared bath, shuttle to town, and an amazing cheeseburger at the bar(extra) . There is no A/C and no screens on the windows so I have many bugs in my room. I hesitate to do laundry because one mile out of town and my clothes will be soaked with sweat anyway. I will probably just rinse my shirt in the sink.

Tomorrow I enter the streatch of Pennsylvania trail famous for being filled with rocks. The trail is so rocky that many hikers leave the state with sore knees and bruised ankles. One hiker described the trail as if someone “sharpens” the rocks at night. I’m sure I will slow down for awhile in this section.