Blog Update -- Mile Marker 1507

I got Noro again! Super frustrating!!

Speaking of frustrating, kittatinny ridge in PA and NJ wasn't very great. Southern PA, and even up until my last update really wasn't all to bad. But for 155 miles in eastern PA and western NJ we hit the section of rocks that everyone talks about. Now, were they truly as bad as everyone says? It depends on where you are from. Having done a lot of hiking in NH and ME, a rocky trail is not new to us. I could see though that if someone was from Tennessee that they'd find Kittatinny ridge absolutely horrible. 

Going into PA and hearing the horror stories of "rocksylvania," I figured that there would be endless miles of sharp and impossible rocks. In reality, these sections lasted rarely more than a half mile at a time. What made them seem long though was how they destroyed your hiking rythym. Instead of just being able to step, you constantly had to chose your step with a pretty decent deal of caution to avoid either slipping on a rock, tripping on a rock, or stabbing your foot on a rock. When you had already done 23 miles in a day and only had 2 left, the rocks somehow always came out to play. 

Since my last post, we've finished PA, NJ, NY and I'll finish Connecticut tomorrow. Throughout this time, my dislike of the ATC has only grown, but I'm going to save this rant for after the AT is done that way they don't send their minions my way. 

With that said, the second half of NJ was absolutely beautiful, and the central section of NY was fantastic, specifically the bear mountain section -- which we certainly did not illegally hike. In no way did we go around barriers that the state of NY and the corrupt ATC approved. No no. No such thing was done.... NY state is probably corrupt too not just the ATC.

Being back in the north feels strange. Especially taking a few days off and hanging out at home and southern Maine. We have less than 700 miles left which I'd like to complete in a months time. I'm enjoying my time out here, but I'm also really really looking forward to being done. In general, I like having options for what I can do with myself. Of course. There's always work, but maybe one day I'd like to climb, or play pool, or fish, or hunt, or do nothing and just relax with Kristina... right now I'm just hiking.

I don't regret choosing to hike the AT, but I am counting down the days until I have flexibility with what I do with my life again. It also really could be the case that long trails aren't for me. If you told me that where I stopped due to my sickness a few days ago, I'd be perfectly content with ending there -- pretending it was katahdin of course. 

With every one of these posts I feel like I could write an entire new post on each one of these paragraphs to get close to fully fleshing out my thoughts. Once I finish the AT I'm certainly going to describe my mentality at different sections of the trail. 

For now, I'll get back on trail tomorrow and see how many miles I can do each day. I'd like to hit the NH state line 250 miles from now in about 9 or 10 days. We will see what happens!

Thanks for following along. 

Tyler M.