100 Days On-Trail Update

For this post I am gonna start with a recap of where I have made it in 100 days along with a little gratitude and end with the cluster that is Northern PA.

As of today I’ve been on trail 100 days. It took me almost to New York( Border at ~1365)Tonight I am setting at mile 1362. The time on trail had passed so quickly but with all the great experiences I have had so far there is some gratitude due to so many people that have made me even getting this far possible. I’d like to thank some of them in hopes this gets to them.

My family and friends have supported this 4-6 month life adventure fully. Out of all of them I couldn’t find one person who tried to talk me out of picking up and moving to the woods.

Also the countless folks out on the trail who do trail magic are amazing. If the people who leave some soadas in the woods k. A cooler could see the smile of pure enjoyment on a thru hikers face I’m sure they would see our sincere gratitude. I have had some great trail magic so far. My three favorite so far have been Erwin, TN, Loft Mtn Campground in SNP, and the thru hikers who cooked dinner for the whole group in PA. Most recently in New Jersey a guy literally went home from a store and brought me denatured alcohol for my stove when o asked him where to get some on the 4th of July holiday. You hear the saying the trail provides but you don’t really know the true meaning until you are out on the trail and what you need magically appears.

With all that said I’ll do a little update on where I am on the trail.

I made it through Northern PA. All I can say is all the stories are true. My feet haven’t hurt this bad that early in the say since my first week in GA. You wake up and hike for miles with your eyes glued to your feet to keep from breaking both ankles. Even if you could look around for views there really aren’t any until you get to the giant almost bolder problem coming out of Lehigh. Seeing that PA/NJ border was probabky one of the happiest moments of my thru hike. I realize people may think PA wasn’t that bad but for me the rocks combined with no foot insoles or trekking poles that were waiting on new trekking poles tips was the perfect storm for my feet and overall demeanor.

New Jersey has been a great state. The first day in it you get to see the first lake on the trail. You get a few more climbs than PA but this time they come with views. Other than that I don’t have a ton more to say about NJ.   I am going into New York tomorrow to continue North!