Feast or Famine

Hey every body! Been a while... I finally climbed down from the mountains into a town with a computer! I'm in Greenwood Lake, New York. Just over an hour north of New York City. Mile 1369 of 2189 (62% done), State number 9, with 820 miles to go. I've got 30 days to finish by my goal time, so going to have to average just over 27 miles a day. Gonna be tough... but do-able.

I'll give y'all a quick (edit not really actually) recap of my last few weeks. I went ahead alone shortly after the last blog, just before the 50th day. Me and Killer were doing the math of what it would take to finish in 100 days and she decided she wanted to slow down and chill a bit and not be rushing every day (weird concept). Killer was an awesome hiking partner, never complained once. I heard that she was hiking with a group of 6 and now is hiking with some cool people that started the same day as us. A perk of hiking at a more moderate pace is getting to hike with other people. I've been pretty much on my lonesome for a few weeks now.
I had an interesting week a few weeks back. Firstly, Virginia aint flat. I was lied to. It might not have as tall of mountains as the previous states, but it really wasn't flat at all. The only section I would consider flatish would be the Shenandoah National Park in Northern Virginia. I was there at the very beginning of July. It was nice because there was touristy rest stops that had food along the trail. I stopped at one for a burger and was planning on getting some snacks for the next few days but they were way over priced, so I decided to push on for a day to a hostel/inn further down the trail. The hostel was a cool place, but the restaurant wasn't open. I managed to scrounge some instant ramen noodles, 2 pops and oatmeal from the hiker box (a kind of leave stuff/take stuff box of food and clothes hikers use) and take a shower. The ramen was obviously given out as trail magic. I don't think I've mentioned trail magic yet. It's an awesome thing where people basically just give hikers free food. Could be a cooler in the woods full of pop or a whole meal set up along the trail. It's been a nice perk along the trail that I had no clue about. I get trail magic usually a couple times a week. A tip for people giving trail magic though: don't give ramen. It's like giving people rescued from sea tuna or something. It's just cruel. So that's what I had to go on until the next town, a day away. I was also planing on trying the 4 state challenge the next day. I had heard about it near the start of the trail, and had been very intrigued. The challenge is to hike through 4 states. Starting in Virginia, going through 4 miles of West Virginia, 40 of Maryland and finishing in Pennsylvanian, all in one day. My sparse diet the previous day wasn't exactly carbo loading. I started my day at 5:53, hungry, and soon got to Harper's Ferry, WV. It's a tiny town with a refurbished civil war era downtown, which was pretty cool to wander around at 7 am. There was luckily one place open that early for me to get some breaky at and some snacks for the day. Four miles by 8:30 isn't exactly the blazing pace I was looking for. By 8pm it was getting dark, I'd done 35 miles, and I passed by a nice looking camping spot. I was really close to calling er a day. But I did some quick math and figured I could still finish the challenge, and didn't want to go down that easily. I soon was regretting my decision. I night hiked for hours. Night hiking isn't ideal because it's harder to see where you're going, harder to stay on the trail, and you kind of feel like an escaped murderer, or that you're going to run into one. The last few miles of the day are often a bit tough. They seem to drag on. You're getting tired and hungry, it's getting dark, you're feet are hurting, and you're just ready to be done. This was that times ten. And the dreaded perennially rocky terrain of Pennsylvanian had begun early. It was a dark night and my headlamp isn't too bright so I kept loosing the trail. At one point I heard growling, I approached slowly and was relieved to see it was a guy tenting with his dog. He probably had the only decent flat spot in that whole forest. I started listening to a podcast that happened to be about a woman interviewing a guy with PTSD that manifested itself in him being haunted by a demon, then the symptoms started occurring to the interviewer. Great. The next podcast was about a woman's love for songbirds, so that was better. The terrain reminded me of the Blair With Project. Further research tells me that the movie was filmed in the very same state of Maryland. Good thing that movie wasn't too scary. I stumbled around in the forest for 4 hours, totally ready to give up, but there was no where flat I could camp. After 18 hours of hiking, my feet weren't feeling great, to say the least. I finally saw a sign up ahead. I was hoping it would tell me some good news, that something, anything was close by. When I got close I saw it said "Appalachian Trail". That's it. Thanks sign. Finally around 1 am I got to a large park. It started to rain so I took refuge under a nice big pavilion and feasted on all my luxurious food (not). I opened my guidebook to see where I was and was a bit amazed to see that I was only 0.3 miles from the Pennsylvania border. I was pretty tempted to say close enough, and call er a gimmie, but I waddled over to the state line, stepped over, took and pic and walked back arthritically but proudly. It was 1:15 am on July 4th and the 4 state challenge was in the bag. I'm not sure it was worth it... but it was nice to say I'd done it. I haven't heard of anyone else doing it. One older guy I don't think believed me when I told him the next day. I slept like a baby that night under the pavilion until getting kicked out by a parky at 9am. I was able to walk the next day, surprisingly. Out of food, I made my way into Waynesboro, PA. I quickly got offered a ride from a guy with face tattoos in a tiny car with a big dog that tried to lick me to death. He offered me a beer as he sipped his. A little early for me but it was Independence day so I'll cut him some slack. I got lots of good food and replaced my broken sleeping bad with a cheap foam on from Wal-mart. On my walk back I got offered a ride within minutes again. I wonder if these guys see the pony tail and pull over, and then don't have the guts to drive away when they see my ugly mug. I did an easy 20 miles and was in bed by 9pm... back to hiker hours.
The first few days in Pennsylvania were enjoyable. It was mostly rolling farm land, which reminded me of Ontario. I passed the half way point, and did the traditional half galleon ice cream challenge. I didn't know exactly how much a half galleon was, and neither did the lady at the store, so i googled it. It's 1.89 liters. I was a bit daunted at first but I love ice cream and needed lots of calories so it was kinda fun. I would of rather stopped after the first box, but I got through the last pint/liter. Took about 40 minutes. 3394 calories in total. Not bad for 9 bucks. The spot most people do the challenge didn't take credit cards so I did it at the next town. Must of looked weird... a greasy kid eating a ton of ice cream outside a convenience store. I also got some good trail magic that day. Two sandwiches, pop, Gatorade, chocolate bar and baby wipes. I was feeling good, riding high. But then I got to Duncannon.
I knew I was getting low on money, so I had kind of been crossing my fingers when I paid for anything, hoping it would go through, until I could get into a town and get some more money on my credit card. I got to Duncannon, PA, and my luck ran out. I was hoping to use the library computer, but it was a volunteer run library in a church that was open a total of 6 hours a week. My phone was dead and wouldn't charge. And I was out of money. I had got a double breakfast, but couldn't pay for it. A lady working there was nice enough to get the bill. I was sure I would be able to pay her back before I left town. I was able to use a (really slow) computer in town and get in contact with some people. I was hoping to have some money from returning my hammock, but it's kind of hard to return a hammock when it's in Vermont, the receipt is in Fergus, the store is in Ottawa and me and the debit card are in the middle of nowhere, USA. A buddy sent me some money and my Dad loaned me enough money to finish the trip. I was hoping the card would work right away but it didn't. The convenience store guy shooed me away after my card failed for the third time. I tried the other convenience store in town but again it didn't work. The guy behind me in line was a section hiker and was nice enough to buy the chips and milk I had. I appreciated the kind acts, but man I felt like a bum. A few days ago I was a conqueror of challenges... A force that couldn't be stopped. And now I was grounded to a halt in this crappy little town. No money, no phone, not able to handle my own financial situation, smelling like poop, dirty clothes, matted hair, and shorts that were slipping off my waist. I'd been stuck in this down for 6 hours trying to deal with my credit card and stuff. That's 15 miles of hiking that I'll have to make up, when I'm trying to bank miles before the high mountains. I was frustrated and disheartened, so I decided to get the heck out of there and push on to the next town. It was 35 miles away. I could be there in 24 hours if all went well. I had half a bag of dried pineapple, 2 oatmeal packages, a bit of Nutella and a marmalade package. At the road head to the next town I tried hitchhiking. A cop pulled over, here we go. But he was nice and gave me a ride into town. My card still didn't work. I went to a hotel and asked to use the computer. I tried not to recreated the scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles when Steve Martin is talking to the airline worker when the hotel receptionist smiled and said they were for guests only. I explained my situation and was eventually able to haggle with the credit card company over the house phone and get everything sorted out. I ate so much I almost puked. That was an interesting couple days. I learned my lesson to be more on top of my financial situation, even when it feels like another world when I'm in the mountains 95 percent of the time. Thank god for my awesome friends and family for helping me out. My phone still wasn't charging but thats a little lower on the totem pole than eating.
I aimed to do 30 mile days in Pennsylvanian. The skeeters were really bad. It would have been nice to have an ipod to block out their noise and keep me motivated. Also not knowing the time or having and alarm isn't ideal. I was thinking about getting two pet frogs and perching them on either shoulder to take care of the bugs. They were just relentless. Pennsylvania is know as Rocksylvania amongst hikers. After a couple longer days my feet felt like hamburger. Barely any step is on soft flat ground. It was endless small jagged rocks, not many mountains or views, or good water sources. I didn't shed any tears when I crossed into New Jersey. Jersey was much better, and by some miracle my Ipod came back from the dead yesterday!
PS I didn't realize how long this post would be so I ran up against the library closing last night so came back this morning to finish the post and apply to a job. I stealth camped behind the school, not the first time I've done that. If I'm going to finish in 100 days, I'll have to really cut down on time in town. That means computer time, blog entries, laundry, and showering time will be very limited. Anyone whose read this far is probably sick of my rambling anyway. Getting food is really all I can afford to do. This pace doesn't leave much time for anything but hiking. It's going to be an exceptionally greasy last month on the trail. I feel bad for anyone who has to be in my vicinity or catch a glimpse of me. I never thought doing the trail in 100 days would be easy, I just think it will be worth it. I'll try and get a quick update out around the long weekend. Thanks for reading! Phone's too finicky to upload any pictures. Adios!