Virginia... and Vacation!

Hey Everyone --

 

Since we last blogged we hiked a few 20+ mile days through some of the most beautiful country we've seen yet, the Grayson Highlands of VA and surrounding areas.  We saw the famous Grayson Highland Ponies and Jeff even caught an awesome picture of the elusive Eastern Red Newt.  Hiking in VA so far has been easier than NC and TN, and I hope it stays that way at least for a little bit.  I have yet to find a pair of shoes that doesn't give me blisters each day, and both Jeff and I have been having troubles with our knees even though we have trimmed our pack weight down to the barest of minimums.  Before we started the hike, Jeff drew up a great plan of where we projected to be each week until the end of September when we would reach Mt. Khatadin, or the end of our journey.  Until now this plan  has been rigid on two events that we absolutely had to make it to -- Trail Days and a friend's wedding coming up this weekend.  Both events are in Virginia, so it was easy for us to stay on track despite the fact that we tend to hike faster and farther than we ever thought we would.  This past week we realized that despite our best efforts, we were still ahead of schedule getting to the wedding, and decided to take an impromptu "vacation" to Connecticut to meet up with friends.  Yes, we took a short, mini-vacation from hiking!  It definitely feels weird being off the trail for this many days in a row, but it was great to smell the fresh ocean air and see some of the friends who have been supporting us on this journey.  Thankfully, our friends Dave and Lina let us crash at their house, and it was in exchange only for a little hard labor by Jeff who helped Dave build the sweetest pullup bar you've ever seen in his yard... lol.

 

Anyways, I don't have a lot of time to ramble, but we wanted you all to know we are alive.  We are leaving Connecticut today, hope to hike a couple more days and will hit up the wedding on Sunday.  After that, all gloves are off!  We have no further "appointments" as we hike, and plan to continue hiking farther and faster than we have been with a new hiking strategy we will implement when we get back to the trail.  I hope this note finds everyone well!

 

~Styx & Bones

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HikeStrong 2010 - Jeff & Aly
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