It’s gonna take more than rocks and bears to slow us down!

We are still alive and kicking and racing through the woods! We haven’t blogged in a bit because we have been literally RACING through the countryside on the way to Connecticut. It all started last week when Jeff told our buddy Dave that we’d be there by THIS Friday. Shortly thereafter we realized that to meet this goal we had to hike TWENTY EIGHT miles a day for eight days with no breaks! HA! Are we insane!? Certainly we must be! Amazingly right now we are on track to get to CT as promised, but there are a few days left to go. Today it was the hottest day in 10 years here as we crossed the New York border, so we’ll see how it goes the next few days! Other happenings since we last updated:

  

PENNSYLVANIA: We have heard since we started planning our hike that PA is where your shoes go to die. They say its covered in rocks and miserable and it pretty much was! Considering that I am a rock jumping genius I loved it for a while, but after a few miles or 10 you start to wear down on all the rock jumps. The most memorable thing about PA was the climb up out of Lehigh gap. It was a bare rock face where you just climb straight up rocks to the top where the trail continues. There were two really significant things about this part of the trail. The first was the blood spatters that started at the bottom of the trail. I don’t know if the person fell at the bottom and climbed up to the top or fell at the top and climbed down the hill (to a hospital hopefully), but there was a gross bloody trail the entire way to the top. The whole way we climbed I tried to avoid the mess and at the same time envisioned going around a corner and finding the person lying there. It was crazy! The second thing was an interesting guy we met before we started our hike up. He was sitting on a rock completely drenched in sweat. He saw us and asked us where the trail goes once we get up the mountain. Since we were at the bottom and had not climbed even one inch of the trail to the top, we said we had no idea. He told us that he had gotten to the top, saw a pine tree in the middle of the trail and didn’t know which way the trail went. Then, not knowing which way to go, he took a right, and had “bushwacked” his way through the woods, down, around and back to the beginning. Trying to contain my laughter and an appropriately timed “well I guess the trail ain’t to the right,” comment, we attempted to sympathize and headed on. You see, the AT is known as the most well-marked continuous footpath in the US. There have been times when we go the wrong direction, but it only lasts a few feet until we don’t see a next marker, backtrack and go the right direction. There is never, EVER, a reason for you to “bushwack” anywhere! ANYWHERE! LOL.

  

JERSEY: Seriously, who knew that Jersey was the bear capital of the trail??? WHO KNEW??? Apparently Jersey is the most densely populated area when it comes to bears on the whole trail. Our very first day on the trail there, we intended to walk around 25 miles and camp. Within a couple miles of starting the trail in Jersey, Jeff saw a HUGE bear that he said was “sitting there and staring right at you!” (you being me). Unfortunately I didn’t see the bear, which seems to be the trend for me. Jeff sees a bear, he tells me exactly where it is, and I look for it but never see it. All I do is hear it as it runs away! Later in the day we were warned by other hikers about at least 6 bears that they had witnessed on the trail. One guy had to wait an HOUR while a bear ate a lunch of twigs and berries right in the middle of the trail! With this new information, Jeff decided that we were not camping and made me hike 30 something miles to get to a town and check into a motel. You think hiking 30 miles is crazy until you see the bear, then it makes perfect sense! The next day we saw a guy who said he saw 11 bears the day before. At that point, I was relieved that we hit a motel, but I was also wondering what was wrong with me because I haven’t seen a single bear this whole time!!! Then today the magic happened! There was a mamma bear and a baby bear running away from us, across a road and up a hill. It was perfect and just the way I had hoped my first bear experience would be. I saw a bear and it was running in the opposite direction of me! Perfect!

  

NEW YORK: Just got here! There was a section of trail today that looked really flat and boring on our guide’s profile map but turned out to be miles and miles of us going up and over HUGE rock formations. It was exactly the opposite of what I would have thought it to be! Tomorrow’s hike looks really hard, so if I compare the map “profile” to that of today, we will probably never make it!

  

Wish us luck! Miss you all! Can’t wait to see our Connecticut friends and family this weekend!

  

~Styx & Bones

  

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