What a Year!

Hi All --

Today marks the one year anniversary of when Jeff and I saw the weather report and decided to wait an extra day to start hiking the Appalachian Trail!  It has definitely been an amazing year and we wanted to say thank you once again to everyone who supported us on our journey.

Its exciting to remember how it felt this time last year.  We caught a couple of ridiculously cheap flights to Atlanta and jumped through a series of hoops to make it to the starting line in Amicalola Falls, GA.  Starting the hike was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.  I personally had never hiked more than a few miles; never with a pack and never with the intention of camping overnight.  Heading out I was comforted by these two facts:  1) I'm stubborn & 2) I'm not a quitter.  I was pretty sure those two traits would get me to the end, and with the help of a good hiking partner, excellent planning on Jeff's part, and a lot of kindness from friends & strangers, it did. 

Since the hike we have returned to what most people consider a 'normal' life.  With the help of great friends and former colleagues we were both able to quickly get jobs working for Unilever again, this time on the corporate side in Trumbull, CT.  Today Jeff is a Senior Quality Leader, ensuring marketplace quality and reconciling customer complaints for various product lines.  I'm a Logistics Operations Specialist and spend my working day coordinating the shipment of Ice Cream from factories to distributions centers all across the US.  Mmmmmm.... Ice Cream...

Lately the adventure of a lifetime we started just one year ago seems like a far and distant dream.  Coming back to 'real life' somehow minimized the experience to the point where it really does seem just like a blip on the radar of life, but at the same time there are reminders everywhere.  When a song from one of our hiking playlists comes on the radio, one of us never fails to say "Ooooh! This is a hike song!" and then dance around remembering the trip.  Other times as we are glazing over on the commute to work one of us will randomly say "remember that time we just left and went hiking?"  Its easy to romanticize something so tough when its over, but there is no denying the freedom you feel when you just give up everything and do something awesome.

On a recent snowboard trip to Okemo, Jeff discovered another trail - the "American Discovery Trail."  This one goes across America from somewhere near Washington DC and ends over in the San Francisco, CA area.  When he mentioned it to me I was immediatly annoyed at the idea of hiking an even farther distance... straight through "scenic" middle America and over to CA.  Or was I?  This trail brought something new to the table... something different and exciting at the same time... something with two wheels and some handlebars. 

So now the only question is... why not bicycle?

~Styx & Bones

Wait, did we really just walk from Georgia to MAINE?!

Maine photos updated here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/HikeStrong2010/

Is this real life? Did we really just walk from Georgia to MAINE?!? I guess I have the bruises, scars, smelly clothes, useless shoes and mangled feet to prove it, but it just doesn’t feel real… I couldn’t have possibly walked the entire Appalachian Trail. I was warned we would feel this way once we got off the trail and came back to the “real world,” but I had no idea how surreal being back would be. We search for jobs, run errands, hang out with friends, and do everything normal people would do. It’s hard to believe a few short days ago we were celebrating hiking over 2,175 miles and raising exactly $11,466.13 to fight cancer. Thank you so much to everyone for your support, donations to LIVESTRONG and good karma! We definitely needed it and it helped us prevail on the trail!

Since we last blogged…

We saw a Moose! MAN that thing was big! It was just in the style I like to see bears… far away and walking the other way. The moose was a little less daunting than the bear, as it was in the water on the other side of a pond. Soon after we spotted it, the moose slowly lumbered off into the trees and up the opposing hill never to be seen again. Several times throughout the day and rest of the trip we would stop when we heard something in the distance, hoping it was another moose, but it always ended up being squirrels or birds or something else completely non-moose.

There are legends on the trail about people from Maine. Most of them we heard from our pal “Bad Dinner,” and others we propagated as we hiked on. These legends included things like “Maine could conquer Canada, but they don’t want to have to pay the taxes,” and “Icy hot is too weak for people from Maine. After hiking they just rub their muscles down with liquid hot magma.” These “Maineiacs,” as we liked to call them always seemed to carry the heaviest pack, walked the most miles a day and never carried trekking poles (they are too girly I guess). Their distinguishing characteristics included enormous hiker thighs, bushy fu-man-chu’s and a glare that could turn a man to stone. Thru-hikers from Maine were tough… and when we finally reached Maine we were taught a lesson why.

You see, when you get to Maine there is a nice pretty sign that tells you you’ve reached the border. After that sign you slip your way up a wet stone slope and then hike directly back down a boulder-filled rock face. There are no “foot bridges” in Maine on the Appalachian Trail. If you want to cross a stream you take your shoes off and walk through it. Once in a while a lumberjack will have chopped down a tree and you can walk across that, but fording rivers is what you do in Maine. There is only one place in Maine where you seem to get a break when it comes to stream crossings. On the Kennebec river there’s a nice guy named Dave who ferries you across the river in a canoe. They ask you not to ford this river because there are multiple dam’s on it that can quickly cause the water to rise without notice.

Maine also has a few other key attributes. We talked about Mahoosuc Notch in our last post, the “most fun or hardest one mile of the AT” which had us scrambling over boulders for over a mile. Sugarloaf and Bigelow were also killers. Then, just as you feel like you are getting to the very end of the trip, you get to the 100 mile wilderness. The sign as you enter it warns you that there are no places to get supplies or help for a hundred miles, and tells you to take 10 days of food as you enter. Once you make it out of the 100 mile wilderness, then you have to climb Mt. Katahdin. Mt. Katahdin is where the AT ends for us Northbounders, and the 5 mile ascent is what I consider the most difficult hike of the entire trail. Some would argue with me on that one, but I still say it is the hardest.

The trail up Katahdin starts out fairly low-key, quickly getting steep, climbs over boulders up to false summit, flattens out for a mile, and then finishes with another step climb to the top. The hike was agonizing as we tried to pick the best route up the rock slopes knowing full well when it was over we would have to scramble back down the same way. At one point we were sure we were near the top when other hikers passed us going down the mountain. One of them said to Jeff, “you’re almost to the top of the first peak, and then you’re gonna laugh.” What in the world did that mean!? I mentally prepared myself for the worst, climbed over the last big boulder, and then completely understood what the guy meant. When I got to the top of the first peak I could see over a mile of flatland leading to another peak, waaaaaaaay in the distance. The hike up the mountain literally felt like it lasted forever. We pushed on, climbed up the peak we had seen in the distance, and then saw the infamous “Katahdin” sign. Oh what a feeling! We took a few minutes to take in the beauty of everything we saw around us – 360-degree views of the valley, trees, cliffs, lakes and clouds – it was so surreal. Surprisingly there were a LOT of people on top of the mountain, and the weather was getting bad, so we snapped some triumphant photos and headed on our way back down the hill. Maine didn’t let up on us till the very end… raining on us as we tried not to slip off the rocks we had to scramble down. When we made it back to Baxter State Park, we put our shoes in a pile of things to burn later, and headed out of the park.

We really want to thank all of you for following along with us, and for all the great support from you all. A special thanks to all who have donated to LIVESTRONG in our name and enabled us to raise over $11K to fight cancer! If you would still like to donate, you can do so by going to www.hikestrong2010.com and clicking “donate online!”

Not sure what is next on the agenda… but I’m sure it will be awesome!

~Styx & Bones

The Best For Last!

To see our full blog with pictures go to http://www.hikestrong2010.blogspot.com/.
New pics uploaded at http://picasaweb.google.com/HikeStrong2010/ in the first two albums.
  
I’ve often wondered why more people don’t hike the AT south from Maine to Georgia. My rationale for supporting hiking south is because the weather is way more friendly if you start in the cool summer breezes of Maine and then work your way to Georgia after the heat wave of summer is gone. Having hiked this far now, I realize that people choose to do it from GA-ME like Jeff & I because of New Hampshire and Maine…period. Not only are they by far the most beautiful sections of trail, but they are also the hardest. I’m sure that you need the practice of hiking the first 1,800 miles to get ready for them. I honestly can’t imagine hiking the trail from ME to GA now because if it didn’t physically kill me, after seeing what I’ve seen here, the rest of the trail probably would have bored me to death!
  
Since we’ve last blogged…
  

  Our first “Welcome to NH” was Mt. Moosilauke, a 4,800 foot beast that takes you directly up the mountain and down the even steeper and more slippery north face back down to 1,000 feet in under 4 miles. The actual “welcome” was in the form of a sign that read “This trail is extremely tough. If you lack experience, please use another trail.“ And they weren’t kidding! The north face was a treat with cascades right next to the trail for over a mile heading downhill. This part of the hike reminded me of a journal entry I had read in a shelter register back in New York (Jeff’s re-creation of it shown here), which talked about how the trail used to have a lot of “switchbacks” that would wind around mountains to help you go up them in a less steep manner, and now the trail just seems to go straight up and over the highest peaks it can find.
  

Going into the White Mountains we saw an inordinate amount of day hikers and French Canadians! It was actually pretty weird being around so many people during the day, and even weirder having to talk to them… lol. I remember very clearly coming down one stretch of the presidential range. The hike was pretty intense, with huge rock steps going down, down, down. We were tired of hiking at this point, so we started going faster and faster, but still stopping to enjoy some waterfalls on the way. At one point we saw three kids hiking and asked them how much further. One kid said 2 miles. We were stunned! The trail to the bottom was only 2.7 miles, and we had been hiking for a while, surely we had not only gone .7 miles! We decided they didn’t know what they were talking about and asked for a second opinion. The next people we came across was a mother and daughter who were taking a break by a footbridge. We asked how much further and the girl said it had taken them an hour and a half to get there, so we definitely had an hour left. We were disheartened, wanting so bad to be at the end. Eight minutes later we were at the bottom. We then vowed to never ask a day-hiker a question… ever!
  

The White Mountains of New Hampshire are officially one of my favorite places I have ever been -- definitely check out the pics. We climbed Mt. Washington, the second highest mountain on the trail, for my birthday and enjoyed the clearest, most beautiful views from the top. The 60-80 MPH winds were a little crazy, but its not called the “home of the worlds worst weather” for nothing! The sign as you approach the summit reads “STOP. The area ahead has the worst weather in America. Many have died there from exposure, even in the summer. Turn back now if the weather is bad.” Yikes… what are they trying to say here? Double-yikes to the teenager that soon walked past me with no shirt on. It was an amazing birthday.
  

After the presidentials our next mental milestone was reaching the border of Maine, and MAN we were glad to see it! I was so excited! I took a picture hugging the sign and Jeff picked it up and played it like a Rockstar jamming on a guitar -- it was awesome. After the border, the thing Jeff & I had been looking forward to most was “Mahoosuc Notch.” They call this one-mile stretch of trail either the most fun one mile or the hardest one mile of the entire Appalachian Trail. Jeff & I definitely call it the most fun -- so much fun we thought about doing it twice. We posted a lot of videos on our Facebook   page and have a bunch of photos in our picasa album if you want to see for yourself. This area is a massive jumble of boulders and rocks that you have to scramble over, climb under and jump across to get to the other side. In one spot I had to use the roots of a tree like a rope to climb up a rock wall to the top! Jeff always seemed to make it look easier than me, but I still made it and had a ton of fun. My pack finally received some battle damage though, as I scraped a couple holes in the side as I squeezed myself between two boulders.
  

We only have a couple hundred miles left now! Its so crazy to know we’ve come this far and have raised over $10K to fight cancer! Thank you to everyone who has donated, and if you still want to donate you can do so by going to http://www.hikestrong2010.com/ and clicking the “donate online” button. Our phones are supposed to be turning into useless paperweights any day now, so you probably won’t hear from us until the end!  If you need to find us, leave a voicemail or send an email and hopefully we'll get it! :0)

  
See ya in a couple weeks!
~Styx & Bones

What Smells?

To see our full blog including photos go to  http://www.hikestrong2010.blogspot.com/
New Pics Uploaded at: http://picasaweb.google.com/HikeStrong2010/MassVermontNewHampshireMaine#

Hey Everyone! Since we last blogged we have been hiking along, out of Connecticut, through Massachusetts and Vermont, and into Hanover, New Hampshire. The cooler weather of the Northeast is a welcome change! Hiking is definitely getting more difficult with more mountains and obstacles in the way, but the more frequent scenic vistas are making for generally more enjoyable hiking days.

Our first day back to the trail following our Connecticut visit, we climbed over Bear Mountain, the highest mountain on the trail in Connecticut and Mount Everett, the 2nd highest mountain in Massachusetts. It was definitely a snap back to reality! The combination of a few days off, high temperatures, and a relatively long, strenuous hiking day got the best of us. When we reached the top of Bear Mountain, we were exhausted and completely drenched in sweat. We took a long break in the shade at the top of the mountain to cool off and make sure we made it down the other side into the beautiful Sages Ravine. That break paid off, and we cruised through the rest of the day making light work of Mount Everett. Unfortunately, we successfully transitioned from clean normal people into sweaty, smelly, dirty hikers in just a few hours. We did our best to clean up in a stream before bed, but our first night back in the tent was not fun!

Over the next week or so, we hiked our way over the hills of Massachusetts and into wet, soggy VerMUD..errr, I mean Vermont. During our travels, we successfully climbed some of the highest and coolest mountains in their respective states, many of them people would know more for their great skiing in the winter time -- Mt. Greylock in MA, Stratton Mountain in VT and Mt. Killington also in VT. Each mountain had its own uniquely cool thing at the top. The trail over Mt. Greylock (highest Mt. in MASS) passed a huge monument and a viewing platform where you could see well into the neighboring states. On top of Stratton Mountain there was a tall, rickety fire tower that we climbed and enjoyed amazing 360-degree views on an overcast and windy day. Mt. Killington made us work hard to get to the top, having to take a 0.2 mile side trail that was windy, rocky, slick and very steep. I actually ditched my trekking poles on the way up because it was easier to hike and use my hands to hang on. After all the work getting to the top it got hazier and hazier, with ridiculously strong winds. We caught a breathtaking 10 second view of the valley before the next cloudbank rolled in and we could see only white.

Since arriving in Vermont, the trail (and weather) has been wet and soggy. As we trudge along the trail, we frequently encounter huge mud puddles that we must navigate around or over by skipping across small rocks and logs. One misstep and Whammo! You are ankle deep in a stinky mud bath. We’ve actually made a game out of jumping over bigger and bigger puddles by pole vaulting across with our hiking sticks. I’m the big winner so far clearing an 8 foot long beast. Jeff attempted a ten footer, but came up about half foot short, slipped with legs flailing like a newborn deer on an ice pond, and fell on his rear end in the puddle. I caught it all on video, but Jeff started whining and confiscated the evidence immediately. At any rate, our shoes are really starting to stink! Yesterday, Jeff and I were sitting on a rock taking a break when we were suddenly taken by a rank odor. We checked everywhere before we figured out that it was us! Awful!

Speaking of “what smells,” we have started to see more and more evidence of Moose the further north we get in Vermont. Not only have we seen hoof prints down the trail, but huge piles of droppings as we go. On the day we climbed over Killington, Jeff & I were walking along chatting about random things and avoiding the mud as much as possible. OK, I have waterproof shoes, so I avoid the mud a little less than Jeff and trudge along as clumsily as I would any other day. This particular day I was doing pretty good when I stepped on an innocent looking rock, slipped and landed face-first in the mud. Immediately I was overwhelmed by the most disgusting odor and scrambled to my feet in shock that I had actually fallen. As Jeff tried not to laugh I grabbed my handkerchief and started wiping the mud off, absolutely disgusted at what I now smelled like. I mean, the mud looked like “mud,” but it smelled like a moose had been there if you know what I mean! Needless to say, we hiked straight to town for a shower and washing machine!

Well, we just crossed the New Hampshire border! The next couple weeks look to be quite challenging and beautiful as we enter the White Mountains. We’ll hike many of the presidential mountains and even summit Mount Washington! We’re really looking forward to the beauty of hiking above treeline, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for good weather along the way! Only two states to go!!!

~Styx & Bones

Donate now by going to http://www.hikestrong2010.com/ and clicking “Donate Online.”

Good Times & Pledge Donations (from the mind of Will VU!)

Hey everyone!

New Jersey & New York were absolutely brutal on us! Record high temperatures and unforgiving boulder-like terrain. We spent the better part of both our last days in NY walking tip-toed over huge rock formations -- the mountains were just ROCK! Anywho’s, we packed it in a little early to make it to CT for the weekend and were thankful to be greeted by good friends and good times there. I originally planned to post up pictures of how much fun we had on “vacation” last weekend, but just like last time, I downloaded all the pictures onto my desktop computer and came back out on the trail without them. Oops! A huge “thank you” goes out to all the great people who were nice enough to stop by Humphrey’s in Branford on Saturday to say hello and have a drink with us -- it was a pleasure seeing all of you! Also much thanks to our friends who let us crash at their place while we are homeless, for our friend with the sweet boat with whom we hung out on Sunday, and to the awesome chicks who met us for lunch on Monday -- it was great seeing all of you! We did learn while we were home that there are more people in CT who want to hike with us than we originally expected. For this reason, we have decided to skip the 50 miles in CT for now and move on to hike in MA. Once we are done with the full trail we will complete the CT portion on weekends when our friends can join us. If you would like to join us in a day hike after this is all over, just let us know.


In other equally awesome news, we just got our first pledge donation and all we had to do was hike 1,500 miles to get it! A friend from Germany, Will Vu, has successfully entertained himself (and me) by pledging money if we complete the following two acts on the trail:

1) Aly must take a photo during the hike with a Texas flag either in the background or foreground of the picture. He notes that he wants me to do this because he knows I will hate it. I find this request HILARIOUS and will not disappoint! Will knew me at a point in life where I actually owned a t-shirt that said “I’d rather go to hell than Texas.” Please, Texas people, don’t be offended! LOL! Will is from Texas along with most of my friends from when I was stationed in Germany, and I really liked to wear that t-shirt when I went to visit them at their respective houses. I bought the t-shirt in Korea when I met Aaron Milner, a huge fan of Texas, who thought it would be really funny to send me a Texas flag t-shirt, Texas shaped pillow and other Texas souvenirs. To get back at Aaron I bought him a bunch of awesome California stuff and made him a CD of all songs with the word California in it. OK, so my hate for Texas carried over to Germany and became quite entertaining to me. Now, three years later and after having lived in Texas for 9 or so months, Will is getting back at me in an even more awesome way! I cant wait to figure out how to accomplish this one.

2) Purposely spill a pot of chili. Strange request right? Well, if you knew me in Germany you might know the story of when I made a crockpot full of chili for a potluck at work. Being the genius that I am, I thought it would be a good idea to put the crockpot on the back seat of my Ford Focus. Everything was good as I drove to the base until I rounded one of the last of many corners approaching the main gate. As I turned I could hear the lid of the pot fall as the chili spilled out all over the back seat of my car. It was a total mess as I scrambled to reach back into the dark backseat of my car to try and put the lid back on the pot. My arm was soaked in chili, my car was soaked in chili. I showed up at the Group Commanders building with myself and my car covered in chili, and everyone just started laughing at me, specifically for setting the pot on the seat and not the floor. OK, well NOW I know! THANK YOU WILL for reminding me AGAIN of what an idiot I am!

My question is, can I spill the pot of chili on the Texas Flag and take a picture of that?

Anyways, that’s it folks! Hope to post some pictures of Massachusetts and Vermont in the next week! If you want to make a “pledge donation” like the ones above, just send us an email!

~Styx & Bones

Ready to donate? Visit http://www.hikestrong2010.com/ and click the “donate online” button! Easy!

Photos!

Forgot to say we've uploaded some new photos in the PA, NY, NJ album!  Some great views and awesome pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/HikeStrong2010/PennsylvaniaNewJerseyNewYork#

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

  

Donate to LIVESTRONG now at http://www.hikestrong2010.com/ by pushing the “donate online” button. Thank you for your support!

Milestone Achievements & Challenge Dominations!!!

WOW! What a crazy past few days! After the roller coaster, ninja fly battles and skirting the border of West Virginia I wasn’t sure life could get any better. Then this week Jeff & I managed to get two tickets on the crazy train to Pennsylvania. Milestones & Challenges were the flavor of the week.

MILESTONE #1: We crossed into Harpers Ferry, WV and checked in at the Appalachian Trial Conservancy (ATC) as thru-hikers #443 and #444 for the year. The ATC is the “sentimental” half-way point for AT hikers, though it is about 75 miles shy of the actual mid-way point, and keeps track of all thru-hikers who come through the building. When you have completed the entire hike, you check in again from Maine, and they mail you a sweet certificate that says you hiked way farther than any sane person would have done (A 2,000-miler certificate). 

CHALLENGE #1: There is a thing on the AT called the “Quad State Challenge.” Baltimore Jack, a man who’s hiked the AT 7 or 8 times says of the Quad State Challenge: “One starts on the WV/VA line, and finishes on the MD/PA line, i.e. around 40 miles in one day. It is usually done by testosterone-laden young hikers, who then brag about it afterward in hopes of impressing people, always neglecting to mention the day or two they had to take off afterwards in order to recover from their ‘challenge.’ Most hikers find this exercise pretty foolish.” Sounds like this was our kind of challenge! Except for us the mileage total would be 45 miles. We started hiking at 2:50am and finished just after 11pm, a total of a little over 21 hours. I really thought I would be more tired, more in pain and more cranky than I really was. Instead I was just really excited at what a feat we had accomplished! I mean, we hiked FORTY FIVE MILES in one day! AND, we didn’t take the next day off! We had a shorter hike, but we actually felt pretty dang good. The past few miles were agonizing knowing we were so close to the end, but we kept plugging along. When we got within 600 yards of the end there were bushes full of fireflies. Of all the things we’ve seen on the trail I will never love or be more mesmerized by any one thing than by the fireflies, and this time there were hundreds of them. I kept staring at the magical fireflies as we continued to hike our final steps. Then in true form, one of those buggers dive-bombed my ear. I flicked it off and realized minutes later that it had landed right on my chest and had been blinking like one of those light-up buttons they sell on the streets at County Fairs… and Songtan, ROK. Very cool! But then, in true AT fashion, as I am enthralled by the beauty of fireflies, a black snake slithered out of the darkness onto the trail just ahead of me. I almost stepped on the thing! Luckily Jeff wasn’t too far ahead and came back to remove the snake with his trekking pole. I HATE snakes! Now over the mason-Dixon line, we can start pronouncing it APPA-LAY-CHUN, instead of APP-A-LATCH-UN. Why the difference anyways???

  

MILESTONE #2: HALFWAY THERE! That’s right! I said it! We officially crossed over the REAL halfway point of the AT today! If I didn’t have what felt like a charley horse in my right leg I would have jumped up in the air and clicked my heels together! Instead I gave the good ’ol “thumbs up” in my halfway picture, and Jeff did an awesome handstand. Now its all downhill from here! HA! I wish! But at least it feels like we are “counting down” instead of counting up now. Less than 1,087 miles to go!
  

CHALLENGE #2: What’s better to celebrate crossing the halfway point of the Appalachian Trail than another crazy hiker challenge. This one is held in Pennsylvania’s Pine Grove State park where, for over 20 years, thru-hikers have followed a tradition of eating half a gallon of ice cream to celebrate the milestone. The rules of the challenge are really simple: when you reach the park, go to the general store, buy a half gallon of your favorite ice cream, and consume it in one sitting. Pretty much everything I had read about the challenge amounted to self-torture: stomach pains, being unable to finish and yes, vomiting. Why would we want to take on such a challenge, knowing its history and that a great number of people don’t finish it? Because we are competitive, and we were hungry, that’s why! We checked in with the general store owner around 7:15pm. Jeff asked the guy if it would count if we shared a half gallon, and the guy all but laughed in our faces. Jeff explained that he was worried about me not being able to finish. I laughed a little on the inside and wondered if Jeff knew me at all. The facts are simple, Ice Cream is my favorite “food,” and I was trained early on by the military to eat massive amounts of food FAST. We sat down in front of the store and dove into our ice cream -- Jeff had Fudge Ripple and I was with my old standby Rocky Road. An older lady walking her poodle saw us and said “Oh my! You’re not going to eat all of that are you???” My answer “yep, we sure are.” As we ate I laughed at the journal entries written by others who had attempted the challenge… what a bunch of whiners! 24 minutes later Jeff had polished his off and I followed a full 4 minutes after that! I was pretty sad he beat me by so much, but then I looked at the times registered in this year’s ledger of competitors and realized in the span of four pages only 1 person had a better time than Jeff, and 4 had a better time than me. Man, we are awesome at challenges! LOL! I was so hopped up on sugar and excited afterwards that I called my mom like I had won the lottery… LIKE I HAD WON THE LOTTERY! What we did win was almost as good as the lottery… a small wooden spoon, like the ones you get in those little ice creams in middle school, with the words “Member of the Half Gallon Club” written on it.

  

Can’t get any better than that!   

MILESTONE #3: We have raised almost half of our goal for this hike to fight cancer with over $8,700 donated! Thank you to all who have given to LIVESTRONG in our names! If you are financially able, please go to www.hikestrong2010.com and click the “donate now” button to support us on our quest to raise funds for this great charity. We have some super-awesome postcards we are waiting to send you to say thanks!!!

  

~Styx & Bones

Naked Hikers, Roller Coasters & Flies!

Yes, you read that right… naked hikers. June 21st marks the first day of summer and a “unofficial tradition” with thru-hikers, or those hikers who attempt to complete the entire Appalachian Trail in one season like Jeff & I. Its called “naked hiker day,” where most say you should bond with nature by hiking a mile naked. We ran into a few hikers who said they participated in this event, but saw no proof during our hike for the day. We took some “joke” type pictures to post on our blog, but never intended to actually participate. Then, as I’m walking peacefully through the forest, I come around a corner and all I see is Jeff’s rear end heading down the trail! Luckily no one caught him, but it was definitely hilarious and another memorable moment from our trip here.

  

Hiking today we came upon a sign that read: “Hiker Notice, WARNING! You are about to enter The Roller Coaster built and maintained by the “Trailboss” and his merry crew of volunteers. Have a great ride and we will see you at the Blackburn Trail Center (if you survive).
  

Uhhh… sounds like a great time! NOT! The “The Roller Coaster” is a 13.5 mile section of the trail in Virginia with tightly packed ups and downs over a whole bunch of mountains the trail seems to make no attempt to go around. Almost halfway through our roller coaster ride, I began to hear a woman screaming in the distance. I asked Jeff if he heard it to make sure I wasn’t going crazy, and after he confirmed I began to wonder why this lady was screaming. Was she hurt? Was a banjo-playing deliverance crazy chasing her? A few hundred yards more down the trail we found the source of the screams. It was two girls, Powerpack and Deetz, who we have been hiking with for months. They were cracking themselves up and enjoying their “roller coaster” ride by clicking their trekking poles together to mimic the roller coaster sound going uphill, and throwing their hands in the air and screaming on the way downhill. These chicks are awesome, because it seems like they have enjoyed every minute of their trip and crack us up every time we see them.

  

For our roller coaster experience, the trail very simply goes up and down over the top of all these mountains for THIRTEEN MILES. With the 96+ degree weather, it was a killer. Jeff said it best though as we took a break at Sam Moore Shelter. He said “its not the roller coaster that breaks you, it’s the horse flies dive bombing your face that does it.” Man, is he RIGHT! In this part of Virginia it has been all out war, with the deer and horse flies on one side, and all of mankind on the other. I feel like the flies are playing some kind of game with us. Its like they circle our heads, seeing how many times they can get us to smack ourselves, before they fly away for a few seconds only to return faster and more daring the next time. The last two days especially have been all out battle. If I was scoring points for how many I killed, and they were scoring points for how many times I’ve injured myself in battle, we would probably be tied. Yesterday as I was flailing my arms around trying to swat a persistent fly, I stabbed myself in the leg with my own trekking pole. Yes, I have a bruise now. Today I hit myself in the face with it.
  
3 miles shy of 1,000!!! Almost in West Virginia! You’ll hear from us next after we attempt the “Quad State Challenge,” where we try and go over 40 miles from the border of Virginia, through West Virginia, through Maryland and into Pennsylvania all in one day. Wish us luck!
  
~Styx & Bones

3D's: Dollar Store, Donations & "Deliverance"

New pics uploaded at http://picasaweb.google.com/HikeStrong2010/VirginiaATHike#

Sitting in a Laundromat in Front Royal, VA trying to wash the stink out of our gear and clothing, Jeff holds up his phone and smiles as a tune plays. “Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River, Life is old there…. Blah, blah, blah… country roads, take me home, to the place I belongggggg…” Ahhhh, John Denver. We laughed because we’d just finished the Blue Ridge Mountains and were presently washing the stink of the Shenandoah River out of our clothes. Life is good. Now for the blog, lets talk about the 3D’s.
  

Dollar Stores:

It only took us a few weeks to realize that we could fully re-supply ourselves for the trail at any type of Dollar Store. We have, however, more recently learned that not all dollar stores are created equally. At first we were partial to Dollar General, but soon realized that things there didn’t just cost a dollar… they were simply in whole dollar amounts. Northern Virginia has made present more Dollar Tree’s and 99 Cent Stores, which are awesome because everything are those prices. Both stores remind me of Northern California, but I never quite appreciated them as much as I do now. Yesterday the entirety of what the two of us ate in one day cost us exactly $3.50. Awesome.

Donations:

For the most part we’ve tried to keep this blog to just blogging, but now nearing the halfway point it is good to remember that we are doing it for a cause. We’d both like to sincerely thank those of you who are following our blog, and those of you who have gotten involved by donating to our charity LIVESTRONG. Whether you have had Cancer or not, I am 100% sure that you know someone who has, and that makes us all “affected” by it -- thank you to those of you who have shared your stories with us -- it gives us inspiration to push on. When we set out on this journey we hoped to raise what we could for Lance Armstrong’s Foundation, LIVESTRONG, but never imagined we would have raised over $7,500. Thank you so much for the support and encouragement. If you are financially able to donate, and any little bit counts, we would deeply appreciate you doing so by going to our website http://www.hikestrong2010.com/ and clicking the “donate online” or “donate by mail” buttons. Plus, when you donate you instantly get postcards from us on the trail! :0)

Deliverance:

Yes, like the 1972 movie, Deliverance is a film about four guys going on a canoe trip in deep backwoods America and getting harassed by all the inbred, creepy locals. Well, Jeff never told me about Deliverance and convinced me that a multi-day backwoods canoe trip was just the thing to break up the monotony of the trail. After hearing about “Aqua-Blazing” from several hikers, we decided to substitute about 100 miles of trail for several days of canoeing down the Shenandoah River, effectively missing the section of the AT that goes through Shenandoah National Park. The trip was awesome: flat water paddling, Class II rapids, and riverside camping! It was such a great time except for Jeff clueing me into the plot of Deliverance, which I had never seen, after we had started our adventure. For two nights straight I had nightmares of crazy banjo playing locals chasing me down the riverside! Arrgghh!!! Anyways, we did not encounter any whacko’s luckily. We feel good about our decision and thoroughly exhausted after the trip (paddling 20 miles in a day is tougher than we thought). The outfitter that set us up with our canoe said a group of thru-hikers had been through there that week and told them that the Appalachian Trail Conservancy now considered canoeing the Shenandoah as an “official replacement” for the miles missed while canoeing. We are pretty sure that is a pipe dream of said thru-hikers, but agree that it will work for us this go around!

In the morning we start out from Front Royal, VA at mile 960, our stopping point on the river this morning. What does this mean? It means we are few days away from 1000 miles and Harpers Ferry, WV! From there we will attempt the “Quad State Challenge,” where we hike over 40 miles from the border of Virginia to the border of Pennsylvania all in one day. Thats right. 40+ miles! Borderline Insanity? Perhaps.

By the way, Jeff has been looking in the mirror and curling the ends of his moustache into one of those old-time curly-q mustaches for the past half hour. He thinks in another week it will be “perfect.” LOL. That beard is getting LONG!

Later!
~Styx & Bones
  
P.S. Not to forget, we were fortunate enough to catch up with Bruce and Karen Langevin in Charlottesville, VA before we hit the river!  Thank you both for meeting up with us and showing us around town!