A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock N Roll(ercoaster)

Updates from the Mountains

Episode #11: A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock N Roll(ercoaster)

Greetings!! It’s been a minute. These emails have mostly just become a gauge of how often I take zeros, which clearly isn’t often. I know you’re all wondering, “Lindsey, where have you been and what have you been up to?” Well, I’ve been on the AT. And usually walking. Or eating. Or sleeping.

Okay, okay. Obviously there’s more interesting things going on. Here’s what has been up since my last email:

3 More states, an iconic AT experience, too much ice cream, fruit foraging, lots of rocks, porcupines, eating eggies, being hot and tired, an amusement park, and skeeter season.

3 More States:

Last time I sent an email, I was finishing up the 500+ miles of trail through Virginia. Since then, I’ve walked through West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania! A couple of years ago I did a part of the AT that crosses the VA/WV border, and missed the sign. Twice. Once on the way up and again on the way down. When I was getting ready to start my hike this year, I wrote a note in my trail guidebook that read, “Don’t miss it this time!!” Guess what- I did. I missed it again. Luckily, there was a local day hiker at the top of the hill who let me know that I had passed the sign and kindly walked me back to it and took at picture for me! I was very appreciative of that. There wasn’t much trail through WV or Maryland, and it was mostly flat, which made it pretty easy. Then there were 229 miles through Pennsylvania. They were also pretty “flat”, but not so easy. I’ll get to that later.

An Iconic AT Experience:

Harper’s Ferry is the unofficial halfway point of the Appalachian Trail. It’s where the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) headquarters is located, and where many hikers stop for an important symbolic moment. For NOBOs and SOBOs (north bounders and south bounders), Harper’s Ferry is half way. For Flip floppers, it’s where they stop, end, and/or “pivot” their hike. Rumor has it that a majority of people attempting thru-hikes quit by or before reaching Harper’s Ferry, meaning those that continue on are well on their way to completing the trail. The ATC also keeps a log of all the long-distance backpackers that come through. They take the pictures of hikers on the iconic front porch of the building and have them record their name, trail name, direction of travel (i.e. NOBO), and hometown in the book. Eitan and I visited the headquarters (and met a couple of college friends there!!) and got to participate in such an iconic AT tradition. I felt pretty cool.

Too Much Ice Cream:

While Harper’s Ferry may be the unofficial halfway point of the AT, the real halfway point is near Pine Grove Furnace in Pennsylvania. Not too far past the official halfway mark milage-wise is the Pine Grove Furnace general store, where thru-hikers participate in another (mildly stupid) AT tradition: the half-gallon challenge. Eating half a gallon of ice cream to celebrate hiking half of the trail. And lucky for us, both my parents and Eitan’s parents came to visit to witness such a feat. And a feat it was. A quart and a half of coffee ice cream and a pint of neapolitan later, I was successful. As were Eitan, IMOM, Martian, PBG, and some other hikers around us. I got my picture taken and pinned on the wall, then signed the book (of shame?). Feeling: successful. Also pretty gross and very full. It took a bit before I could even think of eating ice cream again.

Fruit Foraging:

Fret not about my health after eating that much ice cream. It’s wild fruit season. Fortunately for me, the cherries and blueberries are starting to ripen. That means free snacks along the trail.#healthismypassion It also means I have to be ready to fist fight a bear over who gets the fruit.

Lots of Rocks:

To many hikers, Pennsylvania is lovingly(?) referred to as “Rocksylvania”. And for good reason. But not all of Pennsylvania is rocky. The first half of the state is the country; You walk through quite a bit of farm land and corn fields. I’m sure the ticks love it. Fortunately, it wasn’t too toasty during the days we walked through those sections. Plus, it was a nice change of scenery. There was even a day that the trail went right by a farm stand where they were selling raw milk, fresh fruit and veggies, and some snacks. Naturally, I bought a whole head of broccoli for $2. #healthismypassion

But the the rest of trail in Pennsylvania is quite rocky. There are sections with small rocks that you just have to uncomfortably walk on, slightly larger rocks that you have to high step over, even larger rocks that you have to hop across (and hope they don’t move too much), and boulders that you walk along or scramble over. And it’s all very tiring. Those rocks will surely slow down a hiker. Ankles were twisting in all different directions, I was tripping every two seconds, I had to butt-scoot along a couple sketchy scramble areas, and take my time hopping from boulder to boulder. But there was an awesome section near the end of PA that was basically a class-4 scramble. Sure, I couldn’t go very far very fast, but it was FUN. It fulfilled a bit of my longing to “touch rocks” again (I miss climbing).

Porcupines:

Fun fact: I’ve seen the same number of bears along the trail so far as I have peacocks - 1. That’s right. But I’ve seen three (3) porcupines! One of which was walking along the trail ahead of me for a bit, and one that decided to be photogenic for me. They’re kinda silly looking but cute and walk like they have the “hiker hobble”. Silly little critters.

Eating Eggies:

One of the positive sides to PA is that it passes through multiple towns. That means places to eat! And if anyone has learned anything about me in this email so far, you should realize that I seldom pass up an opportunity to have a good breakfast. So I’ve had coffee and eggs multiple times in Pennsylvania. Proper fuel.

Being Hot and Tired:

As I’ve mentioned before, the trail is certainly not all butterflies and rainbows. Sometimes it’s just rough. It’s been hot and/or humid, the rocks are exhausting, I’ve been sweaty and gross, our milage has increased, and sometimes I’m just straight up tired. There have been a good number of days lately where I’ve just been tired. Maybe I just don’t feel like walking or I want to take a break every hour or so. Maybe I go to bed extra early because I simply can’t keep myself awake. Maybe it’s just mentally challenging to do those “only 9 more miles” after lunch. There have been a few days I haven’t journaled, either because I simply did not have the energy to. But I’ve been working on getting enough rest, water, and nutrients to help myself feel better. It’ll be extra important as I move on into hotter weather and tougher sections of the trail.

An Amusement Park:

I nearo-ed at Hershey Park. That’s right- I took a day off of hiking (well, I had to hike 4ish miles to a road to get picked up) to go to an amusement park. Eitan, IMOM, and I got a shuttle driver to bring us to Hershey Park where we spent the day riding roller coasters. It was sick. Plus, I got to eat chocolate. We were probably quite the sight (and smell) to all the other park-goers since we hadn’t showered in 5 days and were just wearing our trail clothes (what else were we going to wear?). We also got some good eats that night. Our shuttle driver was… interesting, but he drove us to a pizza place on the way back to the trail. We brought our pizzas to the shelter conveniently close to the road where we got picked up (it was actually basically a cabin), and we ate amongst other hiker friends who had gathered there that evening. Good time.

Skeeter Season:

It has arrived. Along with the heat of summer come the bichitos. The mosquitos, gnats, and other little biting bugs are out. I’ve spent a lot of my time hiking lately swatting bugs away from my face. I'm covered in bug bites. I’ve made the mistake of taking a nap on my foam pad in the grass a couple times just to wake up to fresh mosquito bites. I’ve even had to put my pants on when I get to camp a couple times even when it’s still 80º out just so the bugs won’t bite my legs while I eat dinner. And this will continue for the rest of the trail I fear. I’ll probably invest in one of those head covering bug nets at some point. Stay tuned.

HUGE shoutout to Eitan’s parents for being so so very kind and generous. They picked us up from the trail to zero at their house, and it was much needed. My muscles have been sore, my feet have been swollen, I’ve been gross and in need of a shower, and craving a home-cooked meal. They’ve provided a place to stay, a bed, a shower, laundry, plenty of food, and everything else I may have needed.

Onwards to the northern section of the trail! I’ll do my best to survive the heat wave next week and try not to be devoured by bugs. yeeeeehawwwww