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Tough decisions

We completed the Green Mountains in beautiful Vermont, during which Steve developed worsening knee pain. He believed it was arthritis that he aggravated with a fall in NY. The pain changed and he also began to have significant swelling. In Killington VT we went to the ER as we were worried about the strenuous and challenging White Mtns. There are many steep climbs and descents in the Whites and Steve’s knee was especially irritated by descents. The outcome was a likely meniscus injury and/or ligament injury, in addition to a pseudo gout that created calcium deposits in the knee joint. So, we have decided to go home at this point. Lots of thought, discussion and a few tears went into the decision. We have loved our 1710 miles and over 4 months hiking together. And we know this is the safe and wise decision. We regret nothing. We have wonderful memories and new friends. We are at peace with this. Thanks for reading our blog and sharing this journey with us!! We have rented a car and will...
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North we go!

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We hope you all had a wonderful July 4th holiday. We had a really great week last week. We had some high mileage days (19, 18, 17) which were exhausting, but the forests in MA were really pretty. The “green tunnel “ created by the leaves and canopy provides much needed shade and also makes views of the surrounding areas few and far between. The terrain has become a bit friendlier for our feet. Yay! The temperatures are rising so extra water makes for even heavier packs. Boo! Milestones this week were passing 1600 miles and entering Vermont. Internet and phone coverage has dwindled so keeping in touch with folks is harder. Hoping you are enjoying the summer!
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CT done...in MA

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Wow! We are checking off states and miles, and are 2/3 done with the Appalachian Trail. We can hardly believe it ourselves because the time has flown by. This past week we finished up Connecticut. There were some challenging climbs of rock “walls” and descents were just as hard. We just take our time and go slow...one step at a time. It seems to be working!  We spent one beautiful night at Silver Hill campsite where we were completely alone. There was a swing and beautiful view. It gets no better than that (especially with a privy and bear box). We hiked for miles and miles through mountain laurel lining the trail in full bloom. It felt like we were walking through wedding decorations or something!  We were also “treated “ to a large black bear lumbering across the trail about 20 feet from us. It looked at us, seemed unimpressed, and just walked on. We are now in Massachusetts and taking a “zero” in Great Barrington. Our impression after one day is that there are many differ...
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NJ done...in NY

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We have completed our NJ miles and we’re surprised that like PA, it was very rocky. There was very impressive trail management in NJ, including miles of boardwalk. Apparently they brought in the wood via helicopter. We camped one night at the “Rickey Farm” (actually the farm has been sold and we pitched our tent in the horse pasture). It was a 7 generation farm and one of the early wives actually served George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War. There was also a rock in front of the farmhouse that Washington used when he dismounted his horse! Moving in to NY has been different than expected. There has been a fair amount of boulder climbing and given several days of rain and fog, this was challenging. We got through it with some slip and falls but no injuries. The fog has prevented all views from peaks and so this was discouraging. We would climb up to a “view” and literally be in a cloud looking at...white. This is part of the experience. It rains, we are wet for days, ...
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Rocksylvania

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Well, there is one word to describe Pennsylvania and that is ROCKS. And our feet are feeling it! There are small round rocks to twist the ankle. There are angular, sharp rock intended to damage your feet. There are a few mid-size flat rocks that are fairly safe. Then there are the boulders. And rattle snakes like warm boulders so we chose to tackle the boulder scrambling in the morning. Sadly the only real “bad” thing about all of the rocks is that we were looking down constantly. We may have missed bear and other animals. I’m sure we missed some wildflowers. So after 2 weeks in PA we are ready for smoother trail. That said, we had a wonderful visit with Gold Star parents Joe and Sheila Baddick who were wonderful hosts. They carted us around to various stores, we went to dinner, did laundry and HOT showers! They took us to the WWII air museum where Joe volunteers and is working on an actual plane (“Spider”) which will one day fly. It was wonderful catching up with them. We are head...
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1,000 miles

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This past week we passed the 1,000 mile mark south of Harper’s Ferry, VA. The  milestone was well marked for us... We met my running partner, Erin, and her husband who were visiting family in Bluemont VA. Thank you Pat and George Bardsley for hosting dirty and smelly hikers! Laundry was done, resupply completed and we enjoyed marvelous food, beverages and company. We were able to “slack pack” , meaning we walked with a day pack and the Bardsley’s brought our full packs via car, to Harper’s Ferry (20 miles). This was a great time saver. We have registered at the AT Headquarters and we’re shock to be # 266&267. Our starting # were 441&442. Clearly many people have dropped off trail. West Virginia was literally a day of hiking and then we found ourselves in Maryland.    We have had some hot weather, cold and windy weather, and been drenched with rain a few times. There have been some discouraging moments (sore feet for example) but we are amazed at how fast th...
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Reptile week

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With Spring comes rain and with rain comes critters who like being wet. We have seen many reptiles this week including the red eft which is the precursor to the Northeastern News. The r d eft develops from larvae hatched in the water. When it reaches sexual maturity on land it returns to the water and grows gills, loses its legs and becomes a newt. Here’s the red eft. In addition to the red eft we ran across these other reptiles. Perhaps they were looking for red eft lunches? We are not sure why a turtle and bullfrog would be hanging out at near 4000 feet if not for food! There was also a small black snake with an orange collar but he was too quick for me to get a picture!  The rat snake (black) was at least 36 inches long and really startled Jared and me. We are taking our 5th zero today in Waynesboro, VA and Sunday (Mother’s Day) begin Shenandoah National Park. We are excited about this as there is less severe elevation changes and we hope for some highe...
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