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Both David and I are surprised at how quickly time has flown. Dave is back on Whidbey for his final two and a half days of work before officially leaving the Navy. This means we have been on the move for 45 days. The last time I posted was just before we embarked on the Appalachian Trail, so it is there that I shall begin.
While socialising with family, our time in Vermont was also consumed with packing. We packed as light as possible. Without water, my pack was 25 lbs and Dave carried 30 lbs. On the trail we would sleep under a tarp that doubled as a poncho. Food was most of our weight as we were not planning to resupply for near 8 days. Using a lot of dehydrated foods, we had two differing breakfasts (grape nuts and granola), oodles of snacks that covered lunch and the in between, and three dinners (rice & beans, a curried chicken couscous, and pad thai (more on the pad thai later)).
With the Vermont party done and my gear replaced, we piled into my parents car and hit the road early Monday. We drove about 5 hours south to Port Clinton, PA where we met the AT. The trail in Pennsylvania is pretty flat. One walks along ridges, drops into valleys to cross roads or make it to the next ridge line. According to our planning, we thought this would be a great terrain to find our trail legs and work up our milage. Hitting the trail at 1 pm, we began our trek with a 9 mile day. The initial mile was up, straight up. But it flattened out and the walking was good. There were a number of North Bound hikers (nobos) passing us as we moved south. We were probably far to chipper and enthusiastic, but why not, life was good and we were walking. Half way into our day we met and chatted with a gentleman who was enthusiastically pointing out native plants and sharing his general ecological knowledge. It soon came out that his studies specialised on the invasive bebe tree. This is of note as my parents property has one of the largest bebe tree infestations in Maryland. Small world!
After camping at Eagles Nest, we marched on to Applebee Camp- 14.5 miles. Arriving mid-afternoon, we decided that the William Penn Shelter was not out of reach and other than walk, what did we have to do in the woods? So on we went. This proved challenging. We were starting to learn that Pennsylvania is aptly nicknamed Rocksylvania. We had not trained for the milage and with the nonstop rocks, our feet were rather tender. I would also like to mention, that my boots had been stolen two weeks prior and thus, I had not had an opportunity to test or break in my new shoes. Once we hit camp, I dropped pack and near refused to stand again. After 19 miles, I was done. I must applaud Dave, who did most of the camp set up that night.
This routine went on for another two nights. Wednesday we did 13.6 miles and finished with a memorable meal. As mentioned above, we had three dinners that we ate on rotation. Wednesday was our first go at pad thai. We had meant to try all our meals once while in VT, but time passed us by. It was our only meal that was not one pot friendly. We ended up cooking the noodles, then transferring them back into to the bag in which we had packed them. Then we cooked the eggs and transferred them to our mugs. We finally mixed and heated the sauce (true lime, sugar, and soy sauce), and then worked to combine all the elements. We took the first bite and nearly chucked everything over the side of the hill we were camped on. It was awful. The lime was so overpowering, the stuff was inedible. Nonetheless, we ate it to regain some of the calories burned that day. Try as we might, we did not finish it all and actually packed out some left overs.
Thursday was 18 miles. On the fifth morning, after a terrible nights sleep I looked to D and said, "nope." I was done. I would walk off the ridge and down into Duncannon, but I was going home. My blisters were making themselves known with each step and my feet were perpetually sore and throbbing from the rocky terrain. David graciously said that he was sticking by my side and supported my decision to call it quits. We called my parents who also graciously agreed to support this augmented plan. The hike that day ended up being 10 miserable miles. The rocks only got worse and I thought I would never make it off the ridge. Crossing the Susquehanna into Duncannon on rt 22 was a slow trudge. I laughed to myself thinking of the image we presented to the oncoming traffic. Annie made the 45 minute drive from the house to Duncannon (with a minor detour to a spot we had hiked through 2 days prior thanks to a GPS error). David and I occupied ourselves with massive ice-cream cones (if in PA, I advise against teaberry flavor).
One of the first things we did upon returning to the internet is look up the pad thai recipe to see what had happened. We discovered that in calculating the amount of true lime needed for two servings, we took the net weight of a box of 32 packets of true lime. Thus our meal ended up having the equivalent of 64 packets of true lime. A fact that clearly explains the inedible nature of the meal.
So with the AT cut short, we busied ourselves with helping my parents around their house. David helped Annie plant natives in the meadow while I nursed my feet back to health via epsom salts. I eventually took to helping strip woodwork in one guest room. In the coming week and a half we made a few day trips into DC, Fredrick MD, and Philadelphia and Wilmington. If you plan on going to DC and are interested in the new African American History Museum, you must make reservations months in advance. Not knowing this in advance, we visited the National Building Museum, the Renwick, and ran through the Natural History Museum instead. In Philadelphia, Jen and Trevor hosted us for a wonderful day of walking the historic sites, and consuming good food. After a night in Philadelphia, we drove into Wilmington for a delightful and lowkey day with my sister-in-law, Hillary and her husband Jon. We rounded out the day by watching those two kick $*# on their softball team.
Still, the guilt of pulling David off the trail early hung over me, so I agreed to hike all of Maryland with him after returning from PA/DE. After all, to my knowledge, Maryland was not nicknamed Rockland. It was only 43 miles or so and we gave ourselves three days. On Thursday, June14 we started at the PenMar border and walked 16 miles to Pogo Campground. Maryland did not let me down. There were far less rocks and if there were rocks, they actually presented flat level places for your feet. I was thrilled, perhaps I didn't have to hate hiking after all. From Pogo we planned another 16 mile day, but opted to push on making it a 20 miler. I had found my trail legs. I finished out the last 3.7 miles in just over one hour. That night we slept at the Ed Garvey shelter with a spectacular show from the fireflies. From Ed Garvey we had 7 miles into Harpers Ferry where we would be picked up.
The day after our hike ended, David and I ended up back in DC. We had a wonderful breakfast with Erin (classmate from Koc) and Dre (a friend of mine from middle and high school), retreated to the AC of a movie theater (Oceans 8), and then drinks with an old LC friend. Dre then accompanied us back to Maryland for the next three days. Dre let it slip that she wanted to learn to backpack and camp, something she wanted to get into more in the future. So we repacked our packs, and picked a section of the AT and set off again. This time we hiked a total of 17 miles from southern PA to the PenMar border. While there were less rocks than central PA, there were more rocks than MD, and my grudge still stands. When it was time for Dre to move on, we took her into Philadelphia for a train and followed our steps back to Wilmington to see Hillary and Jon again. This time they were joined by David's cousin Dana and her 6 mo daughter Parker. We had a wonderful morning catching up before it was time to head back to the farm.
And this more or less brings us to now. Time has flown, but it has been filled with great people and good food. At times we are challenged by the purgatory we seem to have found for ourselves. Things with Australia are still nebulous. But while we wait, we endeavour to make the most of it. Things to come: 2 week road trip, 2 weeks in Wisconsin, and a week and a half in Guatemala (thanks Dre!!).
Both David and I are surprised at how quickly time has flown. Dave is back on Whidbey for his final two and a half days of work before officially leaving the Navy. This means we have been on the move for 45 days. The last time I posted was just before we embarked on the Appalachian Trail, so it is there that I shall begin.
While socialising with family, our time in Vermont was also consumed with packing. We packed as light as possible. Without water, my pack was 25 lbs and Dave carried 30 lbs. On the trail we would sleep under a tarp that doubled as a poncho. Food was most of our weight as we were not planning to resupply for near 8 days. Using a lot of dehydrated foods, we had two differing breakfasts (grape nuts and granola), oodles of snacks that covered lunch and the in between, and three dinners (rice & beans, a curried chicken couscous, and pad thai (more on the pad thai later)).
After camping at Eagles Nest, we marched on to Applebee Camp- 14.5 miles. Arriving mid-afternoon, we decided that the William Penn Shelter was not out of reach and other than walk, what did we have to do in the woods? So on we went. This proved challenging. We were starting to learn that Pennsylvania is aptly nicknamed Rocksylvania. We had not trained for the milage and with the nonstop rocks, our feet were rather tender. I would also like to mention, that my boots had been stolen two weeks prior and thus, I had not had an opportunity to test or break in my new shoes. Once we hit camp, I dropped pack and near refused to stand again. After 19 miles, I was done. I must applaud Dave, who did most of the camp set up that night.
This routine went on for another two nights. Wednesday we did 13.6 miles and finished with a memorable meal. As mentioned above, we had three dinners that we ate on rotation. Wednesday was our first go at pad thai. We had meant to try all our meals once while in VT, but time passed us by. It was our only meal that was not one pot friendly. We ended up cooking the noodles, then transferring them back into to the bag in which we had packed them. Then we cooked the eggs and transferred them to our mugs. We finally mixed and heated the sauce (true lime, sugar, and soy sauce), and then worked to combine all the elements. We took the first bite and nearly chucked everything over the side of the hill we were camped on. It was awful. The lime was so overpowering, the stuff was inedible. Nonetheless, we ate it to regain some of the calories burned that day. Try as we might, we did not finish it all and actually packed out some left overs.
Thursday was 18 miles. On the fifth morning, after a terrible nights sleep I looked to D and said, "nope." I was done. I would walk off the ridge and down into Duncannon, but I was going home. My blisters were making themselves known with each step and my feet were perpetually sore and throbbing from the rocky terrain. David graciously said that he was sticking by my side and supported my decision to call it quits. We called my parents who also graciously agreed to support this augmented plan. The hike that day ended up being 10 miserable miles. The rocks only got worse and I thought I would never make it off the ridge. Crossing the Susquehanna into Duncannon on rt 22 was a slow trudge. I laughed to myself thinking of the image we presented to the oncoming traffic. Annie made the 45 minute drive from the house to Duncannon (with a minor detour to a spot we had hiked through 2 days prior thanks to a GPS error). David and I occupied ourselves with massive ice-cream cones (if in PA, I advise against teaberry flavor).
One of the first things we did upon returning to the internet is look up the pad thai recipe to see what had happened. We discovered that in calculating the amount of true lime needed for two servings, we took the net weight of a box of 32 packets of true lime. Thus our meal ended up having the equivalent of 64 packets of true lime. A fact that clearly explains the inedible nature of the meal.
So with the AT cut short, we busied ourselves with helping my parents around their house. David helped Annie plant natives in the meadow while I nursed my feet back to health via epsom salts. I eventually took to helping strip woodwork in one guest room. In the coming week and a half we made a few day trips into DC, Fredrick MD, and Philadelphia and Wilmington. If you plan on going to DC and are interested in the new African American History Museum, you must make reservations months in advance. Not knowing this in advance, we visited the National Building Museum, the Renwick, and ran through the Natural History Museum instead. In Philadelphia, Jen and Trevor hosted us for a wonderful day of walking the historic sites, and consuming good food. After a night in Philadelphia, we drove into Wilmington for a delightful and lowkey day with my sister-in-law, Hillary and her husband Jon. We rounded out the day by watching those two kick $*# on their softball team.
Still, the guilt of pulling David off the trail early hung over me, so I agreed to hike all of Maryland with him after returning from PA/DE. After all, to my knowledge, Maryland was not nicknamed Rockland. It was only 43 miles or so and we gave ourselves three days. On Thursday, June14 we started at the PenMar border and walked 16 miles to Pogo Campground. Maryland did not let me down. There were far less rocks and if there were rocks, they actually presented flat level places for your feet. I was thrilled, perhaps I didn't have to hate hiking after all. From Pogo we planned another 16 mile day, but opted to push on making it a 20 miler. I had found my trail legs. I finished out the last 3.7 miles in just over one hour. That night we slept at the Ed Garvey shelter with a spectacular show from the fireflies. From Ed Garvey we had 7 miles into Harpers Ferry where we would be picked up.
The day after our hike ended, David and I ended up back in DC. We had a wonderful breakfast with Erin (classmate from Koc) and Dre (a friend of mine from middle and high school), retreated to the AC of a movie theater (Oceans 8), and then drinks with an old LC friend. Dre then accompanied us back to Maryland for the next three days. Dre let it slip that she wanted to learn to backpack and camp, something she wanted to get into more in the future. So we repacked our packs, and picked a section of the AT and set off again. This time we hiked a total of 17 miles from southern PA to the PenMar border. While there were less rocks than central PA, there were more rocks than MD, and my grudge still stands. When it was time for Dre to move on, we took her into Philadelphia for a train and followed our steps back to Wilmington to see Hillary and Jon again. This time they were joined by David's cousin Dana and her 6 mo daughter Parker. We had a wonderful morning catching up before it was time to head back to the farm.
And this more or less brings us to now. Time has flown, but it has been filled with great people and good food. At times we are challenged by the purgatory we seem to have found for ourselves. Things with Australia are still nebulous. But while we wait, we endeavour to make the most of it. Things to come: 2 week road trip, 2 weeks in Wisconsin, and a week and a half in Guatemala (thanks Dre!!).
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