June 23

Zero day in the woods...not much going on just napping and eating food...some weirdo hiker is here...whatever...hiking out early in the morning for hopefully a good 20 mile day.

Carpenter

June 22

Today was a short easy day into duncannon PA, home of the Doyal hotel and bar. S' rocket said it the best " there is a fine line between a crack house and a hiker hostel". The Doyal has no A/C and is filthy even for a thru hiker. Sunshine and I got a room against our better judgement and attempted to call it home for the night. After we got our food drops sorted out and ate dinner we hung out with the other hikers, actually a ton of hikers. We are back in a bubble,  but everyone seems really cool. About Midnight the room was still 80+ deg. so we gathered our gear and left the Doyal in the dead of night. 5 miles to the next camping area, the terrain was steep and extremely Rocky, but we pushed on. We arrived at camp about 2am. exausted and ready for bed.

June 21 Summer Solstice

Today was an easy day 16 miles of flat walking, with phone signal.  I made phone calls basically all day to friends and family while I walked, which is really nice because time and miles pass with ease. Summer Solstice is "naked hike day" we were most definitely not in the best section for it due to the multiple road crossings, but that didn't stop some people...Including Dump truck,  clever girl and whistle who came strolling into camp wearing nothing but packs and shoes. We all had a good laugh other than the weekend hiker who wanted nothing to do with it.

Carpenter

June 20

Killed 20 miles today, the first hour and a half I played air guitar with my trekking poles to wide spread panic and primus. Personally I think I'm getting really good at it lol I'm not sure what the south bound hikers thought but oh well. I feel good getting a 20 in its been a while no matter how sore my feet are. Tomorrow it looks like we will be doing 15 miles through corn fields before we get back to the mountains, not looking forward to it but whatcha gonna do. Tonight I am camped just outside of boiling springs PA. about 15 feet from rail road tracks, but its the only camp for 7 miles south and 16 miles north. Weather is great though...ugh damn trains blowing horns...

She ain't no flower child.
Carpenter

June 19

13 mile Day in PA...Today sunshine and I hiked with Grim, whistle, dump truck, and clever girl. Grim and I raced the 5.1 miles to the Official halfway point 1093 miles. We killed the 5.1 in 1hr. 10min. woot!

After arriving to the halfway point, we made a music video to "we're halfway there" by Van Halen.  Its going to be hilarious!  Once we we're done the group headed on 4.2 miles to Pine Grove Furnace State park for the Half Gallon challenge.  The challenge is like it says...you must eat a half gallon of ice cream and hold it down. Dump Truck was a success as for whistle she returned the ice cream to its original container just in a liquid form. Now we are camped in a "Modern Campsite"  lol the only modern this is it cost money.  Now I sit at a picnic table eating and blogging while they play cards... That is all for today. Good day!

June 18

RAIN but I can't Complain!  These last few days have been great, so I will catch you up on what's going on. Sunshine is dealing with sciatica,  which makes it painful to walk and even worse with a pack on. In order for her to heal we have been doing low miles and really taking it easy.

On sunday we had done 8 miles when we came so a road crossing near South Mountain PA. there we discovered there was a bar/restaurant 1.3 miles down the road. After walking the 1.3 miles we found the bar, had food and drinks and began to meet the locals. SunShine had a bag of ice on her leg which must be the International sign for injury. This is how we met Travis and Kristen an amazingly awesome couple from South mountain,  who are extremely generous and kind. They invited us to stay at their house and take sunshine to the chiropractor.  We stayed at their house for two nights and had a great time around the fire making jokes and playing catch phrase...the girls won ugh. Thank you guys so much!

We were in no hurry this morning, we left south mountain about noon and started hiking north again, after about 6 miles we came to a park with a food stand and grabbed some lunch. About this time the rain started...we sat in the rain eating our for and lo and behold Grim, whistle, dump truck and clever girl come strolling up. It was so great to see those guys again, and of course the shenanigans began immediately. 

The last shelter was beautiful with flowers and a creek running through it, but Sunshine and I decided to move on while the rest of the group set up camp. Which brings us to where we are now. Thunder in the distance and the smell of more rain caused us to make a quick decision to make camp, and thank god we did not even 10 seconds after we got ourselves and our gear in the tent the skies opened up. Now I lay here listening to the rain and sunshine eat almonds lol. Tomorrow we will reach the official halfway point and the half gallon challenge.  Hopefully we can get 15 or more miles in. Good night from Rocksilvainia...

Carpenter

June 14

Ok so I made it to the ATC headquarters in Harpers Ferry WV 3 days ago. Harper's ferry is the unofficial halfway point of the trail, there I swapped a lot of gear out for lighter summer gear and sent home almost all my clothes. Currently I have one shirt one pair of hiking shorts and one pair of shorty shorts for really hot days and to sleep in, I also have one pair of underwear 3 pairs of socks a bandanna and a light wind\rain jacket.

In the past 2 days I have went through Maryland and am now in Pennsylvania, I am officially in the north.  Good news is sunshine and I are back together and have named our team "5-8 and Over" it basically means we only hike with tall people lol. Yesterday morning was one crazy time...the weather got really nasty, so bad people had their headlamps out at 8am because the clouds drowned out the sun. Today we were told there was a tornado about 30miles from where we were hold up in a bathroom. Wow what fun!

I'm so glad to be back on trail and to have my hiking buddy back, I'm also glad to be in Pennsylvania it really feels like I've completed something even though I'm barely halfway.  A huge Thank You to my sister's co-worker for the awesome trail magic that got me this great down quilt I'm now laying in. Thank You ×1000000 I'm no longer sweating all night.

Peace Love and Hikers
Carpenter

June 2

Nice day temperature wise...kinda overcast... The wayside breakfast was great this morning... I had 12 miles done by noon, saw a huge rattle snake and played with it for a while then moved it a ways off trail....I spent the rest of the day taking it easy just wondering north listening to music and exploring anything that might be cool.

Later in the evening I met up with Mr. Giggle fitts and paisley a heady couple from maine and hiked the last few miles to the shelter with them. Tomorrow the three of us will hitch hike into Luray, I'm going in to pick up a food drop, while they are going to hitch to harpers ferry to catch a train and a bus to New York for the Mountain Jam Music Fest.

June 1st

Bears! Last night 1:45am I wake up to crashes outside the tent...sure enough two bears had come in the camp trying to Yogi some food....Luckily everything was hung in the tree. Today was another 17 miles day through the easy and still not very pretty Shenandoah. 

Looking foward to the wayside tomarrow for a cheese burger or maybe breakfast if I get the early enough.

carpenter

May 31

Oh what a day... not on of my best, I am in a mental funk. Maybe the Virgina blues I don't know.  I only did 17 miles today 10 short of my goal, saw a lot of deer and squirrels and they still didn't cheer me up. Its gonna be ok though just gotta keep my head in the game. Tomorrow ill shoot for 20+ miles but its hot and it drains energy quickly so ill just play it by year. Shenandoah park is riddled with bear so we are taking extra precautions with hanging our food and other items that have scents to them.

carpenter