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

May 30

Got back on trail today at 3:30pm, after a follow-up with the reporter in Waynesboro. Little seed, 17, For now and I all left together. Once we got our permits filled out we headed into Shenandoah National Park. I immediately took off from the group...feels good to be back on trail. After about 1.5 hrs. I had seen a rabbit and a deer, both of which had no concerns of my presence.  Completing 8 miles I got to the shelter where I will sleep tonight, we are in serious bear country now.
Well that's all for now...goodnight

Carpenter

Heading back to the white blazes

Ah officially off the river! I will be heading back on trail tomorrow,  back to normal life... The river was fun, got a nice tan and put some weight back on, but I am so ready to do some walking. 
That is all for now...ill continue blogging as usual tomorrow.

Aqua blazing. .

Ok sorry for not posting in a few days. Currently Little Seed, Grim, Whistle and I are Aqua blazing.  Aqua blazing is we're you rent conoes and paddle part of the trail. 160miles is what we have decided to take on it should take us about 8 days. We have now been going for 3 days and it has been a blast. This is the real getter though, we still are getting trail magic off trail. Some nice folks last night invited us to there memorial day party on the river bank, then gave us a ton of freshly smoked pork, they also let us camp there for the night and we woke up to a bag of fruit and 5 gallons of water!

As of now we are portageing the boat around a dam, damit...its also 1st lunch time and coffee from the McDonald's. 
Well time to get back to work!

carpenter