Trail day 27 - The Roller Coaster - Jack

21.6 today! Much better than yesterday, however we actually meant to do 25 today. 

We found a sweet campsite along a creek with a great firepit. Naturally I started a fire and cooked over it! Tonight we'll fall asleep to the sound of running water. 

The miles flew by today, and it's cool to see how far we can push ourselves now that we're in peak hiking shape. I think we're at the point where 20 mile days no longer phase us. We both felt good enough to continue on today. 

Today we began the roller coaster, an accurately named section of trail with very, very steep ups and downs. We are camped towards the beginning of it, and will camp just shy of Harpers Ferry tomorrow! 

Yes that means on Saturday WE'LL BE DONE! 29 days and 383 miles. 

Wow. Just wow. What a journey it has been. It seems like literally yesterday we were camped at rice field shelter and it was our first night on trail. But we've been out in the woods just shy of a month. 1/12 of our year. It's absolutely unbelievable how fast time flies. 

I'll reflect on this more when we're done. I'm also eager to share what I took away from this trip. I feel I've been holding alot back, and keeping my thoughts to myself. 

Anyways, we're sitting around a roaring fire, and it's just us two in camp again tonight. I'm excited for what tomorrow will bring, and we anxiously await the finale of this amazing journey. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trail day 9 - It's cold now - Jack

Image
Trail day 9 - May 21, 2017 Mile 728.1 - Mile 739.3 Daleville VA - Wilson Creek Shelter 11.2 Miles Total ascent: 2952.8 feet Total descent 2360.6 feet Yeah, yeah I didn't post yesterday. Something about staying back in the real world makes me not want to write! Anyways.  Started off the day right with a continental breakfast. Chatted quite a bit with Bad News, the hiker we met last night. Packed up, and hit the trail around ten. It was overall a pretty uneventful day! We went 7.3 miles before we looked at a map or took a break. It feels good to finally have a rhythm and good pace going with our hiking.    We saw a bunch of these tiny orange lizards. No clue what they are though.    Ran across a bunch of streams with big pools filled with tiny fish in them.  Got to the shelter and set up and took a much needed nap. I think both of our feet are hurting pretty badly. It doesn't help that the weather switched from very hot to chilly. It's mid fifties in town, so...
Read more

Trail day 2 - Brutality - Jack

Image
Trail day 2 - May 14, 2017 Rice field shelter to Bailey gap shelter Mile 643.1 - 656.6  16.5 miles Boy was today a long one! We found out last night we're going to have barely enough food to get to our first resupply. So we added on a few more miles than we planned. Today being the first of these big mile days. We started with really nice trail today! Nice and flat, and a few good views. However, the day ended with a steep, 1.5 mile uphill climb which drained us both. I don't think either of us is in the mood to write much, and we have no service what-so-ever so this post will be going up tomorrow. In fact, we didn't even cross a road today. We were very much in the wilderness.  We took very few photos so I will put up what I have! Happy mothers day to all the moms out there, and especially to my mother! I'm sorry I couldn't call I swear I had no service. Hopefully I have more to say tomorrow, but it is 8:30 (hiker midnight) and I'm off to bed.   We climbed a ro...
Read more

Trail day 5 - Did I mention it's hot out? - Jack

Image
Trail day 5 - May 17, 2017 Niday shelter to Dragons tooth Mile 685.6 to mile 699.9 14.3 miles Title.  Wow what a day. Stayed at Niday shelter last night and woke up around 7:30 this morning. Today was mostly uphill and once again, it was scorching hot! We were drenched in sweat all day. We had a long winding uphill on brush mountain, and came down to a creek for lunch. My first thought was: I need a bath. So we jumped in and cleaned off! The water was freezing, however. Too bad the bath was worthless, as we were once again drenched in sweat on the next uphill. We were walking up to dragons tooth. It's a giant stone monolith on the edge of a cliff.    This is the view from my hammock spot tonight! Dragons tooth is on the right. And we also climbed it!   It was a scary climb down, as a fall would mean serious injury if not death. (Sorry mom) This is by far the best campsite I've stayed at due to the views and landscape. We have the whole place to ourselves too! This is...
Read more