484 miles and 28 days to go.

Well it has been awhile since I have been able to update the blog due to me dropping and breaking my phone back in Greenwood Lake, NY. So haven't had the option to update my blog.

Well it's that time in the home stretch! Less than 500 miles! Less than 30 days! So in order for us to summit Kathadin on the 27th of June we have to average 18.0777778 miles a day. Which sounds amazing. So short!

So we are currently in Rutland, VT. Two days from starting the white mountains. Thursday, two days from today we will be in Hanover, NH. Which means we start the White Mountain Range. I've been through NY, NJ, CT, MA, and more than half way done with VT. NY was pretty at some points but had a ton of puads (pointless ups and downs). These puads were mostly rock Clift faces that lasted for about 100-200ft up and a bunch during the day. Very challenging. NJ was mud and swamps and lakes and beaver dams and mud and mud and mud. CT was well I don't really remember just another state I guess haha. Next came MA. Worst state on the trail I think. People are not friendly and the trail is poorly maintained. I will not be hike in MA ever again. Beavers have taken over that part of the trail. There is not a dry step on the trail in MA. All the branches are over hanging in the trail. Grass was taller than me. Etc... But anyway it was between me and Maine so I trucked on through it. So far VT has been the best looking part of the trail. Gorgeous views and great hiking minus the 3 mile road walk. But that was cause by Irene so no blame there. Hurricanes can ruin many things.

I really don't have any interesting stories to tell or any great falls to talk about in this blog so instead of story time I will try my best to explain what a day in our shoes are like. So we will say we have a 23.6 mile day to hike. Which tends to be a pretty common day.
We wake up around 6:16ish.
Eat and pack up.
Be on trail by 6:45ish.
9:30 restock 2 liters of water.
12:00-12:20. First lunch.
12:21. Get more water. 2 liters.
2:45. More water. 1 liter.
3:20ish. 2nd lunch. Collect 2 liters of water. Hopefully by this time you are at least 17-18 miles deep in the day.
So now it's about 4:00. You have 5.6 miles to go. Which means 2 hours of hike time. Time to kick it in gear.
6:15ish. Roll into camp/shelter. Sit around and talk about the day to fellow hikers/ make bed/chores etc...
7:05ish eat dinner.
7:45 finish cleaning etc...
8:00-8:30 bed time.

So that's your typical day of hiking with beautiful sights and "new adventures" waiting around every corner or swamp or rock scramble or 1500ft climb over 0.7 miles. It really is a thing of beauty out here. Love every second of it. Anyway thanks for allowing me to waste 5-10 minutes of your time. Everyone enjoy the summer break! Peace y'all.

Shout out to Lara from VT. Girl kick that Long Trails butt!!!

P.S. Mom and Dad thanks for the new phone!

Penn and Jersey over.

Well it's true we've enter New York. No more PN rocks and no more NJ mud. Since we've left Virginia we have been able to crank out way more miles per day. Last week we averaged around 24 miles a day. We have 819 miles till the end!! No more counting up it's all countdown now! Which is crazy to think about. Looking at only 7 weeks to go.

So let's talk about that state called Pennsylvania. Well it can be summed in one word. That work is ROCKY. Yes on the map Penn looks very flat, but if I do recall i never actually took a flat step. Every step required your ankle to bend in some awkward fashion. But it's the AT no one said it was a cake walk gotta earn Maine! There were three sections that were a bit over the top and they are.... Knifes Edge, Pinnacle, and Bake Oven Knob. Pinnacle was our first big rock section. It was a nice wake up call. Then came Knifes Edge. Good Lord. It was tough. Well it was seriously an edge. One foot to the left drop off. One foot to the right drop off. One wrong slip and that was your last step on the AT for sure. Then came Bake Oven Knob. It was just soccer ball size rocks over and over and over and over again. Bake Oven I really didn't notice to be that bad because I was on the phone with my sister Anna Beth catching up on what has been going on in her life. So that was Penn.

New Jersey wasn't much really. Just really swampy and very muddy. Granted it only took us 2.5 days to finish the state. Nothing really special about NJ.

Finally we've been hit by rain and 10 days straight of it. Today was the first day we've seen a slight sign of sun. But the weather looks great these next couple of days. Time for some nice sunshine.

Well ladies and gents time for bed. I will post again soon. Night y'all.