Gym, Tan, & Laundry, I was unfortunately only able to accomplish one of these tasks while I was in the state, and no it wasn't laundry. Upon entering the state I was expecting the trail to be running rampant with guidos and the like, fist pumping and fighting back the beat as we passed on our way to Maine. New Jersey really surprised me though, and the only people that I saw fist pump where my fellow hikers and myself. When you typically think of Jersey, you usually think of the shore, the Pine Barrens, or somewhere around the city. I can tell you that the section that the Appalachian Trail passes through is nothing like any of these. 

Another shocking New Jersey factoid is that Jersey has the highest density of bears on the entire Appalachian Trail. They have no fear of humans and these crafty bears will swipe your food bag right from your tent vestibule. We ended up hanging our food, which I haven't done since Virginia and was quite comical as we tried to hang 4 heavy food bags from one bear line. Nobody's food ended up getting swiped that night. I ended up seeing only one bear in New Jersey. He was so big that we thought it was just a big boulder sitting in the trail before he turned around and looked at us. When he realized we were there he just kind of got up and meandered off the trail and into the woods, not a care in the world.

New Jersey has been an unexpected highlight to the trip so far! As I write this I am currently layed up in sweet sisters apartment in Manhattan. It is a pretty ridiculous feeling knowing that I walked all the way here, and that I have probably seen more people in the past 24 hours than I have in the past 4.5 months. I head back to trail tomorrow morning and will be entering my 10th state. Stay tuned for an update on the absolutely beautiful state of New York!

My oh my, so much has happened since my last update. I apologize for the lack of written updates. I am going to do this entry a little differently from past updates. I am not going to do a day-by-day updates, I am just going to run through the states and talk about the highs and experiences I had in each one. Currently I am over halfway, into my 7th state, only 7 miles from entering New Jersey, and have 1286 miles under my belt! My last update was at mile 668 so we got some catching up to do...

I honestly don't understand this whole "Virginia Blues" thing that people seem to experience when they get into Virginia. I understand that the honeymoon phase seems to end and the excitement of being on the trail seems to dwindle a little bit. That being said, Virginia is just way to gorgeous to not be in awe every day. Virginia is just packed with new experiences like Dragon's Tooth, McAfee Knob, Tinker Cliffs, James River, and Shenandoah National Park. My parents lovingly came to see me as I was hiking through the area Dragon's Tooth and McAfee Knob and were able to slackpack my trail friends and I. They also did Trail Magic at the end of Dragon's Tooth which everyone absolutely loved. McAfee Knob is the most photographed spot on the Appalachian Trail, but to be honest I was more impressed with Tinker Cliffs which is just a few miles past it. We ended up watching the sunset and cowboy camping (slept under the stars with no shelter) right on the cliffs.  Further along the trail I hit Shenandoah National Park which was a bit overwhelming. It was very very crowded with both people and bears. I ran into three Black Bears within the span of an hour and five total while I was in the park. Besides the amount of people, the scenery and trail where absolutely gorgeous. It also helped that the park offers a few different Waysides that you can walk to for a blackberry milkshake or hamburger, delicious. More amazing than anything that the park had to offer though was a Trail Angel named Max Factor. He took us off trail for the night to one of his ski resort time shares. He cooked an amazing dinner and breakfast for us, I had not been that full on trail yet. The only thing that he asked in return was that we listen to his story. It was a heartbreaking story about the loss of his son and how the Appalachian Trail provided an outlet for his grief. The story tugged on the heart strings of everyone in the room and we could never repay him for the generosity and kindness that he gave us. He is a true Trail Angel.

Virginia is definitely where I felt like I was getting into the groove of this whole hiking thing and becoming a true Thru Hiker. I grew closer to the people that I was hiking with and we all were connecting on a deeper level. The shared experiences and hardships of trail life create an unbreakable bond. Halfway through Shenandoah I found out that Frosty (who I had met on my third day and had been hiking with ever since) had finally gotten the call for a job offer. We all knew that the call would eventually come, but we were also selfishly hoping that the call wouldn't come until after Katahdin. Frosty had to get off trail in Front Royal, Virginia and it was pretty hard for everyone.

Although Virginia was pretty epic, it was insanely exciting to finally walk into West Virginia. We sat at the border for a good 30-45 minutes and congratulated other hikers as they crossed into the state. I was pretty surprised at the amount of hikers that didn't even stop to take a picture of the border sign. We only had to walk 1006 miles to get here! West Virginia only contains 4 miles of the trail, but somehow it still took me two days to get through it. The majority of the 4 miles takes you straight through Harpers Ferry which is also the psychological halfway point for the trail. 

When we got into town, we stopped in at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters and had our pictures taken for their thru hiker photo album. After hanging around there for awhile we walked through the historic town. While Cyclops was at the outfitter, one of the employees, Potter a past thru hiker, offered  him a night at a trail angels lake house and to round up some other hiker trash to come with. Naturally, you can't turn down that kind of random offer so Trail Mom, Cyclops, and I hopped into Potter's car and drove to some random lake in Maryland. When we got to the house we met our host, Brave. We spent the afternoon swimming, cliff jumping, drinking some beers, and swapping stories all with some complete strangers that we had just met that afternoon. It always amazes me how quickly people make connections out here. Sometimes I think there would be a lot more peace in this world if everyone spent a little time out on the A.T. The next day, Potter drove us back to Harpers Ferry and we walked into Maryland to meet up with Cyclops' friends who were doing Trail Magic.

Maryland is also relatively short with only 40 trail miles. Some people attempt to do the 4 state challenge in which people try to get from the VA/WV border to the MD/PA border within 24 hours. Not my cup of tea. I was interested to experience what Maryland had to offer. Maryland's trail was all very flat, which was nice, but it also made for very muddy conditions. It had some nice view points like Annapolis Rocks which gave us a truly spectacular sunset. It was also very interesting to see the Washington Monument, but it was recently struck by lightning so we were not allowed inside. And of course, like I have said in the past, the people always make the experience. Cyclops' friends gave us some amazing trail magic our first day in MD. Then his friend, Steve, picked us up again on our last day in MD during a nasty storm and took us to his place for some food and showers. Maryland was pretty short, but still enjoyable.

Welcome to Rockslyvania. The rocks in Pennsylvania are no joke. They are small and large, sharp and dull, and just waiting to break my ankles. I feel like I am relearning to hike as I stumble and fall through the rocks. I am onto my third pair of shoes because the rocks obliterated my 2nd pair, and I have more cuts and sore muscles than I have had at any point on the trail. Besides the rocks, Pennsylvania has been very enjoyable. The shelters at the beginning of the state are probably some of the nicest that I have encountered yet on trail. Also, WE HIT THE OFFICIAL HALFWAY POINT!! I guess it is all downhill from here. After the halfway point is Pine Grove Furnace State Park which offers the Half Gallon Challenge. You have to eat a half gallon of ice cream of your choosing. Of course, I had to attempt this one. It took me a little over an hour and was a terrible terrible mistake. I don't think I can eat ice cream for quite awhile. 

From there we hiked onto Boiling Springs, and from there we were to start our grand slack pack adventure of Pennsylvania. Tink lives in Philadelphia, so a group of us decided to take some time off from camping and commute to the trail for a week or so. It worked out perfectly and we were able to spend 4th of July in the city. It was pretty nice to be able to hang out in a hot tub after doing 20 miles. We were able to do big mile days and spend some R&R time by the pool, but tomorrow we head back to the trail with fully loaded packs.