Date: 2016-07-19
From: Home

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Miles today: 0.0

Yesterday was a travel day to get home. Now some reflections on this year's trip ...It was very hot and humid on most days. It was even hot at night making sleeping difficult. This added to the challenge of the trail. For this reason, the first two days were low mileage and I took a break for a night in an air conditioned hotel in Harriman, NY. On the plus side, I only got rained on once while actually on the trail - not bad when compared to the prior two years. I did five days that were 20 milers. That is about my limit for the trail conditions encountered.The trail varied from easy walking on woods roads to steep climbs to boulder hopping to walking on a a bed of pointy small rocks sticking up a few inches from the trail surface. The latter was very hard on my feet. I did get blisters on the bottom of both feet, but not as bad as the last two years.Other than Bear Mountain and NJ Highpoint, trail did not go over any real peaks, so there were limited 360 degree views, not counting two fire towers. Every night I was at a forest enclosed campsite so no sunsets or sunrises to see this year. Water was scarce. At times, I was leaving camp with 3.5 liters. Also no opportunities for swimming in a lake, except a few that were posted "No Swimming".Deer were abundant. I saw at least one deer on most days. Every day I was able to sample wild blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries that grew by the side of the trail. This was a great treat.I was happy to share a few nights with SOBOs White Buffalo, Brick, Wall, and Red Jack. However, most of the time I was on my own.Overall I would say that this year was mostly about covering more miles to Springer Mountain, with fewer great views and less enjoyable temperatures than in years past.Next year hopefully I can go from Port Clinton, PA to Harpers Ferry, WV - about 194 miles. This would bring me past the 1/2-way point.A few comments on gear ....This year I was hiking in low Solomon trail shoes. One feature that I definitely did not like was the plastic sliders used to tighten the laces. They did not stay tight. As a result the shoes were always a little loose resulting in excessive motion and rubbing on the backs of my heals. For socks, I was using Darn Tough with no liner sock. Next year, I'm going to use liner socks again. These retain foot powder better allowing for less friction between foot and sock. Although these shoes/socks produced fewer blisters than the last two years, I'm still not happy with my shoe/sock system. I've already purchased medium height Solomon trail boots with conventional laces. I think this will produce less heal friction.GlacierGel blister and burn dressings worked miracles on my blisters. I was even able to get one blister to completely reattach. I used Johnson and Johnson sports tape to hold things on. This actually caused other blisters by adhering to the inside of the Darn Tough socks. Going back to using liner socks may solve this problem or maybe I need to find something that has a lower coefficient of friction to hold things on.For a sleeping bag I used a 40 deg. Big Agnes. This has no insulation on the bottom. A Big Agnes air mattress slips into the bottom. I had a new mattress this year (old one developed a slow leak I could not find). The new one was just plastic with no fabric covering. An unexpected plus is that this gripped the tent floor better than the older cloth covered one which prevented the mattress from sliding around on the tent floor. Next year I'll bring the ground cloth for my tent for use in shelters as protection from puncturing the air mattress.