Date: 2009-06-19
From: almost done with PA!

To: View Entry
Miles today: 110.0

Dear readers,Hello from Slatington, PA! We are somewhere around mile 1,247, I think. It's getting hard to keep track of the mileage - the actual number is becoming less and less of a focus, while state lines capture more of my attention! Now that we are farther north, we'll be checking off a state a week for the next little bit, and that is something to get excited about! Also worth getting excited about is ONLY THREE MORE DAYS OF PENNSYLVANIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo. It can't come quick enough. People aren't lying when they talk about the rocks, although they don't get really bad until the last week. They are just annoying the first week or two. We compared PA to the annoying kid in class who doesn't seem so bad after a day or two, but after two weeks you can't stand them anymore. The weather hasn't helped either. We had a nice stretch after the Duncannon, but rain moved in earlier this week, just in time for us to hit the portion of trail that required a lot of bouldering. Awesome. Yes, walking across something called "Knifes Edge" in the rain was super fun. (Definition of fun in this context- FEAR OF: slipping and cracking head open, falling off cliff, spraining/breaking body parts, losing trekking pole into bottomless rock crevasse, losing balance and wacking your hiking partner in the face with tip of trekking pole, getting foot wedged to the point of stuck in rock cracks, stepping on a loose boulder and causing a catastrophic rock slide). A few of those fears would have been eliminated if the rocks weren't slick with rain, but obviously, Katahdin thought that would have been too easy. With less than a half mile to go before Bake Oven Knob shelter, our spirits had been lifted after successfully traversing the Knifes Edge, until we saw the boulder field that lay ahead of us. It took us over half an hour to go the half mile in the pouring rain. Were we glad to hit the shelter that night. Luckily, there were two spots left in the shelter (full of week long sectioners) which we easily chose to take over tenting despite reading in the register that a black rat snake had a nest in the shelter and was spotted slithering around inside the night before. Luckily, we didn't have any problems with snakes that night........... but Gangsta did with rodents (see below).***Flashback (3 days prior)*** Gangsta wakes up in her tent after a great night of sleep by a creek. As always (since leaving bear country) she slept with her foodbag in her tent, tucked safely into her pack at her feet. As she's packing up in the morning she notices mouse poop all over her tent. Searching for their point of entry, she spies a chew hole through her mesh in the corner of her tent. The Hubba is apparently not mouse proof. Seeking further damage, and to make a long (and hilarious story shorter) she traces the mouse trail via a hole in her pack, a hole in her foodbag, to a hole in her trail mix. Unfortunately, that trail mix was the last of her lunch food for the next two days. Pop Tarts for Gangsta for breakfast and lunch the next two days. After donating some of my duct tape to the cause, her pack was all patched up and we set off on our 23 mile day hoping it would improve and praying her pack didn't rip in half. (It ended up being a great day, consisting of a 2 hour pizza delivery break at shelter 501 17 miles in!)*** Back in Bake Oven Knob shelter ***We are lying in our sleeping bags ready to drift off to sleep, hoping I don't wake up to anything slithering in my vicinity. Gangsta's pack is sitting on the floor of the shelter (she learned her lesson and hangs her foodbag now). I ask her if she wants to hang her pack on the hooks that line the shelter walls. "Nah, my food is hanging, I don't care, there's nothing in there mice would want." Her Icebreaker t-shirt was laying across the top of it, drying out from the rainy day. Well, somewhere near Bake Oven Knob shelter, there is a very happy mouse that discovered that merino wool makes great nesting material. It is probably sitting in it's hot pink nest, smiling at it's good fortune. Yes, a mouse ate approximately $30 worth of merino wool out of Gangsta's shirt that night. She woke up and put the shirt on to discover three huge holes, each about the size of my hand, all over her shirt. I think it was the hardest I have ever laughed on the trail - to the point of tears streaming down my face. What a way to wake up. Yes, she got a little pissed, and I felt bad because Icebreaker is expensive and it was her only shirt, but hey, you gotta laugh. At least the holes were conveniently located on the sides, showing off her ripped abs, right G? On the bright side, if there was a mouse around, there must not have been a snake. After leaving the Doyle, we finally crossed paths with Loon and Hot Sauce! We've been within a day of them for a few weeks and it was great to finally be on the same schedule! Gangsta and I have spent the last couple of days hanging out and getting to know them. Having separated from the Goonies a few weeks back has provided an opportunity to get to know many other hikers and form new friendships. It's been awesome. For awhile we were spending nights with three women we call the Three Amigas, and despite our age differences (they are all over 40) we had a great time. They are a day or two behind us now, though. As always seems to be the case, I'm sure (I hope!) our paths will cross again. We seem to be in a bubble heavily concentrated with female thru-hikers. It's awesome.Speaking of ages, today is Gangsta's birthday! YEEHAW! Thank goodness, she's been talking about it for the past two months! We had a small celebration last night consisting of Party Cake flavored ice cream with birthday candles on it. It was the best we could do as far as cake goes, not having access to an oven, but of course the real celebration is today. I've donned my wifebeater from WindUp's birthday that has been modified. I put hot pink duct tape over the faded lettering and wrote Happy Birthday Gangsta on it. I also gave her new, big sunglasses (she lost hers awhile back) so she can continue to be Gangstariffic on the trail. And, well, the real celebration will be tonight at the shelter. Yes, I'm packing out 1.75 L of pre-mixed Cosmopolitans, her favorite drink. Maybe we can even watch Sex and the City while drinking it!! (I just thought of that now!). And I know Loon and Hot Sauce will be there... hopefully other people, too, cuz we can't drink that whole bottle ourselves. Yes, my pack will be ridiculously heavy for the 15 miles, but I'm sure it will be worth it. Maybe we could drink it while hiking... or maybe that's the worst idea I've ever come up with considering the boulders we'll have to navigate. (Gangsta, I hope you are not reading this or else the surprise is ruined, but I was too excited about it, I had to talk about it on TJ). And, thanks to Momma G, we are sporting some colorful bling on our fingers, and birthday princess tiaras. We'll bust out the noisemakers later on tonight.By the end of the weekend we should be at the Delaware Water Gap! I'm pretty excited about it! I think I'm simply more excited to be done with PA than anything else. We spent the first half of the trail hearing all about the rocks of PA and how much it sucks. It will be a mental milestone to have that behind us. Also, excitement for the northern part of the trail is starting to brew. It now seems so close, so real, so tangible. I know that the last month of the trail will fly by. New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine will be incredible, and they are not that far away. A few mere weeks... I'm super excited for the Whites already. This next stretch of trail leading up to them seems like the boring middle section you just gotta suffer through to reap the rewards of the end. Luckily, I have friends (Painted Sea Turtle!) and family (Blazars!) to look forward to seeing between here and Vermont.Recently,I have been doing a lot of thinking about what to do after this, after all, the end isn't too far away. Thanks to the most recent issue of Outside magazine (30 best places to work in the outdoor industry), I have a lot of ideas I want to pursue and research. I have decided to set the bar high for myself, after all, I seem to be accomplishing things I never thought possible. I will never known my limits unless I challenge myself and set high goals for myself, no matter how ridiculous or unattainable they may seem. Besides, it's always good to have something to strive for or work towards. I feel like a very different person than who I was a few years ago. I think that this experience, from being a simple seed planted in my head (thanks, Reid!) in 2003, to now, sitting in a library in a small town in PA at mile 1,247 in 2009 has a lot to do with it. The ability to turn such an absurd idea into reality has given me a new perspective on things. That is as deep as I will go for now. I know this journal is mostly about the day to day happenings, and funny stories of life on the trail. I've often wanted to provide more introspection, but usually computer time limits don't allow, and to be honest, I'm not a very intellectual/introspective person, recently, I seem to be coming to some tangible and identifiable thoughts, feelings, and conclusions about myself and life in general. With that, I'll end this novel of an entry. Sorry, it's been awhile since I've had internet access. There's more I wanted to write about but I guess it'll have to wait. There's a birthday to celebrate, miles to hike, rocks to climb, and life to live.Happy Trails,Wags