Date: 2010-10-28
To: Make-up Miles
Miles today: 60.0

Yes, you read right dear readers, Cerveza skipped some miles during her thru-hike. I didn¢t write about them in my journal at the time so that I wouldn¢t receive any backlash from trail purists on the issue of yellow-blazing. It is a pretty hot topic among thru-hikers on trail. But this past week, my brother Paul was gracious enough to take a week out of his life and drive me out to the trail from Chicago so that I could hike the miles that I missed. The first 50 miles were from the Delaware Water Gap (DWG) in PA south to PA 309. We left on a Thursday, October 28th at about 11am and drove for 12 hours to our destination. The drive was a straight shot from south side Chicago to the DWG on I-80. It couldn¢t have been more perfect if I had planned it. A day or two before we left, a fellow thru-hiker, Last on the Bus (LB) shot me a text to tell me that he was driving out from Minneapolis to DWG as well to make up some miles. It was an amazing coincidence! So I had some company for the 50-mile section in PA. We walked south out of DWG on Friday morning. It was a brisk autumn day and the terrain was very flat; something I was thankful for given I have been sitting on my arse the last three weeks. I was expecting it to be a pretty tough hike since so many thru-hikers complain about the rocks in northern PA but I really didn¢t think it was bad at all. We had no trouble pulling a 3 mile per hour pace. I guess it all seems a lot worse when it¢s 100 degrees out, the gnats are unbearable and the water is non-existent. But for us, we had beautiful weather, cool temperatures and autumn colors. It was really enjoyable. I really loved being back on trail and it just made me want to strap on a backpack again and disappear into the woods. Paul and I stayed at the Pocono Inn in Delaware Water Gap on Thursday and Friday nights while LB and I hiked the PA section. The Inn was absolutely desolate. It seems like the off season must be pretty tough on them. It brought back a lot of memories to be back at the Pocono Inn after so many months. It made me miss all the wonderful people I met and good times I had there. On Friday morning, I loaded up my day pack and walked through town to the trailhead to meet LB who had hammocked there on Thursday night. I stopped in the church hostel on my way and was surprised to run into a southbounder and a flip-flopper. I actually met the southbounder back in Lincoln New Hampshire a couple months back at Chet¢s hostel. It was cool to run into a hiker I knew this late in the season. (the southbounder was Grapevine for anyone interested.) It was prime hunting season in PA and we heard quite a few gunshots the three days it took LB and I to hike the 50 mile section. We hiked 14 miles the first day, 16 the second day and 20 the last day. My brother Paul would pick us up at the end of each day at whatever road crossing we made it to. The GPS that my dad let us borrow really came in use. It was nice to hike with LB for a few days. I saw him throughout my thru hike but really never had a chance to get to know him very well. We spent one night having drinks at the bar in the Pocono Inn and reminisced about people we knew and experiences we had on trail. I¢m finding that most of the hikers that I have talked to after trail are all missing trail as much as I am. It makes me regret all those days that I just wanted my thru hike to be over. On Monday morning, LB and I grabbed some breakfast at a little diner in Slatington, PA and then bid farewell to each other. LB is continuing south to complete a large section of trail that he missed. I¢m kind of jealous that he still has trail to hike. There is nothing I want to do more then throw my backpack back on and keep hiking.Paul and I drove south to Philadelphia to spend the day checking out a few restaurants my brother had heard about on the TV show ¢Man vs. Food.¢ While in Philadelphia, we went to the Art Museum to run the steps from the movie ¢Rocky.¢ It was pretty fun and getting to the top of the stairs had a bit more meaning to me having just finished hiking 2,179 miles. From Philadelphia, we drove down to Baltimore to visit Gonzo and his family for the night. Bear Blaze has been there the last couple weeks before she returns to Colorado. So I had a chance to catch up with the whole gang. It was a wonderful reunion and I was glad that my brother had a chance to meet some of the people that I knew from trail. In the morning, we bid farewell to the Gonzo clan and Bear Blaze and continued driving south into Virginia. I still had 10 miles near Montebello, VA to complete. We drove past many trail towns, the Shenandoah Mountains and Harper¢s Ferry. I really took a trip down memory lane this last week.On Wednesday morning, Paul dropped me off at the Fish Hatchery Road in Montebello where I got off of trail earlier this summer. I had to hike up a run-downed gravel road about a mile before I hit the AT near Spy Rock. All of the leaves have fallen off of the trees and the forest seems really bare. There wasn¢t anyone on trail and I found peace in the solitude. It was nice to hike my last 10 miles of the AT on my own. It allowed me to be alone with my thoughts and try to find some closure with this trail. I stopped at The Priest shelter about mid way through my day to have a snack and read the shelter log. It is tradition to write your confessions in this shelter log. So I wrote about skipping trail and then coming back to hike my missed miles. I advise any future thru-hikers to restrain from skipping ANY miles on the trail. It is something that may seem like a good idea on those hard days early on in your hike, but trust me, you¢ll regret it once you make it all the way to Katahdin. The accomplishment just seems to be a little muted with the knowledge that you skipped parts of trail. Well, it was for me. So, stay pure my dear future thru-hikers. Once I hit the road at the Tye River Crossing I felt a very anti-climatic ending to my hike. My brother was there and he helped me climb one of the AT signs and took my picture for me. I called my father on the drive away from the AT and announced that I had completed the trail. He quoted to me this line from one of my earlier trail entries:¢I started thinking about all the things that I thought were impossible in the last few years that I accomplished to remind myself, that hiking 2,175 miles is not impossible, you just have to take one step at a time until you reach Maine.¢-Cerveza (March 17th 2010, two weeks before I started the trail)And apparently hiking the AT was not impossible at all! And to boot, I had the best time of my life along the way.