Date: 2018-05-29
From: Stealth Camp mile 1265

To: Stealth Campsite mile 1288.6
Miles today: 23.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Every morning I'm amazed by my body. I literally put it through hell and back daily and after a decent night sleep, I'm up and doing it again with only minor aches and pains. Pennsylvania has literally chewed me up and spit me out but yet myself and all the other thru hikers I know keep pushing. When you fall in the woods alone, you can either feel sorry for yourself and stop or take a sip of water, tell yourself to slow down and push through it. It's uncaring and unfriendly but it's reality. It builds character though, right? At least I hope it does because that's what I've been telling myself.For 20 out of the 24ish miles today, we navigated rocks. It gets pretty tiring and overwhelming mentally focusing on each step for hours and hours all day. Sometimes you get in a groove and can speed through it while other times you are literally stubbing your toe and tripping over every rock. For me I'd say I typically hike in the latter situation seeing as though my new shoes have been on trail for a week and already have rubber peeling off. Just cosmetic but PA eats shoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.At noon we had had only 9 miles left in the day. Two Clicks and I ended up finding a shady spot and sat down for lunch. both of us seemed to be thinking the same thing then finally we said, want to go into town for food? We figured it was still really early and we would make good time to camp. Wind Gap, PA was only a mile away so we figured it couldn't hurt to try our luck at hitching for ten minutes and if it didn't work we would just do our normal thing and hike North. We crossed the street and stuck our things out for less than 5 minutes before a car coming the opposite direction stopped and had us hop in. It was an older couple and they drove us right to the spot we wanted... The ice cream shop.Inside we each got large ice creams. I had death by chocolate, cookies and cream and cookie dough mixed together and it was amazing. The owner even gave us some free bottled water to refill on our 13 mile stretch without water. We enjoyed the A/C then hopped back outside to try our luck at getting out of town. It's usually much harder to hitch out of town. Luckily, a woman-- again coming from the opposite direction-- pulled over only after a few minutes. It must be the haircut, or maybe the beard trim. Either way, we had successfully heroed in and out of town only spending $6.The last 9 miles were some of the most monotonous on trail yet. Rocky and no views. You do learn to love the fern covered forests but as much as I try to enjoy it, I really wish my efforts could go towards a nice view or a cool lake or stream but it all adds up over the trail.At the shelter I grabbed water but couldn't stand the people there. I made it a quick stop then pushed to a tentsite with a view only a few tenths of a mile past the shelter. Here, Two Clicks and I set up tent, ate dinner and hung around. He is learning how to do a bunch of yoyo tricks so it's fun to watch. It was a great view with enough sun left to dry things and a good breeze. We figured it would be a great way to end PA as we were only 7 trail miles from Jersey but of course a few backpackers came and set up shop too, with alcohol, so it may get noisy tonight. Just another obstacle to push past! We're both really excited to get out of PA. Although the rocks don't stop, they at least mellow out a bit and that's all we need. Just another step closer to Katahdin! Until then though, we keep pushing on!