Date: 2018-06-09
From: stealth camping

To: stealth camping
Miles today: 17.2

Last night i couldn't fall asleep early with all the daylight outside, so i ended up watching the sunset over NJ from my tent and glad i did. It was pretty great. I spent 20 mins this morning wrapping my feet up in ductape and blister bandages. Within 20 mins of hiking i could feel all the bandages rolled up in a ball at the front of my shoes. Cool. I was right by the way. I overshot yesterday's campsite by nearly a mile. Since i'm use to hiking 2 miles an hour, i use that to estimate what time i'll reach certain locations. But since the terrain is much nicer in NJ then PA, i'm actually averaging 2.5 mph. Today i even did 3 mph at one point. It was awesome. It allows you to do so much more with your time besides hiking.  I was listening to a cool podcast yesterday on the Joe Rogan Experience and it covered a lot of stuff. But a cool take-away was how important it is to break-up your routine and challenge yourself. This guy was saying how there's 365 days in a year. So out of those 365 days, we should AT LEAST spend ONE day pushing our limits to the max, making ourselves super uncomfortable, challenging ourselves SO hard to the point that that ONE day drastically influences how we live the next 364. I thought that was such a neat concept. And i just happen to be doing 180 days of that lol. Mosquitoes and gnats have been bad. I love it when i'm hiking and i inhale a gnat and it gets stuck to the back of my esophagus and i have to gag it out. Almost every square inch of my legs has a bug bite. If i don't get Zika or West Nile, I'll definitely probably grow a third appendage from bathing in deet 2-3 times a day lol. I ran into a woman day-hiker today about my age. As we were about to cross paths, she puts her arms out and hugs me lol. She said i was the first female thru-hiker she'd seen all morning. I told her that ya the ratio of women to men is about 1-4. She wanted me to elaborate on what that was like and i honestly haven't given it much thought so i didn't know what to say lol. But apparently it's a thing. I will say though that there is something about being a woman, vegan hiker with zero backpacking experience that fuels me, makes me feel like i have a point to prove! lolHiker hunger is starting to set in strong. I go to bed hungry and wake up hungry. I feel like i physically can't eat enough food these past couple of days. Back at the hostel i had stayed at, they had a scale for hikers to weigh themselves. I've already lost 5 lbs! I didn't really come out here with a lot of weight to lose, you know. I'm not complaining, but if i lose another 5 lbs i'll be the same weight i was my sophomore year of high school! I hope i gain some muscle mass to replace this weight. i'm not trying to walk out of here a skeleton. lolToday was actually a pretty sweet day. I hiked a lot, chilled a lot, and hung out with other hikers all day. You'd be proud. I heard a rumor that this state park head quarters place along the trail gave out free sodas to thru-hikers, so i stopped by there and ran into Legs, Sauerkraut, Skywalker and two new people, Turmoil and Mongrel. We all sat in the front lawn drinking our free Pepsi and eating our hiker lunches. Then we saw in the guidebook that there was a lake near by about half a mile off trail with a consessions stand that sold FOOD. So we finished our lunches and booked it to this lake for our second lunch. Everyone gorged themselves on burgers and hotdogs. I ate an apple, a pretzel, Oreos, 2 fruit roll-ups, and a snow cone. It was great!! We hung out there for several hours. I don't know what it is about being in the woods for weeks that makes people so vulgar and obscene, but these guys were talking about the grossest, most inappropriate shit my virgin ears have ever heard of lol! There were families and children everywhere, but absolutely no sensors. It was terrible, but i've also never laughed so much. After that, we all set out on the trail again. Legs and Sauerkraut raced ahead and disappeared. Turmoil and Mongrel lagged behind. So me and Skywalker ended up chatting and hiking together. I had only planned for today to be a 13 mile day, but we reached the High Point shelter/campsite at 6pm and Skywalker was gonna keep going so i decided to follow. This was my first time actually hiking with somebody and WOW it makes it all go by so much faster. Ended up doing another 4 miles together and stealth camping next to a stream. Which, by the way, i learned today that stealth camping is illegal in NJ, but NOT for thru-hikers. We are the exception! Whoo!Since i picked up some extra mileage today, i have a much shorter hike tomorrow into town to resupply. So hopefully i can get in early, get what i need, and get out quick without being sucked into all the temptations!