Date: 2004-06-03
From: Leroy A Smith Shelter

To: Delaware Water Gap
Miles today: 20.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Pennsylvania is finished!! Thru-hikers are rejoicing. Crap shelters, crap water sources and worst of all crappy rocks; lots and lots of crappy rocks. I would have to stay that today was the worst of all. However, as bad as I'm making it sound, it has been better than other hikers described it. The way they made it sound, it was like every single step of PA was on rocks. To be fair there were a lot of clear patches of nice trail. Plus it was really flat so the walking was generally easy. In the registers you would read about the casualties, hurting feet, twisted knees, sore ankles... these were the people who would do 25-30 miles. Of course your legs are going to hurt after 25 miles, no matter how easy or hard the terrain. Mile Nazis...disturbing to me, especially when they complain and expect other people to feel sorry for them. So maybe Pennsylvania gets a bad rap unfairly, I don't know.Something I have seen throughout my hike is the "I started with it, so I'm going to finish with it" people. How bizarre this seems to me. Obviously if you do a lot of research before your hike you might actually have some sort of an idea of what gear you need but even thousand of hours of research cannot replace first hand knowledge from the trail. When people told me Georgia in February was cold, I believed them, but cold to a Floridian is different than cold to a Canadian, plus the seasons HAVE changed. Now it may be a newsflash to some on the trail (or at least it seems by the gear they-re carrying) that it is no longer winter! Summer is on its way! So sometimes I ask people why they carry clothing they haven't used in weeks. They say, "Well I started with it." I have a feeling that this answer will never win a debate contest.I'm just blabbing on but the moral of my story is that inflexibility kills people on the AT. I see people staggering with heavy loads of winter clothing. I see people carry 2 litters of water to a good water source. I see people carry 2 days worth of food to a town. I see people with Nalgene bottles...why? Do they enjoy suffering? Probably.Not that I'm the queen of flexibility but I'm smart enough to know that carrying extra unnecessary pack weight is not such a hot idea. It makes me happy to write all this down! I see people everyday complaining about their pack weight and perhaps writing it down has prevented me from freaking out for a few extra days. Sometimes I just want to scream and start banging my head against a shelter wall or a tree. It makes me that crazy.You know what else entertains/annoys me, depending on the day? The "token weight reducers" or TWR for short. When the TRW's find out that I'm a lightweight backpacker they flock over to show me their cut off toothbrush or spoon, their duct tape wrapped around their Nalgene bottle or the map cut into sections. Usually all of their token weight reductions amount to about 3 ounces. Then I see TWR's whip out their 2-pound thermarest, 4-pound tent, 3-pound sleeping bag and MSR Whisperlite out of their 6-pound pack. Then they wonder why their pack is so heavy despite taking care of the obvious things like cutting off a toothbrush handle. It makes me want to laugh out loud. Not a single thing I carry, even my pack itself weighs over 2 pounds. Good times on the AT!I know it may sound like I am complaining a lot but I actually find all of these people more entertaining then anything else. Anyway, on to New Jersey tomorrow.JB -- "Tell It Like It Is"...