Finally! 1285.6 miles and we're in NJ, or "7 states down, 7 to go"

Whew... we both thought that there was a point when the rocks of PA might actually chew us up and eat us alive- but here we are in NJ, taking a day off and preparing to set off on the final leg of our AT adventure. It was great to have three family stops in a row (Sooze and Alan at Harpers Ferry, Mike's parents at the mid-point, and Laura's dad at the Delaware Water Gap), but now we'll be on our own until we finish. So, we have 893.5 miles to go- not counting the extra walking into and out of towns to resupply, as well as the re-routes that we'll encounter. In addition, Mike's sister is getting married at beginning of October so we need to be back in PA by the end of September. It's a tight schedule we'll be on and we realize that it's an ambitious goal, but we're ready for the challenge. We hope to be in NY by Monday if as long as we don't encounter any problems.

Some highlights of the northern half of PA:
-Laura was swarmed by bees, but luckily only stung 3 times
-We hiked through our first "Superfund" site near Palmerton, PA (a zinc smelting factory contaminated the area and basically destroyed all vegetation on Blue Mountain and the area is full of heavy metals such as zinc, cadmium, and lead)
-Mike saw a bobcat 'butt' as it jumped from a rocky outcropping and disappeared into the forest
-We both saw the biggest male Black Bear we've ever seen in our life, nearly face to face at 7:30/8 in the morning

It's been an incredible experience and we're excited to see what the north has to offer, so we'll keep you informed when we can!

(FYI- the only rattlesnakes we saw were sleeping in some ferns, and we were thankful that we weren't dodging them the way we imagined we'd be....)

Halfway Point (1089.6)

We're visiting with mike's parents about 25 miles north of the halfway point and enjoying the free shower(s) and good food. Both of our feet were really bothering us so we ran out to find new shoes as soon as we got here, but we'll be heading back out in the early morning. Up next are the infamous "rocks of Pennsylvania" and we've read that north of here they're experiencing some drought-like conditions-so it should be a fun 8+ days through the rest of PA. Also a lot of talk about rattlesnakes coming up... a lot of rattlesnakes. Awesome!

1012.5 - Harpers Ferry

Hey everybody, we just rolled into Harpers Ferry this morning around 10am and stopped by the ATC for our obligatory photo. It was nice to look at all the pictures of this year's thru and section hikers and find our friends who we were hiking with before we had to get off trail for a month. We'll be spending the afternoon/night with Laura's mom Sooze and her husband Alan who traveled from eastern MD to celebrate our 1000 mile mark with us.

We had a blast in Shenandoah National Park feeling like we were the 'last thru-hikers', and really enjoyed the solitude. This also gave us the chance to view a lot of wildlife because there weren't hordes of loud and stinky hikers stomping through the park. We had 5 encounters with black bears (some being as close as 15ft. and one protective mother who when she stood up to demonstrate her dominance over us was 6.5-7 feet tall- we had come way too close to her baby with out seeing him), lots of deer, turkeys, snakes, hawks, vultures, and lots of other unexpected things.

Tomorrow we're off to MD, our 6th state! We'll keep you posted.

July 5 - 880 miles - Shenandoah, VA

Accidentally went 20 miles today. We answered some questions from a guy at a car pull-off overlook who was in disbelief that we had walked from Georgia and were trying to walk to Maine. Very hot again.

July 4th- 860 miles- Shenandoah National Park, VA

So this is definately not as easy as when we left off. In our month of resting & recovering we've really list our trail legs. We started getting really sore after about 10 miles of moderately difficult hiking, but some of that is due to the fact that our packs are brimming with provisions we've brought in hopes of not having to resupply in the park. Otherwise, we feel pretty good and are happy with the changes we've made in our gear since we left. 
Still not that many people out but saw plenty of wildlife including a HUGE, fat rattlesnake this morning- that makes 3 rattlers total we've seen in VA. Also very hot today. 90's in the sun with considerable humidity and no real breezes. The uphills were uncomfortable to say the least. It's hard to believe the summer has really just begun and this heat is going to get worse!
We found a nice place to camp next to a spring so we can drink all the water we want before we leave tomorrow - luxury!
Anyway, we're spending some time relaxing now and while we probably won't see any fireworks we certainly enjoyed our day of independance in the mountains. Sleeeeep.

July 4th- 860 miles- Shenandoah National Park, VA

So this is definately not as easy as when we left off. In our month of resting & recovering we've really list our trail legs. We started getting really sore after about 10 miles of moderately difficult hiking, but some of that is due to the fact that our packs are brimming with provisions we've brought in hopes of not having to resupply in the park. Otherwise, we feel pretty good and are happy with the changes we've made in our gear since we left. 
Still not that many people out but saw plenty of wildlife including a HUGE, fat rattlesnake this morning- that makes 3 rattlers total we've seen in VA. Also very hot today. 90's in the sun with considerable humidity and no real breezes. The uphills were uncomfortable to say the least. It's hard to believe the summer has really just begun and this heat is going to get worse!
We found a nice place to camp next to a spring so we can drink all the water we want before we leave tomorrow - luxury!
Anyway, we're spending some time relaxing now and while we probably won't see any fireworks we certainly enjoyed our day of independance in the mountains. Sleeeeep.

844 miles- VA

Feels good to be back on the trail again. Thank you to mike's Ma and sister for giving us a ride. We started hiking around 3pm, did an easier 10 miles, and found a nice campsite where we now sit. Didn't see very many people on the trail so it seems we've let most of the big bubble of hikers pass us. It's nice to have a little more solitude. 
Looking forward to tomorrow, the 4th of July, as we start our hike through Shenandoah Nat'l Park. 
More to come. 

What's Up

Hey everybody.
Since we last updated we've hiked about 400 more miles for a grand total of 834. About a month ago we had to make a tough choice and get off the trail in lieu of an ankle injury Mike suffered and a chest cold Laura had come down with. It was a hard decision to make but it just wasn't plausible to continue in the shape we were in. After some soul-searching and debate over whether we should continue at all, fast forward four weeks (and many good meals and night's sleeps) later and we feel like we're ready to tackle this thing again. 
Tomorrow morning we head down to Virginia... pretty much to the southern end of the Shenandoah Nat'l Park... and start heading north again. 
In case you haven't noticed we have added some photos to the first couple of weeks' entries. For the remainder of our trip we plan to update with shorter posts more frequently so we won't fall so far behind and we can still focus on what we're here to do - hike!
Thanks for checking back on our blog and we look forward to sharing more here.
Wish us luck - again!!
Love, M+L