Ah, taking another nearo here in Manchester, Vermont. We went so many weeks without doing anything, mostly because through NJ-MA there weren’t any good places to stop. Everything gets expensive and hostels are few and far between. Last week we stayed at Tom Levardi’s house in Dalton, MA. It’s this guy who has a house on the trail and basically lets hikers camp or stay inside his house for free. You get a shower, laundry and ice cream at the end of the night. It’s a pretty sweet deal and I recommend everyone stopping in when you go through Dalton. We left Dalton on Friday and stopped in at Diane’s…

Alright, finally some time to do the best of #2! This is from Mile 501 on Pine Mtn to Harpers Ferry. Best View: -Chestnut Knob Shelter, Va: 561.8, elevation 4,409 -Rice Field Shelter, Va: 633.2, 3,375 -McAfee Knob: 703.0, 3,197 -Cold Mtn: 802.7, 4,022 -Rock Spring Hut, Shenandoah: 917.7, 3465 -Crescent Rock, WVa: 996.9, 1,312 Best Section: -Va606 to Wapiti Shelter: Miles 602-609.8 -Hazeltop Mtn, Shenandoah: 909.7 -Sky Meadows State Park: 977.6 Best Food: -The Barn: Atkins, Va. Cheap, very good hiker food. Right on trail. -Exxon station at Atkins, Va. -Ming Garden, Waynesboro, Va. Best Chinese buffet out there. -Trents Grocery, Va: Cheap, cheap burgers….good pulloff for a burger.…

Slowly, slowly are are making our way up the eastern seaboard. We’ve arrived in upper Mass. and are taking our first full trail zero since Damascus, Virginia, which is well over 1,000 miles south of here. That is if you don’t count our five days at home. We’ve been experts at taking nearo’s and half days, but we’ve been feeling the tiredness and beat down lately. It seems to be rampant among many hikers. The big push to do huge miles this last month has left everyone a little ragged and if we’re going to start hitting real mountains soon (Mt. Greylock tomorrow. Our first 3K peak since the Shenandoah’s)…

Yesterday we finally made it to New England, but my southern mind already thought I was there the minute we crossed the Mason/Dixon line and into PA. Apparently no one else thinks that PA, NJ and NY are in New England…oh well. We are officially in Connecticut and in a few short days, Massachusetts. I am looking forward to blitzing through those states and getting to Vermont. It has been very warm and humid here and I didn’t realize that other parts of the country had heat induced afternoon thunderstorms like Florida. Yesterday we had done about 9.5 miles and Chris had jumped in 10 mile River for a swim.…

Well, we’re on the NJ/NY border eating at a deli and it has internet! WOOHOO! So, as my brother posted, we made it through Pennsylvania…aka: Rocksylvania or what others called Rocksylsnakethornia. We know two people who gave the finger to PA on the downhill into Delaware Water Gap…that’s how much PA is hated by the AT crowd. The first 1/3 to 1/2 isn’t bad, up to Duncannon. It just gets suckier with each miles after that. Not only that, we got on one ridge that had zero water for 17 miles. Ugh. Up until then water has been pretty frequent and plentiful. I guess our most interesting day was the…

We officially passed halfway on Saturday morning. It was exciting to see the sign and we let out some whoops and yells. Pretty much everyone you talk to feels like we’ve already done way more, but of course you look at the map and there is a long way still to go. But, we’re doing pretty darn well. The shelter registers are starting to show fewer and fewer familiar names. Many names that I recognize are ones that I’ve never met but they are a week to two weeks ahead. We know a few people, maybe three, that are ahead about a week that we’ve hiked with, but other than…

Our friends Meghan and Jesse came into town to see us yesterday. We had an awesome afternoon wandering around Harpers Ferry and eating lots of food. I wish we could have spent more time with them. Thanks you so much for lunch and for taking the time to come out and see us! I hope to see y’all in Texas when we get home!! You can check out Meghan’s page there on my side bar! She’s an awesome photographer!

Posting from the Bears Den hostel where we are taking an afternoon respite from the heat and the Rollercoaster of Northern Virginia. It’s like being thrown back into Georgia and seems to be Virginia’s way of saying “get the hell out of my state, you’ve been here for 500 + miles”. In a few more miles we’ll be in West Virginia and sometime after that we’ll be at 1,000 miles. Tomorrow morning we’ll roll into the mental halfway point of Harpers Ferry. The real halfway point is probably later this week in Pennsylvania. We’ve been pulling crazy miles lately; breezed through the Shenandoah in five days. I have a lot…

Turn your volume up to hear the baby bear squealing for mom! Look close on the tree!