Make it count: Day #87

Sunday, June 7 - Day #87 - AT Hike

Miles Hiked Today - 18.6
Total Miles Hiked on AT - 1185.9/2,193 (54.08%)

Tentsite (1167.3) to Tentsite (1185.9) - camp

Total ascent - 2,948’
Total descent - 2,488’

Total States Completed - 6/14

**No Rain - really perfect weather day. Highs in the upper 70’s - so it didn’t get really warm.

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Coming to you live from a campsite about 8-1/2 miles out of Pine Grove, PA. The goal is to Nero into Pine Grove tomorrow (Monday) - then we’ll do a Zero on Tuesday. Sherpa Mike and I are doing a Zero to let Caruso catch up to us. Plus - it’s been 10 days and 175 miles since my last Zero in Harpers Ferry

Today was the perfect hiking day. The weather was cool to start (upper 50’s) and only warmed to upper 70’s. It was blue skies with puffy white clouds and a slight breeze most of the day. The trail conditions were also really smooth. Add this to the fact that JD was slack-packing us so we had reduced weight in our backpacks - it was the perfect storm of green-light hiking conditions. The only reason we didn’t go further - we’re planning on meeting Caruso in Pine Grove - but 18.6 miles is still a really solid day.

We made great time and met up with JD at 1:30pm. We had gone 16.2 miles by that point. JD took us up to a local brewery for lunch. Incredible! We had lunch outside at a table under an umbrella. They were playing all kinds of great music (lots of Jimmy Buffet). I’m shaking it up a little. Kicking back for a nice lunch at a brewery in the middle of the day - all good stuff. After lunch - we made a stop at a Verizon store. Sherpa Mike has been having problems with his phone and he upgraded to a new one. After this stop - JD took us back to the trailhead. Sherpa Mike and I then walked 2.6 miles to our camping spot tonight. A unique thing on the hike today - we had to walk over this 50-yard beaver dam. It was like something straight out of the Louisiana Bayou. We had to wade through ankle to knee deep waters - across this beaver dam - to get to the other side. Wild!

Man - a special Thank You to JD. What a really cool thing to do on your day off work (Sunday). In addition to picking us up, slack packing us, bringing us out to lunch - he also brought us water to refill our bottles and topped off our hand sanitizer containers. He’s only 29 years old - with maturity of a 50+ year old. Good on you JD!

So - I feel like a semi-slacker over the past few days. Staying in hotels, eating out, walking with lesser weight packs. I’m weird this way. My whole life - on almost everything I’ve ever done - I just keep pushing myself to my maximum limits. I know I don’t need to always keep grinding - but it’s just what I’m programmed to do. Honestly - this is such a key point for me to work on as a person to get better and be more healthy overall. Keep that drive - but be willing to back off and relax more. I know it sounds silly - but if you were living in my body - you could better understand where I’m coming from. Seems like I’m always striving to find that balance - it’s been a lifelong pursuit.

Well - better turn in for the night. It’s 9:12pm now. We have a shuttle picking us up at 9:30am at a parking area about 8-1/2 miles away to bring us to Pine Grove. That means we have to walk 8-1/2 miles by mid-morning. We’re hoping to be out of camp by 6am. That’s a 5am wake up. But - if the plan is followed - I’ll have a nice 1-1/2 day break in Pine Grove to rest up for the final 100 miles in Pennsylvania.

Goodnight from the woods of PA!