Legs and Borders

Another good day of hiking in Maine. I wouldn't exaggerate at this point if I said that Maine is the second hardest state to hike after New Hampshire, the climbs and descents are not nearly as crazy but the roots and jagged terrain makes up for it. Trail even on "flat" terrain constantly goes over boulders and little hills making it way trickier to navigate than the southern portion of AT. I haven't seen any Northbounders today but the steady trickle of Southbounders was passing through. I've met Salt Lake from Chicago, his wife was Lithuanian and he was living in a Polish neighborhood there, he got his trail name because he was sweating lot. Salt Lake was travelling with Downhill who was finishing his section hike of Maine and New Hampshire. I've also seen Raspberry from Switzerland, she has experienced her first trail magic today and was very excited about it, I've told her that she should have more of it when she will...

Day started with ascending Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusets. Built in 1930s Bascom Lodge was standing near the top with accomodation for hikers, unfortunately I was here too early for breakfast. Another interesting feature was a 93 foot tall tower built in 1931 as a war memorial. After a short snack break I've started the descent to town of North Adams, on my way down I have seen another momma bear with a cub! Cub got scared and ran away immediately and momma followed it looking concerned. At this point I saw more bears on AT (8) than I did on PCT (7) and I still have a while to go! I do enjoy the bear encounters though, I only wish they were not as quick and unexpected so I could take the camera out before it's over! I've arrived at North Adams at 11 AM, there was a great trail magic set up by a local church along the road with sodas, snacks, fruit and first aid items, it also had a bin to empty the trash. I...

Another efficient day sponsored by Pennsylvania's easy terrain and good weather. I've walked down from the Rocky Ridge campsite in the morning straight to the town called Boiling Springs and had an amazing mexican skillet breakfast in Cafe 101. I've met few other thru hikers here, Freewill and Packrunner with whom I've stayed at Thru It All church two days ago and G. a very friendly guy from Georgia, he started hiking in February. Freewill and Packrunner were travelling at similar pace to me but they clearly were moving faster through Pennsylvania as I've seen them running past me few hours later! They've been hiking Appalachian Trail for the third time, absolute nutters in the best possible sense of the word of course! The trail was very flat and it was going through the farmlands it really reminded me of hiking through the English countryside. There was a farmhouse shop called Trail View Market along the way, where kids dres...

"What was the most difficult part of the Appalachian Trail for you so far? - Norovirus." Diva My second and last day in Maryland, tomorrow I'm walking into Pennsylvania. Bad weather is back on the menu. It was raining all day and it was fairly cold so I was snacking a lot to keep myself warm. At around 9 AM I've arrived at the Dahlgren Backpack Campground which had hot, free showers! I didn't take a shower though as it was cold and wet.. also I didn't have a towel I could dry myself with, sad times. I've met Danglish here, a local American coming back home to support his aging parents after 16 years spent working in Germany. He was hiking the 40 mile Maryland section of AT and meeting them tonight for dinner at Harper's Ferry which was his favourite town in US. The trail was quite rocky and was crossing many roads, I've seen few school groups hiking south, every time they would see me someone would sh...

"If a black bear attacks, always fight back" National Park Service The threat of rain was looming above for the entire day, I was checking weather forecast frequently and it would always get different (slightly better) results It looks like in the end I managed to hike out of this wet spell. Breakfast at the Quality Inn was served from 6:30 AM. I've packed everything before going to bed last night, so it was all ready for a hitchhike back to trail. There was plenty of hikers at the Inn, including one section hiker who announced that he will be shuttling people back when they are ready. Breakfast as far as things included in price are, was quite good. Yogurts, fresh fruit, coffee, toasts or waffles, biscuits and gravy and scrambled egg which might have been made from powder. After eating a considerable amount I've went over to Dale, the gentleman offering the rides and said that I can be ready in 5 minutes. By the time I've got my things he was already waiting in h...

It's amazing how quickly the body can recover after a virus, yesterday I was a walking zombie, today my energy levels were reasonable, food started tasting good as well which was a big relief. Of course the weather and low elevation of the trail helped a lot, along with the electrolytes given to me by Persuasion. Half of the day the trail was running along the Blue Ridge Parkway and I must admit it was extremely difficult not to step out and just follow the road but I was being a purist so far on the AT and that's how I wanted to keep things going, so the forest path it was. I've seen another two black rat snakes along the trail, I got quite used to them at this point, I'm almost not jumping when I see one on the trail, they are harmless and kind of cute. I've also spotted another bog turtle, this one was much smaller than the ones I've seen before, it was still giving me a good hiss when I was lifting it off the trail! ...

I managed to survive the night fairly well, no vomiting, no diarrhea but my energy levels were so low that I just couldn't hike. I gave it my best go and ended up one mile up the trail setting the tent back up. Norovirus has temporarily disabled me, I had no appetite but started to drink water with electrolytes to keep hydrated. The only picture I've taken that day was taken from inside of my tent. I'll let Bill Bryson take the lead here as there's not much else to be said about today, sorry. "The woods were full of peril - rattlesnakes, and water moccasins and nests of copperheads; bobcats, bears, coyotes, wolves and wild boar; loony hillbillies destabilized by gross quantities of impure corn liquor and generations of profoundly unbiblical sex; rabies crazed skunks, racoons and squirrels; merciless fire ants and ravening blackfly; poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, and poison salamanders; even a scattering of moose lethally deranged by a parasitic w...

"There is a setting on the water boiler called "scald your ass" so be careful because it will scald your ass" Yeeha "I got the trail name from my grandchildren, because when I play with them apparently I say it a lot" Yeeha  A near perfect day turned into near nightmare. I'm not the one for the drama but this is unfortunately how it worked out. I've walked the remaining 11 miles to Daleville, Virginia quite quickly. Visited Wendy's restaurant for the first time ever and had overpriced, fast food breakfast style meal. Then I went to Kroger's supermarket they had a good selection and I've resupplied for five days and got another meal consisting of fried chicken, potato wedges and green beans. All together I've spend about 60$. I've carried on one more mile until BeeCh Hill Hostel, where I was planning to take a shower. Beth, the owner was a lovely old lady. Place had very comfortable beds in their bunk houses and it co...

Day full of beautiful hiking sites. First on the menu was a climb to the Dragons Tooth, nothing out of ordinary but I managed to spot here the second black bear I've seen on AT so far, this one looked quite sickly, he was really thin and his fur was all scruffy, I must have woke him up. I've felt sorry for the poor fellow. Once at the top, the descent commenced and it was definitely the most technical rock scrambling and climbing I've done so far on the Appalachian Trail. It was challenging to find a right route down nearly vertical slabs of rock, on the other hand it was fun and very satisfying! I really enjoyed that section, apparently there's some more of these to come in Maine. At about 11 AM I took a detour to a gas station in a village of Catawba, which also served as a grocery. It was only half a mile off trail. I bought a coffee, slice of pizza, pork scratchings (which were delicious!) and few snacks to keep me goi...