Life Less Ordinary

500th Blog Post Giveaway!

2012-02-11T16:03:00.002-05:00

We are currently in New Hampshire, thoroughly enjoying our time and busy visiting with friends all over the state. But, I have to interrupt my normally scheduled blog updates to recognize something very cool.

Holy canoli, this is my 500th blog post! And because it's my 500th blog post, I couldn't waste it on just another rant about our semi-retired life.

Hitting 500 blog posts would not have been possible without all of you. It's been 4 wonderful years (it all began Jan. 22, 2008) and I have no intention of ceasing this blog. I thoroughly enjoy writing about nothing. Can't you tell? Your e-mails and comments encouraged me greatly to keep on writing. You probably don't really know how much I love comments on the blog. FYI, I am currently in a deep depression as the comments have decreased since our Appalachian Trail hike ... but I digress.

Because I am so grateful for my blog readers and want to commemorate them to celebrate my 500th post milestone, I am doing a giveaway. Here are the rules:

1) The contest starts now and ends Sunday, February 19th at 9pm EST (which happens to be my first day of my new job).

2) You enter by leaving a comment here on the blogspot site (not Facebook) about your favorite wanderinglavignes post (I told you I was a comment whore). And I know many of you like to remain anonymous, but please make sure I at least know who you are!
For example, if Deal were to enter the contest (which he will, most likely), he would leave a comment saying his favorite post is "Whose Got My Extra????" Click to read, or I'll just save you the trouble. It's about a concert.

3) One entry per person, please. That goes for you, Deal!

4)This giveaway is open to all my readers, including my fabulous international readers (hi Chris!). Whether you read the blog every day since I started, or are new, please enter! Lurkers, come out, come out wherever you are!

5) The winner will be picked using Random.org, which will generate the magic number. I will announce the winner on Monday, Feb. 20.

6) The prize is ... $50 gift card to REI!!! I pondered what would be a great prize, but ultimately, I can't pass up the chance to share our love for REI with others. Even if you don't hike, camp, paddle or rock climb like us, you can definitely find something there!! And everything is 100% guaranteed, so you can always return an item if you are unhappy.

Questions? Just e-mail me. Let the comments and contest begin.

Here's to 500 more!!!!

Eastbound and Loaded Down

2012-02-07T00:23:00.007-05:00

We are just about done with our tour de U.S. and when all is said and done, I will give you stats because holy cow, do we have some stats about our 4-month road trip. I know you are excited and waiting with bated breath.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me recap our latest pitstop, Columbus, Ohio. When we visited Ohio in November, we headed north to visit friends in Cleveland, but this time, we stayed south. Deal's good friend from college, Jason/TheHoss, and girlfriend, Adrianne/Accessory, live there.

Keeping in line with all our other visits with friends and family, the visit involved eating and drinking. The only standard missing this time was a concert, although the boys did watch some concerts on DVD, so maybe that makes up for the lack of a concert.

In any case, we hit up all the Columbus greats during our weekend.

Friday night, we ate at Mr. Sushi. You would not believe that the middle of Ohio has just about the greatest sushi we've ever tasted. We always eat there when we visit Jay in Columbus!Saturday, we attended the 7th Annual Ale Fest. In my role as designated driver, I monitored the intake of ale, as there were 250 potential samples!! If you are feeling bad that I was the DD, don't. I volunteered because can you believe I DO NOT LIKE BEER!!Sunday, we toured the heart of Columbus. We started at Thurman's, a family-owned and long-standing restaurant featured on a variety of food programming, including Man Vs. Food. They offer the Thurmanator burger, which has something like 2 lbs of meat and all the bad fixings for you. We opted to go for the burger with 2,000 less calories though. While the restaurant itself is tiny; the burgers are not. Thurman's definitely leaves a mark on your heart, literally and figuratively.To walk off the calories, we explored the historic German village, which is so, so cute. To replenish the calories we lost on our walk, we bought creme puffs from Schmidt's Restaurant and Sausage Haus, another old, family-owned business and ice cream from the famed Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream at the North Market.Full bellies for the Super Bowl, for sure. We did get out of our food coma long enough to take advantage of the mild temperatures and play some Cornhole!!

And we cleaned out their closets. No, they don't keep food in their closets, they keep clothes in there silly!! We have been inheriting lots of stuff along our road trip and Jay and Adrianne decided we needed a fashion upgrade (we do) and they unloaded their unwanted. Hey, one person's trash is another person's treasure!!

Columbus, we will be back. Next time, we will eat less. Maybe.

Next up, NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!!

Scenes from Chicago ... Round 2

2012-02-03T00:26:00.006-05:00

We decided the 26 days we spent in Chicago after the trail with Deal's mom, sister & brother-in-law were not enough ... so we came back for another 7 days. I think we can we say we officially lived here now.

What did we do this time around?

Walking, eating, relaxing. This is our theme these days. Hey, our freedom time is dwindling, cut us a break.

Other unique aspects of our trip ...

There was a Railroad Earth concert (oh wait, that is not unique to any of our trips).

There was Scrabble.

There was a group makeover (Deal sat this one out).

There was Weiner Circle.

There was a late lunch at Cesar's Mexican place that ended with some Mexican water shots (followed by a nap for Deal and I).

There was a presentation about the AT to a 4th grade class who followed our blog.

Thank you Chi-town. You have been good to us! I know you want us to come back again in 2012 ... we'll just have to see ...

I leave you with scenes from Chicago, Round 2:
Next up, Columbus, Ohio, for the Super Bowl!!!!

Deal Steadee Deal

2012-01-26T23:40:00.001-05:00

Deal got his name on the trail for a reason. He lives for deals and for sharing his deals.

He taught me well.

For the last month while we've been in Colorado, Deal had been scouring Craigslist, eBay and retail stores for a deal on a car rooftop box. He wanted one for at least 70% off. He has been jonesing after one for a LONG time and will never forget the time I made him pass up on one at an REI garage sale so many years ago.

He followed a lot of leads on rooftop boxes in CO, but nothing seemed to pan out. We decided we just weren't meant to own one yet.

Well, I decided to check the local Craigslist one last time before we left the state ... Low and behold, there was one listed within the hour and it was the best price of all the ads we followed and it was on our way out of the state.

A match made in heaven, wouldn't you say?

Our day was filled with other deals. We stopped at the Sierra Trading Post Outlet Store. Everything we purchased was 75% off, of course.

Then we made it to Old Chicago just minutes before their happy hour ended, so our dinner cost under $20.

As my dad likes to say, we are not cheap people. We are just frugal. Very, very frugal. It sounds much nicer.

Location:John Galt Blvd,Omaha,United States

In the Name of the Father ...

2012-01-24T12:45:00.011-05:00

RevKev came to visit us at the cabin (aka, paradise) this weekend and we had loads of fun. For new blog readers, RevKev married Deal & I five years ago! He was a long-time friend before that and now he lives in Colorado Springs, making yearly visits a possibility.He got here Friday evening and Saturday morning, we set out for a day in Breckenridge. We did a nice hike at Hooiser Pass/Continental Divide and RevKev thought he might die in the first few minutes of uphill at 11,500 feet. It didn't help that the winds were still wicked, as they have been all week, but we all survived and enjoyed. After all that hiking in snow and near-death experiences, we needed a stiff drink, so we headed to the Breckenridge Distillery for a tour and some tasting. Deal & I love touring breweries, but this was our first distillery tour as a team. Apparently, distilleries are the new wave of tours! In any case, Breck's Distillery makes delicious vodka, whiskey & spiced rum and it was fun to learn about the process.
The rest of the weekend consisted of lots of 500 rummy-playing (for the record, I never got in first place in the 4 games we played) and playoff football-watching. Did you know that priests can be this cool? Luckily, we do and cherish our time with RevKev.
We are leaving the cabin (aka, paradise) on Wednesday with sad hearts. My dry, bloody nose and heaving lungs, however, are thankful to return to normal elevation. Even still, we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and are thankful to DocDoc for a temporary relief on homelessness. In return, we did not kill your pets while you are in South America. Kosby the cat is happy as long as we feed him (at 16 lbs, we've realized he is always hungry). As for Bailey the dog, she has warmed up to us a bit, as she spent a whole 15 minutes out of the closet and on the couch with us the other day (this is progress, people). On Thursday, we are Chicago-bound!!!!!

Fire Safety 101

2012-01-19T00:41:00.004-05:00

Fire is NOT something to joke about, which is why I am happy to report we survived our first chimney fire on Monday evening.

Apparently the powers that be decided that our life in the cabin was getting a little too boring. I beg to differ, but so be it. And I'd like to say we kept a cool demeanor through the chimney fire, but it was more like organized chaos.

Let story time begin.Deal started our nightly fire in the wood-burning stove around 5, as he has every night since we've been at the cabin. Then he jumped on the phone with an old friend.
At this same time, I was cooking dinner (BBQ spare ribs in the crock pot, pasta salad and green beans, if you must know).

Then the smoke detector started beeping (loudly, of course) and the alarm system started yelling, "Fire, Fire, Fire." I immediately shut off my green beans, wondering how they could have set off the alarm, grabbed a towel and started waving.

The obnoxious beeping and "fire, fire, fire" would not stop. I grabbed a larger towel and said, "can you get off the phone, please?" because my frantic waving was not doing much.

Deal turned on the fans and went downstairs to see if anything was going on. Nothing. He thought maybe the smoke was coming from the wood-burning stove, so he concentrated on that. Then he went outside to see if anything was going on and that's when he noticed the flames shooting out the chimney.

Enter chaos.

"Call 911. Where's my phone? What's the address here? Get the pets out!"

I got the dog out no problem, but I'm afraid there was a little tail pulling with the cat. Meanwhile, Deal is on the phone with the 911 lady who is yelling at him, "get out now!" But we all got out safely and by the time the fire department (which includes half the town of Fairplay) arrived, the fire was out.
I waited in the car with the pets while the fire department cleared the scene (I always wanted to say that line). Turns out, there was just a buildup of creosote at the top of the chimney.

So we lived without the beloved wood stove for 2 blustery nights (seriously, winds got up to 50 mph). This morning, we got the chimney cleaned (on the instruction of DocDoc & her family ... remember, as much as we love this cabin, it is not ours).

We've had a fire going all night and so far, so good.

Back to being boring. (Mr. McKinley, shield your eyes for this picture.)

Work It, Girl

2012-01-16T22:21:00.000-05:00

So guess who else got a job besides Deal? MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I am once again going to be a full-time medical writer! I am beyond excited and would like to share my job-searching story.

I saw a job posted for a medical writer based in northern Virginia back in early November. Knowing Deal was interviewing for the trail center job in that area, I figured it didn't hurt to pursue.

I was shocked to get a call for a phone interview in early December. After doing more research, I was immediately interested in the job and the company and stoked for the opportunity. The work was very similar to what I did at my old full-time job, which I loved dearly.

The phone interview turned into "are you going to be in the area for an in-person interview," which I was and hence scheduled. I felt even better about the job and company during the in-person interview. At this point, I was dying to get this gig.

Three days before Christmas, I took a timed writing test, which gave me sweaty armpits and hives (I was never a good test-taker; my high score on the SATs was 980). I think I passed because then he called my references, who apparently sung my praises and led to a job offer!

Things have definitely fallen into place for us and we feel very, very, very blessed. I knew Deal would find a job within 6 months or so, though it ended up being only 2 months! As for me, I didn't think I would ever find a full-time writing job after I got l laid off in 2010. I actually thought my career was over. I know that sounds silly since I was only in my early 30s, but I spent 8 years at one company and couldn't see myself somewhere else. My initial job search revealed some bleak choices. The freelancing thing was ... slow. I figured it would eventually take off when we returned from the trail and I put more effort into it, and if not, I might be forced to switch careers. So this new position is very good news, even if I have to work from midnight to 8am. Did you catch that? Midnight to 8am. It's a good thing I inherited my mom's caffeine-filled genes to stay up all night.

We are happily welcoming this brand new start in 2012. Yes, the changes will be challenging, between the atypical schedules and the general craziness of running a hostel and living there. We just came from a year of complete freedom and are heading into a year of zero freedom. We have no doubt we will make it out alive and love it.

My theory is that you have to risk failure in life; it is the only way you'll succeed.

Stay tuned for my next post on how to survive a chimney fire.

Retirement is oh so good

2012-01-16T00:48:00.006-05:00

It's good to be back in Colorado and at the cabin and we are waiting for the snow. Seriously, what a disappointing winter!! But alas, we have still gotten out as much as we can to do some XC skiing, especially with SILAdventure/Jamie & DocDoc/Rachel here with us this past weekend.
We all attempted a little trickery on the skis to no avail.We also went to a local bar and watched the Denver Broncos lose. Now technically, we should be Pats fans with our New England "roots," but we were in Broncos territory. And with the Giants winning today, we are really hoping for a Pats-Giants matchup again!Deal & I will be here at the cabin for 10 more glorious days. We are cat & dog sitting for DocDoc & SILAdventure as they make their way to South America! I've never met two pets who crave people food as much as these two.
We have lots of projects to work on while we are here pet sitting, including a presentation about the AT. Did I mention yet we are extending our road trip all the way to New Hampshire??

Oh, and I still owe y'all a very important blog post about our future ... maybe tomorrow ...

South Dakota, Great Faces, Great Places

2012-01-14T11:28:00.012-05:00

Before this week, I had never been to South Dakota (4 states left on my list!!!), while Deal has been on his road trip to move out to Phoenix in 2002. But since South Dakota was a quick 7-hour road trip from CO, we figured WHY NOT?

Well, folks, it was well worth it. I have very good things to say about South Dakota, at least the southwest corner of the state. News alert! It is not just lifeless and treeless prairie lands!

Mt. Rushmore ... every American should visit this national monument. It is bold and beautiful. Plus, we saw a mountain goat!!!!Crazy Horse ... not sure what y'all know about Crazy Horse, but back in the 1940s, some starting carving out an Indian head and horse in the mountain, much like they did for Mt. Rushmore. Well, the progress is slow. So slow that the carving hasn't changed at all since Deal visited in 2002.
Deadwood ... a really cool old western town with a haunted hotel, where we gambled. Deal walked away with a profit of $0.75 and I with $3. Yes, we are big spenders these days.Custer State Park ... home of South Dakota's high point, Harney Peak at 7,242 feet. I think it is one of my top 5 high points (out of the 25 that we've done so far) because it was just so impressive. Custer State Park is full of needle-like granite spires and ponderosa pines, which is how the area became known as the Black Hills. Harney Peak rises above all the spires and has a beautiful fire tower at the top built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939 (they did a ton of work in the area, actually). Not to mention Harney Peak is the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains and West of the Pyrenees Mountains. We knew there's a risk of snow when visiting South Dakota in the middle of January and snow we found. The trail was tricky, but we did okay. I did better than Deal because I borrowed some YakTrax ... I think they saved my life. Needless to say, we had the whole peak to ourselves and the temps were in the 50s, so we hung out and enjoyed.

We drove all around the rest of Custer State Park and Iron Mountain Road. There are so many twisty turny roads in the area that are so scenic! We saw tons of wildlife!!! Mountain goats, herds of buffalo, prairie dogs, all kinds of deer ...Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument ... On Wednesday, the temps in South Dakota turned brutal (below zero with wind chill). And thankfully, that was the day we visited the caves. Cave temperatures always stay between 45 to 55 degrees. We ended up having private and extended tours for both caves since we were the only visitors! This is the greatest part about exploring national parks during the winter! Though the caves were only 18 miles apart, they were vastly different.

Wind Cave is one of the most complex in the world and the second oldest national park. Because the cave is dry, there is an abundance of boxwork, a really cool cave formation that almost looks like honeycombs.Jewel Cave is the second longest in the world (157.36 miles). Being that it is wet, you see more stalagmites, stalagtites, sparkling calcite crystals (hence the name, Jewel Cave) and gypsum. It reminded me more of Carlsbad Caverns, but without any big open rooms. I am just falling more and more in love with caves.Firehouse Brewery ... Because it is winter in South Dakota, there were very few businesses open. We stayed in Keystone, where there was 1 hotel and 1 restaurant open. So we ventured to Rapid City one night and of course found a local brewpub. It is actually in an old firehouse, so a very cool atmosphere and pretty good food.Wall Drug ... a self-made monument in the middle of nowhere since 1931. Random. Unless you are driving that way, just skip it. Unless you have a thing for tchotchke.Badlands National Park ... Originally we thought we might camp here because Deal camped here in 2002 and still believes the night sky is the best he's seen. But, the temps were still below zero and a little too uncomfortable for camping. Instead, we spent a day doing all the little nature walks (brrrrr ...) and driving the park loop. Again, it is such a different landscape than you would expect in South Dakota and even varied from what we had seen in the other parks.
The lesson for today is to visit South Dakota and its gems sometime in your life.

Now we are back at the magical cabin in the mountains of Colorado. SILAdventure/Jamie and DocDoc/Rachel are here with us this weekend (it is DocDoc's cabin after all!) and we are going to enjoy a relaxing weekend together. You can look forward to another post early next week with some more good news from us ...

Today, we wandered to ...

2012-01-10T00:23:00.001-05:00

More exploring to come ...

The Cabin Life

2012-01-07T11:50:00.004-05:00

Greetings from paradise!

We have been at the cabin for a 5 full days and there is no cabin fever here! We are in a semi-normal routine, which includes cooking meals in a real kitchen and lots of catching up/organizing life. Yes, we are still living out of our bags and Deal is dreaming of a dresser someday, but for now, our nomadic lifestyle sticks.

Retirement and the cabin life is a good life. We go out for walks, as cross-country skiing has been out of the question so far with the lack of snow. Breckenridge got some last night, so we are going to head over there today and see how it goes.
We still have some destinations in mind for our road trip back east later this month. Any guesses????? Stay tuned for another rendition of where in the world are the wandering lavignes?

Hut, Hut, Hut

2012-01-04T00:59:00.008-05:00

2012 is all about new adventures, right? Well, we had our first new adventure for New Year's. We took our first ski-to-hut trip in Colorado!

Let me first give you an education about the huts in CO. Back during WWII, the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army trained in central CO to prepare for winter warfare and harsh alpine conditions. They did not have the luxury to sleep indoors during all of their training, but in 1980, a 10th Mountain veteran and other volunteers decided to build huts in honor of the army division and model the huts after those found in Europe along mountain routes. Now, the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association is a full-on nonprofit and has 30 backcountry huts and a yurt in the mountains between Aspen, Leadville and Vail. The huts are connected by 300 miles of U.S. Forest Service roads and are generally 6-8 miles apart.

Now that we got that history lesson out of the way and I set the scene, let me recount our experience skiing to Carl's Cabin/Polar Star Inn on the west side of New York Mountain. I take no credit for the pictures in this post ... they are from DocDoc and Slap (not that you know who those people are).
The trip was organized by SILAdventure/Jamie and her crazy friends. They do these hut trips all the time and have been after us to join them. This was our year.

So on Friday, we drove to the trailhead (9,060 feet) and made our way 6.3 miles up to 11,040 miles. Let me tell you folks, this is NOT for the weary. Our packs were heavier than they ever had been on the AT with winter gear and heartier food items, plus you are on SKIS ... how's that for balance training? Cross-country skiing has never been my strong suit, as I just picked up the sport 4 years ago! Oh don't forget the fact that we are flatlanders ... we don't live and breath at 5,000 feet like SILAdventure and friends! But this is the stuff adventures are made of: traversing wide-open wilderness with heavy packs in cold weather. The Colorado mountains are very, very big and make you feel very, very small. It's a great feeling.

And even with all our handicaps, we can now say we did a hut trip and it was fun (plus I didn't die of pulmonary edema or in an avalanche, like I thought I would). I definitely did better on the way up than the way down. No, I didn't fall millions of times, like you are thinking. I was going toooooo slooooow to fall. Seriously, I was going at a snail's pace for fear of tearing an ACL or something. Steadee was not so steady on her skis. As for Deal, he was a rockstar.The hut itself was awesome. Carl's Cabin was built in 1993. None of the huts have electricity or running water, but have a wood-burning stove and propane-powered stove and lights. We were there for 2 nights and during the day, we mainly just lounged around, played games, read and ate delicious food. Some of us (Deal & SILAdventure) napped. Others (me & DocDoc) did not make it to midnight for New Year's Eve, but we celebrated according to Eastern Standard Time. Good enough for me.
Since the hutastic New Year's trip, we have been enjoying the rest of CO. Deal, of course, has already attended 2 bluegrass concerts. And I finally got to check out Boulder, a place I've heard so much about. We got together with more of SILAdventure's friends (she has A LOT of friends) and went for a hike, then downed some good grub.And now, we will be spending the next 2 weeks at DocDoc's cabin, where we spent last Christmas. Just the sky, the mountains and us ... pure heaven.

Twenty Twelve ... here we come!

2011-12-30T00:00:00.003-05:00

Since I know everyone is waiting with bated breath, I figured I couldn't let 2011 slip away without telling our big news ... Santa brought us a job for Christmas. That's right, Internet, a real, paying J.O.B.
We will be living and working at this "castle on the hill" pictured above. It's an 8,000 square foot trail center and lodge (complete with stone structure and towers) built in 1933 and nestled on 66 acres in the woods of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. It has been owned by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for many years and they hire a manager to live and work in it. There are many great things about this job, but probably the best part is that it is 150 yards from the AT and we will meet many thru hikers in the class of 2012!

In order to fully explain the new job, I need to back it up a few months. Actually, it's all very serendipitous and makes for a lovely story, especially for the naysayers who chastised us for giving up our jobs and going wild (literally). Sit back, grab a cup of hot cocoa and read on.

If you checked the blog during our AT hike, you probably noticed we stayed at as many hostels as we could. Not only was the shower and bed appealing, we also wanted to get to explore the possibility of hostel ownership. Some were very nice, some downright nasty. We spent many days walking and talking about how we wanted to someday own our own hostel, but we knew we wouldn't be in the position to buy one after finishing our hike.

Fast forward to August 29, just after Hurricane Irene swept across the East coast. We met up with a bunch of friends in Harpers Ferry, WV, and stayed in a hostel the night before. We knew we would be reaching Fire Marshall's home in Front Royal, VA, to take a zero in the next day or 2. So we really didn't need another hostel stay. But we heard great things about this one—the very one we will now be working at—and knew we couldn't pass it up.

We arrived just after 5 and there were about 5 other hikers there. We took showers, ate dinner and chatted with the hikers. Then we started talking with the caretakers, a young couple who had been running the place for the last 4 years and were getting ready to move on at the end of the hiker season. After hearing about our interest in running a hostel, they encouraged us to apply.

We did just that about 2 days later from Fire Marshall's house. The ATC representative got back to us and said they wouldn't start the hiring process until October, which was fine by us. We kept in touch and when October rolled around, they scheduled a phone interview for us. The phone interview turned into an in-person interview in December, which turned into an offer right before Christmas. Thank you Santa!

Although Deal was interviewing for other jobs all over the country (including Alaska and New Hampshire!), we both knew in our hearts that this was the right fit for us. Fate, actually.

We are uber excited about this next "adventure." It will be new & different and take some adjustment with the schedule. Deal is the main caretaker, and I am his #1 volunteer, as usual. The trail center has a lodge, cottage, campground, but is so much more than just the lodging. We are there to educate people about the outdoors. I think we can do that.

Not that we needed anymore reason to take the job, but there is biking, paddling, rock climbing and hiking all in our backyard. This area is an unchartered territory for us. And we will be living close to some friends that we haven't lived near in years, plus 5 hours from our VA rental property, 5 hours from NJ, 10 hours from Chicago. Sorry New Hampshire friends, you are out of luck. But come visit please!

We've been traveling by foot and car for 8+ months and now we are ready to check out the grass on the settled side once again. No worries, having a good job does not mean we are done adventuring.

PS-I am interviewing for jobs too and have one very promising possibility in the works. In fact, my fortune cookie today said "You will have lots of luck in the next week." Fingers crossed, people. Twenty Twelve is looking very good so far.

PSPS-We are leaving bright and early Friday for a ski-to-hut NYE trip in the mountains of CO. You might remember I wimped out on a ski-to-hut trip last year because of my intense fear of avalanches and the fact that the trip sounded really hard to me. Well, this year I am ready. It's a different hut, but still requires some uphill skiing. I am taking meds to acclimate to the elevation here (I seem to get altitude sickness at a measly 8,000 feet) and am really hopeful I won't die on the trail.

On the road again ...

2011-12-28T00:52:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Festivus ... All that good stuff.

We had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed our time in the Northeast. Because I like the numbers game, that's how I'll break down the last 17 days.
We spent 10 days in NJ at my rents' house, 3 days in CT at my sister's house and 2 days on the road.
We saw 1 nephew & 1 niece.
We saw 2 grandmas.
We saw 12 friends.
We saw 2 kids of friends.
We spent an exorbitant amount of moolah servicing our vehicle.
We sent out 100+ Christmas cards (apologies if you are not on that list!).
We ate 500 lbs of food.
Deal saw From Good Homes in concert twice.
We played trains, puzzles, air hockey, Just Dance 3 on the Wii, painted nails, did the hot chocolate dance from The Polar Express, read The Night Before Christmas ... FYI this was with our niece & nephew, not on our own, clearly.

Now we are on the road again in route to Colorado. We left Monday and drove 900 miles/14 hours. That's a big day even for us, but it flew by because my sister let us borrow The Hunger Games on CD! We are hooked and have never been so excited for a movie to come out. On this leg of the trip, Deal finally got to see my alma mater!! Granted, it was a quick drive by, but I know he was impressed (cough, chuckle). That night, we stopped in Chicago to have a 5-minute Christmas with Deal's mom in the morning.

Today, we left Chi-town and drove to Omaha after stopping in Iowa at the American Pickers site!! For anyone who doesn't watch the show, it's a reality show about 2 guys who go around the country picking up antiques from people's farms, homes, etc. They pitched the show to the History Channel for 4 years before the network gave the green light and is wildly popular! Gotta love road tripping for getting to see these sites!

BTW, does anyone know a good cat psychologist? Mr. McKinley, or Mr. McK, as my dad calls him, is thoroughly confused. I think he was happy to see us, but he wouldn't sleep with us. He slept on our stuff one night, like he was putting up a wall to protect himself. I fully admit that we are terrible parents, but my parents spoil him rotten and make up for our shortcomings ...

I do have other exciting news to report, but I will have to keep you in suspense on the details for now. Since I like to babble, this post is long enough already! Plus, I am pretty tired.

Location:M St,Omaha,United States

Tis the Season

2011-12-16T19:31:00.009-05:00

Where in the world are Steadee & Deal??? That's a good question. For the last two days, we've been in one place--my parents' house in NJ. A record for us. We are actually staying here for the next 7 days. It's a very good thing. We needed to catch our breath. Plus, we reunited with Mr. McKinley!!! You can tell he is pissed, but I think he is slowly forgiving us. Little does he know we will be leaving him again ...
Let's start with last weekend. We attended a wedding for Deal's cousin in Charlottesville, a very cute town surrounding the University of Virginia. Here's the very handsome couple:
The wedding was a lot of fun and at a winery. Doesn't that sound dangerous? Well, it was for me. Not because of the wine, but because they featured a special "Mistletoe Martini" that tasted like candy. I like candy. A lot. The next morning, I decided that I probably shouldn't have liked candy that much. But still, a fun night. It is always great times to hang out with Deal's family, especially because his siblings and "others" are very close in age. We have an ongoing joke though. The siblings have similar planning methods, in that they do not plan. They also have similar communications methods, in that they do not communicate clearly. The "others" are the opposite. We usually let the siblings talk things out and laugh in the background. Then we make the plans and communicate them.From C-ville and the wedding, Deal and I spent the night with DrFlyer/Pat, Deal's friend from the Prep, and his wife, theDancer/Bri. We discovered a new board game, Bang! and stayed up way too late playing it. In the morning, they trusted us to babysit and we hung out with their very smiley baby.Our next stop was to visit Fire Marshall/Mac, our fellow AT SOBO thru hiker, and his family (also known as, our second family). Of course they were as hospitable as usual, cooking up a delicious storm and making us feel at home. And reuniting with Fire Marshall brought back the best trail memories.
In between all our visits, we had some more job interviews, but I'm still not revealing details yet. We are 99% sure, though, that we are going to take another epic road trip following Christmas being that we are still jobless and homeless. This time straight out west to Colorado! Deal's sister lives there, along with some other friends, so why not? "Why not" seems to be our philosophy lately!!!

42 days, 17 states & 7,100 miles

2011-12-10T09:26:00.003-05:00

On Oct. 24, we finished our hike on the Appalachian Trail after 141 days, 14 states and 2,181 miles and took a train to Danville to pick up supplies and our vehicle.

42 days, 17 states and 7,100 miles later, we are back in Danville for a "resupply."

After leaving Florida, we made our way north, hitting 2 more high points (#s 23 & 24) along the way.

Georgia's Brasstown Bald stands at 4,784 feet, which sounds more exciting & challenging than some of the others we've done, but it's not because you can drive most of the way up. It is not a true "bald" like the ones we went over on the AT because it is not treeless. But it does have 360-degree views. Except when you are up there during a rainstorm. Because then all you get is pea soup. We also chose the wrong season; the visitor center and the bathrooms at the top were closed for the year. All I can say is that the exhibits looked awesome through the windows and it's a good thing we know how to dig a hole.

The one very good thing about GA's high point was that it was near the southern terminus of the AT. We not only got to stay again at one of our favorite hostels, but we crossed the trail several times on our drive. We even waited to see if we could pick up any dirty stinky hikers to give trail magic, but no luck. One of our fellow SOBOs that we met up in Maine is still on the trail and we missed him by a day!

We also visited Amicalola Falls State Park in GA. The southern terminus of the AT is 8 miles from Amicalola at Springer Mtn and often thru hikers (especially NOBOs) hike the extra 8.5 miles on the "Approach Trail" to start or finish. Not us boss. We neither had the time or desire to hike an extra 8 miles. But now we can say we did part of the Approach Trail. It was definitely a cool state park and the falls (729 feet) are the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi.

Our next high point--Sassafras Mountain (3,533 feet) in South Carolina--was equally disappointing as GA. It was not because of a closed visitor center, but that SC takes no pride in its high point. We had read that, but thought maybe things have changed. There were nice signs along the roads leading to Sassafras, which is good because it was literally in the middle of nowhere and I read about people getting lost trying to find it. But once you got to the trail and summit, there were zero signs. We even had to poke around up top for awhile before finding the itty bitty survey marker in the ground. On a funny side note, Sassafras used to be at 3,560 feet, but now it sits at 3,533 feet.

Our time in Danville was again too short, but we still got to see a few folks. We stayed with the GAF (Great American Family) as usual, but I forgot to take a photo, so you just need to use your imagination.

We ate at a new restaurant in Danville with Rambo (who has recovered from his time on the trail with us) and his wife, which is usually the case. It's a running joke for us that every time we come to town, there are several restaurant openings and closings to report!

Now we are in Charlottesville for a wedding. I know everyone wants to know what's the plan Stan, but we just go day by day. I will say that we have both had promising interviews last week and have some more next week. But you'll just have to stay tuned for details!

Location:W Main St,Charlottesville,United States

Tour de the Lowest High Points

2011-12-04T23:34:00.002-05:00

This weekend, we've been hanging out in Tampa with our good friend BEEF! (Casey). It was time to give our bodies and Trailblazer a little R&R, plus there was a lot of football to be watched; perfect timing to roll into Beef's territory.

We've visited Beef a few other times. I love Beef, but I always put him into the perpetual bachelor category. This time, though, we believe he and his pad have been domesticated by his woman, theCheerleader/Rachael. He is also in the process of buying a house (fingers crossed). It all makes us very proud.

If we haven't gained our weight back yet (which I'm fairly certain we have), we definitely have in Tampa. Yum. Tampa gets a thumbs up food choices (and beer choices). Beef has awesome friends here, so it's not like we are just visiting Beef anymore. And on this trip, we met new friends! It was also nice to soak up the sunshine before before we head North to the cold.

Before we reached Tampa, we hit 4 more state high points during the week--Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama & Florida. I admit that visiting high points is often arbitrary and contrived, and these high points fit that bill. The thing is, Deal & I set a goal, and we don't back down from goals. We have to bag that peak, no matter how boring it is. Sometimes to hit the high points, you have to go low. Welcome to our last week.

First up was Driskill Mountain (535 feet) in Louisiana. We unintentionally arrived late in the evening and slept in one of the more interesting places on our travels ... in a church parking lot in front of a cemetery. Did I mention the LA high point is also near the spot Bonnie & Clyde met their demise at the hands of law enforcement in 1934? And a famous highpointer has his ashes spread on the mountain. You are basically surrounded by dead people when you visit it.

We saved the hike for the morning and it was actually quite nice. Part of the trail (including the high point itself) is on personal property owned by the same family for many generations. The trail is well maintained and there is a nice sign and bench at the summit.

Next up was Woodall Mountain (806 feet) in Mississippi. We heard nothing but negative things about Mississippi's high point. People talked about a broken wooden sign covered in graffiti, that the sign disappeared over time and that there is always garbage strewn about. Needless to say, we had low expectations and were pleased with what we found. The area does resemble a redneck's picnic area a little bit, but just last year, the high point club (yes, there's a club) added a beautiful metal plaque embedded in a rock explaining the rich history of Woodall Mtn during the Civil War. Apparently there's been lots of bloodshed in that area. Awesome.

We were tempted to make a side trip to the famous Key Underwood coon dog cemetery, where 185+ hunting dogs are buried. It would have been a nighttime visit, and I still have nightmares from Pet Cemetery, so we scratched that idea.

Alabama's high point--Cheaha Mountain--took us up winding roads to higher elevations for a change at 2,407 feet. It is in a state park (entrance fee) and the high point area is definitely nicer than some with a stone observation tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. I was quite impressed with the 360-degree views and I'm sure it's even prettier during the other seasons.

Our last high point on the week's tour was in Florida. Britton Hill (thankfully not called a mountain) is the lowest of the state high points at 345 feet above sea level. We made the usual jokes about needing oxygen and needing a Sherpa to carry our packs. There's no denying that this "high" point is underwhelming. The park it sits in looks akin to a pedafile's favorite spot. Not to mention the fact it is way far out of the way in Florida ... I think the rest of the state only sits at 344 feet, so we probably didn't need to visit the site, but we did. We bagged that peak and that made for our 22nd high point!

Tomorrow, we hit the road again for the next week. More high points on our agenda. We had hoped to visit other friends/family along the way, but we tried to pack too much in (as usual). We have to make a pitstop in Danville to pack up new supplies (i.e. winter gear), then onto a cousin's wedding in northern VA next weekend!

Location:Bosphorous Ave,Tampa,United States

Goodbye Texas

2011-12-02T09:07:00.002-05:00

We spent 3 glorious days and 2 glorious nights exploring Big Bend National Park. For a trip we weren't planning to make, we have no regrets. I have so much to say & don't know where to begin. This is a warning, folks, this could get long & ugly.

We weren't sure we wanted to head that far south in Texas. It wasn't so much that the park was 4 hours out of the way, but more to do with the fact that Big Bend borders Mexico.

We spoke with rangers at the other parks and they assured us it was safe. It was safe, but surreal to be so close to Mexico. And when I say close, I mean you could smell the burritos.

There used to be 2 informal (no passports or pat down needed) border crossings in the park--Santa Elena and Boquillos.

But they have been closed since Sept. 11. This hurt both the people of those villages who lost commerce from Americans and park visitors who lost the experience of easily visiting a "real" Mexican community. Boo. Blame the damn terrorists. The park does plan to reopen one crossing; we hope so! I think it would add an extra appeal to the park.

For the time being, though, brazen Mexicans cross the border illegally to put out goods for sale. That was interesting. On one hike, we ran into Victor who serenaded us and tried to get us to make a purchase. We politely declined. Maybe the border patrol people were not hiding in the mountains watching like we thought, but we weren't keen on breaking rules.

Overall, we were expecting border patrol to be all over the park. But we never saw any until we left the park & had to go through "customs" to get back into the United States, which we never left, by the way. It's not like we saw Mexicans trying to cross into the country or drug smuggling going on, but it all felt slightly forbidden. That's the best way to describe it. The below picture is Deal pretending to run from the Mexican cartel.

The Rio Grande serves as the international border. The river flows 2,000 miles and 10% of the river is in Big Bend (118 miles to be exact). It is described as wet and wild, but it has lost a lot of its dignity over the years and can barely be called a river. I suppose this is why border crossings could be easy!

Besides the Rio Grande, Big Bend has a lot to offer in its 8,000 acres of mountain cliffs, desert & canyons. It is the land of many contrasts and rich history.

This part of Texas was also once under water millions of years ago-hard to believe since it is a DESERT now. Its history reaches back into prehistoric ages. Archeologists have found 800-lb dinosaur vertebraes in the park! How's that for fossil life?

Once the land was settled by American Indians, then Spanish and Anglo American homesteaders, there were whole villages and communities that thrived through the 1940s, even some after Big Bend became a national park in 1944. Plus, there are hot springs, emerging from the ground and heated to 105 degrees. We saw many remnants of ranches, post offices and motels. Very cool.

In terms of wildlife, besides the dinosaurs of course, we saw tons of javelina (think pig, but hairy). We were told there are bear in the park, which had us scratching our heads. It was the desert after all. Also mountain lions. UNfortunately, we saw neither. We really wanted to run into a puma!

Because of the mix of mountains and desert, flora are diverse from desert types of pine, oak & juniper trees (plus my favorite, the Texas madrone) to stipa & grama grasses to lechuguilla & sotol cacti . Some plants are only found in the park too, making the plant life even more interesting. We took one hike following a written guide and learned so much. We both wish we had a greater knowledge of what's in nature! If I did, I wouldn't have thought this was a life-size asparagus and would have known it was agave.

I now know where the saying "all quiet on the western front" came from. It was so quiet in Big Bend. At night, there were no trees rustling in the wind, no birds or squirrels (although there are 450 species of birds). It was just pure silence ...except for the one night when a javelina was poking around our camp.

Also, Big Bend has one of the darkest night skies of all the national parks in the lower 48. The stars were redunkulous. As were the sunsets/sunrises.

We had fun. We went to every end of the park by foot and vehicle and are pleased with the whole experience. Can't believe we ended up spending a full week in Texas, but it was awesome!

Now we are continuing on our tour of state high points. To the East we go!

Location:Birmingham,United States

National Parks and High Points

2011-11-26T22:58:00.003-05:00

We may be off the AT, but we are still making the most of being unemployed and homeless! We are proud to be temporary vagrants and for the last couple of days and next couple of days, our home is the road in Texas.

Texas can easily be described as a land of oil rigs, ghost towns, rodeos and tall hats and desolate roads. But we'd like to say we went beyond those stereotypes and found the state's best gems (that's a javelina in the picture below!).

So far, we have explored 2 National Parks.

In Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we met up with our thru hiker friends (NOBOs 2010) Misti/Ridley and Chris/Panther. While they backpacked basically all around the park, we joined them for about 25 miles.

The mountains are part of a fossil reef that was under the Delaware Sea more than 260 million years ago. Hard to believe this, as the are is now very much landlocked. When the sea receded, the mountains dominated the landscape and left rich geologic history and diverse plant life.

Our first trail led us up to the highest point in Texas: Guadalupe Peak. At 8,749 feet, it is no easy task, but so worth it. We actually camped up top thanks to a beautiful and clear night, and were blessed with a breathtaking sunset and sunrise all to ourselves. When we descended on Thanksgiving morning, we must have passed at least 25 people making their way up. I call that great timing!

The next trail we hit was McKittrick Canyon Ridge on the other side of the park. It is dubbed as the most beautiful spot in Texas. We concur. Besides boasting sweeping views, the canyon changes from desert to pine-fir-aspen forest over the miles making for a very scenic and remote hike.

After we left Misti & Chris, we jumped the border of TX to New Mexico to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Deal had been here (as well as Guadalupe), but you could probably come day after day to explore the great caves of Carlsbad and never get bored. Unfortunately, we underestimated the popularity of the park during the holiday weekend and did not book the more challenging private caving tours we wanted in advance, but we still did 2 self-guided tours and 1 ranger-guided tour.

The caverns had the same geologic start as the mountains. But, hydrogen sulfide from gas and oil deposits combined with oxygen and ate away at the limestone, thus creating a whole world 800 feet below the ground. I really can't describe the cave system in words; it's just so surreal with huge rooms (like 8.2 acres large!) and miles of winding passageways.

Right now, we are camping in Marathon, Texas, the busiest town (population 500) in the middle of nowhere. Actually, it is the gateway to Big Bend National Park, our next (unplanned) stop!

High Pointing and Road Tripping

2011-11-23T00:17:00.003-05:00

Since we reached our goal of thru hiking the AT, we needed a new goal. So we are going to try and knock off as many state high points as we can while we are jobless and homeless!

We are 2 days into our epic road trip and so far, we have driven more than 1400 miles!! Right now, we are hoteling it in Abilene, TX. Earlier this evening, we stumbled upon an In-N-Out. Our tummies were happy.

Tomorrow, we will meet up with Misti/Ridley and Chris/Panther in Guadalupe Mountain National Park.

We are stoked to explore the Chihuahan Desert and hit the high point of Texas at 8,749 feet, but we made an adventure out of hitting some of the less exciting high points. Usually, just finding and getting to the high point is exciting enough.

#16 - Missouri High Point - Taum Sauk Mountain - 1,772 feet
This one is in Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, near the Ozark Trail and it is definitely well maintained. There is a nice concrete .25 mile path to get there with plenty of benches in case you tire along the way ...

#17 Arkansas High Point - Mount Magazine/Signal Hill - 2,753 feet
This one is also in a very beautiful state park - Mt. Magazine State Park. The weather was crappy, so we couldn't enjoy all the views, but we still caught glimpses of leftover fall colors and the fog was kind of neat. We had planned to camp outside of the park, but the rain, thunder and lightning were torrential, so we
slept in the car. We came to find out there was a tornado in the area!! Isn't it better to be in a car than a tent??

Guadalupe Mountain will mark our 18th high point! We hope to be on top while y'all are pigging out on turkey and watching football!

So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I do believe this year I am most thankful for the physical ability to hike 2,181 miles and then some!

Location:E Overland Trail,Abilene,United States

Fare Thee Well, Chicago

2011-11-21T00:17:00.011-05:00

Goodbye Chicago. You have been good to us for the past 3 weeks, but it is time to move on.

In Chicago, we

played lots of games. Sadly, the boys dominated. Deal, who is the worst speller in the world, but best strategist, won every game of Scrabble. My BIL, Russ/Napolean Dynamite, won every game of Apple to Apples. The women will are planning their comeback.

went to REI every chance we could. We lose all self control when it comes to REI.

celebrated someone's big birthday (I will not reveal her age). We celebrated at The Girl & the Goat, a restaurant opened by a Top Chef winner. You have to call 6 months in advance for reservations, but Deal worked his magic and got us in. So worth it (and yes, there is goat on the menu and yes, it is good)!!
ate tons of good food. Homemade food as well as food from the millions of restaurants just within two blocks of where we were staying and are too hard to resist! One time, we got Thai food. I had been dreaming of Thai food on the trail and my Pad Thai and Pad See You Chicken backpacker meals were not sufficing.

watched a lot of football! After missing 7-8 weeks of football on the trail, Deal was a happy camper be able to properly track his fantasy team.

took the "El" and never got lost.drove and some of us (Deal) got lost.

spent time with 2 cats that oddly look the same, but have very different personalities. It made us miss Mr. McKinley so much!
also hung out with these cool cats.searched for jobs all over the country. Deal sent out 15 resumes and I sent out 7. I also sent another query off to Backpacker magazine. Dream big, right?

pampered ourselves and recuperated our bodies. We got 90-minute massages (thanks to my parents and Deal's mom for the anniversary gift!) and soaked in MamaF's jacuzzi tub.

ate a ton of food (did I say that already?).

walked without backpacks.

went to one concert (Deal went to 2).

took at least 20 showers in the 26 days we've been here. I bet on the trail, we only took 20 showers total ...

drank a little too much one evening (talk to SILMeow about that one).took a Hip Hop aerobics class (okay, just one of us did that).

applied for The Amazing Race (keep your fingers crossed!).

celebrated Thanksgiving a little early. We will be camping in a national park on Thanksgiving Day and feasting on a backpacker meal, but turkey dinner was a must.
For the next 3 weeks, we will be road tripping and hitting state high points (another goal of ours). I will update from the road when we can!

You Might Be A Thru-Hiker If ...

2011-11-19T01:35:00.000-05:00

- Your grocery list contains foods invented solely to make people obese and you choose the products that weigh the least, while packing the most calories
- You have difficulty recalling passwords, but you can spit out your start/end date, trail name and number of calories in a honey bun with no problem
- The smoke from the campfire makes you smell better
- You rationalize staying in a place that is missing part of its floor, the entire ceiling in the bathroom and has spiders crawling in the bed because, well, it's raining out and it's cheap
- Seeing little white rectangles excite you greatly
- You smack your head when you hear a buzzing noise
- You consider nature your bathroom (dig a hole, drop a load)
- Food becomes more important than taking a shower
- You don't know the real names of people you have met in the last month
- You can't recall where you slept the night before
- You eagerly take food from strangers without question and consider eating unopened food you find on the trail or in a shelter
- Duct tape is invaluable
- You don't blow your nose with a tissue, you just blow snot rockets
- You keep wearing a pair of socks or boots even though you can see your toes through the holes
- You sometimes look at a creek and wonder if that is indeed the trail
- You go to bed the same time as a 75-year-old does
- You look for coolers at road crossings

Anyone else have something to add?

Cleveland ROCKS!

2011-11-17T00:53:00.009-05:00

No one seems to believe us, but we really liked Cleveland! Yes, I am talking about Cleveland, Ohio.

We spent three days there and here are at least three reasons to support our opinion.

The Friends
We recently had 2 sets of friends (Sara/Caliente, Mike/theFr & Shayna/BFFcoworker & family) move to the Cleveland from Phoenix (odd coincidence), so there is a very good reason alone to come to Cleveland. Our friends make incredible hosts/hostesses. Not to mention one of them is 8 months pregnant and the other has a 4-month old
The Parks and Accessibility
Being a park & rec guy, Deal pays attention to the use of outdoor space in different cities and towns. Well, Cleveland capitalizes on its parks. There are many beautiful walking paths and open spaces. Cleveland is a big city, but the neighborhoods where our peeps live offer a great combination of accessibility and suburbia.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Visiting the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was a dream come true for Deal. Seriously, he has been salivating over the possibility of visiting for many, many years. He did this visit solo because I could not tolerate spending a whole day there. The hall opened at 10 a.m. on Monday, and he was there at 8 a.m. It closed at 5:30 p.m., and the security guards ushered him out after finding him cuddled up next to Janis Joplin's car. On the drive back to Chicago, Deal made a bucket list of bands he wants to see in concert. And here I thought Deal had already seen every band out there ... damn it.
Seriously, it was a great time. Cleveland has a great history too. Does anyone know about the area called Firelands? Back during the Revolutionary War, British forces set fires to homes all over Connecticut. Then the Legislature gave the people tracts of land to make up for their losses ... in Ohio. Sounds fair, right? And, Thomas Edison was born way out in the suburbs of Cleveland. He only lived there for 7 years, but hey, there must be something good in their water because he turned out pretty smart.The bottom line is, put Cleveland on your must-see list. Or, just wait for us to move there someday, then come visit us.

More EpiBLOG

2011-11-12T00:47:00.001-05:00

So post-trail life. Still going well.

By all measures of success, we are on the right track. Lots of job applications out there, some interviews and freelance work coming my way.

We also decided aside from our side trip to Cleveland this weekend, we'll leave Chicago Nov. 21. Chicago is getting way TOO expensive for us. It's too tempting to have all these food options around. And Trader Joe's. We never had a T.J. near us and thank God. It's as addictive as REI (which is also dangerously close now - been there twice already).

So November 21, we will head south for an epic road trip to hit some high peaks and go on a backpacking trip with fellow bloggers and thru hikers, Misti/Ridley and Chris/Panther. The next place we have to be is northern Virginia Dec. 10 for a wedding, so we have lots of time to "kill." We are living our life in three-week increments these days ...

All of our gear is aired out and cleaned and ready for our next backpacking trip! Thank you $7 bottle of Febreeze. My (new) brother-in-law thanks you too, as we were airing everything out at their place and he cringed when even standing 5 feet from my sleeping bag.

Our bodies are still stiff and I guess they call this healing. Deal says his feet are still pounding on a daily basis, so I'm not sure how much progress he is making. He went to a concert the other night and could barely shake his hippy booty as he normally does. We still have yet to attempt running. Unfortunately, it's getting colder here in Chicago, so we are not even walking as much. In fact, we have been lazier this past week than we were in the first week off the trail! We are scheduled for 90-minute massages next week (a major good deal we found on Groupon!) and I cannot wait.

For the record, my feet don't hurt, but are still callous and peeling, thus causing them to itch like crazy. I guess I can give up on my aspirations to be a foot model. And I'm pretty sure my feet grew during the hike. My size 7 1/2 shoes barely fit. I have been a size 7 1/2 since college and for the person that does not buy new shoes often, this is not good. It is nice to have access to my sister-in-law's closet right now because she has bigger feet and much nicer shoes!

Rest assured, we are gaining our weight back. Deal's bones are no longer poking through his back and I can hug him without fearing I will break him. I still can't fit in any of my pants and continue to use pants I borrowed from my friend's 16-year-old daughter. I suppose this is a good problem to have, so I am enjoying the skinny version of me for now.

As for the mental part of post-trail life, Deal is perfectly fine and I believe I am too. I dream of the trail every night and am already thinking of how and when we can do another long-distance hike. Overall, I do think I am waiting for a revelation that is not coming. I have yet to comprehend that we actually completed our thru hike and how it changed us.

Anyways, Cleveland, here we come!!

Rainy Days

2011-11-08T17:00:00.002-05:00

It's a rainy day here in Chi-town.

I appreciate being indoors so much more after doing the trail. When we were on the trail and it was raining, we would sometimes get a phone call, text or e-mail from someone off trail saying they were thinking of us. I always thought that was so nice. Because yes, being on the trail in the rain sucks big time.

In the summer, it's too hot to wear a rain jacket, so you just get soaked. On the cooler days, you just want to keep moving because when you stop, it's cold. You get to camp and change into dry & warm clothes, but the next day, you have to put back on the wet & cold clothes because nothing dries out on the trail.

My favorite rainy days were the ones when I would get all geared up in my rain jacket & rain pants because of the rain threat, and it would never rain. So I would spend the whole day sweating and overheating, but gosh darnit, I was prepared! It actually became an inside joke for us. If Steadee geared up, it most likely would turn out to be a beautiful day ...

As for our transition back to real life, all is going well. Had some promising interviews, I picked up some writing assignments from my old connections and we are heading to Cleveland for the weekend to visit some friends!

Post-trail Life

2011-11-04T23:40:00.008-04:00

We have been off the AT for more than a week and you would think now that I have easy access to cell service and computers, I would be blogging more often. Clearly not the case. I've been so busy ... doing practically nothing!

Well, we did have the wedding, which was not just a wedding, but a whole, exhausting (yet fun) weekend of events!

First, Deal & I had to clean up. It took hedge clippers to tame Deal's beard. But after many hours of labor and much manpower, we both came out presentable.Anyways, the wedding was beautiful. We had great weather in Chicago on Oct. 28, unlike the East coast. The bride and groom looked gorgeous and were on cloud 9 all day long.On Saturday night, the newlyweds hosted a very fun Halloween party. We had a good time, but were sleepy by 11pm ... I think we were still trying to adjust to a more normal bedtime as opposed to 7:30pm!Since the wedding, though, we have been house and cat sitting Deal's sister's place and will be until Sunday. It is good to stay in one place for more than 1 day. We've been nomads for several months and most likely will be for several more, so one week of normalcy is a gift.So now the big question. How do we feel now that the AT adventure is over?? There's no easy way to answer this, so get ready for a stream of consciousness type of post.

Do we miss the trail? Yes. Deep down, we are both glad the arduous task of hiking into winter is over, but we miss many things about the trail—the serenity, the simplicity, the people (especially Fire Marshall!), nature ... But we realize we can't live on the trail forever (although, we met many people who thought they could). What we miss most, though, is having a purpose and a goal. I remember many days when I woke up and had to force myself to be excited about hiking 20 miles. But after I did those 20 miles, I always felt good and accomplished.

These days, our purpose is a little unclear. At the end of the day, we both look at each other and say, "what did we do today?" Yes, we have so much catching up to do, but don't really know where to begin. We are both spending lots of hours on the computer—between job searching, returning e-mails and organizing photos—but I long for the days when we had no computer access. By the way, I've uploaded all our photos to Flckr, so if you feel like looking through 1,000+ photos, check out the sidebar of the blog!

I will say, it is quite amazing how quickly we fall back into old routines. We are cooking, staying up late and sleeping in ... it did take us 3 days to learn how to turn on the TV, but now we are back to watching some TV. I almost feel like we never left, but then I realize that we took a break from a lot of "life." The last 4.5 months were not just a dream.

We are walking everyday in Chicago. Thankfully, since driving in Chicago makes us break out in hives. But walking 4 miles on sidewalks is not the same as hiking in the woods up and over mountains with packs on. And so many people!!! I know the worldwide population just hit 7 billion, but holy granola, I think a quarter of those people roam the streets of Chicago.Anyways, despite the walking, our bodies are so stiff and in a lot of pain. I believe it's pain from inactivity. We went from constant movement to sedentary, especially given the fact that we spent the first 24 hours after finishing the trail on a train and in a vehicle. I wake up with charlie horses in my calves at night (although I've been drinking tonic water and I think that helps) and Deal's feet wake him up. We have to gingerly walk up steps because our knees hurt like they did in Maine! From what I hear from past thru hikers, the wear and tear of walking 2,181 miles will not subside for awhile.

We went grocery shopping at the beginning of the week and were a little overwhelmed. On the trail, our trips to the grocery store had one goal - buy items with as many calories as possible that were as light & easy to carry as possible. But now we have to ween ourselves off the intense amounts of sugar we were inhaling on a daily basis. Detox is not an easy thing!

I hope I don't sound too manic-depressive about post-trail life. I'm sure we will adjust more and more as the days go by. I just want to point out that we are SLOWLY making the transition back to being responsible adults and re-entering the hustle and bustle of real life.

As for what's next, we are looking for suggestions ...

Georgia off my mind

2011-10-27T00:16:00.002-04:00

As we trekked through the last 70ish miles in Georgia, we got a little bit of everything. We planned a long time ago to slow down and take our time in our last state. I definitely enjoyed doing smaller-mile days, but Deal was more anxious with the goal being so close. In the end, we both didn't want the journey to end, so savoring every moment was important.

Here are some quick stats:
76.4 miles
6 days
2 nights in a hostel
1 night in a hotel
2 nights in our tent
6 dig-a-hole poops for Deal/ 1 for Steadee

We were without Fire Marshall for the first few days of GA, as he sped ahead to meet up with his sidekick Alex, who would finish the trail up with us.

We heard Georgia was hard and what we found was there were definitely lots of ups & downs, but we never went below 2,500 feet, so at least the climbs weren't too bad. You could tell lots of people use the trail in GA because it was extremely smooth and well beaten.

Weather was just about perfect for the 6 days we were in GA. Except the surprise we got when it SNOWED. Brrrr. One night for sure, it dipped into the teens. Our thermometer read 38 degrees inside the tent!

There were tons of people on the trail in GA...way more than we ever expected! As it has been for awhile, everyone gave us such great encouragement and praise. And of course, more people asked to take our photo. I wonder if NOBOs get the same "celebrity status" feel when they get up in Maine ...

It was also in GA where we met a blog reader! Tater thru hiked the trail in 2000 and had been reading our journal and predicted where we'd be, so he drove 100 miles to meet us & give us sodas!! The trail community and the random acts of kindness never ceases to amaze me!!

We ended staying in 2 hostels near the end of our journey. They were drastically different, which is always true about the hostels on the trail. We stayed in the one at the infamous Neels Gap, 30 miles from Springer. Neels Gap is where 50% of the NOBOs drop out. There is an outfitter at Neels Gap where the workers give you a "shakedown" to see what gear you are carrying that you don't need. As tempting as it was to get a shakedown, we didn't feel we needed it at this point. The hostel at Neels Gap has been run by Pirate for the last 21 years. To say he has dealt with a lot of hikers is an understatement. But I think he liked us because he shared Tequila shots with us!!

We had an amazing last night on the trail at Hawk Mountain Shelter. There ended up being 3 other SOBOs in addition to us 3!!

There was Fern Toe, who started June 1. We caught her in VA & have been playing leap frog since then.

But then there were 2 other guys (John & Daniel - they we adamant about not having trail names) who started June 8 & June 13 (they met on the trail & stuck together just like we had with Fire Marshall). They said, "you must be Deal, Steadee & Fire Marshall. We've been following you shelter log entries since Maine." Literally, they've been 1-3 days behind us the entire time!

So it was great to share our last night with other SOBOs. Plus, Daniel's dad hiked up and brought S'mores, so we had a big celebration around the campfire and stayed up way too late!

Our last 8 miles to Springer were bittersweet. Fire Marshall's parents drove the crazy forest road to meet us and walk the last mile with us. All of the sudden, we were at Springer Mtn. All the blood, sweat, shivers, good and bad days paid off. We made it. It was hard not to get choked up. But, as our good friend Forrest Gump would say, "I'm really tired, I think I'll go home now." Plus, at some point, all good things need to come to an end.

And like we've said many times before, we could not have done it without all of you!

After navigating the crazy forest roads, we reentered civilization. And of course, ate a great meal!

Fire Marshall's family then dropped us off at the train station and we said our goodbyes. It is hard to have the team split up. Out of the 141 days on the AT, we spent the good majority with Fire Marshall. I feel like I know him almost as well as I know my own husband! We know he does not like pickles, mushrooms, tomatoes...basically everything one would put on a burger. We know he prefers privies to digging holes in the woods. We know he would rather have a snake crawl in his sleeping bag than a mouse or spider. We know he will hitchhike anywhere for real food. So we will miss him, but this is not the end of team skin & bones...more adventures await.

Since Monday, Deal & I have been in a whirlwind of activity, taking an overnight train, then reluctantly learning to drive a vehicle again. But as we were making our way to Chi-town, we stopped at a trail crossing and left a little magic!

We are now in Chicago for all the wedding festivities!!!! Hopefully, we can clean up a bit and won't be confused as homeless people.

Location:N Larrabee St,Chicago,United States

We did it!!

2011-10-24T17:21:00.002-04:00

2,181 miles
14 states
141 days
June 6 to October 24
Dream come true! Thank you for all your support and prayers - couldn't have done it without you all.

Bigger update to come later ...

Location:Industrial Blvd,Gainesville,United States

Springer Mountain, Here We Come!

2011-10-19T20:28:00.002-04:00

We have reached our 14th and final state, Georgia!

Theoretically, we have accomplished our goal: we hiked from Maine to Georgia.

But, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail is actually 67.5 miles south at Springer Mountain and that is where our journey will end in just 5 days, on Oct. 24.

For now, we are resupplying in Hiawassee, GA, about 9 miles over the state line! This is our last time to indulge in a town on the trail. It was a little bit of a difficult hitch into town (45 minutes & about 30 cars), but it is worth it!

So we just completed the 87.6 miles of North Carolina during these last 4 days!

The first part of this section was definitely more difficult than the second part, with long climbs. Our iPods helped tremendously! But, we were always rewarded at the top with panoramic views! There are a few more "balds" (open, grassy, treeless mountaintops) in this section, but the ones further north are still our favorites. And thankfully, we've had beautiful weather, with today being our first (and hopefully last) day of rain!

We also walked right through the Nantahala Outdoor Center-a really cool pitstop and food break!

North Carolina also has some funny signs ... In all fairness, it is supposed to read "Swinging Lick Gap," but someone had their mind in the gutter.

This section of the trail has been really crowded, even for midweek. But, it is leaf-peeping season! The shelters have been packed every night, except for one when we were completely alone!

I think I said this in my last post, but running into section and day hikers has been really fun in the South, as everyone realizes we are SOBOs on the AT before we even say anything and are so complimentary! We got our picture taken once again because of our thru hiker status. Most are now saying "congratulations" instead of "good luck!" We even got some unexpected trail magic the other day from a couple we were chatting with ... They said, "well, we don't have much to offer you, but we do have a soda & banana." That was perfect for us!

Fire Marshall is now a half day ahead of us. His girlfriend, Alex, is joining us for the last miles of the trail, so he jumped ahead to meet up with her. We will reunite the team in just 2 days, but it sure was weird being split up!

So here are the official stats for North Carolina:
87.6 miles
4 days
1 shower
1 night in a hostel
2 nights in shelters
2 nights in our tent
3 dig-a-hole poops in the woods for Deal, none for Steadee because NC has privies!!!
No wildlife to speak of (1 garter snake)

Just 5 days and 67.5 miles to go!!! Just a few more 4,000+ foot climbs ... Here we come Springer!!

Location:Big Sky Dr,Hiawassee,United States

Mile 2,018.4 - Recap of Great Smoky Mountains National Park

2011-10-14T23:02:00.002-04:00

Folks, we have walked 2,018.4 miles and have been out in the woods for 131 days so far. We have 162.6 miles and 10 days left. That all just seems unbelievable, doesn't it?

We resupplied tonight in Fontana Dam, needing very little after opening all our mail magic!

Something else monumental happened. Fire Marshall loves McDonalds and when we met him, we told him we haven't had it in at least 10 years. It was his goal to get us to eat at the golden arches at some point on the trail. Well, we finally succumbed to the evil! And it was so ... good.

Now for my hiking report. We just spent the last week hiking 72 miles in Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

We are staying the night in Fontana Dam, which is the highest dam in the East at 480 feet. Well, we are not sleeping IN or ON the dam, just in town at a hostel ...

Our friend Bobby/Bolt (from the Great American Family - GAF - in Danville) came out and joined us on the trail for a second time. He is extremely active and a big backpacker, so we convinced him (reluctantly) that he could keep up with our mileage. The 5-day itinerary for him was 1 mile, 15 miles, 20.5 miles, 19.8 miles and 17 miles. We knew he could keep up no problem and he did. He even smoked us a few times!! Let's ignore the fact that he is now on long-term disability from work with a bum knee ... But again, it was fun to have a 4th Musketeer around.

Anyways, the Smokies. Notorious for bad weather. Well, I think we lucked out. We had 1 day of cool temps, clouds & threat of rain, 1 day of pure sunshine, 1 day of rain/cold and 1 day of semi-sun. It did rain hard every night! Mornings have been cool to start, so we are always playing the layer-up, layer-down game with clothing!

It was crowded in the park, even for midweek. I guess it was mostly because of the beautiful fall colors. We saw more people this week than we have in a long time! Some people were carrying supplies and backpacks fit for World War III.

And in the Smokies, you pretty much have to stay in the shelters. Most people have to make reservations, but thru hikers can't really, so we hope for the best. Well, the shelters were indeed crowded, but we always got space. The shelters were actually nice and critter-free as far as we could tell. I do believe Deal's faith in shelters may be renewed!

Running into day hikers & section hikers lately has been really fun. Most already assume we are thru hikers and give us some much-needed words of encouragement on the fly. We even got our picture taken three times because of our thru hiker status! Plus, someone asked to take a picture of my feet one night at the shelter. The added bonus of running into all these people of course is getting extra food!

But I have to say, the best trail magic came from within this week. Let me preface by saying we were a little "light" on food supplies in the Smokies. We resupplied in Hot Springs, but planned to stop at Standing Bear Farm, a hostel with a camp store, 2 days later. We called ahead to make sure the camp store was still open and the woman said, "yep! We have everything you need!" Well, that was an understatement. When we got there, the owner said "oh sorry. When Southbounders get here, I usually don't have very much in stock." We pieced together what we could and made do.

So fast forward 2 days and we were all hungry. We knew there was a road crossing in the Smokies. Fire Marshall decided a hitch to Gatlinburg (which is close to Dollywood) was necessary for survival. So off he went. He got to the shelter that night with 5 lbs of SUBWAY sandwiches! Plus extra food supplies! Our hero! The funny thing is, he left camp that morning the same time as us, hitched into town 16 miles, bought food, hitched 16 miles back to the trail, and got to the shelter just 30 minutes after us! Sometimes, I swear that boy has wings!

The Smokies were overall a great experience. We spent most of our time above 4,000 feet and ridge walking, thus coming across beautiful views around almost every corner. We also hit the highest point on the AT (6,643 feet) at Clingmans Dome. We couldn't see anything though because it was on one of the rainy days.

We saw no bears in the park! Between 400 & 600 bears reside in the park. And we saw none. Maybe they were all hibernating because of the weather?? In fact, we saw no wildlife, aside from a few wild turkeys and a bunny!

On a side note, before we actually hit the Smokies, we got a glimpse from Max Patch bald, where we camped. It was very, very windy up there, but the 360-degree views were so worth it!

So we are done with weaving in and out of Tennessee and North Carolina. Next up, 87.6 miles in only North Carolina (pictured below). Which also means there are definitely privies! It's the simple things in life that make me happy!

Like I said, we have a total of 162 miles left. We literally feel your support and feel like y'all are right there with us while we are on the trail, so don't stop now for the last 10 days! And let's hope all our gear and bodies can hold up!!

Mile 1909!!!!

2011-10-08T21:36:00.002-04:00

Hello from Hot Springs, NC, at Mile 1909.2 on Day 125, where we took a nero (near-zero) to shower & resupply! We are staying at a super-cool hostel; an old Victorian house from the 1800s called Elmer's Sunnybank Inn. Hot Springs itself is a neat little town, but we did not indulge in the hot springs!

When last I blogged, we were taking a zero to avoid a raging blizzard on Roan Mountain. We still had to endure remnants of the blizzard, but the zero was awesome and we enjoyed another great breakfast at Mountain Harbour on Monday morning before we hiked out.

We've had a very eventful week weaving over 100 miles in and out of TN & NC. There were lots of ups & downs, and I'm not just referring to the mountains. Let's start with the low points.

#1
TN & NC offer plentiful 360-degree views. I think this is one of the reasons I tripped and fell over this root, which was also covered by leaves.

Now, I look like this.

Geez, didn't I just heal from the Asian Giant Hornet? But no fear! We have been carrying liquid stitches since Maine!! Okay, just kidding. But Deal did take very good care of me. He made sure I did not have a concussion or a broken nose. Still questionable.

#2
The mountains in TN/NC are large. Very large. They require a lot of climbing. We are tired. We hurt. Didn't we already do this in Maine & NH?

#3
We resupplied mid-week in Erwin, TN. We were hoping for a real meal as well, since we were getting there around second breakfast time, but we had to choose between getting groceries or going to a restaurant because we opted to use a shuttle instead of hitching. At the time, getting groceries seemed more important. But later that day, we regretted that!

#4
The climb out of Erwin to our shelter was ridiculously long and steep at times. The book told us it was 16 miles with a 3500-foot elevation change. That didn't seem too daunting. We almost died. No, seriously. We hadn't felt that tired since Maine & NH!

#5
We have been hiking with a guy named Loop on and off these past few weeks. He's finishing up sections of his thru hike. He has just 100 miles left and so now he is ahead of us. It was nice to have a 4th Musketeer around for a change! Good luck Loop!

#6
I've mentioned that trail magic has not been so abundant. We did get some granola bars from some day hikers and also had a guy offer us Shittake mushrooms at a road crossing, but, well ... Anyways, among the million things NOBOs told us about (e.g., the rocks of PA, Ming's Chinese Buffet in Waynesboro), they told us about a couple who cooks for thru hikers at the Allen Gap road crossing in NC/TN. We tried not to get our hopes up, but we did. And guess what? There was no couple at Allen Gap offering to cook for us. Boo.

#7
We've seen a lot of dead people on the trail. Okay, not dead bodies, but random graves! At least 5 or 6!

#8
Variable levels of trail maintenance.

The Ups

#1
Deal's bday! He loved his 35+ letters and has been reading them over and over again. He also had a very good hiking day on his bday! We had great views on Big Bald Mtn and there were some volunteers up there doing research on migrating birds. So we got to watch, learn and release some birds.

#2
The 360-degree views almost everyday! We have crossed a number of open, grassy balds. Apparently, the origins of these treeless balds are a mystery (UFOs????), but they sure are beautiful!

#3
The weather! Besides the cold snap we got, we have had 6 days of pure blue skies. Chilly mornings, but great weather the rest of the day! Dear God, if you can make this continue for the next 16 days ...

#4
Deal had a very interesting bear sighting. Typically, I fetch the water when we get to camp (sounds so pioneer-like!), but he went one evening and ran into a bear at the spring! This was after he made the comment that he was surprised they had bear cables at the shelter because we were so high up where they was little vegetation and there were probably no bear!

#5
We encountered some mating snakes on the trail! How interesting it was to watch! Sorry, no pictures, but we did leave a dollar.

#6
Privies at North Carolina shelters! I'm excited because unlike Deal, I do NOT like digging holes. And TN has something against privies.

#7
Anybody else think Fire Marshall is starting to look like Wolverine from X-Men?

#8
Apple picking along the trail! We did this in VA too. Love it!!

So. Ups and downs. Such is trail life. We are just tired. And entitled to complain after 1900 miles with 270 miles left to go!

And just to clarify for everyone. We are completing the entire trail on Oct. 24. I know my original "schedule" had us finishing sometime in December, but we are WAY ahead of "schedule."

Deal's sister's wedding is Oct. 28 (which also happens to be our 5-year anniversary). So in true Deal & Steadee fashion, we are finishing the trail on Monday the 24th, hopping on an overnight train that night to Danville, VA, (and hopefully sleeping), packing up our vehicle on Tuesday the 25th, driving to Louisville, then driving to Chicago on Wednesday! We will spend Thursday getting groomed & getting my dress to fit! Wedding is on Friday!

Then we will collapse for at least 2 weeks.

Thank you again everyone for your comments & support! We couldn't do this without y'all!

Location:Andrews Ave S,Hot Springs,United States

Happy 35th Birthday Deal!

2011-10-06T13:23:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday to my lovely husband!!!! I don't have much service, but I had to send a shout-out!! My wish for him is that he gains weight because his belt loop can't tighten any more!!!

An Unexpected Zero!

2011-10-02T13:42:00.002-04:00

Remember how I said it was unseasonably cold here and we were about to climb to higher elevations where it was even colder? Well, we conferenced and decided to take a ZERO day at the Mountain Harbour B&B/Hostel, where they serve the most unbelievable breakfast!!

Fire Marshall & I left it up to Deal, since it is his birthday week. Deal is not a zero person. He prides himself on only taking 5 zeros this whole journey. Well, why not make it 6?! Plus, it's Sunday and football is on!

Location:Roan Mountain,United States

Snow in TN, Mail Magic & Last Mail Drop

2011-10-01T22:05:00.002-04:00

We are currently at a hostel in Elk Park, NC/Roan Mtn, TN at mile 1791.4 on day 118. And thank God we are in a hostel, because it is in the 30s and we are at a lower elevation (2,000 feet). I can only imagine what it is like up there in the mountains ... But we will find out Sunday night when we are camping at 6,000 feet. Anyways, we are here with 5 other SOBOs/section hikers/flip floppers. The most hikers we've seen in a hostel since New Hampshire! We are all happy to be inside tonight. Pictured below, fellow SOBO Fern Toe & her cake she made on a real stove instead of the fire.

Today, we all hiked in snow, sleet & rain. Did you know it is Oct. 1? I thought it was maybe Jan. 1! Just the other day, I was wearing shorts & a tshirt and the sun was shining!

So we have done 71 miles in Tennessee in 4 days. Tomorrow, we will enter North Carolina. Then renter Tennessee. Then North Carolina. And so on. This goes on for 153.6 miles and then another 72 miles in Great Smokey Mountain National Park, where we walk the state borders basically. Then there's 87.6 miles in North Carolina alone. And then we enter Georgia! But I'm getting too far ahead of myself.

Tennessee has been great. It is like we are walking into fall. And beauty. We've seen 3 bear! My biggest gripe about TN ... No privies! So I've had to dig 2 holes already!! Deal, of course, has dug double my amount. We also met Bob Peoples, a legend on the trail. He has 9 cats and one of them looked like McKinley, only a few pounds lighter!!

We received some great mail magic in the last week!

For example, Ridley (Misti, my best commenter on the blog) & Panther, who thru hiked last year, sent us a surprise package to Damascus full of goodies, including some gourmet meals!

Then, Second Nature/Paul, who hiked the trail in 1998, & Gr8tful/Kristen, his wife, sent us the fixings for no-bake cheesecake!

Lots of other packages came through, especially for Deal's birthday!

I also gave Deal his birthday present ... 35+ letters from friends & family. I had to start prior to Oct. 6, since he has a lot of reading to do!

And just because I don't know when we'll have service again, here is the info for our LAST mail drop:
Patrice and/or Justin La Vigne
C/O The Hike Inn
3204 Fontana Road
Fontana Dam, NC
28733
Please hold for SOBO Thru Hiker
ETA October 13

389.6 miles to go people!!! 23 days!

Mile 1716.6 - Day 114

2011-09-27T20:15:00.002-04:00

Hello from Damascus, VA, a very hiker-friendly town we walk through. We are at mile 1716.6!!! We are merely 3.7 miles from the end of Virginia and the beginning of Tennessee, but I'm going to pretend we are done and just give you the summary of Virginia prematurely.

So wow, I never realized how much it rains in VA in September. VA is 548 miles and we spent 30 days here. It rained for at least 13 of those days. I don't mean rained all day or night, but it rained a good bit. As our good friend Paul/Second Nature says, "some people hike in the rain, and some people just get wet." We hike in the rain and get wet in the process. Oh well. It's all part of trail life. At least the water sources have been flowing, even if it's muddy ...

We never did get those Virginia blues everyone talks about. I just think there's a lot of variety and good stuff in VA. I will say that somewhere in central VA, I did get in a funk. I think it has something to do with the fact that we've walked more than 1700 miles and I am tired. The funk didn't last more than a day or two, although I am still tired!!

Before I describe the last 7 days and 166 miles of southwest VA, here is the overall summary of VA:
548 miles
30 days
15 nights in a tent (that we set up in the shelter because Deal still has a fear of snakes & spiders in shelters)
5 nights in a shelter (it took some convincing)
6 nights in a bed/bunk
8 showers
1 hitchhike
2 iPod days
9 silver AT markers in the ground
1 fall for Steadee
15 dig-a-hole poops in the woods for Deal, 1 for Steadee (again, to clarify, I use the privies.)
42 deer
8 bear
2 snakes (one that was 5 feet long and on the trail!)
4 turtle
As for trail magic, I'm disappointed to report practically none. I say "practically none" because we did have friends bring us magic and send us magic, but there were no roadside coolers (and Deal does not count water caches as magic)! We did meet a section hiker who gave us some snacks and 3 weekenders who gave us extra snacks they were carrying, so that was nice!

As for Southern VA, it has been awesome (if you ignore the rain factor). Pretty flat and fast for us, although we've been spending more time at 4,000 feet and above. Just the other day, we noticed some leaves changing colors!

We hiked through Grayson Highlands State Park, where Mount Rogers, the highest point in VA is. It's a really pretty area and we went through a lot of highland meadows. There are a bunch of feral ponies that roam that area, but unfortunately, the weather was crappy when we went through and I think the ponies were hunkering down! So we didn't see any!

Now cattle, on the other hand, we have seen plenty! Sometimes we even get a message from
Fire Marshall in the cowpiles. And every once in awhile, we stop to fill our water bottles with milk!

The forest in southwest VA changes almost every hour. We have been walking through groves and groves of rhododendron. I would love to see these things in full bloom, but we are too late for that. Still very pretty.

The forest always smells so good to us, but through most of VA, we've been smelling a lot of ramp. It's some kind of onion/garlic plant & I guess we could be adding it to our dinners. But, I still can't identify it ... I just smell it. Guess it's better-smelling than our body odor!

One other unique thing we did in southwest VA, we slept in an 1894 schoolhouse!

Last, but not least. Remember I
told you about a fellow SOBO we caught up to, Fern Toe. Well, she often writes songs in the shelter log books. Her latest song was dedicated to me!

Now we are onto Tennessee! Our 11th state! 464.4 miles left! People say "oh, you're almost done!" But it's still 464.4 miles people!!!! I wonder if our feet and legs have 464.4 miles left in them ...

Location:Damascus,United States

Deal's Bday Maildrop

2011-09-22T12:49:00.002-04:00

Lots of people have been asking where they can send something (for example, home-baked goods) for Deal's 35th birthday on October 6. Cell service has been crappy, so I'm sorry for the delay. Here's the best place to send something (baked goods):

Justin La Vigne
C/O Bob Peoples
1278 Dennis Cove Road
Hampton, TN
37658
Please hold for SOBO Thru Hiker - ETA Sept. 30

Since everyone is always going on and on about how skinny we look (a section hiker told Deal he looked like he was on crack the other day), I thought it would also be fun to describe what we eat so you can see we ARE eating!! Yes, we are still always hungry, but we are eating as much as we can carry!

Breakfast (anywhere from 6:15-7:30)
Deal usually eats 2 honey buns & a cold oatmeal (don't knock it until you try it)
Steadee likes to switch it up & will eat some sort of pastry (mini muffins, coffee cakes) and/or cold oatmeal

Second Breakfast (occurs about 2-3 hours after we start hiking)
We both eat some sort of protein/granola/breakfast bar and usually dried fruit or real fruit if we just came from town or find it on the trail. Sometimes Deal will eat a candy bar!

Lunch (usually by noon)
We have gone through many varieties (peanut butter, tuna, cheese), but right now we are on a nutella on bagel thins kick!! I don't think nutella will ever get old! We also snack on whatever is in our snack bag, like chips (combos are our favorite), trail mix (for me), dried fruit, gummies, etc.

Afternoon snack
Same thing ... Something from our snack bag ... The more calories the better! With the mail magic we've received, we've discovered so many new snack options, so thank you!

Dinner is anywhere from 4:30 to 6:30, depending when we get to camp. We still love our backpacker meals, but if we resupply in a town instead of getting a maildrop, we will opt for Lipton Noodle varieties mixed with chicken or tuna packets. Then we snack, snack, snack until bedtime at 7:30/8. We ALWAYS eat a full-size candy bar at night, sometimes 2 or 3!!

Being in a town is a completely different story. We load up on mega calories eating out at restaurants. It is a good thing America serves big portions!

So see people. We do eat.

FYI-there will be 1 more maildrop for the rest of our trip. It won't be until mid October, so I will post the info in another week or two.

Location:Mountain Springs Rd,,United States

Days 95-106/Central VA

2011-09-20T15:28:00.002-04:00

We have completed Central VA, all 227 miles! It took us 12 days.

We did stop in a few towns, mainly to resupply, shower & get a good meal, but we haven't really taken any significant "neros." We also stayed in the famous Woodshole Hostel, which our book describes as a little piece of heaven. It was definitely divine and much needed!

Anyways, Central VA has been full of surprises ...

There was, of course, the surprise of the Asian Giant Hornet. My eye socket, thankfully, has returned back to normal size. It only took 5 days. Oh, and don't be deceived by the size of the hornet in the picture below ... The one that bit me was 3 times as large!

Fire Marshall decided to spice things up with a new pair of shorts. He's channeling his inner Richard Simmons & bringing charm to the trail at the same time.

We finally caught up to this fellow SOBO, Fern Toe, who we've been trailing since Maine! She was always 1-5 days in front of us, but lately, we've seen her a lot!

There are random swings in the middle of the meadow. With all the walking we do, it's nice to take a seat here and there!

There are monuments to kids who died over 100 years ago, who may or may not haunt the shelter.

There are some massive blowdowns. Trail maintenance anyone?

There are nice privies, and some not-so-nice (but airy) privies.

We've come across random dogs with tracking devices attached to their collars. We have come to find out they are hunting dogs. This information would have been helpful BEFORE I called the owner of one of the dogs to express sympathy for losing his dog and report the location.

There are some interesting landmarks.

There are HoJos! I did not know they still were in business!

While we've had really good weather in central VA, it has gotten very chilly ... Brrrr ... We had to break out the poof jackets! And Fire Marshall has started making fires again. It was 39 degrees one morning! PS-we slept in that gazebo that is in the picture.

There was a big oak tree.

We have to walk over a million of these things in central VA & we are NOT in our happy place when we do.

Wildlife has been somewhat boring. We are still seeing lots of deer, but not so many bear.

We climbed some big peaks and saw some impressive views.

Last, but not least, Rambo/Van came to visit! He hiked with us for 2 days, brought us cake that his lovely wife made (we shared with other hikers at a hostel) and moonshine (of course)!

Now onto the last bit of VA ... "ONLY" 600 miles left of the whole trail!

Small Update, Next Maildrop and Medical Mishap

2011-09-10T21:17:00.002-04:00

We are in town tonight ... Once again, our trail angel, Fire Chief (Fire Marshall's dad) met us on the trail! He did this for a few reasons, but mainly because we are hiking right near Fire Marshall's Alma Mater, so we had to make that pit stop! It was actually perfect timing and if you read through this entire post, you'll find out why ...

First though, our next maildrop. As usual, this is not a request for care packages or notes, but if you feel the need, here's the info:
Patrice and/or Justin La Vigne
C/O The Barn Restaurant
7412 Lee Hwy
Rural Retreat, VA
24368
Please hold for SOBO Thru Hikers - ETA Sept. 23

PS-there will be another maildrop before Deal's bday on Oct. 6 ...

In other news, we are at mile 1382.5! Central Virginia has been beautiful! Seriously, as soon as we left Shenandoah, the rain stopped (or maybe it was my rain dance) and hopefully it won't come back for awhile. The climbs have been more difficult in this section, but the views have been so worthwhile!

And now for the medical mishap. After 1300 miles, something was bound to happen and hopefully this will be the ONLY issue, as opposed to a copperhead bite, which happened to a fellow SOBO in front of us this week.

Here's what happened. On Friday, we were hiking up the
Priest, our first mountain over 4,000 feet since New Hampshire. We all had our iPods on to power us up. All of the sudden, I saw what I can only describe as a bee on steroids come flying at me. By the time I could react, the insect landed on my eye and stung or bit me! Immediately, I felt immense pain and burning and started freaking out. Deal couldn't find a stinger, but could tell I got bit. We now think it was an Asian Giant Hornet that bit, but not stung me (don't google it though because what you'll read is VERY scary!).

That night, I was in a little bit of pain, but the swelling around my eye wasn't too bad.

The next morning was another story. My eye was pretty much swollen shut!

I started taking an antihistamine and we went on our merry way to hike 17 miles. Deal & Fire Marshall tried to hike in solidarity with me by keeping one eye closed. It lasted all of 10 seconds ... But A+ for effort.

Halfway through our hike today, my eye wasn't looking any better and we knew we could go to the doctor when we got to town, but we called our "family doctor" (DocDoc/Rachel) and she advised me to quadruple my dose of the antihistamine (I was only taking 10 mg) and add a steroid (which we do have on hand luckily). The inflammation has definitely decreased! So thank you DocDoc for saving us $300 and saving us the trouble of sitting in an urgent care center for hours. Don't fret people, if this doesn't improve, I will go SEE a doctor! But I think the meds are doing the trick!

And the boys gave me a new trail name ... Sloth.

Location:E 29th St,Buena Vista,United States

Mile 1327 - Part 1 of VA

2011-09-07T20:58:00.002-04:00

We have completed 154 miles of VA! 854 left of the whole trail! And we just celebrated 3 months (94 days) on the trail! Seeing the numbers just feels like amazing progress!!

Tonight, we are staying at a hotel in Waynesboro, VA. When we walked into the room, it smelled of alcohol cleaning products. One hour later, it smelled of hiker funk!

So Waynesboro has a big reputation on the trail. It is home to Ming's all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. We have been hearing about Ming's from NOBOs since Maine. It always felt so far away & now we are here! The buffet lived up to it's rep and more!!

The first part of VA can be summed up like this: a zero day, hiking 103 miles over 6 days through Shenandoah National Park (SNP) in the rain, more surprise visitors and an unfortunate incident where we all got separated by 10 minutes on the trail.

Last Thursday, we took a zero in Front Royal, VA, at Fire Marshall's house and were spoiled immensely by his family. Even his extended family welcomed us with open arms.

So we took care of some gear issues (I got new shoes!!), ate awesome BBQ, Apple House (the family's reataurant) donuts, cookies and other specialties, ate super awesome Thai food, drank 9 gallons of sweet tea and rested up. Which, of course, made it very hard to get back on the trail Friday. Especially because the 30% chance of rain translated into torrential downpouring ...

Shenandoah was pretty exciting to walk through, except we did get a lot of rain or threat of rain. In fact, the park got at least 4 inches of rain in just 2 days! Needless to say, the weather could have been better. We basically got a very spooky view of the

Shennies.

When we did have some break from the weather, we saw some incredible views.

One high point of SNP was having occasional access to food/restaurants. We took full advantage when we could.

Wildlife has been abundant, to say the least, in SNP.
8 Bears (2 of the bears were up in the trees and scurried down backwards when they heard us walk by! Man they move fast!)
27 Deer (you could walk right up to them and they won't budge. Deal keeps asking them to carry his pack, but hasn't succeeded.)

The shelters in SNP were built in the 1940s and it shows. There are many residents, like vampire bats, generations of mice, and wolf spiders.

However, Deal still reluctantly chose to sleep IN 2 of the shelters because of the rain and crowds. When possible, though, he set up the tent in the shelter to protect us ...

We had a very entertaining night at one of the shelters. We shared shelter/tenting space with a group of students from Princeton on their first of 7 nights backpacking. Clearly they don't teach outdoor smarts at the ivy league schools because it took 7-10 students over an hour to hang their food bags from the bear pole provided at the camp. Now I know most of our readers are saying, "I have no idea what a bear pole even is," but I assure you it isn't rocket science, although they made it that way.

We also had a great surprise from the Great American Family (our friends from Danville) while we were in the park. Cell service was pretty much nonexistent, but I turned on my phone one day and got several messages that two of them spontaneously decided to meet us on the trail for a night! Not only did they bring cherry cokes (not a prerequisite, by the way), but Bolt (the father) cooked us one of their specialty backpacking meals - chicken & dumplings! I kept ragging on him about his big pack for just one night, but it was because he was carrying enough dinner for 5 people!! It would have been enough just to share a night of camping with them, but food we didn't have to cook or clean up ourselves was a bonus!

And now for the last part ... One little hiccup. Hopefully I can keep the story comprehendible (it certainly will not be short!)

So we all know how Deal likes to dig his holes. Well, yesterday he announced he was going into the woods to do his business. Since it was raining, I decided to keep hiking with Fire Marshall. We got to a road crossing and didn't read the trail sign correctly, so took a wrong trail. We didn't get too far and when we returned to the right spot, we decided to wait for Deal so he wouldn't get confused too. 15 minutes went by & we decided Deal must have passed us when we were off trail. Fire Marshall went way ahead of me to try to catch him, got to a shelter & saw a note in the log book from Deal saying he was pressing on to find us!!! The time read 1:41 & Fire Marshall got there at 1:55! So he dropped his pack and hoofed it down the trail in search & rescue mission style. It took a full mile before he caught Deal! Meanwhile, I got to the shelter at 2:07 & realized what had happened. We all were reunited within the next 30 minutes, but boy oh boy! Mind you it was raining buckets at this point.

The lesson in all this is to stay close to your man, just not too close ...

Location:Afton Cir,Lyndhurst,United States

The story behind the believe rock

2011-09-02T06:50:00.001-04:00

Lots of people have been asking what that item is that I am holding up in front of the state signs.

It is a clear rock with a cross and the word "believe" and it was given to us by our second Mom in Phoenix. Someone had given it to her when her youngest son died tragically in a construction accident and she needed to believe. The one-year anniversary of his death is actually today.

I have been carrying the rock in my pocket since Maine and it is a reminder that God is with us every step of the way and that you have to believe to get to Georgia. I haven't asked our "Mom" yet, but we would like to leave the rock at Springer Mtn in GA for another hiker to carry and use for inspiration.

Mile 1204.7 - Recap of MD/WV

2011-08-31T10:50:00.002-04:00

We are actually 30 miles into Virginia now, but I have yet to give my report on Maryland and West Virginia!

MD & WV were the shortest states we'll go through on the AT (47 miles combined), but they provided us with the MOST magic!! I'll just give you the play-by-play.

On Thursday afternoon, we entered Maryland. We had done 20 miles that day and were thinking about setting up camp for the night at a city park.

But then Fire Marshall convinced us to join him and his girlfriend Alex for dinner at Golden Corral ... How we missed out on this American institution all this time, I have no idea! For a hungry hiker, it's a perfect fit! Anyways, when we returned to the park for the night, Deal & I decided to hike 5 more miles for the day! This meant we did our first night hike! We ended up at this very awesome shelter, which Deal still wouldn't sleep in because of the snake incident in PA.

So Friday, we woke up and hiked. Nothing too exciting to report for that day, actually. Maryland does have lots of history along the trail ... Lots of Civil War battles were fought here, which is crazy to think that someone could have been shot where you are hiking. There was also this interesting monument to Washington ... Apparently the first one built, then showed up by the one in DC!

The real excitement began on Saturday. First of all, Fire Marshall attempted to hike Maryland all in one day ... And succeeded! He is really good at the AT challenges! His 41-mile hike took him about 15-16 hours!!! Geez Louise!

Now back to us. Weeks ago, we made plans to meet up with several friends in this area. We were going to do lower-mileage days to make sure we had some visiting time. This was all before Hurricane Irene planned her arrival. Trail maintainers were going around telling hikers to hunker down. We were very excited because we felt the planned visits with our friends were perfectly timed for hunkering down!

We woke up Saturday and thankfully, the hurricane hadn't started. First thing on our agenda was not hiking, but meeting my other college roomie Kelly/Chile, her hubby & son for breakfast. Kelly even brought us extra treats to take with us. I'm not sure why, but everyone just wants to see us eat and shower ...

Anyways, it was great to visit with them and we even hiked a little of the trail together. I do believe Antonio (their son) is aspiring to be the youngest AT hiker ever at 3 1/2 years.

So then Deal & I set off to do big miles before the hurricane. We did a whopping 7 miles!!! The next magic came from one of Deal's buddies from the Prep, Tim. Tim picked us up and treated us to a night in a hotel!! There were a bunch of evacuees from the Chesapeake Bay staying there as well & they asked if we were evacuees and we said sort of. Anyways, we avoided the rains & winds for the night thanks to our trail angel!!!

Tim put us back on the trail Sunday morning & despite the lingering hurricane wind & rain, we hiked 10 miles into Harper's Ferry, where we were picking up our maildrop and meeting more friends.

We got to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, where they check in all AT hikers. We were #s 13 & 14 for SOBO thru hikers! When we left Maine, I think we were #40ish, so a lot of hikers dropped out and we passed a fair share.

Anyways, another one of Deal's Prep friends, Pat/DrFlyer, his wife, Bri/theDancer, and their 15-month-old were there to meet us! Bri brought us black bottom cupcakes, which she was able to make right before they lost power from the storm. Thank goodness for that! They took us out for lunch, again with the attempt to fatten us up.

We then collected our packages and once again, received some major mail magic! 5 packages of awesome goodies! Oddly enough, the guy told us we were NOT the most popular thru hikers to come through because someone else had 6 packages!! Still, no need for us to resupply for awhile!! Thank you all so very much!!

Next up was a visit from our friends Chris/Mouth and Kayt/NHBound. Kayt also brought us home-baked goods that she made before losing power! We sat around at the ATC center talking with them for awhile, then all of the sudden, Chris said they had a surprise and more friends were coming ... Our friends Sara/Caliente and hubby Mike/theFather walked in with their 7-week-old baby (with a personalized onesie in our honor)!!!! They drove 5 hours from Cleveland for the occasion!!! A crazy, wonderful surprise! So we spent the rest of the day with them and ate some more (of course). I am surprised they let us hold the new babe ... our odor was pretty bad!

The stats for MD & WV are not too exciting, but I can't go without reporting them!

Maryland
41 miles
3.5 days
1 night in a tent
1 additional night in a tent for Deal, while Steadee opted for the new, beautiful shelter
1 night in a hotel
1 shower
Deal dug 1 hole!
4 deer
2 turtles
1 bee sting for Deal!

West Virginia
6.3 miles
1 day/1 night
1 night in a hostel
1 shower
Deal dug NO holes!!
1 silver AT marker
3 deer

By the way, we no longer count NOBOs. We stopped counting in PA. I know this will sound snobby, but the NOBOs we've seen in PA and points south are most likely not making it to the end by Katahdin's deadline of Oct 15, or sooner if the weather turns bad. So in our book, we count them as section hikers. Just call us AT snobs ...

Guess what? We have less than 1,000 miles left!!!! Holy granola!!!

Although we have entered our 11th state, it's the longest state (550ish miles). We like it so far and are happy to be among the mountains again, but you are bound to hear me complain at some point I'm sure.

Tomorrow we are taking a ZERO at Fire Marshall's family's house!!! Yeah!

Mile 1,130! PA is finished!

2011-08-26T08:16:00.002-04:00

On Thursday, we conquered our eighth state and entered Maryland!

Oh and we hit the halfway point of the trail on Wednesday!!

Oh PA. We did not love you, but we tried not to hate you. I have to admit, the second half was better than the first half and helped redeem the state. I'll go as far to say it was "somewhat" enjoyable. But, we are definitely glad to be done with you, PA!

Here's the synopsis of PA.
229.6 miles
12 days
7 nights in a tent
4 nights under a roof (we even slept in an old jail in a town)

3 showers
5 dig-a-hole poop in the woods for Deal/0 for Steadee (by the way, just because I don't dig holes, doesn't mean I don't go to the bathroom! I just choose to use the privies)
1 hitchhike
4 iPod days (I have been "reading" a book!)
6 silver AT markers

The rocks.
PA has rocks. Lots of them. It's like someone back in the day blasted the whole state and voila, there are rocks everywhere. Then someone decided to put all the rocks ON the Appalachian Trail. Some rocks are big, some are small, but the bottom line is they are annoying.

The thing is, during the first 300+ miles of our trek, we hiked on rocks, roots, and other obstacles everyday. But, then the trail became evenly graded and friendly. And we got spoiled.

So to encounter rocks now is not fun. Our feet have new blisters and have been barking louder than usual.

The snakes.
PA has snakes. We saw 8 snakes. I wasn't as fearful as I thought I would be, but they were mostly at a safe distance. Except this lil guy that lives in Bake Oven Knob Shelter (we did not sleep here, just ate lunch here).

Wildlife.
3 copperheads
2 black snakes
3 garter snakes
10 deer
3 cats????
1 groundhog

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
In PA, there is a tradition for thru hikers (gimmick). Since you hit the halfway point of the trail at Pine Grove Furnace State Park, they encourage you to eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. Deal & I did it as a team ... 55 minutes. As for Fire Marshall, he accepted and conquered the challenge. 48 minutes! The record, by the way, is 8 minutes. It seemed in the log book, most people were between 15 minutes and 3 hours. Fun fact ... a half gallon of ice cream provides 3200 calories, just 1/4 of what we burned that day!

The shelters.
The trail in PA is maintained by 1700 different hiking clubs. And you can notice a huge difference. We saw some of the best- and worst-maintained shelters all in one state. It seems, the shelters in the first part of the state are surrounded by trash. And their privies were full to the brim. Gross, gross and more gross. We never actually stayed in a shelter in PA (and Deal has sworn off shelters altogether after seeing that snake in the one). There were a ton of primitive camping spots in the early section too. There were a few times we saw fire pits in the MIDDLE of the trail! I think this section just heavily used by locals who do not follow leave no trace principles and use the forest as their dumping grounds!

The weather.
The day we entered PA, it rained. The day we left PA, it rained. Pretty much everyday there was the threat of scattered tstorms. But, no, we did not feel the earthquake! I do believe we will feel the hurricane though!

Trail Magic.
Another disappointing thing about PA! Many NOBOs told us they got so much trail magic in PA. Well, either they lied or PA hates SOBOs! There was 1 empty cooler (trail tragic) and a small can of Pringles left in the mailbox at the halfway marker.
But, we did get all that mail magic back in Port Clinton and then got trail magic from our friends, Rachel/Charlotte and Chris/PA Dutch ... They came to the trailhead (with cherry cokes) and took us out to lunch!!! It was so good to see them. We actually are going to see more friends in MD and WV this week!

Strange things we saw in the PA wilderness:
Abandoned book, chair & clothes (which forced us to look for a dead body!)
Life-sized cross in field (it was eerie)
Rusted car

Flashlight on tripod in middle of the trail (we thought it could be a booby trap ... If you read this sign closely, it says "there is 1 booby trap in the above mileage." hehe)

So that was PA. Sigh. Goodbye.

Maryland is only 40.9 miles, so it'll be a quick state. Some hikers attempt to do it all in one day and Fire Marshall is going to try to join that club! Good luck buddy!

Location:Buchanan Trail E,Waynesboro,United States

My 33 year old thru hiker

2011-08-22T19:10:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone, this is Deal. Yesterday Steadee turned 33 and I do believe she had a great day, thanks to all of your cards, emails, phone messages and texts. The night before she indulged in some yummy backpacker desert meals.

Then on her bday we hiked 23 miles to the town of Duncannon PA (through some threatening afternoon storms) and had a real meal and stayed in the legendary Doyle hostel (a real treat...).

During the day, Fire Marshall and I sang happy birthday with a candle atop of Apple House homemade cookies, thanks to the Fire Marshall's dad (Fire Chief) for bringing them to us and Alex (Fire Marshall's girlfriend) for baking them.

Thank you all for thinking of her.

Location:Ridge Dr,Carlisle,United States

Mail Magic

2011-08-18T20:33:00.002-04:00

We are at mile 980.6 and I can confirm 2 things about PA. There are rocks and snakes (poisonous ones).

I'll just apologize in advance to our PA friends because I don't think we'll have nice things to say about the state when we complete it. We are not trying to be haters of PA ...

But today was a very good day. We hiked through Port Clinton, PA, to pick up our maildrop and once again, we were surprised by 7 packages and several cards from friends, family & blog readers who we've never met! The love & support just lifts our spirits to a whole new level. Oh, and Deal came up with a new name for this ... Mail Magic!

Besides the mail magic, we also got trail magic. Fire Marshall's dad (Fire Chief) was visiting him in Port Clinton and treated us to lunch and a shower! He tried to convince us to stay the night with the treat of a hotel room, but we resisted and hiked on.

Tomorrow, my old college roomie, Rachel/Charlotte, & her hubby, Chris/PA Dutch, are meeting us at the next road crossing.

I guess PA isn't that bad after all ... 144.5 miles left!

The next opportunity for mail magic (no pressure) is coming up quickly ... If you are interested, here is the info:

Patrice and/or Justin La Vigne
C/O AT Conservancy
PO Box 807
799 Washington Street
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
25425

Please hold for thru hiker ETA August 28.

Location:Appalachian Trail,Auburn,United States

Onto Rocksylvania

2011-08-14T08:20:00.002-04:00

We spent 3 wonderful zeros at my parents' ... Saw lots of friends and took care of all our bizness.

Of course, the last 3 days were gorgeous ... In the 70s, low humidity. Today, torrential downpouring. Thank you Mother Nature.

Anywho, we are hitting the trail. I am not excited at all to hike the 230+ miles of Pennsylvania. Why, you ask? Of the 450+ NOBOs we passed, 449 were negative about PA. Here's what they have been saying ...
-the rocks in PA suck
-there are tons of snakes
-the rocks of PA will make you cry
-there are no views in PA
-have you heard about PA's rocks
-many of the water sources are dry (how is this any different than NJ or NY?)
-there are rocks in PA that will ruin your feet (our feet are already ruined)

Sounds awesome, right?

Anyways, I can't thank BOTH my parents enough (my dad gets upset because he thinks my mom gets more attention on the blog, yet he doesn't want to have a "presence" on the Internet). They waited on us hand and foot and fed us well (we both gained 5 lbs back!). Plus, they are taking extremely good care of Mr. McKinley (he has also gained weight since living with them). So thanks Short on Coffee & Big on Lotto! We love you!

Mile 895.5 - New Jersey is DONE

2011-08-12T11:16:00.004-04:00

Guess what we have been doing the last few days?? NOT HIKING!! I'm excited to tell you all that we are enjoying a few zeros at my parents' house in NJ! We had this planned in our heads for a long time and actually, we haven't taken a full day off since Hanover, NH, just about 500 miles ago!! So it feels so, so good. In fact, we banged out a 24-mile day to get here earlier and have an extra zero day instead of a nero (near-zero) day. Anyways, we have a lot of "real life" stuff to take care of, so we have been busy bees to say the least!

As for hiking, we are now at mile 895.5, the Delaware Water Gap in PA, which means we completed New Jersey!

New Jersey was pretty good to us ... It rained quite a few times at night and was hot and humid during the day. Once again, keeping hydrated and finding water sources was an issue. When it is as humid as it was, we tend to drink upwards of 100 ounces daily!! The terrain in NJ was very nice and flat; there was even a 1-mile boardwalk section! We especially enjoyed the last 30 miles. You walk along a ridgeline and who knew that NJ had ridges?? But it does and there are some incredible views!

Anyways, here's our summary of good 'ol Jersey:
72.2 miles
4 days
4 nights in a tent plus we are spending 4 nights at my parents'
10 NOBOs (definitely slowing down), but we've seen more of "our kind" lately (SOBOs) - 2 caught up to us and we caught up to 2 others! One, "Woolie," is pictured below eating a SoyJoy bar!

6 dig-a-hole poops in the woods for Deal (might I add that is a record for him in any state ... I think he is just really grasping nature ... Or there is something in Jersey water?)
By the way, I only dug a hole once!
Wildlife was kind of exciting, as we saw at least 6 deer, 1 snake, 1 porcupine an 1 bear along the trail! But the most exciting thing was that some kind of possum or raccoon tried to get in our tent one night and I woke up to Deal yelling at something and he ended up punching it in the nose through the tent wall to get it to go away!

NO trail magic! There was no trail tragic either, but still! Jersey doesn't love hikers??
We did get trail magic from people we know though, so we can't complain too much. Fire Marshall's girlfriend picked him up one day for some zero days and gave us sodas and home-baked cookies!

Also, Deal's friend Todd, the lead singer of Railroad Earth/From Good Homes lives near the trail and told us to call when we came through. So we did and he treated us to lunch! Not to mention, it rained the entire time we were at lunch ... An extra bonus!
And then of course, there are my parents ... Big trail angels as they are dealing with our craziness and trying hard to fatten us up!! We weighed in again and right now, our weight loss is 27 lbs for Deal and 22 lbs for me! Believe me, we are eating as much as we can carry! And we will gain this weight back once we stop hiking. The sad thing is, I am wearing shorts that were at my parents' house that i haven't worn since high school! And, Deal went and got measured for his tux to be worn at his sister's wedding and they sent him to the boys' department because of his 29-inch waist!

Anyways, we are planning to get back on the trail either Sat afternoon or Sunday morning, but I will try to blog again in between town chores and seeing friends/family!

Location:Mansel Dr,,United States

Mile 823.4 New York is DONE!

2011-08-06T20:28:00.002-04:00

We entered NJ this evening and it started to downpour ... you would think our home state would be kinder to us!! So we quickly set up our tent and are hunkering down for the night.

The good news is we have entered our 7th state!!

As for my summary of NY, I have mixed feelings about the state. The hiking/terrain was decent overall, and extremely diverse, which made each day different. But, there were some things I didn't like about this state. I think it's easier to just list it out.

THE BAD
*The shelters were crappy. Not only that, but most of them lacked a privy! What's up with that?? We actually only stayed at one shelter and camped at other random spots, including a monastery where they let you camp at their baseball pavilion (we crammed 5 tents in there because of the rain) and a garden center that was conveniently placed between railroad tracks and a highway (we only stayed there because the rain came in ... But of course sleep that night complicated by the wicked storm that created a strobe light dance party with all the lightening)

*The water sources were pretty much all dry. We instead got water from the tap at delis, etc. Also, people put out water jugs as trail magic!

*There was a lot of noise pollution as we were hiking. We crossed 4 major highways and countless other busy highways. When we crossed the Palisades Parkway, it was like being in a game of Frogger!

THE GOOD
*Trail magic! There was some trail tragic, but more magic, including a full cooler at the top of a mountain! When we were in the post office picking up our packages, some guy started chatting with us and came back in a few minutes later with ice cream sandwiches!! And like I said, sometimes trail magic was simply water!
*Delis, hot dog stands and ice cream! It is what every thru hiker talks about when they mention NY! We only missed 2 on "the tour" because they were closed.

*The views were surprisingly awesome!! Bear Mtn was a favorite and we were able to spend a lot of time up there enjoying it.

*Like I said, NY's trail is very diverse. We even went through a zoo and we quite liked that!

*We had our first bear sighting!! Actually 3 bears in total (Fire Marshall saw 4)

Here are the stats on NY
89.2 miles
5.5 days
3 nights in a tent
1 night in a shelter
1 night in a house
66 NOBOs passed (they are definitely dissipating)
1 fall for Steadee
3 dig-a-hole poops in the woods for Deal
4 doses of trail magic
3 doses of trail tragic (empty cooler)
1 iPod afternoon
10 SoyJoys distributed
1 shower
1 hitch hike
7 silver AT markers
Wildlife:
1 snake
6 deer
1 fox or coyote (couldn't tell)
3 bear
Random things found in the woods of NY:
Toilet, fridge, lobster cage, guardrail, car seat cushion

Location:Chickadee Ln,,United States

Small Update and Next Maildrop

2011-08-05T07:08:00.002-04:00

Hello from mile 791! We are almost done with NY and I will do an update then, but for now, just a quick note.

We are currently enjoying the overnight hospitality of my college friend, Shadow/Christine. Got to love these friends/family who live near the trail!

Yeaterday, we stopped in Fort Montgomery, NY, to pick up our ONE mail drop ... And were surprised with FIVE packages/letters!!!!! You guys are awesome!!! We were planning to resupply a little on food, but we didn't even have to now! There was a great variety of goodies ... Including items we would never see in stores along the trail. Can't thank you guys enough!

Not that we are asking for more, but people have asked, so here is the info for our next mail drop:

Patrice and/or Justin La Vigne
General Delivery
Port Clinton, PA
19549
Please hold for SOBO Thru Hiker
ETA August 18-20 (ps. Patrice's bday is aug 21 ... wow, i figured out how to type on this thing ....this is Deal)

So, we should enter NJ on Saturday and that state is only 70 miles, so we will finish by the end of next week! We will be taking a few days off (zeros) at my parents' house and are very much looking forward to that!

Until next time ... Happy trails!

Location:Columbus Ave,Cornwall-on-Hudson,United States

Mile 740.9 - Connecticut is done!

2011-08-01T20:52:00.002-04:00

Today we hiked into New York. This is our 6th state (out of 14)! Unbelievable!

Connecticut was a good state to us. Similar to Mass, it was relatively flat. The climbs were steep, but the good thing is they are quick. Surprisingly nice vistas too! Overall, the trail is nice and friendly. Hopefully someday, we will take Bones and Curly Locks on the trail.

So, a summary of CT:
51.6 miles
3 days
2 nights in a tent
1 night in a bed
1 shower
1 fall (Steadee)
2 dig-a-hole poops in the woods for Deal, 1 for Steadee
51 NOBOs
2 silver AT markers
2 doses of trail magic (brownies from a trail maintainer and fresh fruit from a fellow hiker) plus my family's hospitality

1 dose of trail tragic (empty cooler)

1 dose of trail magic given out (we hiked an extra cherry coke from my sister with us today and gave it to a NOBO, who was very grateful and hopefully will pay it forward)
1 snake
1 hawk
1 crane
2 deer (these were near my sister's house though)
1 bunny
We didn't find too many strange things in the wilderness of CT, just 2 pairs of prescription glasses ... Why can't people drop something more useful to us??

New York should go fairly quick and we've heard mixed reviews on the difficulty. Hikers call it the "deli tour" because you pretty much pass something everyday. Unfortunately for us, we struck out on day 1 ... The hot dog stand we had been dreaming about all day was gone by the time we got there and then a thunderstorm broke out! NY, please be kind to us ...

Oh, do you like my newly decorated trekking pole courtesy of my niece?

Location:E Main St,Pawling,United States

Mile 722.6 - Kent, CT

2011-07-31T22:59:00.002-04:00

Today, we got trail magic. This time, though, it wasn't from a stranger, but from our family!

My sister QuickQuestion, brother-in-law Yankee, nephew Bones and niece Curly Locks picked us (including Fire Marshall - we have reunited!) up from the trail in Kent and took us home to shower, launder and eat home-cooked goods. It has been glorious!

The first thing Bones said ... You smell like onions! I really felt for them because they endured an hour-long car ride with us before our showers. To say we were ripe (6 days without) is an understatement.

My sister is definitely a hostess with the mostest. She had endless cherry cokes, fresh fruit, ziti, meatballs, desserts to take on the trail ... We are ever so grateful!!

We turned their house upside down, spreading gear about and taking care of town chores. And I have to add, when they picked us up today, they were at the wrong trailhead. Because I sent them to the wrong one!! Call it a blond moment!

So tomorrow, we are back on the trail. And not only will we finish CT and enter NY, but we will be finished with 33% of the trail tomorrow!

Will update our CT stats in a few days! Fort Montgomery, here we come!

Location:Head of Meadow Rd,Newtown,United States

Mile 693.3 and another state done!

2011-07-29T19:16:00.002-04:00

We have entered CT! Which means we knocked another state off the list!

Massachusetts was pretty good to us, especially for a state that never ranked high on our list. But the wilderness of Mass is something to talk about. Quite flat with a few notable climbs thrown in there from time to time. One day, we walked right by a blueberry farm and the lady who owns it gives 3 cookies to every thru hiker! We also picked blueberries!

We thought the trail in Mass was really well maintained and the shelters were also very nice! I always heard thru hikers talk about Upper Goose Pond Cabin and now I know why! It was free to stay there, but there are caretakers and they made us guacamole at dinner and blueberry pancakes for breakfast (with the blueberries we picked)!

Actually, we stayed in 2 other free places. One was in Cheshire, Mass. Our Catholic friends will be amused to know we slept on the floor of a Catholic church parish hall! It was a nice escape from the heat!!

The other free place was in Dalton, Mass. You walk right through the town and Deal was picking up his new backpack from a trail angel's house. When we arrived at noon, the pack had not. So we went to lunch and it was there when we got back. But after we got all situated, the sky opened up and downpoured! The temptation was too much to just stay in town at the trail angel's house ... Fire Marshall, on the other hand, kept going. So we have been separated from him most of the way through Mass.

Of course, we did get caught in a torrential thunderstorm the next day, so I suppose we were due for it ...

Here's our summary of Massachusetts:
90.4 miles
5 days
3 nights in a tent
1 night in a shelter
2 nights in a hostel
1 shower
2 dig-a-hole poops in the woods for Deal
1 iPod day of hiking
120 Northbounders passed
2 bunnies (while we were on roads)
2 snakes
12 orange newts (which I found out are actually called red-spotted newts, or effs, and are the only salamander native to North America!)
1 snail

On Sunday, we have greatness to look forward to! My sister is picking us up to clean and feed us for the night!! We can't wait for the break and for family love!!

Rumor is, the team of hikers will be reunited, as I think I enticed Fire Marshall with mention of home cooking and he may wait for us to catch up and come to my sister's with us!!

Happy birthday Mama K/Short-on-Coffee

2011-07-27T12:45:00.002-04:00

My mom turned 66 today!!

However, she has the energy of a 46-year-old! Maybe it's from all the coffee she drinks ...

I wanted to give her a shout out because she is always a very thoughtful and loving person, but she is especially important to us while we are on the trail. She is handling all our mail drops, which is not the most fun job. She has to keep track of where we are and we are always making last-minute requests until the 11th hour of sending. All the people at the post office know her and know what we are doing. She is doing a great job with it all and we can't thank her enough!

Happy birthday mom! We love you!!!

Three states down! 11 to go!

2011-07-24T12:37:00.003-04:00

Greetings from Mt. Greylock at 3,491 feet, the highest point in Massachusetts, and mile 602.5.

We are done with Vermont and entered Mass yesterday! The rest of VT was fine ... It was certainly hot and we did duck into another town for a night because we were just parched and many of the water sources were dry.

The mud everyone complained about in VT was nothing in our eyes. If it doesn't swallow you whole, it's not bad. Maybe the heat has dried it all out, or we are just jaded by Maine's June mud.

The bugs (horse/deer flies) on the other hand, hold some fierce competition to Maine. There was a 25-mile section in the past few days where we thought they may actually kill us. On a daily basis, we do have 1-2 flying around our head while hiking. But, this time, it was no less than 5 and up to 25 at any given time! And they were biting no less. Such jerks. It'd be one thing if they helped carry our packs ...

The only other hiccup in VT was that Deal's pack strap broke on Thursday. I know, I know, unbelievable, right? Gregory (the pack company) is sending a new one that we will pick up in a day or 2, but Fire Marshall & Deal did a temporary fix.

Anyways, here's our summary of Vermont:
149.8 miles
9 days
3 nights in a tent
3 nights in a shelter

2 nights in a hostel

2 showers
3 hitchhikes
115 NOBOs (Northbounders) passed
25 Soy Joy bars distributed
1 river crossing (knee deep)
1 fall (Steadee)
5 dig-a-hole poop in the woods for Deal/2 for Steadee
7 doses of trail magic
1 iPod day for Steadee and 2 for Deal
2 silver AT markers
1 snake
1 turkey
1 possum
Lots of toads, but one the size of my hand
Tons of orange newts (in one 10-mile section)

Strange items found in VT's woods: old stove, unidentified metal equipment in an old stone foundation, metal bucket, plastic bucket, old rusted jeep, old farming equipment, white plastic chair, mining equipment

As for special requests for care packages, since cold drinks are not an option, we are open to anything! Home-baked goods are always good ... In fact, we are picking up rum cake tomorrow that SILAdventure and DocDoc sent.

But we just like any sweets. Gummy or sour candies, dried fruit, yogurt balls, candy bars (we consume at least one everyday), drink mixes (like Gatorade or iced tea). And, Deal is not allergic to nuts, but can't digest them.

The other (better) option would be for y'all to show up randomly on the trail with cold drinks!!

Mail Drop Update

2011-07-20T20:22:00.002-04:00

Remember that whole list I put together for mail drops? Please disregard. Well, for now. Right now, we are resupplying more so in towns and not relying on the post office. We do LOVE packages and note from y'all, but right now we are just moving too quick to keep the dates updated.

We know we will be stopping at the post office in Fort Montgomery, NY, as originally planned (and hopefully meeting up with my old friend Shadow!!). Our estimated arrival is between Aug. 2-4. Again, you would address letters/packages like this:
Patrice or Justin La Vigne
General Delivery
Fort Montgomery, New York
10922
Please hold for SOBO Thru Hiker - ETA Aug. 2

Thank you again for following us!!

Location:Lye Brook Rd,Manchester Center,United States

Mile 537.7 - Days 40-45 - Vermont

2011-07-20T17:42:00.001-04:00

Hello from Manchester Center, VT! We hiked 10 miles today to get here and are spending the night at the Green Mountain House. We already ate lunch in town and resupplied, and now we showered and are relaxing at this awesome hostel for the night!!

First, I must address a few concerns. Yes, it is hot. We have heard about the country-wide heat wave. But we are hiking on. We appreciate all of your concerns and be assured, we are taking care!

Second of all, I apologize when I use acronyms ... It's just easier, especially when I'm typing on my iPhone. I will try to explain more often. For example, a NOBO is a northbounder, a person who has hiked from Georgia to wherever we see them. So far, we have seen close to 250 NOBOs! It's hard to keep count anymore, since we see so many people everyday and don't stop to talk to everyone. But we see about 10-20 NOBOs each day and they all tell us there is still a large "bubble" of NOBOs behind them!

Anyways, our first 6 days in Vermont have been terrific! This has to do with many factors, including a very user-friendly terrain and lots of TRAIL MAGIC!

We are still rolling with Fire Marshall. And he still beats us to camp every night (no matter how hard we try to keep up) and gets the fire going!

The first few days in VT, we walked through rolling farmlands. A very different landscape than we had been seeing in ME and NH. Farmlands also mean wild raspberries!!! What a treat they have been. Another bonus is that we passed through mini towns and got lunch from a deli one day, a farm stand another and a restaurant another!!

The Vermont forest has just been gorgeous, with tall pine trees that seem to reach the sky. The ups and downs feel much easier on our knees and feet. I love VT for their switchback trails, instead of making us go straight up and down. Plus, this state even has FLAT sections!! There has been blowdown (see picture below for visual) and some road walking, which we don't like. But if it means going by a store, we'll take it! Overall, we are pulling bigger mileage days ... Our biggest so far has been 21.5!

We did have one night and day of rain/thunder (whoever is sending the non-rain weather vibes, keep 'em coming!) And of course, it was the day we went over Killington. Everyone had been saying that's VT's best view, but we saw nothing and cruised over the mountain as quickly as possible.

The AT meets up with the Long Trail for 100 miles in VT. The Long Trail is just as I remember it ... Muddy and pretty much a stream. I hear the trail further south is even muddier, but I am interested to see how it compares to Maine.

As for trail magic, we came upon cookies outside a house we passed on day 40, cherry cokes and gatorades in a cooler in the woods on day 40 and cookies on day 44. We did miss out on some trail magic drinks on day 43, but I'm okay with that. It was raining that day and we weren't looking for cold drinks. Plus, later that night, someone came to the shelter and took our garbage! That's trail magic right there!

Now, the best trail magic happened on day 42. We hiked 8 miles to get to McGrath's Pub (right off the trail) for lunch. Second Nature and Grateful mentioned they might want to meet up with us since it was a Sunday and we were still close to their house. I called them from the pub and they were already on their way! So that afternoon, they hiked the 7ish miles to our shelter. But before they left down the trail to go back home, they presented the three of us with cokes and oranges!! I can't really convey what this means to a thru hiker! Best trail angels ever!

We have less than 60 miles left in VT ... The states are just flying by it seems! Tomorrow, when we hit mile 545.2, we will be 25% done!! Yippee skippee!!

Location:Main St,,United States

Two states down!!

2011-07-14T22:05:00.005-04:00

What an awesome ZERO day. We can't thank our host and hostess Second Nature and Grateful enough. They were awesome and took very good care of us!

Checking another state off the list feels so good. 160 miles, 13 days! Like I said, NH was very good to us and we enjoyed it immensely. The Appalachian Mountain Club and the Dartmouth Outing Club could take some lessons from the Maine AT Club on blowdowns and white blazes, but at least NH was 1% bog and didn't have any crazy detours.

Here's my summary of NH:

7 nights in a tent

2 nights in a shelter

2 nights in a hostel

2 nights in a hut

105 NOBOs passed (and supposedly, we still haven't hit the BUBBLE!! We even ran into people whose blog I was reading before we left! That was pretty cool!)

6 falls for Steadee, 4 falls for Deal

3 showers

2 dig-a-hole poops for Deal, 1 for Steadee

snakes

2 grouse

1 partridge

Trail Magic: leftover dinner, granola bars from weekenders, cooler in the woods with chips & cookies, tuna sandwich, banana, chips & peanuts from the owners of The Cabin in Andover, ME, whiskey from weekenders, gatorade in a parking area, sodas for sale from a house off the trail

Weird things you find in NH wilderness: broken TV, large sleeping bag, fleece jacket, sock, metal fork, broken glass, unidentified metal objects

So yes, we thoroughly enjoyed our zero day. Fire Marshall completed the McDonalds Dollar Menu Challenge (10 items ... took him all of 15 minutes to eat)! Deal soaked his aches and pains in the hot tub ...

So, until next time ... we have 149.8 miles in Vermont up next!!

Mile 442.3 - Days 36-38

2011-07-13T21:55:00.002-04:00

Hello from Hanover, NH! This trail town is right on the border of Vermont, so that means we (us & Fire Marshall) have officially finished NH!

We hiked about 12 miles today and got in around lunch ... Thru hikers get a free slice of pizza at Ramuto's, a free Snickers bar at The Mountain Goat outfitter, and a free coffee at the college bookstore. You know we were all over that! Then we spent the afternoon chillin on "the green" in Hanover until Grateful & Second Nature picked us up. We are staying with them for a full ZERO tomorrow and will hop back on the trail Friday. That's right ... Tomorrow we will hike ZERO miles, our first time in 38 days that we will not hike!

Anyways, a good summary of the last few days is holy heat. It's been hot out there, which is complicated by the fact that many of the water sources have been dry and we have been quite thirsty. The conversation between NOBOs and SOBOs along the trail has been centered around where you can come across good water in the next few miles. No worries! We have been playing it safe and carrying extra water whenever we come across a running stream.

Another summary for the past few days ... The bugs are back! The skeeters are out for sure; but the horseflies have been the worst! They like to buzz around and around your head as you are hiking, then dive bomb and burrow in your hair. Deal has been practicing his Mr. Miagi one-hand kill of those little suckers, but I think his count is only up to 10 or so and that is not enough. Plus, this plan of action has failed a few times as he has lost his balance and fallen a few of the times ...

One low point on Tuesday. We came upon trail magic in the woods (sodas left in the river), but it was all taken! Boo!

A few miles later, however, we had heard about a blue house that had water and ice cream. There was no ice cream, but there were sodas for sale!!! Yippee!

PS-We have straightened out most of our gear issues ... I got a new pack, Deal got new shoes (Merrell sent him a new pair for FREE! DEAL!).

That's it for now. Since we are now done with NH, I will do a summary tomorrow. You know, since I won't be hiking tomorrow!!

Mile 398.5 - Days 27-35

2011-07-10T21:21:00.002-04:00

Hello from Glencliff, NH! I know it's been awhile and you are all awaiting an update! We have been without services for most of our NH hike. But, today we took a nero at a hiker hostel. And once again, this town has no cell service, but has wireless Internet. All I really wanted was a shower; it's been 9 days!!

We have just 44 miles left in NH! Unlike Maine, NH flew by. And we've enjoyed just about every second of it.

Before I start my recap, I have to do some 'splainin' about NH. One of the reasons NH is a little dreaded is because of its camping regulations. Obviously, no camping above treeline (much of the hiking is above treeline). You have to pay at most of the established sites. Then there are also huts. The huts are rustic camps that provide a bunk, dinner & breakfast ... All for $90 to $130 per person. It's great for families because they get to try out backpacking without all the fuss. Not great for thru hikers because they fill up quickly and we can't make reservations. Plus, they are a little out of the hiker budget. If I am paying $90, I definitely want a shower!!! The huts have running water, but no showers. For thru hikers, they do offer a work-for-stay program. They assign you some work, and you get to sleep in the common room on the floor and eat leftovers. Sounds awesome, right?

With that being said, we had a great experience at the huts. We got something from every one. Here's a summary in order of appearance:

Carter Notch Hut-we arrived at 7pm on a Saturday knowing we probably wouldn't get work-for-stay, but gave it a try. No dice because they already had a thru hiker doing work-for-stay. But, they did give us 5 lbs of leftover turkey!!! The hut peeps don't want leftovers because they have to carry out all the trash!

Madison Hut-we arrived at 11am on a Monday and they gave us leftover pancakes!!! Which was awesome since I was dreaming about pancakes the night before!

Lakes of the Clouds-we got there at 5 on the 4th of July in hopes of getting work-for-stay. And we got it, along with 2 other NOBOs who were already there. We ate all the dinner leftovers (chili and some Indian dish on America's bday). Right around our bedtime, we got our work assignments ... Separate recycleables. Took us 15-30 minutes ... Yippee! The downside was sleeping on benches and the floor in the common room, where people walk through all night long to use the restroom. And you had to be up and packed up by 6am. Not the best night sleep on the trail, but it's a place to stay when you are above treeline.

Mizpah Spring Hut-we arrived at 10ish and got free leftover oatmeal!

Zealand Falls Hut-we arrived around 9 and got free oatmeal!

Galehead Hut-we arrived around 2 and they said we could do work-for-stay that night, but it was too early for us to stay. So we just ate their chocolate chip bread!

Lonesome Lake Hut-we got there around 5 and secured work-for-stay. Our work was to sweep the floors and organize 2 shelves, one of our favorite things to do. Plus, Deal worked his magic and got us a bunk room instead of having to sleep on the floor of them common room! The food there was awesome ... BBQ beef for dinner and pancakes for breakfast (Deal ate 20!)

So we enjoyed the huts for their food, water (no need to filter!), weather reports, free food and occasional lodging! Thank you huts!

Anyways, back to hiking in NH. It was awesome. I had forgotten how beautiful hiking in NH was especially when there are views. We had great weather (thanks for the good weather vibes!). Just 2 days of rain and a few nights. One thunder/lightening storm that occurred shortly after we set up our tent.

When we left Gorham, we separated from Fire Marshall to make getting work-for-stay easier. I think it was a good choice, though we missed him! In the past few days, we slowed down for him to catch up and he pulled a big mileage day, so we reunited last night.

It took us less time to get through the White Mountains than we anticipated, probably because of the weather. We tried not to have an agenda, and surpassed our expectations almost every day. For example, our first day out, we planned a 9-mile day, but ended up doing 15!

I really enjoyed the Whites. We had a great day on Mt. Washington (probably because Bolt wasn't with us this time). We spent about 1.5 seconds there to avoid tourist central on the 4th of July!

Definitely some hard hiking in NH, but a lot of the trails are so beaten because of high usage. And NH is only 1% bog, unlike Maine. And it's so rewarding. I think that makes a huge difference.

Now, don't get me wrong. There are some sections I strongly disliked. For example, I don't think you could pay me enough to hike up and over Madison again. That hike killed me. And I was just so slow the rest of the day.

I also never want to do the downhill from Webster Cliffs. Or the 1-mile downhill from Kinsman. Or the downhill from Wildcat in the rain. If you are sensing a pattern here, you got it. We hate the downhill.

But, like I said, the hiking was quite enjoyable. We did see more tourists per day than we saw in the entire state of Maine! But there were times we saw no one on the trail early in the morning ... Like on MOOSILAUKEE. That never happens apparently.

In terms of mail drops, I never told y'all, but we decided to skip our scheduled mail drop in Glencliff. We had gotten so much food from the huts, we just didn't need much of a resupply. I couldn't update you on that because of the lack of cell service. So I'm sorry if you were planning to send us something ... There will be other opportunities!

But we did pick up our mail drop in Pinkham Notch, and the worker said, "I do believe you guys are the most popular thru hikers ever." We had 3 packages and 3 letters!! Thank you!

We have also encountered some great trail magic in NH. One day, we were hiking and all of the sudden, I saw a red cooler in the woods. It was left by a 2007 SOBO thru hiker! No drinks left in it, but there were chips and cookies! A very welcome treat!

Then, just yesterday, we got to a road crossing and a picnic area. As we were sitting down to eat our crackers for lunch (we were definitely low on supplies), a truck pulled up and gave us sandwiches, a banana and some chips! It was the owners of a hostel in Maine handing out trail magic! We've also gotten leftover snacks, whiskey and Gatorade from weekend hikers, so this could be another reason I've loved hiking in NH.

The only other piece of bad news in NH is that our gear is breaking left and right. My pack strap is broken. Deal's shoes are falling apart. One of our sporks broke again. Our Jet Boil stove ignitor no longer works. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we never pay full price for anything, but geeze louise.

So, 40 miles left in NH. We are planning to get to
Second Nature and Grateful's house in Lebanon on Wednesday and may actually take a ZERO day ... So until then!

Location:Mt Moosilauke Hwy,Woodsville,United States

Happy Birthday America!

2011-07-04T20:00:00.002-04:00

From the top of Mt. Washington!!

MAINE - 1 state down, 13 to go!

2011-07-02T07:06:00.002-04:00

So we've finished Maine! It was exactly 281.4 miles, the second longest state on the trail. I wouldn't exactly call ME easy, but the challenges were rewarded with incredible beauty, much of it in remote wilderness.

Here's a recap of Maine ...
24 days
11 nights slept in a tent
8 nights slept in a lean-to shelter

5 nights slept in a bed
5 showers
13 river crossings

29 NOBO thru hikers spotted (we definitely missed a few)
12 falls for Steadee (a fall means feet out from under you ... So we've slipped many more times)/ 8 falls for Deal
5 dig-a-hole poop-in-the-woods experiences for Deal/1 for Steadee

2 times our water source was yellow

2 iPod days

Wildlife: 1 million toads, 10 snakes, 5 loons, 3 grouse or ptarmigans, 2 moose (3 more in towns), 3 snowshoe hares, 1 porcupine
23 Silver AT markers in the ground

Advice for hiking in ME:
Wear a headnet.
Keep mouth closed.
Practice rock hopping in free time, but make sure to add oil and grease to rocks to make it realistic.
When you fall, fall on your pack.
When you grab a tree root to hoist yourself up, make sure it is connected to the ground.

Weird things we found in ME's wilderness: crashed car, boxers, shorts, flannel shirt, hat, engine, pair of boots, white sneakers, aluminum siding, thermal underwear, wheelbarrow, jeans, pipes, fishing pole, construction signs, full Gatorade packet (which Deal decided was trail magic and drank!!)

Best quotes/conversations:
In Monson (our first trail town)
Us to clerk: We'd like to order an Italian sub.
Clerk: what kind of meat would you like?
Us: whatever comes on an Italian sub ... Ham, salami, pepperoni ...
Clerk: No, you only get 1 meat
Other customer: you're in monson, man. (mind you this happened in another town in Maine)

At a shelter we shared with 2 boys' camps
Camp Counselor to young camper: it's better if you just don't look down. Don't worry, I'll be right outside. (this was in reference to the privy)

At the shelter our first night camping
Deal to a fellow SOBO: why are you digging a hole right in front of the shelter? (we dig holes to poop)
Fellow SOBO: it's for my footbath!
This is how he got the trail name Foot-Z

Onto New Hampshire, acclaimed to be the hardest state on the trail because much of it is above treeline (which can bring risky weather). And there are some strict (and expensive) camping regulations. So here's to the next 160 miles of our adventure!

Location:U.S. 2,Gorham,United States

Mile 297.9 - Days 23-26

2011-07-01T18:13:00.002-04:00

Hello from Gorham, NH, where we are enjoying yet another wonderful hiker hostel!

We have finished Maine!!! It feels so good to have one state under our belt. A real mental boost for sure. But, Maine did not let us get out without a few more bumps and bruises ... Here's a recap of the last few days.

Deal, Fire Marshall and I left Andover with full bellies and high hopes of a big mileage day to get us closer to the infamous Mahoosuc Notch - "the hardest mile on the trail."

Anyways, we had about 5 peaks to go up and over on Tuesday. We had to really psych ourselves up for it, but we kept each other motivated all day and it ended up being one of our best days so far.

So we woke up the next morning at Speck Pond Shelter and the caretaker (this was the first of many shelter where we have to pay) told us it was 100% chance of rain. Boy were our spirits dampened and I was cursing you, blog readers, since we requested good weather vibes for the "hardest mile on the trail." Well, it didn't rain all day (just the next 2 days).

As for the Mahoosuc Notch ... We had fun! Sure a hard and slow mile (2 hours) because of all the bouldering ... But at least it was something different.

On Thursday at 11:30 am, we entered NH! Not without trial and tribulation ...

First of all, it was raining. The bogs, slippery rocks and mud were just bad news.

Right before the NH border, we got lost. The white blazes seemed to completely disappear. By the time we reached the border, we were pretty fed up with Maine.

Anyways, that is all behind us now and we are ready for a new state and new challenges! I hope to post a summary of Maine tonight!

Location:U.S. 2,Gorham,United States

Mile 256.5 - Days 20 - 22

2011-06-27T19:07:00.002-04:00

The trail has definitely beaten us up these past few days!! We have been with Fire Marshall since we left Rangeley and we all agree we are ready to get out of Maine.

As if the bogtastic bogs were not bad enough on their own, the mass amount of rainfall we got made them so much worse. The trail is wet, wet, wet. Which makes it slick, slick, slick. We fall like it is our business. There was one day that Deal fell 5 times!! To say he wasn't a happy hiker is an understatement!

This morning, Fire Marshall declared he was going to hike a short day and go to the hostel in Andover, ME. Deal & I debated the whole way whether we should follow or not. The thing is, the last 25 miles of Maine are going to be difficult. And we were planning a short day anyways. So why not take a short day and hit a town??? These damn hostels are just too appealing with their showers, laundry and good town food!

So, let me recap the last 3 days ...

We drank water (which we treated with our awesome new filter) that was a lovely shade of yellow.

We slipped on rocks, broken bog bridges, tree roots, mud piles ... Why even bother doing laundry?

We went up and over a number of butt-kicking mountains at the end of the day, which required the motivation of our I-pods.

We saw 2 moose off the trail! They were too far for a good picture, but a good memory.

We weighed ourselves at the hostel and both lost 13 pounds! I do believe our hiker appetite has finally kicked in because we have been hungrier and hungrier in the past few days.

We had 2 detours on the trail and they sucked BIG time. Deal thinks maybe some kindergarteners re-routed the trail because surely the ME AT club wouldn't put hikers through such shenanigans. A NOBO advised us to take the blue detour (Moody Mtn) instead of the orange one that the sign said. Thank the good lord we did or else we would have gone straight down a landslide!

Anyways, we are enjoying another night in town where we can dry out and prepare for the last 25 miles of Maine! We have one section coming up on Wednesday called Mahoosuc Notch and it has the reputation of being the "hardest mile on the trail" because of all the bouldering you have to do. PLEASE send good weather vibes our way!

Location:Pine St,,United States

Mile 220 - Days 17 - 19

2011-06-25T03:33:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Rangeley, ME! We are in the process of receiving the best trail magic evah! Remember I mentioned we've been hiking and camping on and off with a fellow SOBO Fire Marshall? For the past few days, he has been 1 day ahead of us. His family came up from VA to vacation in Rangeley and he of course wanted to meet them. We talked about maybe catching up to him in Rangeley, but didn't make set plans. Well, today we came off the trail looking and smelling like sewer rats and attempted (unsuccessfully) to hitchhike into Rangeley (no cell service of course). A car pulls up and it's a friend of Fire Marshall's family. She said she'll call him and tell him to come pick us up ... Not only did he pick us up, but he told us his parents insisted we stay at the house with his whole family!!! We tried to say no, but the offer was too good to pass up ... It gets better. We got to the house, showered, did laundry and they invited us for a DELICIOUS smorgasbord, complete with chicken, fish, pasta salad, beans ... Did I mention his family is in the restaurant business? So we are basically on cloud 9. Got to love Southern hospitality!!

Now onto trail updates ...

We are 10% done with the trail!!! Or as Deal would say, we only have 90% left ...

In the past few days, the weather definitely took a turn for the worst. They say the rain in Maine is a pain. Okay, maybe they don't say that, but it seems right. Not to mention we've traversed over 10,000 feet of elevation change, including climbing up Maine's largest ski area Sugarloaf (it was biotch to climb).

On Thursday, we got to a lean-to around 2ish and decided to just hunker down because the rain was so bad. We had a huge mountain range with 3 miles of above-treeline ridge walking (Saddleback Mtn) coming up and the signs warned not to attempt in bad weather ... Well we awoke this morning to the same conditions. We decided to attempt the trek. We are used to being in bad weather on mountains and at least there wasn't any lightning (That only happens when we hike with our friend Bolt).

So we hiked up the range and it was as terrible as we imagined it would be. Pelting hail that has left indentations on the left side of our faces, 70+ MPH wind gusts ... It took everything in me to stay upright. But, we survived. We do have a lot of guardian angels looking out for us!

Another funny story ... On Wednesday night, I was just about asleep, when Deal woke me up because he said there were bunnies outside of the lean-to. I thought it was the Advil PM daze, until I sat up and realized he was in an intense staring contest with a bunny on steroids. No, seriously, the bunny's paws were the size of Connecticut. And his eyes were a deep shade of red popping out of his head. It was one of the most surreal moments in my life. We thought we were in Alice's Wonderland. Side note ... We later found out that these are the immense snowshoe hares of Maine that often feast on thru hikers. Not sure why we were spared ...

More rain for the next couple of days, but at least we are dry for now! Thanks again for all the comments and e-mails ... I hope to actually return some messages one of these days ... Internet time is extremely limited!

PS - we are thinking of you Rec Committee as you prepare for the big 4th of July event!!

Mile 187.8 - Days 13-16

2011-06-22T07:59:00.002-04:00

The last update I gave you was from the Northern Outdoors Center, where we hobnobbed with some NOBOs and enjoyed the center's luxuries. We even ran into some friends from NH (Grant and Jill who run Untamed New England Adventure Race). They gave us a dose of trail magic by picking up our tab at the bar!!! (did I mention there was a brewery there?)

On Sunday morning, we took the official canoe shuttle across the Kennebunk River at 9 and started following the white blazes again.

The last few days, the weather has been fantastic with nice breezes and less bugs (except of course when you stop moving and they swarm you). We have gone over some of Maine's bigger mountains (we have three 4,000 footers today!), so the terrain has definitely changed from the boggy mess (with the exception of one section where we crossed a crazy damn that was a little scary - see below).

Another highlight is that we attacked by a territorial grouse trying to protect her young!

Also, we hit the 2,000 mile marker, meaning we have less than 2,000 miles left! Today we should hit 200 miles, meaning Maine is almost over.

Last night, we spent the night at a hostel in Stratton as a last-minute decision at the road crossing. So many NOBOs recommended it. Glad we stopped because as with the hostel in Monson, the lady is selling and we are already dreaming!

We did get some sad news the other day that our fellow SOBO Overload had to get off the trail because part of his toe fell off!!! It is a bummer because we enjoyed hiking and camping with him on and off. There are about 10ish SOBOs that we have met and some of them have already gotten off the trail ... One guy (Fire Marshall) is still in front of us (we think) and 2 other guys (Lexus and FootZ) are 1 day behind us. By the way, these are all trail names and hopefully I will explain them someday!

Also not sure if this posted the other day, but we will be arriving to our next mail drop - Pinkham Notch - earlier than we expected. So if you were planning to send anything via regular mail, do it by June 23. Our ETA is July 3.

Location:Carrabassett Rd,Stratton,United States

Mile 151.2 - Days 11-13

2011-06-18T14:31:00.002-04:00

Hello from the Northern Outdoors Center in The Forks, ME (population 31), where there is no cell service, but there is free wireless!

Three days ago, we left the luxuries of Monson. We had a mail drop to pick up in Caratuck, so we had a choice. We could either hoof it in 3 days to make it to the post office by the time it closed Sat morning at 11:15, or we could take our time and make it by the time it opened Monday at 7:15 am. We decided to take the slow route ... until we started hiking out of Monson.

We made it an easy 9 miles to our camping spot by lunch time! Plus, our friend Fire Marshall Mac that we have been hiking with since the beginning was doing a push for 18 miles that day. Being we felt good that day and the trail was pretty easy (despite a terrible bogtastic reroute of the trail due to beaver activity and 3 river crossings), we pressed on. We ended up tenting at the Moxie Bald Lean-To with a beautiful view and a great cool-down in the lake (who needs showers??)

The 18 miles really didn't feel like 18 miles, I swear.

So then Friday we did 13 miles. Those 13 miles actually felt more like 18 miles ... Probably has something to do with the mountains thrown in there, the heat, and the redunkulous bugs. Plenty more of that to come!

So today, we planned an early wake up (6ish) to hike the 6ish mile to the post office. Well, between the damn bugs (we slept in the shelter with head nets on) and a very loud sheltermate, we were up and out of there by 6!

Anyways, we made it to the PO with plenty of time to spare and then headed over to our "lodging" for the night (a canvas tent) at the Northern Outdoors center. We have once again showered, laundered clothes and ate real food! We will head out early tomorrow to catch the canoe "ferry" across the Kennebec River that only runs from 9-11am (they don't allow you to cross it on foot since too many people died or almost died trying).

As for my wildlife report, we still haven't seen an alive moose on the trail, but we saw a carcass! We also saw a porcupine (I was too startled and too slow to get a picture).

I also forgot to mention that thanks to Paul (AKA Second Nature - never said in my last post that he did the AT in 1998) & Kristen, I can identify 2 plants...lady slippers and trillium. That is the extent of my knowledge ... It's just a tunnel of green!

Well, I think that's all I have to say for now. Happy Father's Day to all the men in our life and Happy Birthday to SILAdventure ... I don't think we'll have cell service to call! Keep the comments coming ... They really help!

Location:The Forks,United States

Mile 114.5 - Days 1-10 Part Dos

2011-06-15T22:04:00.002-04:00

The laundry is done and we are ready to hit the trail early tomorrow morning with clean clothes, clean bodies and full bellies.

Monson has been a blast. Trail towns can definitely reel you in with their super hospitality and local culture. We are here with 5 other SOBOs we've been hiking on and off with (see, we aren't the only crazy ones!)

Anyways, back to the last 10 days...

The trail in Maine has been pretty awesome. We just love the serenity and remoteness you find here. Aside from the bugs, bogtastic bogs (think thick mud) and occasional trees down in the middle of the trail, the Maine AT Club does a fantastic job of maintaining the trail. Here are some pictures of what the trail looks like:

We have also forded (crossed) 7 rivers. I was most nervous about that, but I actually enjoy it!! And for me and my "Steadee"
self, it is much better than rock hopping!

For the record, I have only fallen 3 times (not in the rivers, just on stupid rocks and tree roots). Deal has only fallen once in comparison.

Now onto bathroom talk. The outhouses have been decent and I have only had to dig one hole ... To do bizness... Deal has dug 3! Don't worry, we'll keep a count for you.

Lastly, no exciting wildlife to report. Lots of moose poop, but the only time we saw one was when we were driving into Baxter State Park to start. Lots of toads, 3 loons, 2 snakes, and what we thought was a grouse but others said was a partridge??

Okay, gotta go to bed ... Way past our bedtime. THANK YOU all again for all the comments on the blog, facebook, e-mails, texts, etc! We can't get back to everyone, but we are loving the love! Keep em coming and we will update soon!

Oh, one last thing. I did update our Flckr album on the sidebar of the blog, so if you want more pictures (especially of our gross feet), check it out. I didn't label them yet though.

Location:S Main St,Monson,United States