YEAH....'MERICA!!

Howdy!

I am hanging out in a very quaint little town called Boiling Springs, PA.  It's very nice here.  It seems like this would be a place where older couples who want to escape to a nice little town come to go buy a house.  Or maybe I am just so used to sleeping in the woods that every town I come across now is just heaven.  ANYWAYS life is still good for me.  Surprisingly, hiking is still not boring for me.  I'd like to think that I am veryyyy good at occupying myself while walking.  I have always daydreamed a lot in my life, so I just daydream a bunch out here and that keeps me occupied.  I am incredibly tired of all my songs on my mp3 player though.

So, we finally made it out of Virginia!  Right after Virginia, you walk through West Virgina, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.  Some crazy people decide that they want to try and go walk through all of these states in less than 24 hours to complete the 4 state challenge.  The 4 state challenge is 44 miles long.  These people that decide to try this are also crazy as well.  I mean, the longest day I have had so far is 25 miles and my body is killing me after that.  I couldn't imagine doing 20 EXTRA miles after that...but apparently people finish it!

We were hiking with one of our good buds named Walk Hard who attempted to do the challenge.  We haven't seen him for a few days, so I don't think he finished the challenge.  He went to the doctor for pain in his hip, and the doctor said that he had a case of dancer's hip.  I couldn't help but LOL at that diagnosis.  Anyhootie hopefully he will catch up with us soon cause he is a hoot.  He is a southern boy from Birmingham, Alabama, and I would like to classify him as a smart dumbass.  He is college educated, and from having a conversation with him you can tell that he is pretty darn smart.  But, he is one of those guys that if you dare him to do anything wreckless or stupid, he would definitely do it.  Anyways, he is awesome and I hope he catches up with him.  Everything he says is comedy gold.  Something about that southern accent makes everything funny.

The biggest challenge now is hiking in the heat.  It's just so damn hot.  And you smelll SUUUUPER bad now since you sweat 24/7.  It's a challenge trying to go to sleep in your tent when its still 80 degrees out at 9 PM and there is no breeze.  Thaaatttsss real fun.  

OK. PICTURES.

Here is me just climbing up some mountains somewhere in Virginia.  We climbed all along the top of the mountains in the left side of the picture.  They were tough.

Here is an example of some hiker trash.  We were staying at a church hostel somewhere in Virginia.  From left to right, it's me, Walk Hard, Vaz, and Banjo.  The old guy in the back is Pressure D.  They are all good people.

Here is a common way of communicating with hikers on the trail.  LEAVING NOTES!  Pretty cool.  'Mailman' is the hikers name.

Mountains somewhere in Virginia.

The Roller coaster is in the last part of Virginia.  Its basically like 13 mini mountains in about a ten mile distance.  It was not easy, but my BEASTLY legs got me through it in a few hours.

Still don't freaking know how to rotate pictures on this Mac computer, nor do I know how to do it on this blogspot website.  Sorry!  Anyways, this hostel we stayed at allowed us to borrow their clothes while we were washing ours.  They only had a womens skirt left.  Most men might decide to not wear it, but if you know me I HAVE NO SHAME!!!  LOOK AT THOSE BEASTLY LEGS!! ;)

I like these green plants along the trail.  They make the flat parts of the trail a little more exciting.

Cool view going across the bridge to enter into Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.



So Harpers Ferry, West Virginia is the "mental halfway point" on  the A.T, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is there.  At this place, they get to take your picture for their records, and you are one step closer to becoming a legitimate thru hiker!

Look at that stud muffin!

Here is a large group of hikers getting their pictures taken at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

This is us chilling under a tree in Harpers Ferry.  It was about 2 PM and hot as balls when this was taken, so we waited until about 5 PM until it cooled off to hike out of town.

Cool view exiting Harpers Ferry.

This is the ORIGINAL washington monument.  Looks like a glass milk container to me.

 Here is the view from the top of the monument.

Almost halfway there!!!

Mad props to the volunteers of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club.  They have had the BEST shelters on the trail so far.  It's amazing that basically the entire Appalachian Trail is maintained by volunteers.  But hey, I guess when you experience something as beautiful as the A.T, its easy for some to give back by volunteering.

Wooooo!!!  I'm halfway there!  And if there was any of you people out there that thought I would pussy out and quit can go SUCK IT!  I'm more than halfway done, THERE AIN'T NO WAY I'M QUITTING NOW!  (I probably just jinxed myself and I will blow out my ACL and have to quit the trail, oops)

So, just after you pass the halfway mark, there is a convience store along the trail that is home to the HALF GALLON CHALLENGE.  All you have to do is eat a half gallon of ice cream.  In normal life, this would probably be hard...butttt in hiker life....

IT'S A PIECE OF CAKE!  I finished in about 15 minutes.  I didn't realize how many calories are in a half gallon of ice cream.  I ate this around noon, and I wasn't hungry until 8 PM that night.  That is AMAZING for me, since my metabolism makes me have to eat every 2 hours or so.

Alright, I'm done!

Lighthouse out!