Windsor Furnace PA

This morning, I stumbled across this peaceful pond after an hour of hiking. Shortly afterwards, I startled a few deer but wasn't able to grab my camera before they were long gone! Today is an easy day; I'm heading into Port Clinton for a night in a free hostel, for a 6.1 mile total. Tomorrow will bring another large climb, so today's slacking is justified.

The Pinnacle Eckville PA

I just finished the 1,000 foot climb to the Pinnacle, which was easier than I expected because of smooth trails. Lots of hawks up here! There have also been several hikers enjoying the view with me. Just 4 miles left until camp!

Dan's pulpit PA

I just stumbled on this great view after about 5 miles of uphill hiking. Now i just have 2 miles left downhill, hopefully there aren't any cliffs to scale! I met three day hikers today going the opposite direction who warned me of more rocky terrain; they weren't kidding! I must mend my feet tonight, but otherwise i'm doing great!

Allentown shelter PA

What you see in the picture is a typical AT Shelter. They are scattered along the trail every 5 Or so miles. Today, I hiked 11 miles (10 on the trail and 0.5 to and from a spring), and i am exhausted! The terrain was extremely rocky and there were a few toug h climbs. On a lighter note, i almost fell flat on my back after two turkeys shot out of some bushes next to the trail! I thought i was done for with the amount of noise they made! Thankfully, i survived.

Bake oven knob PA

Only two miles on the trail and i already have been rewarded with a great view! Thanks goes to the old guy for driving me to the trail! Wish me luck!

Does anybody want to buy a Porsche?

It is Saturday and I haven't left yet. I won't go into too many details, but I have been tying up a lot of loose-ends and working on getting my car, a 1983 Porsche 944, ready to sell. Do you want to pick up a project car? This has been taking a lot of my time, but I am set to hit the trail tomorrow morning!

One of those loose-ends was writing a mass-email to pretty much everybody that I know (at least everybody that I remember I know)... which took over two hours to do because I didn't have any email addresses stored in MD and ended up having to look up every single email address. If I forgot to include you, I am sorry! No offense intended! Well, maybe... just to you Andy! I just wasn't cut out to be a spammer.

My pack officially weighs 42 pounds at most (with two liters of water and about seven days worth of food on board). Without the food and water, the bag should be tipping the scales at about 26 pounds. Not too bad.

Testing for text message!

Testing for text message!


...Well, it seems as though I will be able to use my cell phone to do updates while on the trail! (The above message came from my cell phone!!!) Those posts will not be as long as these past few... but I'll try and get as much info in them as possible and update them once I am in front of a computer!

As this is my last post before I begin the trek, I thought that it would be a good idea to let everyone know where I finally decided to begin hiking: The Delaware Water Gap. It is at the northern end of the PA section of the trail, which is approximately 231 miles away from the MD state line.

If all goes according to plan, I should reach MD by the end of September and have a convenient chance to bail out then (family members with AC are located conveniently close to the trail right over the MD state line!). If I don't bail, I should finish the MD and WV portions of the trail in a few days and be set to tackle the mere 550 miles of trail wandering through Virginia!

Wish me luck!