After another long day of hiking, I am fairly exhausted and ready for sleep, but here is a brief update before I do. I have arrived in the small town I Palmerton, PA, just off of the trail. It is a fairly friendly town, with a free place for hikers to stay the night.

There is word of a “polar vortex” on the way. I’m not sure when or how long it will last… or anything about it really. But cooler weather is definitely my preference.

Today was probably the rockiest hiking yet. It did not discourage me, but my legs are definitely tired tonight.

This stretch of hiking has been great because of the views! It was actually a fairly popular stretch of the trail today, connected with other trails and spotted with day hikers, and I’m not surprised.

Some hikers were less impressed, calling it Rocksylvania and wishing it over with. The rocks are tiresome, and you do feel it in your feet, but that’s all part of it.

I meditated at one such view for a while, where Teabag caught up to me.

At the view, I also met a day hiker who had been to Hershey Park and gave me a factory- fresh candy bar! I want to take a moment of silence now to honor all of the awesome people who have provided me with trail magic. Whether you are the candy bar guy, the man who gave me a ride the other day, or the woman who gave me a soda. This hike is a difficult trek, and it would not be possible without all of you! Thank you!

Last night, the weather forecast told me there was a 0% chance of rain, so I decided to sleep in my hammock. With no tarp or rain cover – the best way to use a hammock. It was a wonderful recline… until it started to rain. I was trying to think of what to do. My sleepy instinct was to cover myself with hammock fabric and fall back asleep. It worked for a time, but I was getting wet and pretty uncomfortable.

I packed up my hammock and began hiking. The rain let up soon after, but I was not all that bitter about it. It actually was pretty nice. Sure, it was very dark and lonely, but I listened to podcasts and sang songs to keep myself company. I felt bad about leaving Teabag behind, but I think he had dove for the shelter of his tent at some point.

The cool air was awesome to hike in. I had been hiking for hours and was barely sweating. Dry shoelaces and all! I watched the sun come up through the trees and enjoyed the quiet morning air, mist slithering around in valleys below.

After some time, I reached the town of Port Clinton. Because it was still so early, I was barely phased by the morning miles. I got some groceries and some letters and talked to a few locals. A girl named Sarah tried to trade me a Sriracha tshirt for my hat. I said I would only trade it for another hat.

Still haven’t found Teabag yet, but I’m sure I will soon. After a few hours, I headed back into the woods. Since then, I have had three hikers say to me, “Doesn’t it feel good to be back in the woods?” Yes. Yes, it does.

Here is a nice view from an overlook in Pennsylvania:

The ground is rocky here – not always, and very seldom excessively so. From the rumors I heard, I expected PA to be only a path of jagged stone spikes. Often, it is simply a noticeably rockier terrain.

Also, you can see that the view is not simply mountains. Now that we are further North, this is even more common. Often, you will see farmlands and towns very near the Appalachian Trail.

We are heading to bed early tonight in order to wake up early and take advantage of the cool morning hours for hiking. Goodnight!

We stopped in town after hiking for a few miles today, and we were able to take care of a few things. Buying some snack foods for the next few days was at the top of the list. So was laundry.

What made laundry difficult was that we had to wear something while we washed our clothes. You would think we would have this down by now, but it’s a new adventure every time. We wore the clothes that we had worn the least recently – all of the warmest clothing in the 90 degree heat.

Luckily, to keep from melting, we went to the pub, where we watched the craziest soccer game I have ever seen! This area had a tornado warning, which was an excuse for us to get a hotel room for the night.

Temporary luxury. Looking forward to moving up out of Pennsylvania soon, and meeting with other hikers.

The last couple of days have been focused on moving and making miles. In order to make it to Maine by a reasonable time, we have to average 15 miles a day. This is not physically all too challenging for us, but I is challenging to fit it in with all the fun we need to have!

The hiking has been very pleasant recently. Yes, it has been hot for a northerner, and yes, Pennsylvania is rocky, but not unreasonably so.

When I hiked through the Smokey Mountains, everything was pretty miserable: rain, snow, fog, cold, crowds, itineraries, and generally low morale. One hiker jokingly said, “Well, at least there’s no bugs.” And that’s exactly right. A lot of people tend to dwell on the negative things that are happening instead of the positive.

Even so, the rocky terrain is not all that bad. And there have been more views recently too.

Aside from simply enjoying life as a mountain man, I have been kicking around ideas of what adventures to pursue after the Appalachian Trail. Teabag said he would thru hike the North Country Trail with me, which would be quite the trip. We would be somewhere around the 3rd and 4th thru hikers.

I’ll close with a poem I left at the most recent shelter:

Well, we hiked a solid morning and became entranced by the magic of the town. Now that we are officially in the North, there are towns everywhere! And the towns know what hikers want, or more to the point, the towns know how to get our money.

This is the second town that the trail goes directly through in two days. It’s pretty hard to avoid ice cream and burgers when you have to walk right by them. And, of course, pool!

So we ended up playing for most of the day, and hanging out with other hikers.

Later, we ended up visiting a brat food truck, the greatest brat food truck I have enjoyed, topped with delicious sauerkraut. Richard, the owner, was very kind, giving me a free brat! Schnitzel’s Brat Stop is a must see.

But it is our last stop for today. We are getting tired, and we have a lot of hiking to do tomorrow.

In order to avoid the heat AND the worst of the thunderstorm, we left town at 10pm. From what I have heard, a lot of our weather has been from the hurricane on the coast. We are so far inland that hurricanes can only affect us indirectly, but it still means a lot of rain and wind.

What made it even more adventurous was this: the first 14 miles out of town were mostly farmland and did not allow camping. We wanted to make it to the shelter anyhow, which was the end of those 14 miles. We finally did, early in the morning, in a thick cloud. I could only see about four feet in front of me, so hiking had slowed quite a bit.

We slept. Until about 2pm. I read an entire book: The Little Prince. We slowly woke up, talked, goofed around. Other hikers came and thought us strange.

Finally, we packed up and began to hike again. Many were going into town for July 4th, but we opted for the shelter nearby. I don’t think we missed much in the way of fireworks or celebration. We had our own festivities.

Well, the heat and humidity has gone beyond intense and has reached a level of difficulty I did not expect. Part of this is the danger of sunburn, as Pennsylvania has more open trail in pastures and less tree cover, but it is also the amount of sweat. It’s not healthy!

My group has decided to focus on doing night hiking and hiking when the shade and temperatures are optimal.

Otherwise, the hiking has been great. There have been fun sights, and it feels great to be in the groove of hiking.

We are now in the town of Boiling Springs, enjoying the town. When it cools down, we will hike out.

Today was a warm one, and humid! Wow! All of me was wet the entire day. Even my shoelaces were wet. How does that happen?

Elevation definitely does not help, causing me to drip with sweat immediately. When the warmer part of the day arrived, we stopped at a store near the trail. The store had sandwiches, drinks, and air conditioning. It was dreamy.

Hopefully, the heat and humidity cools down for a while. It makes hiking quite a challenge. In hammock now, swatting away the bugs. Goodnight!