1515 miles Great Barrington Massachusetts

Another state down!  Dan has made it through CT and entered MA and is currently in Great Barrington.  He has not been feeling well lately.  He began showing symptoms consistent with lyme disease so we got him on antibiotics.  Unfortunately the medicine has made him feel nauseated and possibly caused an ulcer.  Hopefully everything will get back to normal in a few days when he comes off the medicine.

Dan found a trail party and took a day off on July 4th.  He was able to enjoy some food , shower, laundry, ice cream and beer courtesy of a kind trail magic provider.  He met Buddy Backpacker who is currently attempting to become the youngest thru hiker ever to complete the A.T.  He turned 5 years old on April 1 and plans to complete the triple crown by the time he turns 8.  ( Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail)

Thanks again to everyone who is following along with Dan, and here are the current photos:

Pigpen and Buddy Backpacker

Biggest Oak on the A T

Trail in Hay Field



Favorite CT View



Falls on Housatonic River

Housatonic River




Above the Clouds in MA

 

1400 Miles passing through NY

Pigpen is moving along through NY and reports that it is one of his favorite states so far and very beautiful.  It's interesting in that a lot of the wilderness he's been in the last couple of days is less than an hour from NY City.  The hiking has been tough and slow with a lot of rain and slippery conditions.  He passed by the lowest point on the trail yesterday at 124 ft. elevation near a trailside zoo.  Now that he's in the north, he's getting a lot more town food as the trail is closer to civilization.  He reported yesterday that he ate an insane amount of pizza and ice cream.  Here's a few pics from the last 2 days:

Waterfall

Lemon Squeezer

Hudson River

Bridge over Hudson River

Does and fawn

Trailside Zoo

Pigpen Tracker - 1365 miles and now in New York!

Pigpen Update -  Dan has now made it through 2 more states, PA and NJ since the last post and has racked up 1365 miles.  His estimated completion date now is mid August.  He's been hiking with 3 other young men for the past week or so and they are really moving along.

PA was as rocky as it's reputation.  New Jersey was a lot of swampy land with some boardwalks.  Dan saw a few bears in NJ and even got bluff charged by one.  Trail Magic continues to magically appear at opportune times.  One one occasion, a woman gave the 4 hikers a ride from the trail into town, made arrangements to pick them back up, and then took them to her home where they swam with her 2 sons in their pool and got some laundry done.  On another occasion a man was day hiking with his young son when they bumped into Pigpen and the other 3.  They talked a while and the young boy told his dad that they ought to hike it together some day.  The man later tracked the hikers down and gave them $20 to get a drink at the next town on him. 

Here are the current batch of pics:

Trail through the fields outside Boiling Springs PA

The Taj Mahal outhouse. Dan wasn't impressed.

Pigpen

Foot Bridge over the Susquehanna River

Snake (again)

Delaware River

Camping at the Beer Stein at Wind Gap

Dan's Tent

Bear

Small Buck

Trail alongside highway over Delaware River

View of Delaware River

Boardwalk over swampy area in NJ

Dan at highest peak in NJ

Highpoint Monument

NJ / NY state line

Father's Day with Pigpen ------ 1/2 way!!!

Hammer Time reporting here on my awesome 4 day hike with Pigpen over Father's Day weekend.  I drove up from GA to PA last Wed intending to begin hiking with Dan and Kara on Thur, but some pretty severe storms blew in. I was able to talk Dan into taking a day off and we got a good start on Friday.  It did Kara good to rest and she pretty much slept straight through 36 hours.

We started at the PA line on Friday, which was mile point 1059.6 in Dan's hike.  We made it to Boiling Springs, PA at mile point 1116.9 on Monday.  14 miles per day is 6-8 miles less than Dan likes to do, but like before, he was a good sport and hiked down to my pace.  He's hiked 44 miles in the 2 days since I left, but hey -  he's 23 years old!  As of tonight, he's close to mile point 1160 and has about 1025 to go.

We passed the official half way point on Father's Day and we both participated in the half gallon challenge.  Even though I'm just a section hiker, who can pass up a legitimate chance to try and eat a half gallon of ice cream.  Lucky for me the carton sizes have shrunk and now the "1/2 gallons" are only 1.5 quarts actually, but who's counting.  I thought for sure the ice cream thing would be my chance to show Dan who's boss, but he smoked me there too.  He finished his in 21 minutes and felt great.  I took 25 and had to lay down for about an hour.  As it turned out, ice cream to me must be like spinach to Popeye because we made 17 miles that day, the most I've ever done.

We had some great views, saw a couple of snakes, hiked rock mazes and cornfields, but best of all was hiking with my son and his dog - trying to burn the days into my memory while he's on his grand adventure.  I brought Kara home for good this time.  She was good company for Dan for 1/2 the way, but now it's time for her to rest.

Here's some pic's from the 4 days:

Resting on the Rain Day

Start of the 4 day section

Mason Dixon Line

Rattler crossing the trail

Lunch stop on Day 1

Kara can sleep anywhere

Black Snake coiled up shaking its tail imitating a rattle snake

Beautiful Ferns

Not wrestling - sleeping

Quarry Gap Shelter - nicest one on the trail so far

"Official" half way sign although the mileage is wrong and its in the wrong place since the trail length changes each year

Half Gallon Challenge!

Pine Grove Furnace Store - Home of the Half Gallon Challenge

Kara jumping over a log

Trail going through the Rock Maze

Center Point Knob - site of the original half way point

Old Tricycle in woods -  who knows?

Trail going through middle of cornfields

Blister actually looks better here

Kara slept about 9:55 of the 10 hour ride home !