The Way I Go Along The Appalachian Trail

Today will be our last hike for this week as we are going off trail for a few days. Jean and I are going to Wisconsin for her Aunt Rose’s 90th birthday celebration  🎂🎉  and Turtle Power is having his mothers Memorial Services this weekend; remember she passed on Mother’s Day. I’ll be thinking of Turtle Power and his family on Saturday 🙏🏻 .  Then we’ll come back to the trail ready to complete the remaining 4 hikes and our “Platinum Slack Packing Flip-Flop-Flip Thru Hike”.  Today we are hiking from Whiskey Springs Road (1117.9 NoBo) to Pine Grove Furnace SP (1104.6 NoBo) equaling 13.3 miles.  We began hiking at 8:00 am. A nice easy and scenic start going through Pine Grove Furnace SP.  We completed our first climb and begin descending towards the James Fry (Tag Run) Shelter and run into “Papa Groop” one final time who is 4 miles away from completing his thru hike. His wife is meeting him to celebrate 🎉. We chatted a few minutes but it was obvious he was anxious to finish and see his

Looking at today’s hike profile I think Chief should have been here to lead us. It has 3 easy climbs in the beginning to loosen you up then the remaining 12 - 13 miles of the hike is flatter than a pool table.  The only curveball that the hike can throw at us is rocky trail conditions but I think we have seen the worse of “Rocksylvannia”.  I suppose I could have peeked at Google Map to check the hikes topography but you have to leave something for the imagination 😉. Oh, I almost forget that rain is forecasted throughout the day. That always makes trail conditions “fun” 🥴🤭. Today we are hiking from Sherwood Drive (1135.3 NoBo) to Whiskey Spring Road (1117.9 NoBo) for a total of 17.4 miles  We began hiking at 8:30 am and thankfully I now have Guthook on my phone or I think we would have hiked in the wrong direction… again 😫. I forgot to mention, it was raining when we started 😡. AT monument at the summit of the third climb at 1120.9 NoBo, Center Point Knob, original AT midpoint.  I

It wasn’t as cool this morning as it was yesterday, but if it gets much cooler a second layer and a pair of gloves would be standard equipment to begin my hikes.  I’m hoping we will be able to complete our thru hike before I have to use them 🥴🥶.  Doing the 19.8 mile hike today will definitely make our hiking schedule much easier too. Tomorrow’s forecast has slightly improved so we might even dodge that bullet as well, but I’ll have my rain gear just in case ☔️.  Today we are hiking from Pine Grove Furnace SP, AT Museum  (1104.6 NoBo) to US 30 (1084.8 NoBo) for a total of 19.8 miles. We began hiking at 7:15 am. Local stream in Caledonia State Park. Rhododendrons.   Quarry Gap Shelter. The Forest Gnomes have reappeared. Birch Run Shelter. AT Midpoint (2018).  The trail length and alignment is always subject to change due to emergency detours, realigned for reforestation purposes, etc. The trail length has increased by  12.1 since then to it’s current length of 2193.1 miles.  PATC Miles