Days 80 to 89 of my 2023 AT Nobo Thru-Hike

As a foreword, I wrote all of these journal entries at the time they took place on trail, but I fell behind on keeping up with the blog. The date listed at the top of this page is the publishing date and does not correspond to my current location on trail. I’ll be upping the number of days listed as well to better catch up.

Day 80

The rat snake poking out from the tree

We were able to get a nice early start today, and the weather was perfect. My allergies sadly came back with a vengeance after a very overgrown, pollen-covered section early on in the day. Water was also a bit scarce, but we made do with what we had loaded up with the previous night. Early on, we crossed over a gorgeous old bridge at Swatara Gap, before climbing up to the aforementioned overgrown section. In that section, I also saw a very peculiar sight; a large rat snake poking the front half of its body out of the crevice of a tree! Once we finished up at the ridge line, we went down a short downhill where I also spotted a baby rabbit. It appears that spring is out in all its glory today. We stopped for lunch at the 501 Shelter, which looked more like a clubhouse than a standard shelter, with its wild skylight window and actual chairs. From there, we continued to stumble through paths of various-sized rocks until we reached our destination, another quiet stealth site along the trail. We had once again achieved our goal of a 20+mi day in relatively good time, but the endless rocks all day had taken their toll on our poor, beat-up feet.

Day 81

A little rail shack next to the train museum in Port Clinton

We’re getting quite good at this early start thing! We once again hit the ever-so-rocky Pennsylvania trail a hair after 6:30 am this morning, and quickly crushed miles on the way to the Eagle’s Nest Shelter, where we stopped for breakfast. On the way there, we passed through a controlled burn area, and pet an incredibly soft dog. After breakfast, we made a great time, despite the treacherous trail, and made it to Port Clinton by 12:30 pm. Along the way, we also saw several racer and rat snakes, which makes this 4 days in a row that we’ve seen snakes. We then grabbed a hitch from a wonderful metalhead driving a 90s catfish Camaro, who took us straight to Walmart. We resupplied, filled up on town food, and then failed to grab a hitch back, so we had to walk along the road sadly. In town, we ran into Groot, Bear Bait, and All Around, and we caught up with them all. Groot had been hiking with his family, and Bear Bait was waiting for his friends from Ohio to arrive. We then knocked out our climb and did another 6mi to Windsor Furnace Shelter. There we were entertained by Bear Bait and his friends frying bacon in a pie tin next to a fire, and then deep frying eggs and various other things in the tin of grease. Our group is finally all feeling pretty decent, aside from allergies, and we’re excited to only be a few days away from completing Pennsylvania! Likewise, forcing myself to eat more has made hiking considerably easier, so I’m hoping my more calorically dense resupply helps me feel more energetic.

Day 82

The author posing at Pulpit Rock

After our unexpectedly large dinner (compliments of Bear Bait), we all slept quite soundly so we were able to break camp early. Right off the bat we hit a nice, cruisy section of trail with scenic views from Pulpit Rock and The Pinnacle. Instigator and I enjoyed our first on-trail breakfast cereal, now that we had figured out how to make dehydrated milk work in smaller portions. From there, we continued until we came up to Eckville Shelter, where we stopped for an early lunch and to check it out as it was one of the few fully enclosed ones on the trail. From there we pressed on until lunch, where we took an extended break to plan out our upcoming nero at Delaware Water Gap. The trail was unfortunately still pretty rocky so we slowly trudged on until we arrived at the closed Thunderhead Lodge, where we stopped for water and to make dinner at their picnic tables. It ended up raining on us a bit, but thankfully it also meant cooler temperatures. We only walked a bit further before calling it a day and pitching camp for the night. These rocks really take it out of you!

Day 83

Masochist and I scrambling up the hot and exposed climb out of Lehigh Gap

We all ended up sleeping quite well last night, due to the cold front that passed through as we were trying to make dinner. Unfortunately, my inflatable pillow seems to have formed a leak, and I woke up with a horrible knot in my neck and shoulder. This ended up adding a large degree of challenge to my day as we had several major scrambles to tackle which required the use of both arms. Despite the pain in my shoulder, we made it over Knife’s Edge and up Bake Oven Knob in decent time. We were in a rush to try and catch Slinky and Scratchums at trail magic that was being held for them at the Lehigh River Gap. When we got there, we had just missed them, but that magic was still going on. It was hot out, so we stayed for a bit to share stories, stock up on water, and slam Gatorades before our last climb. This last climb ended up being somewhat of an exercise in bouldering, which was a ton of fun, despite the pain in my shoulder. We had an amazing view of the river below, and the three of us had a blast climbing. From there, we put down a few more miles and made a beeline to the Slopeside Pub at Blue Mountain Ski Resort, which happened to have a $10 burger special on Thursdays! While there, we ran into Fire Hoser, and enjoyed the live music, which always seemed to be at least a half-beat off. Thankfully, the discount vodka lemonades made it sound much better. We then set up camp on a slightly sloped stealth site for the night, but we didn’t mind because it wasn’t rocky for once!

Day 84

Instigator surveying the top of the Lehigh Superfund Site

We awoke a bit scrunched up in the 2 person tent due to the slight slope last night, but all is good. I think we slept well due to how incredibly soft the pine needle ground was under the tent. This also made it pretty easy to quickly pack up, as we didn’t have to maneuver around rocks. From there, we hit the trail and were immediately bombarded by copious small, sharp rocks that made it difficult to move quickly. Eventually, we crawled into Leroy A. Smith shelter, where Instigator and I trekked the long way downhill to collect some much-needed water for our remaining 14 miles. We needed to load up extra because the 14 miles were devoid of water sources. From there, we trudged on the remaining miles, with a few snake sightings, a cooler of ice-cold trail magic Cokes, a climb (which strangely had no switchbacks and was the only smooth trail all day), and copious harsh rocks. The rocks were miserable because you could not take your eyes off the trail for a second, lest you end up kicking one or tripping. Likewise, they were so copious that you were forced to step on their jagged edges. So no matter what, your feet were destroyed. Thankfully, we eventually rolled into Kirkridge shelter where we ran into Dr. Pepper who was also completely gassed from the rocks. Once his hiking buddy, Fire Hoser arrived, we all had a brief dinner before quickly passing out for the night. The rocks in PA are no joke!

Day 85

Instigator soaking her feet in the cool water at Delaware Water Gap

Despite it being cool, flat, and quiet last night, I ended up sleeping poorly due to my unfortunate pillow situation. I woke up in the middle of the night to a flat pillow and another painful pulled muscle in my neck/shoulder. Due to the pain, I was unable to sleep again so I just sat up and read until it was time to leave. Thankfully, we only had two miles of rocks before 4 easy miles of fire road walking down into Delaware Water Gap. Dr. Pepper joined us on the walk down and then stayed with us for breakfast at Village Farmer and Bakery, which was a magical cheap place full of incredible, fresh food. We then walked over to the local outfitter where Not Today, a former thru-hiker, trail angel, and new hostel owner, introduced himself and offered to take us around on our town errands. It turns out that a cooler of trail magic we had found a day ago had been left by him! After we wrapped our errands, we headed to the beach along the river and enjoyed a few hours of lazy afternoon at the national recreation area. We then went out for barbecue, sent Masochist to the church hostel he was staying at, then Instigator and I returned to our hotel and passed out early. PA had thoroughly kicked our butts, and we badly needed the rest.

Day 86

Finally out of Pennsylvania!

Even with our early bedtime, Instigator and I still slept in at our hotel. Forgetting that it was a holiday weekend, we were stunned to find the breakfast room slammed at our Quality Inn. After finally getting a turn at the waffle machine, we enjoyed the last few hours in our room before heading back to the bakery to meet up with Masochist for food before hitting the trail again. Once there, it was clear that we were all still pretty fried from the past few days, so we decided to keep the hike pretty short. Masochist had just gotten new shoes, which was helping, but his and Instigator’s feet were still bruised and battered. After a quick road walk, we returned to a pretty crowded trail, which unfortunately was also quite rocky. We had a long, but easy climb before reaching Sunfish Pond, which is apparently one of the “7 wonders of New Jersey.” There, we also met Hoot, a local ridge runner who took the time to chat with us a bit about ourselves and the local animal activity. According to Hoot, there are a lot of hedgehogs around, which makes sense since we saw one on our climb! We only ended up hiking a few more miles, before calling it an early day and pitching camp along the ridge line. Part of me wishes we had taken a zero today to rest up, but I’m glad we saved the money and got away from the holiday crowds. Now I just hope this whippoorwill moves along so that I can go to sleep early!

Day 87

The Kiwis, Bearbait, Allaround, and Masochist on the shore of Kittatinny Lake

It ended up getting nice and cool again at our stealth site last night, so we were all able to sleep quite soundly. We began the day early again with a quick couple of miles to the Mohican Outdoor Center, where I restocked on fuel, water, and had a breakfast sandwich. Water availability in New Jersey looked fairly sparse and questionable, so we wanted to make sure that we had enough for the warm day. From there, he had a bit of a short climb before we came upon the first fire tower of the day, where we also ran into Bear Bait and the Kiwis. The tower was in pretty good shape and had a great view! We also saw an active beaver pond, but no beavers, and several large snakes. After lunch, we began passing several gorgeous lakes off the sides of the ridge line we were walking on. At some point after lunch, Branson passed us and told us about a bar on the beach next to a lake, so we made plans to stop there for dinner. When we arrived after a few more hours of easy hiking, we were greeted by an amazing view of Kittatinny Lake and a number of our fellow hikers. Gyps Bar was cash only but had ice-cold, cheap drinks on tap. We hung out there for a few hours before continuing on to Gren Anderson shelter for the night. There weren’t any good stealth sites or marked campsites, so there ended up being a large crowd there. This unfortunately meant that good tent sites were at a premium, so Instigator ended up moving a few rocks to protect our precious sleeping pads.

Day 88

Wits End Tavern

We had an interesting night due to a frantic raccoon that ran around raiding everyone’s bags outside of their tents! No good pictures were taken, however, it was hilarious watching it tear around the campsite with our headlamps illuminating it. Once we actually got up for the day, we began our hike to Unionville. Along the way, we stopped for a break at Mashipacong shelter, and Instigator informed us that her feet were once again killing her. We took a stab at retaping them before hitting the trail again, but by the time we reached High Point State Park, they were already badly swollen. We made the call to hike separately for the afternoon and reconvene at the Secret Shelter just outside of town. So I put in my audiobook and trudged on through a few fields and meadows. Eventually, I reached it and found Masochist there, busy pulling ticks off of his legs. I ended up finding two on myself while hanging out. Instigator then rolled in not too long after, in a ton of pain. We decided to continue into town and then made a plan of action to treat her feet. We ended up going to Wits End bar in town, before settling down for the night in the town park. Hopefully, ibuprofen, stretching, elevation, and a night’s rest will help her.

Day 89

Instigator and Masochist enter Times Square

The park ended up being a nice place to camp, despite the flood light and church bells. It was otherwise soft, flat, and quiet! In defiance of our attempts to rest, when we awoke, Instigator’s feet were still in pretty rough shape. We then burned a few hours trying to come up with a plan since she wouldn’t be hiking, and we decided to head into New York City early to take a few days off! We grabbed an Uber from Unionville to Warwick and then took a New Jersey Transit bus straight into the Port Authority. After our 2-hour bus ride, we wasted no time walking through Times Square, grabbing a few drinks, hot dogs, pizza, and heading to Central Park to relax. The air quality was horrible and the heat was oppressive, but we otherwise had an excellent time just looking around at the buildings, and people watching. Masochist and I had never been to NYC, so we were overwhelmed taking it all in. After our chill session, we headed to Union Park, where Instigator met up with a friend of a friend to get the key to the apartment we were crashing at. While she did that, Masochist and I explored the farmers market taking place. From there, we headed to an Indian restaurant where Masochist had his first taste of Indian cuisine, and we enjoyed something that wasn’t pizza or burgers! After dinner, we hit the subway and headed out to Brooklyn to Instigator’s friend’s apartment where we are crashing. Never missing an opportunity for food, I grabbed a tub of ice cream, and we called it an early night.