How do you feel about crowds?

We haven’t seen many day hikers on the Trail over the last six weeks until today. The trailheads were packed with cars and there were day hikers crowded all over the viewing spots. I’m glad to see that people are back but it is a little unnerving. We are using masks when people pass by but I didn’t see anyone with a mask today. What’s going on out there in the real world. Maybe we are just in a more populated area but we definitely have our guard up as we are starting to see more people around.

Today was another tough day of rocks. We only have two more days left of it but they are really beating up my feet. We hiked 25 miles and I estimate about a third of that was navigating through boulder fields and sharp stones. I had to take some more breaks today to recover a bit and it worked. I felt pretty good when I got to camp. It may have been the classical music that I was listening to for the last hour or so. I needed something soothing to help pull in the last few miles.

Astronaut’s parents are doing a sweet thing. They bought this professional size AT map and are tracking her progress as she reports in on her Spot device. I hope I can see this when it is all completed and this will be such a cool piece of memorabilia from her thru hike.

Tomorrow is going to be a relatively short 17 mile day and then we will be set up for our last day in Pennsylvania. We’ve met some great people here but the rocks are ruthless. My shoes are trashed and I have a brand new pair waiting for me in New Jersey.