We have completed 154 miles of VA! 854 left of the whole trail! And we just celebrated 3 months (94 days) on the trail! Seeing the numbers just feels like amazing progress!! Tonight, we are staying at a hotel in Waynesboro, VA. When we walked into the room, it smelled of alcohol cleaning products. One…
Lots of people have been asking what that item is that I am holding up in front of the state signs. It is a clear rock with a cross and the word “believe” and it was given to us by our second Mom in Phoenix. Someone had given it to her when her youngest son…
We are actually 30 miles into Virginia now, but I have yet to give my report on Maryland and West Virginia! MD & WV were the shortest states we’ll go through on the AT (47 miles combined), but they provided us with the MOST magic!! I’ll just give you the play-by-play. On Thursday afternoon, we…
On Thursday, we conquered our eighth state and entered Maryland! Oh and we hit the halfway point of the trail on Wednesday!! Oh PA. We did not love you, but we tried not to hate you. I have to admit, the second half was better than the first half and helped redeem the state. I’ll…
Hello everyone, this is Deal. Yesterday Steadee turned 33 and I do believe she had a great day, thanks to all of your cards, emails, phone messages and texts. The night before she indulged in some yummy backpacker desert meals. Then on her bday we hiked 23 miles to the town of Duncannon PA (through…
We are at mile 980.6 and I can confirm 2 things about PA. There are rocks and snakes (poisonous ones). I’ll just apologize in advance to our PA friends because I don’t think we’ll have nice things to say about the state when we complete it. We are not trying to be haters of PA…
We spent 3 wonderful zeros at my parents’ … Saw lots of friends and took care of all our bizness. Of course, the last 3 days were gorgeous … In the 70s, low humidity. Today, torrential downpouring. Thank you Mother Nature. Anywho, we are hitting the trail. I am not excited at all to hike…
Guess what we have been doing the last few days?? NOT HIKING!! I’m excited to tell you all that we are enjoying a few zeros at my parents’ house in NJ! We had this planned in our heads for a long time and actually, we haven’t taken a full day off since Hanover, NH, just…
We entered NJ this evening and it started to downpour … you would think our home state would be kinder to us!! So we quickly set up our tent and are hunkering down for the night. The good news is we have entered our 7th state!! As for my summary of NY, I have mixed…
Hello from mile 791! We are almost done with NY and I will do an update then, but for now, just a quick note. We are currently enjoying the overnight hospitality of my college friend, Shadow/Christine. Got to love these friends/family who live near the trail! Yeaterday, we stopped in Fort Montgomery, NY, to pick…
Today we hiked into New York. This is our 6th state (out of 14)! Unbelievable! Connecticut was a good state to us. Similar to Mass, it was relatively flat. The climbs were steep, but the good thing is they are quick. Surprisingly nice vistas too! Overall, the trail is nice and friendly. Hopefully someday, we…
Today, we got trail magic. This time, though, it wasn’t from a stranger, but from our family! My sister QuickQuestion, brother-in-law Yankee, nephew Bones and niece Curly Locks picked us (including Fire Marshall – we have reunited!) up from the trail in Kent and took us home to shower, launder and eat home-cooked goods. It…
We have entered CT! Which means we knocked another state off the list! Massachusetts was pretty good to us, especially for a state that never ranked high on our list. But the wilderness of Mass is something to talk about. Quite flat with a few notable climbs thrown in there from time to time. One…
My mom turned 66 today!! However, she has the energy of a 46-year-old! Maybe it’s from all the coffee she drinks … I wanted to give her a shout out because she is always a very thoughtful and loving person, but she is especially important to us while we are on the trail. She is…
Greetings from Mt. Greylock at 3,491 feet, the highest point in Massachusetts, and mile 602.5. We are done with Vermont and entered Mass yesterday! The rest of VT was fine … It was certainly hot and we did duck into another town for a night because we were just parched and many of the water…
Remember that whole list I put together for mail drops? Please disregard. Well, for now. Right now, we are resupplying more so in towns and not relying on the post office. We do LOVE packages and note from y’all, but right now we are just moving too quick to keep the dates updated. We know…
Hello from Manchester Center, VT! We hiked 10 miles today to get here and are spending the night at the Green Mountain House. We already ate lunch in town and resupplied, and now we showered and are relaxing at this awesome hostel for the night!! First, I must address a few concerns. Yes, it is…
What an awesome ZERO day. We can’t thank our host and hostess Second Nature and Grateful enough. They were awesome and took very good care of us! Checking another state off the list feels so good. 160 miles, 13 days! Like I said, NH was very good to us and we enjoyed it immensely. The…
Hello from Hanover, NH! This trail town is right on the border of Vermont, so that means we (us & Fire Marshall) have officially finished NH! We hiked about 12 miles today and got in around lunch … Thru hikers get a free slice of pizza at Ramuto’s, a free Snickers bar at The Mountain…
Hello from Glencliff, NH! I know it’s been awhile and you are all awaiting an update! We have been without services for most of our NH hike. But, today we took a nero at a hiker hostel. And once again, this town has no cell service, but has wireless Internet. All I really wanted was…