Mom, back with my posie, and everything else trail life

The past month has been out of control. I just made it into the north east and can not be more excited. Other then the dang bugs in the back woods of CT. Back in NJ I meet up with my mom, Grammy, aunt beth, aunt Diane, and little cousin Colt. We ended up doing a bit of hiking and a lot of trail magic. We ran a hostel out of two rooms for my good trail friends. It was a blast hanging out with my family and trail buddy's at the same time. Before that I spent a few nights with my current thru hiking hero, Jeff from PA. He has done the PCT 3 times, the AT and the CDT. The best part about him however was his chill attitude about his triple crown. The past couple of days have been unbelievably buggy and rainy. It has definitely been a hit to my self esteem however i have just been surrounded by wonderful people and doing anything to keep the spirits high. Can not wait to get to the big three states. Ohh also I won't add a picture but I hiked 6 miles naked on the summer solstice. Happy trails!!!

My birthday, The shenny's, dawn, and harpers

So may 11th you may have heard of the day but its kinda a big deal. This was the day that i left those teenage years behind and man did we do it up. It worked out that my bday was also a town day, so we went into Buena vista where we made ice cream Sundays in the streets like hobos. Then we went over to a Chinese restaurant, and finished it up with a little party out at the first shelter out of town. The day before we entered into our second national park, ( hoping and praying it would go better than the first) we got the biggest helping of trail magic since fresh grounds. This wonderful lady named dawn, who my friend java man had met on Mother's Day picked us up to take us into town in order to resupply, by the end she had taken us to a local brewery, the local fair trade coffee shop, and to her house where we got to spend the night and had a family BBQ where we had her step brothers new hard cider that when it gets up into the north I would recommend over woodchuck. Bold rock check it out!!!!!!!!! That night java, movie star, white out and I were just taken aback by how generous this woman was. Then we found out about her SOBO in 1999-2000 and it puts what I went through to shame.......
After dawn dropped us back off at rock fish gap we headed into the SNP where we were greeted by lots of sun, some bears, skyline drive and so many day hikers.
Today I find myself on the floor of a hotel room in HARPERS FERRY, or the psychological half way point.

So the first couple pictures are from my birthday, the last birthday picture is when I proposed to whiteout to be my hiking partner. (He said yes!!!!) the next picture is the group of us at the local coffee shop dawn took us too, from left to right it's dawn, whiteout, myself, maddie and Sophie (dawns children), movie star and then java in the front. The next two photos are from when I hit the 1000 mile mark #
#thuglyfe, and the last two photos are a couple of maine-iacs hanging out at the ATC.

I am so sorry it's been so long

So much has happened since the last time I updated my blog, the Grayson highlands, 500 miles the disbanding of group that I walked 400 miles with, mcafee's, tinkers cliff, and so much more. Here are some pictures so that I can give some visual evidence that I have been walking. I apologize that I don't have any pictures of the Grayson highlands or the ponies. But please just trust me it was the best thing to happen on this side of the smokies.

A little taste of home

A big shout out to aunt Beth and uncle Dave, Gracie, Ana, lily, Abby, Todd, Jason and the rest of the family.
The first picture is a lisboner with her moxie and woopie pie, and the second is moxie (trail name) with her moxie and so many other friends.

Roan, damascuthon and everything in between

The past week has been by far my favorite part of this trip so far. It all started with running into freshgrounds again where we ended up spending half a day eating as much food as you can put in your stomach and then waking up in the morning and doing it all over again. A few days later we went up and over Roan mountain. AKA the most wonderful walking of the trip. It was 13 miles of balsa with a huge civil war barn that was converted into a 40 person shelter in the middle. A day or so after that we ended up on top of a hill that we quickly turned into a sweet campsite. That we named hilly billy knob, cause all around us we were hearing gun shots and four wheelers. The next leg of our journey ran from iron mountain shelter to Damascus, or what we like to call the damascathon 26.2 miles from the shelter to town. By this time however we were very low on food, I think I had 2 pop tarts 2 snickers and a couple tortillas to get to town....... But I was over it and was under the mind set of Damascus or die. So off we went, the day was made when at mile 11 of 26 a man named nomad was waiting with a fresh grounds trail magic spread where I was not only able to eat all I wanted but also able to pack as much as I wanted out. We started the day at 5:30 in the morning and finished at 6:30 at night and in the mean time we checked off our third state of 14!!!!!!! Now we just have 550 miles in Virginia, lets dance!!!!!!
Big things coming up in my trip, the Grayson highlands, and 500 miles

Attached I have pictures of roan, over mountain shelter (the barn). The two state lines that we crossed North Carolina, and Tennessee. And just some pictures of the gang.