Day 6

​Day 6

Starting location: William Penn Shelter

Ending location: Hampton Inn

Mileage today: 13 miles 

Total Mileage: 55.7 miles 

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Today we woke up around 7:15 am to see Walter White and Jessie leave early since this was their last day on their two week section hike. Great guys. We got on the trail about 9 am (way too late), but getting the boys out of their sleeping bags in the morning is challenging! No mice in the shelter last night, which is always a great thing! 

Today we planned to hike 13 miles and with the sections in PA, you never know how bad the rocks will be. The rocks are so bad here that Pennsylvania is nicknamed Rocksylvania. Well today we had about a 0.5 section of the boulder type of rock field that takes a while to get through. They are actually quite fun, it is the smaller pointy rocks that are where your feet die! 

Well I officially hit the 1200 mile mark on the trail today. Woo hoo! Crazy to think Sarasota Florida is 1105 miles from Lafayette. 

Not long after that we came across this beautiful vista to take a break and eat some snacks. I actually rest, but the boys found a side trail to go explore. lol. 

Eating lunch: today Spam sandwiches, apple, nuts & raisins and PB! Legolas is loving the Spam sandwiches. 🤪

Later on near the end of the day we actually took a wrong turn for about 0.5 miles (1 mile extra we hiked today) but we found this cool dam and waterfall. It was a great place to stop and rest and skip some stones in the lake area. If it was warm enough, there was a rope swing to jump into it! But the fact we had to hike extra miles really bites! lol. 

There was even a campfire ring with a log that had seats carved out of it. The boys loved it! 

So since Lucas keeps saying his feet hurt, we are going to take a zero day tomorrow and live a couple days in a Hampton Inn! So a nice comfortable bed, water I don’t need to filter and nowhere to hike tomorrow! 

God bless,

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil. 

Day 5

​Day 5

Starting location: Rausch Gap Shelter

Ending location: William Penn Shelter

Mileage today: 13.4 miles

Total Mileage: 42.7 miles

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Started the day at 8:45 am after waking up around 7. We aren’t quick packers. lol. Beautiful morning around 48 degrees to start the hike. We quickly came to this beaver dam swampy area which was pretty cool. Didn’t see any beavers though. Bombadil (Lucas) feet were hurting him during the 4.6 mile hike to Amee, so when we made it into the parking lot at around noon, we switched out shoes to see if that helps. Also, I lightened up his pack to maybe 7-8 pounds (don’t have a scale). We refueled, dropped off our wet clothes from yesterday. Had fun with Froning and told many stories to Amee. We got out around 1:15 pm to hike the last bit to the William Penn Shelter. 

We hiked out longest day today. 13.4 miles and some of it was easy like this, other times some trail maker decided to go over a huge boulder field. The first part after leaving Amee was a 2 mile hike up about 1250 feet. I like hiking uphill over downhill for sure, but man our feet were sore today. 

Here are a small example of the boulders we had to hike over for about 1-2 miles. The boys did well. Legolas (CJ) just put his audible book in and got in the zone and punched them out with no issues. lol. 

Resting for a bit and nearing the end of the boulders. 

We kept going  through these fern forests that were so enchanting and beautiful. 

Finally made it to the shelter and had chicken and rice with additional salmon for protein and a kind bar each. Hunger is the best spice! lol. 

 Now time to hit the sack and get some rest. I think there will be mice at this shelter (Bombadil found one in the privy..eek!). Friday night it’s suppose to rain so we might hike 13 miles tomorrow and then get a hotel to rest up. 

God bless. 

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil. 

Day 4

​Day 4

Starting location: Parking Lot off PA 324

Ending location: Rausch Gap Shelter

Mileage today: 11.1 miles

Total Mileage: 29.6 miles

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Last night we tent camped near Amee since we knew for certain it would rain today. By God’s grace, we got the tent packed before it started. We left at 7 am to a lite rain that steadily got worse over next 4 hours. We were soaked, cold and tired when we finally came into the shelter around 1 pm. I was worried about hypothermia for the boys so we quickly got undressed and into warm dry clothes and a sleeping bag. Lucas crashed immediately but CJ listen to his audible book. 

This was the shelter we stayed at. Small but had a great fire pit and a spring literally 10 feet away. Sooo nice. Once we finally got lunch in, two more thru hikers came in. They started Feb 1st, which is insanely earlier. They survived a blizzard in the Smokies. Crazy. Their names were Big Tex and Lil Tex ( obviously from Texas). Later Boulder came in and finally Walter White and Jessie came in around 7 pm. 

 

Even though it poured half the day didn’t stop us from getting a fire going. Which made the evening bearable. We listened a little more to our LoTR book and finally crashed at 9:30 pm. Here are some more pics of today. We only have satellite signal so can’t post this yet. 

Saw millions of these red Efra  on the trail today. We hope we didn’t step on any. lol. 

Breakfast by the waterfall before the rain really started coming down. 

Hikers obviously have a lot of time cause who makes 4 chairs out of stone!? lol. 

God bless 

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil. 

Day 3

​Day 3

Starting location: Peter Mnt Shelter

Ending location: Parking Lot off PA 324

Mileage today: 6.8 miles 

Total Mileage: 18.3 miles

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Today we stared hiking around 8:45 am. Legolas lost a baby tooth at breakfast eating a Belvita. I told him his trail name should be toothless instead. He didn’t agree. lol. Beautiful warm day to hike. High of 80’s with a lite breeze. Sunny with minimal bugs! PTL. 

We took a snack break at Kinter’s view and saw a Chinook helicopter flying over the next mountain ridge. It was at eye level which was cool to see. 

Here we stopped at this campsite for lunch. Spam sandwich with an apple and a couple Oreo cookies was on tap for the boys! They whittled some wands last night at the campfire and have been playing HP on and off all day. lol. 

This was the campfire at last nights shelter. It was very nice. Right on top of the mountain ridge. 

This was one of the easier sections of the trail so you can see it isn’t all rocks all the time. lol. Tonight we will stealth camp near the parking lot with Amee right next door since it might rain tonight and the next shelter is way to far to hike for us in one day. So I really don’t want to take our tent if I can help it since it adds 8# to my pack. 

Day 2

​Day 

Starting location: Clarks Ferry Shelter

Ending location: Peter Mnt Shelter

Mileage today: 6.7 miles 

Total Mileage: 11.5 miles 

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Got to see 2 wild mountain goats Bombadil (Lucas) named Salt & Pepper. They followed us for a half mile or so. lol. 

We had an unexpected visitor at our shelter during the night. A loud gnawing and scraping sound woke us up at 10:30. It sounded like something boring through the floor right under Lucas who was sound asleep! I got out to investigate it was a PORCUPINE! So after a half hour I finally got him to flee the shelter and look for other wood to eat. Bombadil named him Quill Master. 

We had two section hikers tent with us last night. Triangular Man and Rock Lobster from MA. Since the boys and I are listening to LOTR on audible, CJ got his trail name as Legolas, and Lucas was named Bombadil. So I am deciding to switch my trail name from Shepherd to Gandalf (a shepherd in his own way! lol). 

So we set out at 9:20 this morning (late start) and got to Amee for a resupply by 11:30. We ate lunch and ditched out some things to make our packs a little lighter since we knew we weren’t going to tent camp tonight. We started out at 1:15 pm and hiked another 3 miles to the 2nd biggest shelter I have stayed in. It’s like soooo nice. Of course the boys are staying in the loft. 

This was the view from Table Rock View. We stopped there for a brief snack and enjoyed the breathtaking views. We were above most of the birds. 

So now we are just chilling and working on some audible books, nature journaling and getting camp chores done. I don’t know if anyone will be staying with us tonight or not. Will see! 

God bless 

Gandalf, Bombadil & Legolas. 

Day 1

​Day 1 (Official)

Starting location: Duncannon, PA

Ending location: Clarks Ferry Shelter

Mileage today: 4.8 miles 

Total Mileage: 4.8 miles 

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Here we are in Duncannon, PA just about to start off at 2:05 pm. We are fueled and loaded up for an “easy” 4.8 mile day.  It was all up hill out of Duncannon with a lot of rocks and boulders. Partly sunny with a nice breeze. Here are some other picks from today. 

Day 0

​Day 0

Starting location: Lafayette IN

Ending location: Lafayette IN

Mileage today: 0.0

Total Mileage: 0.0

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

So just testing Day One online journaling app to see if it will work for our upcoming AT hike. So the boys and I are just at the Faith skatepark one last time before heading out tomorrow to PA and the Owen’s home! Getting everything packed up and our backpacks weighed. I am a little worried about the weight of each of the boys pack since they are on the high end of max weight for them. I may have to carry more of their gear.