Not quite ready yet

The shivering mice are tight-lipped, but flint-eyed with determination.

Huddling indoors and plotting with mice

Another snowstorm today. Not enough to close schools, though, even in Virginia. Birds and squirrels were pretty irritated, though.

Here's a list of my planned resupply stops on the way north from Delaware Water Gap. My strategy this time is to park the Ion at the next trailhead where I will need to rest and resupply, hire a shuttle back to my starting point, and hike northward.

The mice have plans for this spring that stretch up to the base of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, but my goal is just to reach Sharon, Connecticut. From there on, the ups and downs are going to get more challenging ... also, there's the Vermont Spring Mud to make things more enjoyable.

New Jersey - Connecticut

Ion parking location	Lodging (days)	Hiking days from last stop
High Point State Park New Jersey	High Pt Mtn Motel(2) Wantage NJ 973.702.1860	3
Bear Mtn Bridge Motel?	Bear Mtn Bridge Motel(1) Ft Montgomery NY (845) 446-2472	4
Graymoor Spiritual Life Ctr?	Graymoor Sp Life Ctr(2) Garrison NY (845) 424-3671	0
Bearded Woods Sharon CT	Mountaintop Market Food resupply only	2
Bearded Woods Sharon CT?	Bearded Woods Bunk&Dine Sharon CT 860-480-2966	5

Massachusetts - New Hampshire?

Ion parking location	Lodging (days)	Hiking days from last stop
Moon in the Pond Farm?	Moon in the Pond Farm Sheffield MA(3) 413-229-3092	3
Shamrock Village Inn?	Shamrock Village Inn Dalton MA(2) 413-684-0860	5
TBD	TBD Bennington VT(2)	2
TBD	TBD Wallingford VT (2)	5
TBD	TBD Norwich VT(2)	5
Next stop, Mount Moosilauke!

Spring! Or not. But, Soon!

Four days in a row of stomping around in the forest chill to repair winter's damage to the local trails. Birdsong in the trees. Arrival of the new trail center custodian from Georgia via Pittsburgh, coaxing her overburdened Fiat up the potholed dirt road. Cutting up blowdowns, shoveling out water bars.

Daffodils!

I am trying to ignore the atmospheric chugging that is sending noreaster bursts of icy stuff through the mid-Atlantic, forecasting seven inches on Tuesday. As if the forecasters know anything. It's time to get back on the trail.

The current plan is to field check everything with a four-day backpack in the Harpers Ferry region with my grandson during the first week of April, then head north to start at Delaware Water Gap and follow the AT north through New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

Appalachian Trail     GW Thompson Wildlife Refuge

"The cold never bothered me anyway." -- Idina Menzel, "Let It Go!"

A - Maze - ing Rocks

The creative visionaries who laid out the Trail in the Cumberland Vally must have decided that stumping along the borders of miles of farmland would be tedious qnd might dilute Pennsylvania's reputation. They fixed the problem by routing the white blazes over and through a remarkable boulder maze.

Repeatedly.

Pretty cool, actually.

Shelter from the storm

Up before dawn again, carefully gathering my gear and trying not to disturb the southbound tramily scattered over the shelter floor in their bags. Last night, I offered to leave so that they would have more room, but they said it wasn't necessary ... later, I wished that I had insisted on moving out to my tent. It's hard to fall asleep to the sounds of a half dozen squeaky air mattresses.

Four miles downhill, mostly open tread with few interfering VERTZ (Vertically Embedded Rock Trip Hazards). Trail construction quality and care improved when I reached the section maintained by the Cumberland Valley ATC.

Sophos, the fastest of the tramily, finally caught up with me at Scott Farm an hour later while I was waiting for the shuttle.

As the driver took me south across the valley, he offered an answer to confusing information we had about the Trail in this area. The Trail's old route had indeed run along fourteen nauseating and terrifying miles of narrow, diesel truck jammed, two lane traffic, but a recent reroute slipped along the wooded strips between farmers' fields. Given the drizzly weather, I still felt that the shuttle fee was worth the price and damage to my AT hiker purity.

In Boiling Springs, I found a coffee shop that serves white chocolate mochas, so I had one to go with a second breakfast. Then, looking outside at the wet gray road, I ordered a second one with a carnitas taco lunch and busied myself with finding a dry place to spend the night.

Not that I didn't want another night of companionship with the SOBO tramily. Strictly out of support for their higher goals, wouldn't want to disturb their morning repose again.






The McConnells rented me a bunk in a backyard shelter and made me welcome. Mixing Scriptural metaphors -- safe in the company of their animals, I passed through the night on dry land.

Kind of me to bring along such a nice cat bed

Tomorrow, back on the trail headed for Mount Holly and the last campground I plan to stay at this trip. That will likely be a wet one.

The Taj Mahal privy

Bonus photo ... interior view of the "Taj Mahal" privy at Darlington shelter, considered to be the largest such structure in the area.

Note dual toilet seat and tank design

Rocking the Rubble

She said I needed the practice, and she was right. 

https://mossremoval.blogspot.com/2016/09/first-day-climb-priest-photos-follow.html

6:20 a.m. goodbye to the Doyle, leaving the key in the door and slipping out the back door. First climb, 800 feet.

Three younger and less burdened climbers with Mediterranean features climb past me in lightweight tennis shoes, pausing only to ask how much farther it is to the Hawk Watch. About half way, I reply ... when I reach it, they are admiring the view and taking selfies.

View from Hawk Watch

Onward. Energy fades, ankles grow sore as I climb toward Darlington Shelter. A sign at a stream warns that Darlington Shelter's spring is unreliable, that hikers should get their water here ... four miles and five hundred feet away. So I carried four liters up the mountain, recalling my climb up the Priest last year.

How about a phone for a delivery service?

The Mountain Club of Maryland seems to have the same attitude about rocks as the Keystone Trail Association out east. Trails are routed up boulder rivers, across fields of rock shards. 

Darlington Shelter

Sign inside Darlington Shelter

Attention Hikers! The state of Pennsylvania apologizes for all the rocks you will or have experienced.  

So we started a new program.  

We ask each AT hiker to move some rocks. 

If each hiker moves one rock per mile to the side of the trail we will have a decent trails sometime before the Sun turns into a red giant and engulfs the Earth.  

Your help is appreciated.

Another clutch of SOBOs swirled into the shelter here (no guitars, though). Tomorrow, Scott Farm and a shuttle to Boiling Springs, bypassing the walks along two lane roads with diesel-belching trucks going by.