Hi everyone.  Today is Tuesday, June 12. I completed the section through Pennsylvania at 7:30 on Sunday morning, June 10.  Since Harper's Ferry, my average daily mileage has been 24.7 miles per day.  Right now I am taking a couple of zero days with my brother and sister in law David and Michelle and their boys Gabe, Michael, and A.J. in New Jersey.  I crossed into New Jersey Sunday morning at the Delaware Water Gap and David came out to pick me up.  I did stop at the hostel at the Delaware Water Gap and took a shower and put on clean cloths before I got into David's vehicle (I can't explain the degree of smell from the "hiker funk" that is our body odor - it is so bad that when we leave a store the clerks walk around spraying fabreeze).  The last 11 days of hiking have been fun, adventurous, and some of the most rewarding.  First, most of the people I had been hiking with before I took a week off in Harper's Ferry and D.C. have hiked past me and I have been catching up with them.  It has been fun reconnecting with them.  I have come across a different group of people that I hadn't encountered on the trail, this is a younger crowd who likes to party - I'm way past that stage in my life and I'm just as happy to have broken away from this group.  For about 4-5 days I hiked with this nice kid (age 26) "Mr Wrong"  and we had a lot of laughs.  One day the innersole of one of his shoes cracked and caused him much pain and the new shoes were 3 days away from being shipped in, so he hiked in his Crocks for about 75 miles.  We encountered some severe weather and cut a 35 mile day short and stayed in this old mansion turned into a hostel located at Pine Grove Furnace, PA.  The next day we were going to make up the mileage and hike the 35 miles and we entered Boiling Springs, PA (one of the most beautiful 'Norman Rockwell' picturesque towns on the trail) and they were having a big festival so we stayed for some local BBQ, and then found out the local resort had a special deal for hikers - so we cut our day short at 2:00 and ended up spending the night in a nice luxury resort and had a huge buffet dinner with lots of sushi.  The next day we hiked into a town called "Duncannon" which is an old mill town and railroad town that has seen better days.  Although the people there were terrific.  We stayed at this infamous hotel called the "Doyle" and nicknamed the "Dirty Doyle".  The Doyle had the best Hamburger on the trail; but the Doyle is an old flee bag of a flop house that is one step above sleeping in a cardboard box under a railroad bridge.  "Mr. Wrong" held up in Duncannon to wait for his shoes and I moved on to meet another hiker "Marathon".  "Marathon" and I connected on Clingman's Dome in Tennessee and then again in Hot Springs, North Carolina.  He had made it past Rutland, VT (hence the trail name Marathon) and had jumped off  the trail to come home to be in his best friend's wedding.) His house is 10 minutes from the trail and he came and picked me up and we went into Lancaster, PA to eat at the world's largest buffet.  Let me tell you, it was amazing; it is the size of a Home Depot.  I ate an enormous amount of food there.  From there I went on to Port Clinton, PA where I got shuttled into Hamburg, PA by Cabela's and was able to replace some worn out gear.  As you can see in the pictures that I posted I have hiked through much farmland and some easy footing for about a 100 miles.  However, as you can see in the pictures, the next 50 miles from Port Clinton, PA to the New Jersey Border at the Delaware Water Gap was nothing but a grueling hike that was the most difficult section of the trail.  Yet all in all, Pennsylvania was some of the most enjoyable hiking I've had on the trail.  Now I am enjoying an extended stay with David, Michelle and the boys.  I have had the most enjoyable time with them and am well fed and well rested.  Michelle was going to drive me back to the trail this morning, but a huge rainstorm is coming through with thunderstorms and predicted 2 inches of rain.  David urged me to take another zero day and hunker down from the rain. I resisted at first because I don't mind hiking in the rain; but when I saw the updated forecast last night with the forecast of the severity of the storm, I decided to take David's advice and spend another day with them.  Plus, they are so much fun and I don't get to see them all that often.  Next I'm onto about 17 days of hiking through NJ, NY, CT, MA and should be in VT by the weekend of June 30th.  New pictures are posted.

Today is Friday, June 1.  I have hiked out of Harper's Ferry and am at mile 1,095 just past the official halfway point of mile 1,092.  I hope to be in New Jersey sometime between Sunday, June 9 and Tuesday, June 11 - we'll see.  Parts of Pennsylvania are flat and high mileage days, but some parts of Pennsylvania are very rocky and slow going.  I just don't know what my daily mileage will be.  For the past couple of weeks I've been anywhere from 18 to 30 miles per day.  Since I've been off the trail for a week, some people I had hiked  past have caught up and it has been good seeing them; others have moved ahead, and I'd like to catch up to them.  The past few days have been hot and muggy, but a big weather front is moving through and the forecast for the next few days calls for mid 70's temperatures and lower humidity.