Wet and Still Walking

(Phone Message Transcribed by Bethany)

Good Morning! It’s Sunday July 29, 2007. Lauren and I are calling from a pay phone in New York at mile 1,370. We crossed into New York yesterday morning and it’s kind of hard to believe that we’re even here. We were looking at the data book and we have just about 800 miles left of the Appalachian Trail, which just blows my mind.



I didn’t know what to expect, but so far New York has been stunning. The rock formations have been big slabs following the ridge. Today the rocks took us by surprise, we’ve had to climb up and down and up and down and quite a few rock falls and it’s been very challenging. The weather is humid and hot and for this reason Lauren wishes she had packed her hair dryer, jokingly, so that we could finally get dry! We’ve been wet for basically the last 48 hours at least! We expect to be in New York through the end of the week and probably reach Connecticut by August 1.



That’s it for now. Over and Out.

Mile 1,049.9

(Phone Message Transcribed By Bethany)

Update from Penn-Mar State Park, mile 1,049.9! Today is Sunday July 8, 2007. Lauren and I have made it close to the Pennsylvania border which is where we will be staying tonight.



On Friday, we enjoyed a great evening with my parents and my little sister Hannah as we took in the sights and had a great dinner at Harpers Ferry. The next morning they escorted us to the Maryland side of the bridge at Harper’s Ferry where we said farewell and Lauren and I continued on our way.





That day was a bit challenging for us because it is often hard to switch gears from town mode to trail mode, and after such a wonderful time with my family it was difficult to get back into the trail mindset. Despite the difficulty, we hiked 23.5 miles today and finished very strong.



Not only that, but we were quite surprised and rewarded to see some old friends Amanda and Leah, who ran cross country with Lauren back at Virginia Tech. Our continual trail magician, Matt, who is the same great guy who drove us to Trail Days, through a number of events helped Amanda and Leah track us down today. So, we ended up spending a celebratory dinner here at Penn-Mar State Park spread out on the picnic tables where we enjoyed watermelon, cold drinks and a bunch of snacks that they brought for us. We are at mile 1,049.9 which is two tenths of a mile away from the Pennsylvania state line, also known as the Mason Dixon line.

For our purposes it is extremely important because it is the division between where the trail is known as the “Appa-LATCH-in” Trail to where it becomes the “Appa-LAY-shun” Trail.

We reached the psychological halfway point a few days ago in Harper’s Ferry but on Tuesday we will reach the actual halfway point when we arrive at Pine Grove Furnace State Park and attempt the half gallon challenge. I hope to post more later but I just wanted to say thanks again: to my family for meeting us at Harpers, and to Amanda and Leah and Matt who all drove several hours just to come find us at Penn-Mar Park. That’s it for now.

Over and Out.

Update from Lauren - Hot Springs, N.C.

Ben and I arrived in Hot Springs, NC early this morning after a 3 mile descent from the mountains.

Our first stop was the Smoky Mountain Diner in town, and we sipped cup after cup of coffee as we sat in our booth catching up on 3 days of journaling. Our server, Patsy, was used to taking care of thru-hikers and gave us a warm southern welcome.

Directly across the street is our hostel. Elmer's Sunnybank Inn is a white Victorian house from 1840, and richly decorated inside with old antiques, ecclectic library and unique furniture. He caters to vegans and vegetarians, and we are in for a delight tonight with a 4-course dinner prepared by Elmer and his kitchen staff. He has a nice yard with a garden where we were able to spread out our belongings and organize some food boxes for the next 3 weeks.

Tomorrow we get ready for Trail Days, the largest thru-hiker gathering in the country. This year it takes place May 18-20 in Damascus, VA. There will be free food, lots of equipment and gear vendors, guest speakers, talent shows, eating contests and free food, and the famous thru-hiker parade on Saturday morning.

From the sounds of it we're not sure if we will love or hate it, but we're certainly looking forward to a 3 day break before getting back to the mountains on Monday, May 21.

Somehow a former thru-hiker from D.C. (Hi Matt!) found our itinerary on the internet (maybe here or at whiteblaze.net ?) and called Elmer's before we arrived with a message that he'd like to come pick us up and drive us to Damascus. How cool!

That's all we know for now. Lauren and Ben.

Zero Day

(Phone Message Transcribed by Bethany)

Hello! It’s Tuesday evening, May 8^th. Lauren and I are enjoying our time here at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. It’s a beautiful rafting, kayaking, hiking and biking center here on the river in North Carolina. We hiked a relatively short day today, but it was quite steep. We’ve ascended maybe 3000 feet from the gorge. Although it was short I ended up inflaming my I.T. band in my right knee which is not good. Out of responsibility and planning for the rest of the hike, we have decided to take a complete day of rest tomorrow, which is called a zero day in hiker’s terms.

Tomorrow we are planning on doing laundry, hanging out by the river to watch some professional kayakers and enjoy the beautiful scenery.



Typically Lauren and I enjoy pushing ourselves, so it does take quite a bit of self control to make this decision. We are going to adjust our itinerary accordingly, so we should be getting ready to start at the Smokey Mountains later this weekend. We’re looking forward to that! That’s about it for now.

Over and Out

Some Parting Links

We're headed down to Amicalola Falls State Park this morning. We're taking a rest day at the lodge there before we start to regroup and start our hike fresh on Monday morning.

If you're curious about where the AT actually traverses, here is an interactive Google map of the trail shelters to pan and zoom to your heart's content

I posted a rough attempt at an itinerary tonight. If you follow the link to our detailed spreadsheet, it may look well-planned, but we can only assume our summer will barely resemble what is written down.

Not sure when we'll be in touch next.
Peace and Love,
Ben & Lauren

A.T. Map