In speaking with her she updated me on the status of the rest of the tribe - many of whom are now yellow blazing as well. They are scattered around northern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, or will be in the next few days. I would desperately love to see them again and my fingers are crossed that our paths will cross before this journey is over.
The past two days have been exceptional, particularly in terms of food. Yesterday we got an early start on our 16.5 mile day so that we could spend as much time at the zoo (the bear cages are the lowest point on the AT) as possible. The first few miles went quickly and we stopped atop several mountains to snack on wild blueberries or, at the top of Bear Mountain, to consume as many Coca Colas as our bodies could handle.
At the bottom of Bear Mountain we came to the park that contained the zoo, complete with a concession stand and grill where I ordered two hotdogs, a soft pretzel and a Gatorade (which quickly became the Tobie special). Fat and happy, I napped on a picnic table before replenishing my water and heading into the zoo with Red Knees.
The zoo, though cool, was a bit depressing. There were very few animals, many of which looked as though they had been put into cages that were tragically too small without the luxury of exercise. The ones that were exciting to see - the bears, in particular - were particularly lethargic, though apparently shortly before or after our visit a zoo employee had let a small child hand-feed the bears in, what I can only assume, was a desperate attempt at a lawsuit.
The next few miles were steep and hilly as we hiked down into the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center (we saw no monks, unfortunately). After stocking up on sandwiches and snacks at the convenient store down the street we headed to the ballpark below the monastery where we would be tenting (and showering, and charging our devices). In the rafters, Monk found two beers (trail magic!) and that paired with a long day had me asleep by 9:00pm.
This morning we got a bit of a late start but the miles, at least in the morning, flew by. The chance of rain was high, though, so we tried to wait out every bout of showers as they came through but at mile 11 we lost that battle and the rain came down in sheets. The rain was tolerable but the rubbing of my heels against my shoes was like a million tiny gnomes stabbing their tiny daggers into my feet. It was violent. When we reached a green blazed trail down to a lake with a concession stand I pulled a trump card and made the executive decision that we should all go down to dry off.
It was an excellent call. We snacked and laid our damp clothing out to dry while I attempted to find a way to cover my shoe rub with a combination of band aids and duct tape.
It didn't help. My feet were still on the verge of becoming entirely skinless for the remainder of the hike and I was thrilled to finally arrive at RPH Shelter a few miles later to put on my sandals and order a pizza (yep, you can get pizza delivered to this shelter, thus why we stayed here). The shelter is lovely as well, though substantially bug-infested, so instead of sleeping on the nice bunks we have all assembled our tents on the floor. Except for Monk, who has assembled his tarp tent on one of the top bunks (I WILL get a picture of that in the morning).
All in all it has been a great two days. Tomorrow we lose Beetlejuice to some family time and a few days later we will lose Monk to a family reunion, leaving just me and Red Knees. I am apprehensive but excited to push on these coming days, fueled by the spirit and drive of all of our comrades who are, for whatever reason, no longer pushing on towards Maine. It might not always feel good and I may hate more than love this adventure a good part of the time but, at least for now, I am 100% in this game. A day and a half more and we will be in Connecticut and one more state closer to the end.
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