2 Months on the trail

Well it's Sept 11 marking a full two months on the trail. Since last posting a little under two weeks ago, I've hiked through Mass, Conn, NY, and NJ!! Arriving in PA this morning via Delaware Water Gap where I'm staying at a church hostel for a couple nights.

Have taken to celebrating each state with a pint of Ben & Jerry's... had never tried to off a pint before, but it seemed to be a hiker thang... and now I can say I fully enjoy particpating in it. So far I've seemed to figure out a correlation between states and flavors:

Maine - Dublin Mudslide (for all the mud)
NH - TBD
Vermont - Vermonty Python (duh)
Mass - Everything but the ... (because it had a little over everthing!)
Conn - Phish food (for the nice river walking)
NY - TBD
NJ - TBD

I'm a little behind in the action, but I started late and I'm sure I can catch up w/o too much trouble ;) Anybody know if there's a rocky road type flavor? If so, it's a perfect fit for what everyone complains about in the upcoming PA miles.

Let's see, what to report..? First off, I guess I should own up to some down days.. seems 2 months is some kind of barrier. Spent that amount of time on the trail last fall and I was ready to get off when I did. It's now been two months and I have to say that the past week has been a bit rough mentally.. Have been hiking alone, but usually that isn't a big deal - I enjoy that. It's really just been missing just about everything about home.. the comforts.. the ease of it.. the activities I miss.. the people, friends, family.. etc. I've had lots of thoughts of taking off once I hit Harpers Ferry which will complete the trail for me. Lots. But I always end up with the thought that once I hit HFY, anything else is just gravy. I've got the full trail in the bag and I really can pull off any time I want to. Somehow that's comforting or encouraging or whatever.. and thus lends itself to carrying on. Much like I remember last year thinking "Wow, I've done 100 miles" or "I've been out here a couple of weeks." Having never backpacked before that was huge and it was comforting to know that no matter what I decided to do, I was satisfied with what I'd done. And I made it the full 1000 miles over 2 months.. There's no way I'm pulling off before HFY, so I can still imagine myself going the full trail.

Ok, that seems like a pretty depressing post, but I'm on another timing out library computer, so I'm saving with the hopes of maybe posting again today/tomorrow.

'Til then - Happy trails!

Fool!