हाफ गल्लों चैलेन्ज इस दिस्गुस्तिंग एंड ग्रेट एंड तोताल्ली नेसस्सरी !!!

Greetings Friends nad Neighbors !!

It's blueberry season in Pennsylvania!!! Hooray! They just appeared the other day, a glowing blue out of the corner of my eye. I was needing some blue in my life. I am a believer in the 'rainbow diet'...eat all your colors and your will be healthy and vibrant! Sometimes blue is hard to come by. But i got plenty of green the other day with my 1/2 gallon of mint choc chip ice cream!
It has been a long time tradition for thru hikers when they reach the halfway piont on the trail they stop at the Pine Grove Furnace general store, get a 1/2 gallon of their desired flavor and eat it in record time...i don't know why, possibly a marketing scheme that i, and thousands of other thru hikers fall victim to. so, to celebrate i got my ice cream..took a painful 1HR 10 min to 'finish'..i left a 1/2 pint of ice cream soup, so technically i did not conquer the '1/2 Gallon Challenge' as it's called. It's distgusting. And yet, I still feel victorious! Why? Cuz I'm a BADASS!!!Period.
So getting back onto the trail after my 2 weeks off has been awsome, but did not start off so sweet. I always write about these amazing and magical things that happen. Well sometimes things just suck...and when they do, it spirals into something almost unmanageable..not physically, but just mentally being able to deal. So 4th July i roll back into Harper's Ferry, WV amidst the throngs of tourists asking me one stupid question after another becuase i seem to be the only backpacker around. (Where is everyone?) I am the last hiker on the planet. Got my semi new boots..hope they work out, my pack is once again ridiculously heavy becuase i want to be healthier out here so i've got avocados, a couple tomatoes, extra nutritional backup stuff.....=extra weight.I was just feeling wierd and detatched from everything and everyone in the world. So i only hiked 4 miles and wanted to stop to camp by these sweet cliffs over looking the potomac river and the vally. Good views for fires works too. Got my tent pitched, took my food bag out and realized my bottle of 'louisianna perfect' hot sauce had broken, slicing thru it's protective ziplock bag, spilling over everything, and pooling in the bottom of my food bag. Great. Awsome. I only have a liter and a half of water and that's for tonight and to get me to the next water source tomorrow(there was no water at the cliffs, but i wanted to be there) Huge meess, spent an hour and 1/2 getting everything separated, organized, into different bags, trying to keep the smell contained to not attract animals. So then i had about 2 LBS of disgusting trash to pack out. So that's all set. I went to hang my bear bag over a tree branch and the line (that has been fine for 3 months) broke, snapped back and hit me in the forehead. No big deal, didn't hurt, i fixed it easily, but, i mean, Come on!! It was seeming like too much, maybe just because i was deppressed. So i went to sleep, and by the providence of the divine spirits, i slept like a baby, and woke up the next morning to the most spectacular sunrise i have seen on this entire journey.
Things have a way of balancing themselves out, don't they. I got everything cleaned up the next day at a restroom not to far off the trail, and once again, things were returning to a familiar rythm.
The next night i camped out another set of beautiful cliffs, the Annapolis Cliffs. I met 2 super cool guys, Manimal and Ananook. They camped there too. We all cooked dinner together and watched the sunset, played music(manimal has a guitar as well) and watched the full moon rise. I woke in the morning to a person walking along the cliffs shouting happily, "Victory! Victory!", then he said 'oops' and i heard nothing. I asked the boys if it was them, no it wasn't. Hmmm, i wonder who my victorious friend was. ?
It's definately been a different trip this time around, all my friends being so far north now. I am essentially alone, meeting a few people here and there, but i am really diggin' it. I have camped by myself everynight, not at shelters, but at perfect intuitivly found campsites wherever i feel like stopping. The other morning i just made coffee and played guitar for 3 hours before heading out.That was just over the Maryland/Pennsylvania border. It took 2 days to cross MD. some people do the '4 State Challenge..they camp just on the VA/WV border and begin there hike VA -WV - MD - PA in under 24 hours....my friend hobbit did it in 20...aw, she's so cool!
I heard a noise in the woods the other night that made my blood freeze in my veins. I was in my tent, maybe midnight and i heard this sound from way down that sounded like a thousand voices of the dead combined into one, spouting out something in a wierd language. Was it a feline creature? Was it someone on a megaphone from the town/ camp below? I heard it again and it was so bizarre, almost like words...must've been an animal...or??? But i will say that it made me think of things i'd see in a movie that i would watch with my sister Kathy or Elise Ulrich. That's when i just visualize my third eye and chant myself to sleep. Sorry if i've creeped ya'll out...i'm still here so.........
Anyway, i am writing from boiling spring, PA, an awsome town. I stopped to visit my childhood friend of the family (Ned, Boots) , his wife Wendy and their new daughter Melody(she's gonna be a little rock star so she's cool in my book, and soo cute)...and Wendy's parents Buck and Diane. I'm staying at B + D's house right on this beautiful creek that ned and i went tubing down today....awsome! Took a zero day here today tryng to mend my poor feet. I've got some blisters from my boots that i have stopped wearing. I 've just been hiking in my crocs...liberating, yet not sustainable. I'll be heading out tomorrow, hopefully get some hiking sneakers in Duncannon on sunday. It has been so nice staying here, the hospitality is amazing.
Alright, it's late, must sleep.......peace and many blessings to all....don't be freaked out by my story of the strange sound in the woods(mom, sisters)...
All is well.....and i may catch up to some friends after all...everyone seems to be seriously chillin' here and there and i'm on-na move!!!
Oh Yeah! Many Names got her Mojo back brothers and sistas !
Peace Out Ya'll !!