A New State & McDonald’s Trail Magic

This morning I woke up kind of late when I finally heard Punisher moving around. Sometimes I sleep with ear plugs in so that I don’t wake up in the middle of the night due to a certain someone snoring. Punisher doesn’t always snore. But if he does, it won’t start till sometime around 1am. Which will wake me up and keep me up if I don’t wear earplugs. This time around they worked too good and I slept in.

Getting ready for another full day!

When I did get up I made coffee and began getting packed. Then we set out of the shelter sometime around 6:15AM. That’s what we consider “late” these days. When we left the shelter the first couple of hours were fairly slow going. I didn’t remember this section of the trail taking so long in 2023. But it was really rocky so at times it took a second to figure out where the trail went. Then you had to go a little bit slower when coming up rock face, especially if it was a little bit slippery. There were also a lot of sections in the forest that were flooded and pooling. So I tried to slow down and hop around those and avoid getting my feet wet. When we got up onto one of the first high points of the day, there were beautiful views of the lake down below.

The sun coming up behind an AT blaze.

After walking for about four or so miles, we officially crossed out of New Jersey and into New York. The 11th state of the border to border calendar year triple crown. The rocky terrain continued after that for another hour or so. There was one section with a rebar ladder that we had to climb up. I remember coming through here with Roxy the dog, and  being pretty impressed by her ability to climb straight up rock. Boosted definitely had to help her out a little bit though.

Made it to New York! The 11th state of the year.

About 10 miles into the day the trail crosses over a road. It was only around 10 AM so unfortunately it was too early for hotdogs or ice cream. There’s usually a hot dog food truck just off the trail. And an ice cream place right down the road. I checked online, but neither of them were open unfortunately. But as we walked up to the parking lot, I noticed someone immediately get out of their car and start to walk over to us. It’s always a little bit unnerving getting approached by strangers. I just never really know what to expect or exactly what is going to happen.

A particularly nice Appalachian trail blaze.

But the guy came up to us and seemed like he was nice. He clearly had been reading the blogs and said he had brought us some drinks and things! Then finally he introduced himself as Tentman, a name that I recognized from frequent comments on my blog over the last couple of years. After that, it was smooth sailing. I just wanted to know who this person was and everything like that. We hadn’t been coordinating or anything, so he just made an estimate of where we would be most likely based off videos posted over the last couple days.

We walked along this rocky ridge for a while, with views of a beautiful lake down to our right.

Tentman brought us chocolate milk, Mountain Dew, and some candy. We talked to him for a little while at the road and I drank my milk. Then drink half a Mountain Dew and decided to carry the other half with me. Around this time Tentman asked us if we wanted him to meet us at the next road crossing with lunch. That was definitely a hard answer to possibly say no to! So we made plans to be there in about an hour or so. And he was going to go to a McDonald’s down the road and grab us some food. This was a really awesome development in the day, especially because I’m pretty low on food. I would 100% have ran out of snacks over the course of today without a little support. I’ve just been trying not to eat through all of my snacks because I still need them for today and to go 17 miles tomorrow. Then we’ll be passing by the next place where I can resupply.

For most of the morning we walked along a ridge and enjoyed views of this lovely body of water.

We hung out with Tentman for a while, and then continued along the trail. We had less than 4 miles to go to get to that next road crossing. Where he said he would be meeting us with McDonald’s, which was absolutely killer! That was probably one of the fastest hours of my entire life. The trail was relatively temperate and the time went by super fast. Before we knew it we popped out at the next road. I saw Tentman’s car there and he was holding a McDonald’s bag. He made a joke about how we were a whole minute late. But we definitely made good time on that last section.

This was probably my favorite view of the whole day!

Over the course of today, the terrain has definitely slowed us down a little bit. It’s hard to tell mile by mile. But after we walk for a few hours, I can definitely tell that the terrain is slowing us down by an extra 20 minutes or so every couple of hours. Which isn’t a huge change. But it is making our mileage slightly less predictable which isn’t ideal. So at this point, I was hoping to have been a little bit further already for the day. We were planning on stopping for lunch, but probably not for another handful of miles.

The stone steps which took you up to the top of a really incredible waterfall, just off the trail!

When we grabbed the food from Tentman, he told us that we should just take it onto the trail and find a nice place to eat somewhere. Which I really appreciate because it was still a bit early in the day. I definitely could’ve sat there and eaten in the parking lot. But being able to pack the food out and eat a little bit later would be ideal. That was very cool of him. So we wound up heading out a little while after that and continuing on the trail. We walked for a while on some relatively flat trail. There was the occasional hill to climb. Then when we found a really nice spot, we decided to stop off and eat. I think McDonald’s tastes even better in the woods than anywhere else.

Nothing like packing out McDonald’s onto the trail.

I was feeling fantastic after that. And I was no longer worried about running out of food today. I definitely would have ran out of snacks today without supplementing elsewhere. So that was quite the relief and now I don’t have to worry about that for the day. Thank you so much Tentman if you’re reading this! You totally made our day and saved me from going hungry for a day or two. It was even better that it was completely a surprise and we hadn’t arranged anything prior to you coming out. I really appreciate all of your comments over the years on the blog. And I think one of the most magical parts about our encounter was that he gave each of us a pair of darn tough socks! The ones with the Appalachian Trail logo. I actually just got a hole in a pair of my socks the other day. But there are very few places to exchange the socks on trail. So now I can just switch these out and mail my other pair back into darn tough.

There were a lot of great AT markers over the course of the day.

That McDonald’s break had me feeling fueled up for the next few hours. The trail was definitely pretty rocky and many sections slowed me down. But we also went past some really beautiful ponds, rivers, and through some grassy valley type areas. It was a beautiful day and the weather could not have been better.

The AT crossed over this river. I had to cross on a couple topsy turvy rocks and logs to get across with dry feet.

Later on in the afternoon, we went through the lemon squeezer. A section of the trail that has a very tight rock wall that you have to go between. I can’t remember why, but I know for a fact we bypassed this last time I was on the AT. There was some kind of a road walk that went around. I know it was raining for about four or five days straight when I was here last. I’m assuming it has something to do with that. But that meant I got to experience lemon squeezer for the first time.

The lemon squeezer!

There were all kinds of other view points, rock formations, and beautiful things to see throughout the day. Even though our pace was a little bit slower than usual I still felt like the time was going by quickly. Toward the end of our day, we passed by a sign indicating that we have less than 800 miles to go to Katahdin. I can’t believe we’re getting so close already. I can tell this next stretch of the trail is really going to fly by.

The lush green forest.

Originally, I was thinking we’d be getting to camp for the night a little before seven. But because of the rocky terrain, flooded sections of the trail, and everything like that, it will end up taking a little bit longer. We began getting close to the shelter just before 8 PM. When we walked up I was shocked to see so many tents set up by the shelter. There was a fire going in the distance, even though there is currently a fire ban here. But lucky for us there was only one person in the shelter. He was a thru hiker who has been completing the Appalachian Trail over the last three years, doing large sections each year. And it looks like he’ll be completing his hike this year.

Less than 800 miles to Katahdin.

We got set up inside the shelter and then I boiled some water to make dinner. I ate one of my favorite mountain house meals, the beef lasagna one. That one is absolutely perfect and I could probably eat it every single day. Unfortunately I didn’t have service to get any work done. But I was able to use one of my editing apps to do some video work. Then I got some writing done before calling in tonight.

Making our way to the shelter just before it got dark.

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