As we started today, i felt different than I had over the last few days. I felt good. Not just decent. Not ok. Not not bad. Good. I felt good. My new shoes seemed to be comfortable. My legs had energy in them and my head was in it. I was moving from the beginning of the day. We all were. 

The miles seemed to fly by. Each time I checked my phone it was much later than i had expected. And I had walked further than I expected. The scenery seemed extra beautiful too. It was just coming together as the day you dream about having. Not too hot or cold. Not too easy or hard. Not too long. It was just fun.

Around 15 miles in, the three of us all got to a creek within a few minutes of each other. As we all filtered water and sat down next to the flowing water to eat our lunch, we joked that because rocket had accidentally left his hat in Lauren’s car this morning we would “have to” go back and stay at her house again. “Oh no!” We all cried out, “that would be terrible! Please don’t make us sleep in another comfortable bed again”

We walked on from lunch feeling just as good as this morning. 6 miles later, however, we found ourselves descending large stone “stairs” coming down a mountain. For the first time all day, I had to slow down. I couldn’t go at the pace I wanted. My knees cried out. 

I hate stairs. And, as I slowly descended, I let the world know that I really hated these stairs. I yelled obscenities into the wind and on multiple occasions told the inventor of stairs where they could shove it. But these stairs were done with quickly and I was soon on a road, walking into the town of Duncannon. 

Lauren had apparently seen that rocket had left his hat behind and had offered to meet us in Duncannon for dinner and to drop off the hat. As we sat in the parking lot waiting for her, a guy came up and started chatting with me. He asked what we were doing and I told him about the trail. He then told me about then mountain biking trips he had done out in Moab. Then he told me he was going to buy us all some beer. Nice!

Lauren came and we all (stranger included) sat down for a Philly cheese steak dinner. It was no Jim’s or Pats but it was (to a New Yorker at least) delicious. Cheese whiz dripped out of the foot long sandwich with each bite. It was everything I wanted. 

“So where are you camping?” Asked Lauren. And when we told her we were going to have to hike another 5 miles, she told us that sounded miserable. We agreed. She then said the magic words. “I mean you can come back to our house if you want?” We pretended to think it over but it’s supposed to rain tonight. And we just ate cheese steaks. And drank beer. There wasn’t really a decision to be made 

On our way back to her house, we asked Lauren if we could take a detour. A man named John Kelly is in process of trying to record the fastest known time on the trail – trying to beat 40 days, the record set late last year – and he was about to pass by. We wanted to see what it looked like to do the trail the way he was.

We happened to end up waiting for him in the same place that his coach and support team were.  So we chatted with them for a bit and they all looked exhausted. His coach told us about their work and sleeping in cars and how much time jt takes just to dress his blisters each morning. 

It’s a team effort for them, they’ve all been sleeping on the road and on call 24/7 for the past however many days. While John is the one doing 60 miles a day, he can only do that because of everything everyone else is doing. 

Suddenly his coach broke conversation and told us she had to go. We looked up and saw John half jogging half walking down those terrible stairs. With an exhausted, glassed over look, he waved at us before sitting in a chair. Within seconds his coach had lifted his feet onto a cooler and was using a massage gun on his legs as he shoveled knoor pasta sides and a coke into his mouth. 

Again, we were near comatose as we walked back into Lauren’s house and barely held a conversation before climbing int o bed. 

Key stats: 

Miles: 23

Elevation gained: 2,600 ft

Mile marker: 1151

Where I’m not sleeping tonight: the woods