I am 0.2 miles from the NJ border and less than 1 mile from the hellacious foot-destroying rocks almost being over. They actually extend about 20 miles into NJ, I hear, but please let me pretend? I am less than a mile from the first state I consider “near home”. Each of NJ, NY, and CT will take less than 6 days to cross. For that matter, Massachusetts is only 5-6 days of hiking too!

So, let’s talk about the rocks. They are evil, but not consistently evil. Sharp, pointy, and unavoidable for 75% of the northern Pennsylvania part of the trail. You never know when they are going to go away for a few miles, leaving you with blissfully flat, smooth trail. They may do this only to increase the psychological impact when they return. My feet are as sore as they have been the entire hike. Today the thickest callous on my foot blistered! To be blunt: the PA rocks suck.

Did I mention I am almost in NJ?

Hoplite and I broke camp at 6:20am and put in some fast, ankle-turning miles to get to town early. I’d write about the hike, but I am having too much fun writing about the rocks. And parts of the hike were pretty ugly.

If you can’t time your poops to coincide with the privies, the standard procedure is to dig a 6″ deep ‘cat hole’ in the wood and cover it when finished. Factor in the amount of food I have to eat to power this adventure and you’ll better understand the urgency of “when you gotta go, you gotta go!” Okay, back to the rocks… I get off the trail, out of sight and find a good spot. I use a metal snow stake to dig a cathole, but I can’t get through the rocks! Again, again, and again. I gotta go, so I am ripping my fingers to shreds trying to find the magic rock that reveals the perfect 6″ cathole. Ah, the joys of the rocks…lets just say though, things did finally work out.

I met up with Skyline, Sundance, Condor and Einstein in town, and also met Captain Hook. The $42 room in the Ramada Inn was awesome and the fudge from the nearby farmer’s market made for a real nice treat when combined with lots of phone calls to friends and family.

New Jersey, here I come!