Agile Trekker: PA Appalachian Trail - Sections 2-3

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/29/2018	13.7 miles

Map: Appalachian Trail Guide, Pennsylvania plus map that comes with the guide
Parking: Parked first car at Superfund Trailhead. Parked second car at PA 309.
Directions: Northbound

Today was not a good hiking day. It was our last day in Pennsylvania and we had to drive home after our hike. My body was ready for a rest day, but we are trying to finish up Pennsylvania. Well, we are already 1 day short of finishing, even with today's hike. So hiking today meant we weren't 2 days short of finishing up Pennsylvania. Starting out, my hip was sore and my feet were sore.

I have been wearing Salomons this trip, but decided to switch to my new pair of Altra's. The Altras have a manufacturing defect, and they had been aggravating a toe bone spur, but I really, really wanted that extra padding they provide. The extra padding felt good for a while, but yeah, soon my feet didn't even notice and went back to just being super sore.

So, today we got to do the knife edge. We wanted dry weather, so we waited until today to do it. The knife edge wasn't scary for us. We've done plenty of rock scrambling before. It did take us a lot of time though, in order to be careful. My hip was worse today, and the knife edge didn't help. I had a problem where I stepped forward, and didn't have enough muscles to pull myself up, so had to step back. I ended up stepping into a hole. At that point, my hip basically revolted. I found that on this rocky terrain, I tend to jolt my hip more, which aggravates it. I have come up with a way to hike, in order to accommodate when necessary. Lifting my right leg forward/upward hurt, so instead, when I need to step up, I step up with my left leg, and let my right leg trail behind, bending my leg at my knee not my hip. This works well to reduce hip pain, but then again, sometimes it causes me to trip - and that jolting increases my hip pain. Today I was just in a lot of pain. Both my hip & my feet hurt. I was ready to be done with our trip. I love hiking, but at this point, I need a break to let my body recover.

I tried to take a video of Trek doing the knife edge, but the video didn't come through. Glen is pretty funny - he is so proud of what a strong hiker Trek is.

We talked to a couple of thru hikers on the knife edge that we had met before. Then we saw them later on as they were settling in at a shelter. Even though my body ached and felt like hell, I was jealous that they got to stay out there, and I had to go to work tomorrow.

The trail going down to Lehigh Gap was actually pretty nice. Scenic and fewer rocks. Yeah! We had a bridge crossing at Lehigh Gap. Trek did well, considering he has a bridge phobia. On some prior trips he's worn a hole through his backpack from hugging a cement barrier so closely.

We didn't get home until 11pm. I was pretty exhausted. But on Monday, I was happy to be at work, because that meant I could be off my feet!