Location Post May 31, 2015

41.315758, -74.657005
Stayed at High Point shelter last night.

Location Post May 29, 2015

41.199394, -74.752625

Location Post May 28, 2015

41.153145, -74.838280
12 miles today.   We took a bath in a lake. Then we feed 200 blue gills and trout who were begging for food.   We had an encounter with an adult rattlesnake and a spider.  The spider had a leg span of a silver dollar,  We removed the spider from the shelter so we could sleep.  This brings everyone in the shelter closer together. 

Location Post May 27, 2015

41.055473, -75.962265
We set out to walked 15 miles today; but, it turned out to be 13 miles instead, so not bad. We met the "Lorax" today,  really cool dude. Looking to seeing him on the trail again someday.

Taking a look at week 3

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Byb7pYnD5yKjfk54N3RYNjhZNTgzcnJMMjdRNXFqbUdvN1lGVGhDamQxejFCaUZ2MzkzWXM&usp=sharing

Location Post May 26, 2015

40.982594,  -75.141907
We hiked about 5 1/2 miles today and we are staying at Church of the Mountain Hostel.  We met "Sweet Blood", "Not Yet", "Frodo" and "Luke Trailwalker",  (more trail names).  Our goal is to hike about 15 miles tomorrow. 

Thank you to our new friends

Occasionally we go into town. It might be for a mailed food supply, or just a change in the peanut butter and bagel diet on the trail. When it was time to go, we'd waited for a few good candidates for a ride, that passed us by outside of the McDonalds drive thru, before we started walking down the road to hike a few miles back to the trail head.
Freight Train has a sign, featured in week 3 folder of pictures and vids, Ride 2 trail. Within 5 seconds this lucky couple picked up these lucky hikers. What a treat it was to share that ride with you.

Selfie performed by Freight Train

Location Post May 24, 2015

40.840580,  -75.358894
We walked 11 miles today from 11:45 AM to 6:40 PM.  About 2.5 hours of that was taking breaks and enjoying the views.  Terrain was relatively flat, but we had a good dose of rocks to walk over on 3/4 of the trail today.

average walking speed = 11.0 miles / (6:55 hours - 2:30 hours) =  11/4.417 = 2.49 miles/hour

Yeah, it really happened like that

We're at a bonfire tonight with an invitation from the night before from a husband and wife we met at a pub.
Memorial Day weekend would prevent us leaving for a mail pickup on Monday, you forget about holidays while you're on the trail sometimes.
They were at a table next to us, able to hear the conversation with our waitress about our hike.
Since you have a day to burn, why don't you come to our house for a bonfire tomorrow night? We're going skydiving and kayaking in the morning,  so we'll pick you up in the evening. You can stay in our house and we'll give you a ride to the trail the next day. So we did and I got to invite Freight Train too.
Here is a picture of the sunset at their house.

Thank you Tara and Barry.

They are actively engaged in raising money to help find a cure for cancer.
This is a link to there website, please help support this effort.

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Team-Hahn

Location Post, May 23, 2015

40.878830, -75.545052
Made a post tonight.  Having a great time.

Location Post, May 22, 2015

40.832443, -75.522812
We were able to get indoors tonight.  There is a projected frost warning tonight for the low 30's.

Location Post - May 21, 2015

40.781498,  -75.613297
Dave:  We passed George W. Outerbridge shelter for some tent sites. We are eating a late dinner with Beetle and Freight Train.  We are often passed by other thru-hikers that started in Georgia.  They are doing 20 to 25 miles per day.

Ed: What is their rush?  Just think you and Heather did 22 miles today.   11 + 11 = 22 ;-)

Ground covered - April 25th to May 20th

The portions of the trail that Dave & Heather have covered as of May 20, 2015.  The green line is growing!

By the Road

Location Post - May 20, 2015 10% of the A.T. in 26 days.

40.723927, -75.783005
13 miles today.   We should have taken more breaks.  We're building endurance, but hiking for 10 hours can work against you day after day.  We went over the 10% mark for the trail on the 26th day.  We will need more distance {ed: per day} to finish this year.  It will come.

Location Post - May 19, 2015

40.633938, -75.957870

10 miles from Eagles Nest shelter to Eckville shelter.  Today's highlight was that "Freight Train" worked very hard to get pizza delivered to the shelter.  At 18 miles from the pizza store,  it took an extra 20 bucks in tips to get the pizza delivered to the shelter.

Taking a look at week 2

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Byb7pYnD5yKjfk54N3RYNjhZNTgzcnJMMjdRNXFqbUdvN1lGVGhDamQxejFCaUZ2MzkzWXM&usp=sharing

Assistance from the home base. Heather's Dad

Hello,  
I am Heather's Dad,  Edward Boll.    I will be assisting with the posts while Dave and Heather are on the trail. I will be posting their GPS coordinates on a frequent basis.
May 18, Monday 40.590260, -75.941216
May 17, Sunday  40.584705, -76.024994

You can copy these values and paste in Google Maps and you can see where Dave & Heather are located.    I will be working toward the beginning of the trip as well as trying to keep current.

Location Post - May 17, 2015

40.584705, -76.024994

Ed: I got a light binocular at a golf tournament.  It weights only 17 grams.    I offer it to Dave and Heather

Dave said: "Appreciate the offer, we're good."

Location Post - May 16, 2015

40.549202,  -76.152939
15 miles today.  New record.  Met Locks and Mojo,  they are good peeps.  Have a lot in common.  Because of our efforts hiking so many miles, we only have to 9 miles tomorrow to get the largest Cabellas in the nation to replace our shoes.

Location Post - May 15, 2015

40.513031, -76.347939

Location Post - May 14, 2015

40.515167,  -76.33893

Send small green knife

Finding a knife

Ed:  Before Dave and & left on their travels they went through my collection of pocket knifes and selected a few for possible use on the trail and placed those in a bag.  Dave asked for the green knife to be shipped in the next resupply box.   However we could not find the bag of knifes!

I took a picture of what I could find and asked Dave to pick one:

 

I even offered my Super Knife: 

 

 

It even has a compass and weights less than a pound!    Dave reply was, "That is what 11 times what we need looks like."

 

Since he turned down the Super Knife, I picked the small black knife with the chain in the middle of the first picture and we shipped it the next day.

 

The following day we found the missing back of knifes.   The one we sent only weighted a few more grams than the one he wanted.

Location Post - May 13, 2015

40.479500, -76.541252

I will call you tomorrow to let you know what we need in the next drop shipment.

Saving Weight - May 13, 2015

{ed: After a few weeks on the trail,  Dave & Heather reviewed their packs and shipped a few things back to home base.   The total weight was about 9 lbs.   Clothes,  extra shoes, AND part of the an AT trail guide.   

Only part of the guide!  The part they sent home was the portion of the AT guide for the southern half of the trail.   Since they are going north they do not need it at this time.  It saved then 147 grams.}

Location Post - May 11, 2015

40.425876,  -76. 879379
11 something miles.   New shoes courtesy of Walmart working out okay so far.
Blister did file today.  Bunion cover, paper tape and duct tape.  Made a cup padding the heel and walking was relatively painless! Both hour for tomorrow! Or I meant best hope for tomorrow!

Flash back to week 1

We're killing time at the Doyle Hotel using a Pentium III processor in an ancient computer tower.  It's working, just slowly.  We're attempting to upload some photos of our trip so far.

Click this link to visit a folder on our Google Drive account to see some photos and a few videos.  We're working on renaming the files so that you know what each photo is, but with the slow computer we might just have to wait until Heather's dad has time to do it with the audio file we sent him describing all the photos.  For now, here's a bit of fun.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Byb7pYnD5yKjfnljcGwwbGc0SW1pTGNKNFp2dzVZY3B5STVoZU8tWWFYR2VvT2cxd3VJS2M&usp=drive_web

An update from the trail...

H:

First few days of hiking were great. Then some foot pain started. Blister hotspots developed but we squelched them and hiked on. Pain in feet came and went, we hiked on and callouses developed.  Thursday last, something was no longer right with my feet. We made it into Boiling Springs for a mail pickup and resupply. It was supposed to be a light day and we still put in 7 miles!

Out of Boiling Springs we HAD to hike to the next shelter to abide by the law. 14 mostly flat miles, shouldn't be too hard. It took us 9.5 hours.  My feet were cramping up, I also had a callous that was feeling pretty iffy and Dave was walking slow with some hotspots on his ankles. D is also dealing with poison ivy breakout on ankles and feet so skin is super sensitive.

The last mile was up hill and rocky. Halfway along I had to stop and check my heel. I'd had a lot of heel pain and thought this was a bruise but it turned out to be a blister forming under the callous! I patched it up and hobbled into the shelter. We set up our tarp and tent. I fixed soup after Dave fetched water. 7 other hikers crashed in and around the shelter and a troup of boy scouts took up the upper camping area. We took our tired and sore feet to "bed" on a level surface and wondered what tomorrow would bring.

We slept well but moved slow in the morning, our feet hurting in different ways. We started hiking at almost 10 A.M., pretty late start, but we pushed off hoping to get to Duncannon, PA, for a mail drop and rest and maybe new shoes. An hour into the morning's hike my shoes were causing my feet to cramp again. 7 miles to the next shelter seemed impossible, let alone the 11 to Duncannon! 

I gave up on my trail shoes and put on my camp shoes. Flimsy but atleast they didn't pinch. D switched too because his feet weren't able to dry out due to the waterproof fabric on our shoes and he was getting hotspots all over.

We slinked along, stopping often and resting our feet but walking better and enjoying the views. The last mile into the shelter was long and slow due to lots of rocks on the trail. Probably best just to rest up at the shelter and hobble into Duncannon Sunday afternoon.

Sid the Sloth was resting at the shelter when we got there. He'd passed us 30 minutes earlier with a quick "hello." We talked a bit and he left to hike the last 4 miles. It was Saturday night, he wanted a few beers in town and wanted to try to catch up with a couple other thru hikers. He figured it would take 1.5 hours for him to get to town.

We sat at the picnic table looking for a level surface to pitch our tarp. None were around and a notice mentioned that porcupines were around eating anything tainted with hiker sweat. We downed a Nutella filled wrap, 800mg of Motrin, all but the last of our water and topped it off with a handful of M&M's plus lemon girl scout cookies. Time to move on. It was 4:30, we had 4 miles, maybe we would make town by 8.  We made it by 6:55.

Somehow, despite the rocks and foot pain, the 30 minute break we took revived us and we hiked feeling good, the thin camp shoes couldn't absorb all the shock but stepping gently and skipping rocks had us practically flying compared to the last two days.  Our feet are sore but no more cramps for me and D's feet were drier than they had been. We were suddenly enjoying the hike again!

It's now Sunday and we are on the hunt for new shoes in a town 8 miles away. We are waiting on a ride from a local shuttle who charges to run you around.  

Tonight we are crashing for a second night at the Doyle Hotel. The Doyle was rebuilt in 1905. GOOD FOOD in the bar but the whole place is a little dingy and run down, but no bugs and the bed and sheets are clean and smell good! We could have slept with porcupines instead, but we're happy with our choice and full bellies.

Location Post - May 9, 2015

40.390015, -77.030121
12.6 miles today.   At the Doyle for a couple of days.  Working on new shoes and sleeping mats.   Pain subsided mid day, pressed on to town instead of shelter.

Dad: We can send her tennis shoes.  An Option is to cut a hole in her shoe to relieve pressure.  Customize the shoes.

Dave: The shoe bends at a point so that pressure is put on top of Heather's toe.  The shoe doesn't flex properly.   We're looking for tennis shoes.  I (Dave) could use new shoes too.  It's semi urgent we have them to be able to walk out of here instead of the next drop location. 

Dave: Thought of cutting shoe.  Being water proof,  cutting shoe could ruin integrity the way it's sewn together.

Location Post - May 8, 2015

40.301941,  -77.086761
Thanks for working on the blog,  map idea sounds cool.   If you want to update it every week that would be OK

14.3 miles in 9 hours 35 minutes.  Ouch! Sore feet slowed us down.  Hoping for good sleep and less painful hiking tomorrow.

Almost the 100 mile mark of our journey

We're in Boiling Springs, PA getting a little rest and picking up another food resupply.  We had the chance to weigh our packs on a scale at the AT Conservancy. Soup Mix came in at 14lbs without water and mine was 16lbs. Both of our packs had some remaining food before we picked up our resupply, they would have weighed 1 or 2 pounds lighter. As far as having a light pack, ours are very competitive. 13 miles to the next shelter. Pictures and video coming soon!

 

 

Location Post - May 7, 2015

40.148705, -77.118126a
Picked up 2nd supply box.  Uploaded a few images in video to folder labeled week 3 in my Google Drive.  It might work to just link the pictures and video out of the Google Drive to the blog.  Some of them are just sharing the view around us.

Shipped box #2a.   9 lbs. 11 oz.

Location Post - May 6, 2015

40.111744, -77.104179
Take the next box; divide in half.   Then pull 2 dinners out of A half and put aside.   Send 1st half to Duncannon, PA.

Please buy a big box of carnation instant breakfast start putting that in the boxes.  2 packets per dinner in the boxes.   We like them for breakfast and will need 1 each per day.   Thanks for all your efforts!!


{ed: Dave & Heather decided to reduce the size of the resupply drops.   The boxes as they planned the drops were 13+ to 15+ lbs.  They decided to cut the boxes in half.     This box weighted about 8 lbs.}

Location Post - May 5, 2015

Message from Dad:
Today is Cinco de Mayo.  Good luck on finding a margarita on the trial.

Reply from Dave:
40/062984,  -77.206017
We have lemon lime Kool-Aid.
11.2 miles   .2 miles to water source.   Still working on audio description for week two folder in Google drive

Location Post - May 4, 2015

40.033562, -77.356674
14 miles in 9 hours.  Stopped for 2 hours.

Location Post - May 3, 2015

39.932114, -77.486135
Very nice shelter tonight.   Light day for us.  Got resupply box 1.  Worked out good.  Will send info in a couple of days about box 3.  We got tracking updates in our email too.

Around 55 miles so far, and making progress..

Greetings friends, family and those who eventually wander here. We knew before we started that being able to use the internet would be sporatic. That's why we left the majority of blog updates to Soup Mix's dad Ed. I have just recently sent him a few pics and videos to work with to make the blog more colorful.

You are all missed. It didn't take long to fully understand everything we put on hold for this experience,  and for such a long time. We are doing really well, and getting our new life on the trail sorted out.

We only received our first food shipment today, so still a lot more to do and learn.

Lastly, why did I mention Soup Mix earlier? It's Heather's trail name. So given for her dedication and elaborate array of dehydrated soup mixes for the entire trip. Mine was self given for my recent interest with making good and useful knots..Knotty Boy.

Till the next time, from The Hiker Beans, peace, love and happiness stuff.
 

Location Post - May 2, 2015

39.905190, -77.505569

11 miles in 7.5 hours - 1 hour of lookouts and breaks

Location Post - May 1, 2015

39.804974, -77.477943
13 miles in 8.5 hours with 1.5 hours of breaks

{ed: 13/(8.5-1.5) = 1.85714286 miles/hour}