June 15, 2017
9:48 PM
Total Miles: 1072
Hiking thoughts:
I have spent the last few days pondering my reaction about D.C.
Let me preface these thoughts with the fact that I really did have a blast in D.C. It was such a rich experience seeing the monuments and museums. It was unbelieveable…Just incredible.
I think the hardest part for me to swallow was coming into this city from the trail where I am living minimal. Absolutely minimal. To this city where there are people driving fancy cars, wearing gaudy clothes, holding shopping bags filled with…stuff.
All this stuff.
What does it mean… how is it benefiting their lives, does it make them happier?
Everything in my pack I need. Okay, Okay, I have a few luxury items such as my nook and night guard.
But other than that, I have the bare minimal. I wear the same shirt and shorts everyday to hike in, I own two pairs of socks, and I am happy.
I smell bad and haven’t showered in a week, I own one sports bra, and I am really happy.
My armpit hair and leg hair border outrageousness, I own one pair of hiking shoes that are coming apart and I am extremely happy.
I dont need anything else, I don’t need to look a certain way or act a certain way.
I have a huge smile on my face because I have realized that none of that outside fluff matters. At all.
What is even more irritating is seeing this wealthy person of fluff stand right next to a homeless person sitting on the ground.
Wanting food, shelter, water, anything.
This gap.
This incredible gap between the two, is mind boggling. How is there such a big division?
It is intriguing to me how much the gap bothers me. yeah, I have always wanted to “help” but havent really done much. But this time. It struck a cord in a different way. It infuriated me.
Planner said later to me.. “I dont know if we should go to New York City.. it is way worse.”
No. We have to. I need to see it. Being angry can invoke change. If this is something that can fuel me. If this is something that my passion turns to. Then lets do it. Let me see it. And lets do something.
-Brown Suga
Day 75
Slept great and woke up around 6 or so. Spent the morning typing a blog and getting ready for the day. Coffee and writing… Best mornings.
The terrain wasn’t bad except for the occasional rock patch.
Around noon I made it to High rock.
Another place Tammy recommended. Thank you!
It was pretty incredible. If this happened everywhere.. It would be horrendous. But all this work in an isolated section…actually looked pretty incredible.
I definitely didn’t dangle my legs here. 1. The paint makes the rocks slippery and 2. A news crew was here filming, talking about how a women fell 50 feet yesterday from the top…
Uhhhhh…..
Any how.
A couple hours later we made it to Pen Mar country park.
This park used to be a big amusement park back in the day. They had a little museum showing pictures of what it looked like.
Now it is just a park with swings, playgrounds, picnic tables. A really beautiful spot. I was wishing the carousel was still there. Man how I sometimes wish I was born in the 50s.
Alex got there before us and was craving a pizza. ( we were told we could order pizza and they would deliver to this park)
Planner and I noticed the swings… Can we go swing? Yup. We both professed our love of swinging. We couldn’t wait.
Pizza came quick and it was absolutely yummy. We couldn’t finish it though and had to pack some out to take to camp for dinner.
After eating though. We decided we still wanted to play around more.
We all became kids.
Swinging..(or for Planner.. She was flying…)
playing on the jungle gym…
playing on these things which I dono what they are called…
We laughed like it was no bodies business. Laughter was pouring from us. It was contagious, it was joyous, I was a kid and I was loving every minute of it.
I mean how can you not laugh… Planner was getting wild…look how low she goes!
While on the bumblebee spring, a park maintenance worker came up and told us those are not for us, they are for little kids and how that one that I was on had just had its spring replaced.
I wanted to shout.. Where is the big kids playground???
But we popped off and I looked at him and pointed back and said…
“That is a good spring sir.”
We then decided to continue on with our hike.
Guess what we passed…
We are in Pennyslavania now!
We made it for a total of 23 miles to a pretty stellar shelter.
There was alot of people here but we got a little shelter to ourselves. No mice, clean floors, and toilet paper and germx in the privy..
WHAT?
We stayed up kind of late and were outrageously loud laughing at all the pictures we took during the day.
I was in tears.
Laughter makes the world go round.
Day 76
Today we woke up to no rain that was forcasted. That will always make me happy.
We only had one view today to check out and since it was still an overcast it was alright. The rocks were pretty cool though. I enjoyed climbing them like a moneky.
Around lunch time we came to Caledonia State Park. The sun had been popping in and out and it was actually humid out… The park had a concession stand and a swimming pool.
Hmmm… We walked over near it and decided that yeah.. we need to go take a dip. So we went in with our shorts and sports bras and had an amazing dip in the pool. The water was inbetween cold and cool.
I tried to do the “washer machine” with planner but she didn’t know what it was.. Neither did Alex. Was this just a Gardner, Ks thing?!
We grabbed a couple snacks after we showered…
When we left our bodies felt amazing. You know when you go to the nurses office to get an ice gel pack. And it is not too cold but just right.. Then when you take it off you feel so much better.
Yeah I felt like I had the ice gel pack all over my body. I was feeling so good And refreshed. We made the right decision. no doubt.
We hiked 9 more miles to our camp site.
Found a good camp spot and am ready to hit the hay. Hoping for no rain. Halfway tomorrow!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 
Oh my god, I just loved this post!!! I can’t believe you’re almost halfway!! What a feeling! I’m remembering so vividly the good times we had with our Trail family in the same places you are! Penn was all about those bonds and fun nights around awesome shelters! And I also had similar thoughts about being in the city–and one of the most wonderful gifts that Trail gave me was the knowingness that I could be happy with nothing. I could really relate to that. That really kind of permanently erased a lot of financial fears I would have had in the future because once you know that the fear of losing “everything” kind of disappears when you realize what is really everything. I remember a couple of the larger grocery stores on the trail really offending me with their large selection of toothbrushes. I was like–but why–it’s so overwhelming… Get ready for some of the fanciest best shelters on the trail! Pennsylvania didn’t thrill me but the shelters are amazing and it’s real easy to make big miles despite the rocks, which though challenging for the ankles and watch out for the many snakes–are really just good preparation for what’s ahead. (Just make the rocks larger and the trail more vertical,lol!) I remember a lot of nobos telling us how much they hated Pennsylvania with all the rocks, and I think because we’d come through the northern part of the trail we didn’t think it was too bad in comparison. It’s just challenging for the ankles because of how all the rocks are so damn small and barfed all over the place(we called them, and large boulder piles “rock barfs” I can imagine though that you wouldn’t have a bad attitude about it. Your positivity and ability to embrace the journey and have fun is a beautiful thing, and has and will continue to serve you so well for the northern half of the journey! I’m thrilled for you Izzy! Thanks for writing and sharing!!
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