New Jersey & New York

Tyler has hiked out of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and is now in New York. The mayor of Unionville, NY invited thru-hikers to his house when they pass thru. The group stayed there on Saturday night.

While waiting for a package at Delaware Water Gap, PA they went intertubing on the river.

They have seen a lot of wildlife lately, some baby skunks, baby raccoons, and more bears. Luckily, they haven't seen any rattlesnakes.

Tyler is amazed at how things work themselves out on the trail. For example, they were eating breakfast at a cash only diner... and realized they had no cash mid-meal. A man came over and struck up a convo about the trail, and decided to take care of their bill. I was on the phone with him yesterday, and they were hiking near a road, a woman rolled down her window and gave them some snacks. People are so nice to the hikers!

I think they are still miserablely hot during the day. Tyler fell asleep at 9pm without an appetite for dinner last night. They're not eating as much, drinking more water, and sweating more... which means he will probably start losing even more weight... i think he's lost about 18 lbs so far during the trip.

Skuter, Jesse, and Katy (Jesse's Girlfriend) hiked into Port Clinton, PA yesterday and picked up a mail-drop. Skuter caught back up with a hiker he met in Damascus named Snake, and his friend White Fish. Snake, White Fish, and Skuter went diving off these cliffs (he said about 50 ft tall)... this seems a little dangerous but he told me after the fact, oh well. The Yuengling brewery is very close to Port Clinton and for free you can tour and get 2 beers out of it. They were doing that at 10am and hiking that afternoon.

They should be catching back up with Hammerdown and Billy Bagels soon.

The biggest obstacle right now is the heat. Their schedules have changed... they wake up around 6-7am, hike til lunch and find a "watering hole" or a cool place to hang out and hike in the evenings again. Skuter's gotten pretty lucky because Jesse's family lives close by and has been helping them out a lot, kinda like what I did when he was in the south.

Tyler pretty much face planted yesterday and said he got pretty bruised up. I guess he wasn't looking down and tripped over something. He was glad no one was around to see the fall.

The official finish date is scheduled for August 16.

1,000 Miles - Harper's Ferry, WV

Skuter passed the "unofficial" half way point yesterday and has officially hiked 1,000 miles since March 1st! On Tuesday night he stayed at Bears Den, in Bluemont, VA... his favorite hostel to-date. You get laundry, bunk, shower, a pizza, free long distance calls, and a pint of Ben & Jerry's for $25.

He hiked into Harpers Ferry yesterday, and crossed the 1,000 mile-marker. He wished he could spend more time in Harpers Ferry but they stayed at The Town's Inn hostel and were hiking out this morning. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy's headquarters is in this town, so they're going to check that out before they leave.

Now that he's gotten too far away for me to go visit almost every weekend, I've started doing mail drops for him, I will try to put on here what post offices I will be sending stuff too. He'll definitely be in those post offices so if you would like to send him a care package you can. He can't carry a lot and I send him his meals, so a few snacks and a card will be the best bet.

I know pictures make this a lot more exciting, but I am not seeing Skuter for a while :( I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures when I get to see him again, probably in a month.