Greetings all! My last post was made the morning before I hit the trail again after staying with my wife, daughter and son-in-law for 5 days in New Jersey. I returned to the trail late that day in Salisbury, CT and since then have traversed\u00a0Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and am now posting from the public library in Palmerton, Pennsylvania. As its been two weeks of steady hiking, I’ve got a lot of pictures and a couple of videos to share and will let those tell most of the story, but here are a couple of quick notes:<\/p>\n
Wildlife<\/strong>: Over the past two weeks I’ve had some interesting encounters with creatures (see some of the pictures below). As some of you may know, I was passing through the NY\/NJ part of the trail right at the time a student from Rutgers became the first ever black bear mauling casualty in New Jersey. I was within 15-20 minutes hiking time of the spot and found it a bit unsettling, especially when I encountered two black bears in a tree 15 yards off the trail around the same time. Luckily, they bounded down out of the tree and ran away, leaving me with a great story to tell but nothing more (thankfully!). Another ‘factor’ in recent days has been the high profile search for a fugitive cop-killer hiding out in the woods near Delaware Water Gap, PA, which I just passed 2-3 days ago. Never a dull moment on the AT!<\/p>\n Terrain Variety<\/strong>: Whereas the trail in Maine and New Hampshire features a lot of similar terrain, as I move further south I’m seeing much more variety on the trail…you’ll see a number of pictures on that.<\/p>\n Whereas I spent the better parts of August and early September hiking with a group of others, the past two weeks I’ve been hiking alone as I gradually catch up to those folks after having been off the trail with family. Both styles of hiking (alone, with others) are fun and I’ve had a great time enjoying the solitude.<\/p>\n Milestones<\/strong>: Finally, for those interested I have a couple of big milestones approaching. I’m currently at 930 miles and therefore will hit the 1000 mile mark later this week! Furthermore, the mileage mid-point for the entire trail is 1092.5 (half of 2185), so its likely that as of my next post I will be over half-done with the AT!<\/p>\n Enjoy this installment of videos and pictures and\u00a0keep those comments coming!<\/p>\n Michael (Maxheap)<\/p>\n