If “Virginia is for lovers”, then Pennsylvania must be for stoners

​T+1 (Mar. 20, 2020)
Got a surprisingly decent night of sleep last night. Usually while hiking I toss and turn most of the night and feel completely un-rested. Last night however I managed to only wake up a few times. Hoping for more of that tonight...we'll see!

Woke up for good around 6:30 and spent around 1 1/2 hours uploading the post to my blog. Took another ~2 hours to eat and break camp. Because of the time involved I decided to make camp early today, which should allow me to post this tonight.

So, for today's hike I departed my camp near Wolf Rocks spring (mile 1286.8) without a clearly defined destination for the day. I just let my body and the weather decide my fate. In the end, I stopped at Leroy A. Smith shelter (mile 1275.9) for the night. That makes today's mileage 10.9. Again, not bad for an old fart having a hard time with the rocks!

Speaking of the rocks, wow do they ever suck - big time! Especially when wet, which it has been the entire hike so far. I've never really hiked on terrain like this. The rocks are all either completely smooth and super slippery in wet weather, or poke up at random angles, and as you can see they essentially make up the trail. There’s almost no smooth ground to step on! I can't count the number of times I have twisted my ankle(s), stubbed my toe, nearly fallen on my keister, gotten the hiking poles stuck and nearly bent them, or some combination thereof - in rapid succession. It's no wonder that this state is referred to as "Rocksylvania" in the hiker community!

Long story short, all of the extreme jostling of my pack is definitely slowing me up (not that I’m in a big hurry) and causing significant soreness in my shoulders and hips. I was expecting some physical discomfort due to lack of training, but this has been a bit of a surprise. On the bright side, the trail is rather flat. This has allowed me to keep the pace I've been able to maintain. As the Monty Python song goes: "Always look on the bright side of life". In spite of my inherently negative nature, I really am trying to do this!