If you don’t read planet.mozilla.org or the Mozilla Web Tech blog, you’ve just missed out on a nice little article I wrote about some web developer features I implemented in Firefox before starting my A.T. thru-hike. If you’re into web development it might be interesting; I can assure you, however, that if you aren’t, it’ll be complete gobbledygook. In any case I’m sure at least some people in the latter category might be interested to see the sort of things I do beyond absurdly long backpacking trips, even if they won’t be able to understand them. 🙂

I am currently in Harpers Ferry, WV with 5.8 miles remaining in this thoroughly idiotic accomplishment. I do not have the energy to find a good resource that describes what this is, beyond what you can probably guess it is. (I might continue an extra three miles to the first shelter in VA, which would also net fifty miles for the day, but that decision will definitely wait until after the state line.) If someone can find such a resource, I’ll update this post with it when I can. Four State Challenge will work about as well as anything for describing what the challenge is. After grabbing some food (wrapped deli sandwich or similar) to eat for dinner when I stop for the night, I’m heading back out to finish the day; hopefully I’ll be able to eat the food and get a bear bag or something going before collapsing into sleep from sheer exhaustion.

Tomorrow’s hike will be a shorter-than-average day.

Update:

• There’s apparently some funky trail-winding near the border such that it’s only 1.9 miles to one crossing of the Virginia border, so in reality that was all the distance I actually needed to cover. The Thru-Hiker’s Companion book doesn’t really make this clear, and 5.8 is to the last of the “Virginia sections”.
• I ended up completing the full 5.8 plus the remaining 3 to that first shelter, for 51 total for the day.
• Even if you’re a thru-hiker, you can never let your ego grow too huge, or else it’ll be deflated when you read the register at that first shelter and discover another crazy southbounder started from even further into Pennsylvania and thus hiked a 60-mile day. I never had any illusions of extreme hiking prowess, but if I had, the southbounder Rock Layer would have trashed them completely.