Status Update

GA: done.
NC: done.
TN: done.
VA: done.
WV: done.
MD: done.
PA: done.
NJ: done.
NY: done.
CT: done.
MA: done.
VT: done.
NH: done.
ME: done.

Miles down: 2181!
Miles to go: 0

Go!

So when I originally planned this trip, the goal was to take the first half "leisurely" (time off in Bburg, etc) and then when I touched the mason-dixon line to put the burners on and get to the end. I think of it like running a mile on a track: push the third lap, relax a little on the fourth and then sprint the finish. The 'third lap' is from PA to VT. Then in NH I will hit the White Mountains, large things above treeline, where it would be very difficult and dangerous to try and push the miles. There I will have to slow down, to something like 15 or 18 miles a day. Then the trail comes down out of the Whites and you cross the NH-ME border, and I sprint to the finish in whatever time I have left.
The thing is, I had a tight schedule planned anyway before I got sick and had to sit at home for 4 days which I did not intend to. There is still time to finish, if I push it everyday. That is a lot easier done when your trust is in God sustaining you, inside and out, than when your trust is in your own strength being able to pull you through. I don't have enough strength alone to finish this trail by my deadline. Lymes disease or whatever I caught took from me what strength I had. I have recovered from that sickness, so it isn't like I am hurting myself trying to walk on an ailing body. It is just that all of my momentum in the physical was halted when I had to stop and lay on the couch for a week. But with God lots of things are possible which would not normally be.
So the moral of the story is look to God and leave it all on the field (trail). If I can walk to Katahdin by July 30th, you know who to give glory to. And it's not me and my muscles.

P.S. Good news: I am about to walk into NY. 7 states down, 7 to go; and all the big ones are behind me.
Time to go!!

Trouble Halfway

So I have made it halfway, just over 1000 miles. Feels like a good accomplishment, but I am not done yet.
I got off the trail this past weekend as one last opportunity to spend time in Blacksburg before the big push through the second half. It was a really good time, but I intended it to only be a weekend off the trail.
Two weeks ago I walked through a stretch of the trail where for about two days we were constantly brushing our legs against grass overhanging into the trail. I would do thorough tick-checks at night, and pulled 5 off me during this time. When I woke up in the middle of the night this past Friday with a fever and body aches, I knew what this probably was. I am currently being treated for a tick borne disease, and am hanging around my house in Baltimore until my body recovers enough to get back to hiking.
The goal is still to walk to Maine, but I will only be able to do as much as I am able to do. Going to try to get back on the trail this Friday...