Day 71 - Greetings from PA (June 18)

I crossed the Mason Dixon line this afternoon to officially enter the North. I would consider West Virginia a Northern state. I suppose Maryland could be considered either a northern or southern state.

I've been hearing a lot about PA. One one universal statement about PA is that it is rocky. Thought Foot is from PA and has already hiked the entire state He never complained about the state. I'll find out more soon enough.

I started at Pine Knob shelter, and finished up at Deer Liick shelter at a distance of about 23 miles. My ankle had no pain today. I think yesterday's pain was a tendon problem. I asked several people about foot pains, and it turned out that everyone else has had the same problem. The advice I got is go slower and stop when it hurts.

HD and Sticks were the two section hikers I met at the shelter last night. Both gave me some ramon noodle soup when I told them I would like to stretch my next resupply to US 30 another day's walk froom my original plan.

I heard that Cerial left the trail because someone stole his pack. This was way back along the Blue Ridge Parkway. He apparently left his pack someplace to go back and get his camera that he forgot. When he returned to his pack, it was gone. He may have done a foolish thing to leave his pack unattended, but its a really bad thing for someone to have stole it.