Miles on the social trail

I passed a milestone this morning.   I have now hiked 1000 miles. We're in triple digits!  1700 miles including the kayaking. 2300 more to go. 

There was another milestone yesterday. For the first day in what seems like months my feet were not wet and cold. Yeah!  The trail is drying out. Rain is forecast in a couple of days but I'm going to ignore that for now.

My feet are sore. They just ache.  They are sore after every hiking day but it seems to take longer at night for them to recover. They're hot and swollen. When I notice the purple color it finally hits me. The shoes are ready to swap out for a new pair. 500 miles is pretty much the lifetime of trail runners. No worries; we have three more pairs ready to go. 

I'm out of sync with the other hikers.  While the AT is known as the most social long trail, I walk alone and often camp alone or with folks I see just once.  Some hike more miles per day, most hike less, so it is a constant parade of new faces, unlike the other trails where I stayed within a few days of the same group for months. Today was 25.5 miles. 

Much of the AT social aspect occurs in towns or hostels. For example a couple of days ago I passed a sign from TrueBrit for free camping and breakfast at his place near the trail. I didn't think too much about it but it turns out that 15-20 hikers gave him a call and dropped in, many taking an extra day. With my push for miles to get to Halifax I skip that luxury, and with the RV resupply I am more self sufficient. Those choices are reducing the social aspect of the trail. Ironically the hordes of people are one reason I thought I'd never hike the AT, but now I feel like I'm missing out on part of the experience of this trail.