✨️ 1300 miles and crossing in New Jersey ! Also lost my phone signal early in the day, but still ate plenty at the Mohican Outdoor Center

Crossing into New Jersey, passing the 1300 miles marker, and simply contemplating a beautiful sunset

Mile Marker: 1317 Miles today: 19.9

Before heading out of Delaware Water Gap after a wonderful rest day, one more stop at the town coffee shop! So many fellow thru-hikers just hanging around & have a good time. Always hard to head out when people are enjoying each other, but there’s miles to be covered .

And I was ready to cross into a new state: New Jersey ! Wow, finished Pennsylvania 🙌

Pennsylvania was the seventh state completed on the Appalachian Trail after:  Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. Therefore, just 7 more to go: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

What a journey it has been so far. It’s always so hard to describe and put the emotions into words:

The journey so far as been amazing: beautiful, surprising, filled with laughter’s and smiles, but also, a lot of pain, sadness, loneliness as well, even when surrounded by great human beings.  The trail has a way to strip you bare, to be who you truly are, because there is no other way I think you can walk all those miles & not be yourself. You give the best you can to every single day, even laugh & smile at the challenges, and yes, even when you are wet, exhausted by heat, tired, sad and missing the ones you love.

So I was very happy to cross into New Jersey, and see what the journey awaits.

My phone service stopped working relativly early that day. I do not know why, everybody else I came upon that day, there phone was working fine…It happened previously once on day 41: the day before arriving to Boots Off Hostel, TN.

By 10 AM, I crossed the 1300 miles marker ! I enjoyed passing by Sunfish Pond. Such a lovely pond. A little latter that day, I realized something was hurting my lower back…I found that one of the rods of my backpack poked a hole. I tried duck taping it, but the tape was not staying. Need to figure this out, but it will wait for now.

I arrived at the Mohican Outdoor Center around 2:45PM. Guess what I had ? Food. I got some pancakes. I also took some to go.

Later that night, at sunset, I finished those pancakes 🥞, then I ate dinner.

Did I mention, my phone service is still not working. Oh, and where I set up the tent for the night, a tree root or something poked a hole in my tent floor… to be fixed I told myself before closing my eyes.

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