The Four State Challenge, Northern Virginia, and the Shenandoah's

My lack of posting has been absurd!!! I guess you could say I've been busy walking a lot. It all started out with southern Pennsylvania. Landon and I stupidly decided to do what's called the 4 state challenge. You have to step foot in PA, MD, WV, and VA. We stated at 9:30p.m. and didn't finish hiking until 1:30 the next afternoon! We officially hiked 63 miles in 36 hours and boy did my body let me know! I was sore as all get out! Next came northern Virginia and what's called "The Roller Coaster." this was a 13 mile section of nothing but 800ft climbs that had absolutely no point to them at all. Boy did I LOVE that section. What was my reward after this preposterous section.......Shenandoah National Park. Some of the most beautiful manicured trails we have seen yet on this journey. We also just so happened to enter the park on Labor Day weekend so the park was crowded to say the least. The crew, however, didn't mind flexing our thru-hiker muscles in barreling up hills while passing wimpy day hikers! That really makes us feel good about ourselves. I am now sitting in the Waynesboro, VA library reading magazines and waiting for my phone to charge up. As of now, we have calculated that if we do 23 miles a day, 6 days a week we will be finishing this hike on October 18th. This is a rough estimate as I well know by now that anything and everything can happen, but it's definitely a moral booster as the bulk of those miles (543 to be exact) will be in Virginia. I am still enjoying myself, but as the miles fly by and I see the end in sight I can't help but get excited about reaching Springer Mountain. 1327.7 miles down, 856.5 left to go!!