The Blueberry Patch

The day following Deep Gap Shelter, Hansel and Gretel awoke early and hiked 3 miles to a road crossing. Here, they hopped on a shuttle that brought them to a hostel called The Blueberry Patch.  This sweet and wonderful place had two houses.  The second house is where the hikers stayed.  THere was a large table, a stove, and three bunks (one was as a double bunk bed with double beds, and two were triple bunks with single beds).  Each was made from thick wooden logs.  Also in the shelter was a collection of food that people had left and was free to anyone who wished to take it.  There was still another box with free gear that people had left behind!

The man running the hostel washed Hansel and Gretel's laundry and they even were able to take a shower!   It is quite possible that this was their first shower since starting the hike a little over a week ago.  Yikes!

The Blueberry Patch sat on a huge piece of property.  The backyard was equipped with large garden in addition to four goats and two mules!

After hanging their wet clothing out to dry, Hansel and Gretel heading into town where they proceeded they found an all-you-can-eat buffet.  As it turned out, neither one of them was able to actually eat very much food.  It seems that after a week on the trail, consuming only small portions of food at a time, they can not hold nearly as much food as they could before starting.  The problem they encountered was that they ate insanely fast!  They filled their plates (fried chicken, creamed corn, sweet potatoes, etc.) and in less than 10 minutes, everything was gone!  By the way, Gretel is still a vegetarian, getting her protein through beans and peanuts and such.  Needless to say, our two favorite hikers were not feeling so stellar after that meal!

Following their feeding frenzy, a trip to Ingles Grocery Store ensued.  Ingles was chock full of great stuff!  Consequently, Hansel and Gretel's packs weighed quite a bit upon leaving the store.

That evening, our favorite hikers slept soundly in comfortable beds; a real treat after a week of sleeping on the hard ground!  The following morning, they went to church with people running the hostel.  It was a Southern Baptist church and it happened to be youth day, so there was plenty of singing to be done!  They all returned to an amazing breakfast or pancakes with blueberry syrup (homemade at the Blueberry Patch, naturally), sausage, cheese biscuits, eggs, orange juice, coffee.  It was excellent!  Then, Hansel and Gretel were driven back to the cross road where they emerged from the woods they day before and continued on their way.

That's all for now.  Until next time, happy trails!

Spreading the Word

As the final days at home in Cranford NJ dwindle away, Jarrod and Becca are making every last effort to spread word about their adventure and about their goals to raise $10,000 for multiple sclerosis (MS).  Countless emails have been sent to friends, family, school mates, colleagues, and potentially interested acquaintances.  Both Seton Hall Prep School (Jarrod's high school) and Brown University (Jarrod's college) have kindly posted information about the adventure on their web pages!  


Jarrod and Becca have also sent several days meandering through the streets of town, in and out of public buildings, down the aisle of our very own church on a Sunday morning, through the line at the frozen yogurt shop, and on the treadmills at the gym wearing their 35 pound packs and dressed for the trail.  They figured no one would miss them if they were decked out in their complete backpacking ensamble.  They chatted with anyone one who expressed an interest and distributed slips of paper with links to the MS donation page and to this very blog. 


Wednesday afternoon was their excursion to the gym which is a few miles away from our house.  They loaded their packs with everything except food and set out at about 3:30pm.   Each packed weighed about 28 pounds.  Once their food is added, they are expecting their packs to weigh between 35 and 40 lbs, which is exactly what they were shooting for.  


Feeling good, they walked all the way into the center of town.  As they were going, some awesome guy on a bike named Jim yells out to them and asks, “Where you guys goin’?”  


So they yelled back, “To the Appalachian Trail!”

After a short chat, they continued to hike over to Style Street, the place our entire family has been going to get our hair cut since 1991.  Mr. J's, the best sandwich shop in town, was the next stop.  They talked with the owner for a bit who promises to hook them up with some sloppy joe sandwiches before they leave for the trail.  For anyone not from New Jersey, a "sloppy joe" is a three layered sandwich with meat, swiss, coleslaw, and dressing between rye bread.  This is definitely NOT the ground beef mess that comes on a hamberger bun.  Oh no!  And you better believe Jarrod and Becca will be stopping by Mr. J's once more for that oh-so-delicious sandwich!  


Once Jarrod and Becca made it to Gold Metal Fitness, they spent a few minutes speaking with owner Gary Patti. Shortly after, they hopped on the treadmill, walking at a 20-minute mile pace on a mild incline.  They found out that they would likely be burning about 100 calories for every mile they walked.  If we do a little math, we can conclude that if they hike 20 miles a day (which is their goal), they will be burning 2,000 calories per day!  This means that in order to sustain their energy, they are going to have to eat about 4,000 calories per day!  Talk about a diet plan!  Yikes!  


All of the people who saw them in the gym were very excited to hear about their upcoming journey and many offered suggestions and little pearls of wisdom to help them as they hike.  There were even suggestions of packing a shot gun and a machete!  


That's all for now!  Happy trails!  


ps. Jarrod and Becca have sent me more pictures than I can fit into this blog so I will attach a link to a separate flickr account where you can see all of their pictures as they send them to me.  The link can also be found on the right side of the page under "Links we think are important."