Welcome to Joizy

New Jersey has a very good Trail reputation. There's a few hills sure:

There are also many boardwalks including this one which is about a mile long:

Here's a couple Trail days, about 630pm Wed night, High Point Park NJ:

Now it's Friday at 1030 am, the monument is barely visible right of center(like yours truly):

Same day, Friday, approaching the "Stairway to Heaven"

Also known as the Pinwheels:

The previous pic was taken down below almost center, couple hours later on top, now the monument is way off over second range barely visible if at all in this pic.

I've come across some great trail magic but this ones a lil cray cray. Remember a few days ago I snapped one of two trek poles?

Never seen a trek pole at a magic site. Steve L has "God Provides" tattooed on the back of his truck with a great story to go with it. I was gonna just save the next two pics for myself but this happens too often to not share. About a month ago I lost my last of two small bungee cords that I used regularly. About two weeks ago one of the new tent stakes snapped. Well one night it's getting late and I just want to find a tent spot. I notice an overgrown side trail, take it, and in a few yards it opens to a small barely used tent site that I guessed was used during last year's hunting season. As I'm moving around setting up the tent, half buried:

And sure enough, a few minutes later, an exact duplicate of what I lost weeks ago:

Now if I could just find those marbles???

Remember this guy? I found him heading south as he's doing some flip flopping:

The first thing Deja Vu says is about how much weight I've lost. I know. I've been told I'm "too skinny". I agree but it comes with the territory. When starting I looked sorta kinda almost like this:

Well maybe possibly perhaps a little more like this:

I say "maybe perhaps possibly" because whoever that is in the mirror can obviously not be positively identified. Ewwwww, hence reason #17bII why I needed this hike, drastic times drastic measures.

So I've gone from a 36 tight to 32 loose. We're burning 4-6,000 calories daily people! Think of how hard that is to replace, even if you sit on the couch with someone handing you the food all day it's pert near impossible to replace. Well I've had two things happen.

A. If I take the pack off and turn sideways I actually disappear:

See...I'm standing right there on the foot bridge.

2. I'm already getting post hike celebratory dinner invitations! Only question there is if I should plan to bring my sheventy shix pic shlide preshentashion that I've shaved down to 2 hoursh and fitty sheven minitsh.

Ja have fun reading that? There are at least a couple commonalities among single season through hikers I've read about when the Trail is finished, weight gain and depression. I've got a most excellent counsellor, more friends than I deserve and a schedule coming together nicely to keep me as busy as ever for the latter. Idle time is not a friend to ole Sparky. As far as weight gain, I'm looking forward to replacing about 20lbs.

"How ya like them apples":

Talk about a rock n a hard place:

What a relief though, got my mojo back including appetite, energy and 4-5 steppers without hesitation. "What's a stepper you say?"  DOD waited till I was about 40 when he taught me what a stepper is. Remember there are at least two by products from lactic acid, one is sore muscles the other is the same as from beans or broccoli. The stepper is how many steps you can take during release. Eights are great and I'm pretty sure I've had a couple tens but sometimes it's hard to know for sure unless you started counting right away. Now a word of advice as I can sense some eagerness and know that some of you have the kind of cake job that affords the opp to read this while pretending to work. Don't attempt the stepper on the way into work nor during the lunch break, wait till you leave for the day to avoid having an accident that you may have trouble with.

Well speaking of pain and trouble perhaps I've kept you long enough for now:

Be well.