Update from Michigan

Walking fast, thinking slow

Yes, we made it! A little less than three weeks ago we walked out of Ohio and into the great state of Michigan - and we pretty much haven't stopped walking since. We're doing long sections between rest stops and frequently heroing towns (resupplying without staying the night), so there hasn't been a natural break for writing in what seems like a long time. When we do get to town, all we want to do is rest and eat, and it seems like there's a million little chores. While I'm working on the big posts, I thought I'd let you all know where we're at.

Here are the quick facts:

-According to the maps, we've done almost 2700 miles and have 2112.5 to go, putting the actual length of this trail at close to 4800. That's ~100 miles longer than this trail is said to be, which seems about par for the course with the NCT. It's hard to tell how many miles we've done exactly because the Eastern NY maps are inaccurate, there are four different map systems that overlap imprecisely, and some of the Gaia GPS maps don't have mileages on them.

-Michigan has been an improvement in every way over the previous half of the trail, and keeps getting better. I'm actually enjoying hiking, and we’re actually hiking again. Like, in the woods and stuff. On trails that go somewhere!

-Our sleeping pad, which was defective and splitting new pinholes at the seams every time we inflated it, finally got replaced in Kalkaska. Big Agnes sent us a new one, it got delivered to the wrong place by FedEx, and then an amazing and fabulous trail angel named Lisa drove an hour and a half out of her way to pick it up for us. I am eternally grateful; the last two nights are the first uninterrupted sleep I've had in over a month.

-We're currently in Petosky, MI, two days away from crossing the Mackinac bridge into Upper Michigan, a part of the trail I've been looking forward to for a long time. Right now, the movie Deepwater Horizon is on TV, and it's very good, and I have pizza.

So that's all for now. I realize this is the second time in a row that I'm giving you a non-update update, but I'm chipping away at my writing and hopefully we'll start getting to camp earlier so I can make faster progress on trail. Normally, I write at the end of every day, but on this trail we've been getting to camp so late that I don't have the energy. It's hard to hike 30+ every single day for weeks and keep up an artistic practice, it turns out!

So, I'll talk to you all soon, and I hope you're doing well. I'm gonna keep watching Mark Wahlberg be a hero and edit during the commercials. Bye for now!

-Magpie