Thru-hiking the 2190 plus miles of the Appalachian Trail is a grand undertaking and surely a test of mind and body! Catnap and Sweet Tooth, my niblings, are completing a thru-hike this year. They started at Katahdin, in Maine, and are hiking south. I planned to meet up with them as soon as they came within range of my area. Last week they appeared on my radar! We were messaging back and forth and planned in advance to meet up on Sunday. The morning dawned bright and beautiful, a wonderful day to meet up with Catnap an Sweet Tooth, as they passed through Pine Grove Furnace State Park, approximately half-way on their southbound AT journey!

You might be asking yourself…what is a nibling? Nibling is a non-gendered term for niece/nephew. There are three great people in this story, who are all adult children of my siblings, and they all have different pronouns, so niblings it is!

The first nibling, Izzy, my nephew, had stayed overnight at my house. We were up early and headed out the door just in time for an 11:00 meet up. Pine Grove Furnace State Park is about a two hour drive from my house in western Maryland and it was great to have Izzy as company for the drive!

Reaching Pine Grove, we spotted and joyously celebrated with Catnap & Sweet Tooth (because of course they got there first)! They had toured the little AT Museum and highly recommended it for anyone who has not been to visit. As we talked, we walked. Right back to my car where the requested goodies were. Bananas and chocolate chip cookies were on the requested list…but I threw in some salmon jerky and powdered electrolytes, as well. Nothing was refused! …nom, nom, nom…😍

*Sidenote* – my hiking pal Queen V now volunteers on the weekend at the museum and is a GREAT person to tap for information regarding the trail!

Ok, back to the niblings! We all moved on over to the Pine Grove store for lunch. This is the home of the “half-gallon challenge” where some thru-hikers will eat a half gallon of ice cream. Catnap told us the evidence of this could be found at the first north bound shelter past Pine Grove. 😝 Interestingly, Catnap and Sweet Tooth abstained!

As we sat down, Catnap told us she had lost her wallet along the trail, so that was a point of concern. She had posted on the FarOut app. I assured her that things get found and told her about my friend, Roxanne, who had lost her phone a couple times along the trail and has gotten it back every time! I loved sitting there on the porch of the store listening to trail tails as they retold harrowing experiences of the crazy flooding in the northeast and the male hikers that had been dubbed the “dude bros”(not a complimentary term, fyi)! 😂I hated to wrap up lunch but it was getting late and these thru-hikers needed to hike! We made a plan for Izzy and me to drive up to the Michaux Road trail crossing and hike in to the half-way point sign to wait for Catnap & Sweet Tooth to CELEBRATE!!!

It was amazing to meet up and share part of their AT journey with them! The day after meeting up with them I received a message on Instagram, tell Catnap to check her dm, we found her wallet!!!!! The BEST kind of trail magic!

Catnap & Sweet Tooth are now long gone and moving fast through the easier terrain south of the half-way point. They took 80 days to hike from Katahdin to Pine Grove and that was the hard part! I assured them they weren’t going to hit any of the big mountains for quite awhile, so picking up speed and miles per day is assured. Last I heard they hit a personal best of 28 miles! If you are on the trail, don’t blink or you might miss them!

Love you Catnap & Sweet Tooth! Hike on! ❤