Joey Camps

7/11 Friday Abol->Katahdin 2170->2185 Forced to sleep in because the store didnt open until 7am. Now I know what youre thinking...why dont you just not be a pussy and run the last 15 miles without food.  I considered. But when I get down from Katahdin and I have done 20 miles that is where I will camp for the night.  I aint skipping dinner, I am a fatty at heart.  Plus I wanted a redbull...duh wings.  I got in and out of the store. As I was on the trail to BSC, I began realizing; 8 more miles and I am done carrying this pack.  7 miles and Im on the last climb. 6 more until your free to fly. 5 more hours. 4 till the floor.  3 its just me. 2 what can you do.  1 this is soo much fun.  Chased a moose for the last half mile.  I hit BSC.  I saw my dad , lifted me higher. I dried my feet. Ditched the pack and packed my day pack ,...with pretty much nothing.  I ran the first mile of the climb. It felt amazing.  All the memories of the trail flowing through my mind like in the mo

7/10 Thurs Pine needle forrest->Abol•ish 2119->2170 Well I woke up before my alarm as usual.  I got a mission to complete.  I got packed up. Dave seemed to be taking his time. I used the facilities.  I was still waiting for Dave. I told him I was going to walk slow and to catch up.  After a really slow half mile I reached a stream. I stopped and cameled up. I thought it would be perfect. I would drink tons of water and Dave would catch up.  After I had my fill and still no Dave, I decided to walk on. I hit a small climb, I thought surely Dave would catch me.  I reached the top. Still no Dave.  Smooth bomber descent waiting. Decision time.  Eff it.  So I go. I felt bad about leaving Dave , but I got the impression he wanted to leave me.  I was feeling good now though. Buttery pancakes. Flying I was. It got rooty, rocky and swampy. I didnt care. I would be done in a day. I really thought I could make the store by close. 51 miles in 13 hours. Just under 4 mph. I got this. U

7/9 wednesday Monson->in the middle of the trail .2 past mile marker 2019 2067->2019 And we danced, and we cried And we laughed and had a really really really good time Take my hand, let's have a blast And remember this moment for the rest of our lives Our lives, our lives, our lives, our lives Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight 'Cause tonight's the night Am I right? Dance! See, so you see.  I can hear the music.  And I love to dance.  Unfortunately, this last week had really shook me up. With zero, near zeros, falls, survival sleeping and stressing out; I had lost my MoJo.  So we went to work. Slowly I was gaining my confidence. It helped that the conversation between Dave and I was flowing.  It distracted me and uplifted me. Dave was similar in many ways and we agreed on a lot of random topics. It was like have a bunch of Eureka moments. We talked about running, the Wasatch and even wer

7/8 Tuesday Monson->Monson 2059->2067 Started off with some nasty words to my dad. He had been stressing me out. He was super helpful and kept me on track. Everytime I wanted to quit in the last week, he has said the right thing to keep me going.  I am forever thankful for how he raised me.  I just need to be alone now and finish this thing on my own.  A fella named Dave saved my AT trip. He started talking to me and sparks were flying. I was getting the fire back. I told him that even before getting on the trail,  I thought about doing the 100 mile wilderness in "100 miler " style. Basically, try not to sleep and finish it in 2 days. He was on board. Hell yes, lets do this!  So now I am amped up and it is 10 in the morning. A little late to start that venture. But I did have 8 miles to finish from yesterday. So I got a ride back to the trail and huffed it. It felt good. Maybe because I was motivated or maybe because my pack weighed next to nothing, but I felt

57 days 4 hours and 41 minutes after leaving Springer, the top of Katahdin.  It is not a record, but I am proud of what I have done out here. I survived the monsoon in the south and a hurricane in the north.  In between we cruised.  I am all beat up, but feel amazing.  This has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life, but also the most rewarding. It has been a beautiful, long rollercoaster ride from hell.  Definitely type 2 fun. Or type 2200 fun. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and followed along on the blog. I will fill in the details shortly. But right now it is hotel, shower and dinner time.   Peace and Love  Flash

7/7 Mon Pierce Pond->Monson 2030->2059x->2067 Slip sliding through mud. Everything itchs. Might be poison ivy, but im not that reactive to it.  I didnt scratch, despite the itch.  I got black flies dive bombing my eyes, making it difficult to see at times. I forded two rivers that ended up coming up to my waist.  The water is moving, it is a bit sketchy.  At one slippery muddy spot. I slipled on a wet muddy rock, my recovery step slipped on a rock, my second recovery step slipped in the mud, now my legs are pretzeled and I go down. Luckily there are rocks to break my fall. I split the impact between my wrist and my face. Thankfully it was spread out enough to not do damage. And I didnt get that muddy. Couldnt help to chuckle, I almost had a face full of mud like a lady getting a facial mask.  Finally, I got to a river that after sometime I decided was insane to try and ford.  I want an adventure, experience and to push myself; but I am not suicidal. I headed back to t

7/4 friday  Grafton->under a boulder 1918->195? no clue It poured for a few hours. Descending Bald Plate in the rain was trecherous and gnarly to say the least. The rest of the day it was spitting and cold.  I forded a few rivers that scared the shit out of me...I was just glad to not have to take a poop break.  At ~6:30 the skies split open. It was raining so hard I could barely see. I found an over hanging boulder.  I spent one miserable night in my bivy with water flowing down on each side of me.  Chalk it up to another near life experience. Really living out here.  7/5 sat ColderBoulder->Stratton 195?->1997 Actually slept a bit. Who knew rocks jabbing the back could be relaxing.  Cold, got my hustle on. The trail is easy to follow; its just the flowing water.  Except when the waters really flowing. Then its time to ford.  Good thing I used to do ironmans!  Wish I could bike though.  Cold wet miserable. Im not pretending to enjoy this anymore. This s

7/3 thurs Bethel 1918 Rest was nice.  My first zero day. But I really just want to be back out there. Rumor has it, Rumsford got 12" of rain last night.  That is 20 miles north, close to where I should have been.  I guess I picked a good night.  Do you realize...that is 12 feet of alta pow?  Holy face shots trench digger.  Apparently the foot is good to go.  A little early for an xray to tell for sure, but it looked good, felt good.  So I am going to pad it up like crazy and give it a go. I got my dad camping around Maine and fishing.  Nearby if I need.  It looks like a hurricane might get us. But tomorrow is showery and then two days of partly sunny.  I think I will get out there ASAP and take advantage of the weather.   Although I wont be eligible for the record, as my Dad picked me up and we bought supplies today...at a grocery store ? So nice.  I still think it would be cool to finish under 60 days , then under Matts time  (current record 58d9h40m)  which by my calcul

Webster Cliffs I just started to get a kick out of it.  It seemed like everytime I got to a nice sunny spot and thought Ill stop and dry of my feet, socks and shoes. I would get my shoes off and one cloud would block the sun.  Okay I guess 33 out of 34 isnt everytime View from Lafayette I believe (above y below) Working up the ridge, now this is the running I like! Lonesome Lake, not so lonely with that view Kind of the same shot , but I love the way the clouds in the lake look Mt Moosilauke (above y below) Not a bad place for a break I could break all day I know you are sick of landscapes... .... ..... Suckers

Although I believe beauty cant be captured, it lives in the moment. I will try to share some with you. Getting the sun up and down everyday Sometimes I wonder if it is real I would always get a final push for the day around this time Clouds forming over Mt Washington I dont get sick of it. But you might What we got from Mt Washington Testing my one leg balance after. 30 miles on a cliff edge ... Yeah extreme

7/2 Wednesday Full Goose->Bethel 1908->1918 Well okay.  Fine, fine, the foot is fine.  Well it doesnt hurt more than what I have become accustom to on the trail, I should say. Away we go, the most fun mile of the course.  Mahoosuc Notch. It is just boulders. Entering it was like going to the land of the living dead. The temperature must have dropped from 75 to 35 instantly. There was snow on the ground. Soo cool. I touched it just to feel home, niiiiice.   I thought about if I was home 10 days ago, I might have been getting face shots in Main Chute.  How sweet the dream! Task at hand Joe, task at hand. I got to work.  And so did mother nature.  I swear it was clear skies, but I could only see a little part of the sky down in the gully of the beast.  Big fat drops splatted the boulders.  By the time I had my rain gear on, it stopped.  Hmm. I guess this is just right of passage I thought. It didn't rain, no. The AT gods were just making sure I got the full experience.

7/1 Tue Imp-> Full Goose 1879->1908 Leaving early this morning I felt good physically, but mentally I felt like I was losing a friend and going out in the wilderness, lonely again.  Surely Pnuemo was worked and had no reason to continue at such pace except for the companionship.  I got to White Mountains Hostel and Inn (our goal from yesterday).  I asked if they had any food to buy. Not really. The guy checked.  One Cherry Garcia.  I took it and filled up.  Somehow I got to saying I was in a hurry because I was going for the record. The guy asked if he could interview me. I said fine, but I needed to keep walking. Well I ended up stopping. But it was brief and I was on my way.  Eating Cherry Garcia for break fast and jogging down the road. Odd to some people, seemed to make perfect sense to me.  It was hot and humid. I sweated out all the Cherry Garcia on the first climb. It was beginning to dawn on me that making it to Stratton was going to be a big stretch and I might

6/30 Mon Lake of the clouds->Imp 1851->1879 Woke up today excited for some more Whites. The first thing we did was descend down the wrong trail. Now I say we, as Pnuemo decided he hadn't had enough and got up to go with me. I love it!  This kids got heart!  Well, if someone told me they started on the wrong foot, I would tell them to try being ambidextrous. But wrong trail descending 3/4 of a mile.  I got nothing for that. So when we got back up to the shelter, I just pretended I had slept in(as I had thought about).  Disappointing to not top out Mt Washingting, but been there done that.  It was also socked in and wouldn't have been a view.  We did have a gorgeous day break sun thru fog ridge descent though (picture in time).  After a bit of non stop rock hop we arrived at Madison hut. We were hungry and looking to stuff our gut.  We were hoping for breakfast leftovers.  I told Pnuemo, i doubt they' ll have pancakes. They are so quick to make there wont be ex

6/29 Sun Liberty->Lonesome Lake  1813->1851 Today I ran with emotion. That emotion was love. I struggled to start. I was shook up about yesterday and didnt sleep much.  But then I though about what I love I love my Dad and Mom. They made me who I am.  Iove my Brother for his awesomeness I love Christal for putting up with my shinanagins I love all my friends  I love the random strangers that have given me support  I love this trail I love pushing myself and see when I can do The mountains The other through hikers Especially I love music Met the only person I'll probably hike with this whole way I am stoked.  His name is pnuemo. He's hammering out a 90 day venture. He heard about me and wanted to keep up with me for a while and we just crush it.  Oh and I love huts and doing dishes for food