Welcome to my blog.
Expect reflections on long distance hiking, hiking culture, nature, creativity and my undying love for backrests.
I almost skipped recording this day because, honestly, the trail isn’t that interesting for the first 3.5 miles. Just climbing and climbing and climbing some more. Nothing as gnarly as the Kinsmans. Just unrelenting up hill.
But there was a special treat at the end and an idea for my next challenge, so I decided to add this to the mix of Friday Faves.
One of the ways I get prepared for something epic like hiking the Appalachian Trail or starting a business is to gorge myself on every shred of information I can find.
I take classes.
I give the internet a reason to exist.
Here are a few things I've found particularly genius this week
The Rim of the Gap trail lets you experience a southern style escarpment, or what I call a cliff.
It was a day of chutes and ladders, cliffs and boulders.
And it was a day serenaded by the sound of water dripping off rocks.
In other words, I've found another Top Ten hike close to home and full of wonderful things that's a near-perfect thru-hike training ground. This hike is FUN!
A few weeks ago, I went to Damascus, VA to take a course that was supposed to help me get ready for my thru-hike. The term “purist” came up a few times.
The course instructor felt like people had come to use that term in a derogatory way.
Maybe. But should we really GAF what other people think about how we hike? I think not.
This was our first overnighter in the White Mountains this season. Steve Smith, the guru of all things White Mountain hiking, called this one “the most grueling section of the AT in the White Mountains.”
Oh, goody!
This should be fun.
Don't tell my tent, but I'm having a clandestine affair with a hammock.
It was a tough decision to make. I thought it through, trying not to let my emotions get the best of me. I crunched the data--weights and costs. Pros and cons. Whoopies and webbing.
It's all here. Plus, the one thing it ultimately boils down to when deciding between a tent and a hammock.
Mt. Guyot transformed from Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll overnight.
Today, we got skies parting, angels singing and a glorious day for a walk in the wood.
Plus, cornbread.
It doesn't get any better than that.
Try not to overthink your itinerary (she says as she calculates mileages, crunches numbers and estimates arrival times to trail towns along the way).
Today I share my own itinerary and I offer a link to a worksheet where you can create your own.
Trust me...after crunching the numbers, I'm convinced that walking from Georgia to Maine in a season is totally doable for mortals and slow hikers alike.
Way back at Liberty Springs Tent Site, we chatted with Quinn, the Caretaker, a lovely young woman who didn't seem to mind answering questions she'd probably been asked a thousand times about what it's like to spend the summer using a privy that "flushes" with mulch.
She asked me to deliver a message to a boy at the Guyot Shelter. Of course I said yes! What fun to play a tiny role in a White Mountain love story.
She entrusted me with a tiny square of paper folded a couple of times with "Jimmy" penned elegantly on the top.
I tucked it into my hip belt where I knew it would be safe and off we went. It would be two days before we reached the Guyot Shelter.
The question was: would the note survive the trek?
I'm reading all I can find about thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Here is my review of AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller.
If you can get past the whining about infected blisters and lost toenails, there is a lot to love about this book and a lot to connect the journey on the AT to the journey of life.
This was day two of a five-day trip along the Appalachian Trail through the White Mountains, from Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch.
Apparently the rumors of White Mountain ruggedness and ability to challenge even the most seasoned hikers start way down in Georgia.
But I learned a few years ago that TIARAS give you secret hiking super powers.
I finally had a chance to try out my new tent, the Lightheart Gear Solo, this past week on an overnight trek along the Art Loeb Trail. (Two words: ball buster. The hike, not the tent.)
Here's what I thought about it--the good, the bad and the ugly.
