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Expect reflections on long distance hiking, hiking culture, nature, creativity and my undying love for backrests.

Oct 5

Oct 5 BMT/AT Figure 8 Day 34: A Milestone worth Celebrating

long distance hiking, roulette

Hiked out by headlamp and got a sunrise through the trees this morning.

Day 34, Monday, October 5, 2020

Stealth Site at Ekaneetlee Gap to Fontana Dam

Mile 374.7

Miles Hiked: 9.2

Today I finished all 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail.

It’s been a long time (and seven pairs of trail runners) coming.

In 2017, I hiked 1,800 miles.

In 2018, another 300.

In 2019, I hiked the Long Trail, then summited Katahdin (15 miles)

Finally, 2020, the last 72 miles through the Smokies.

WOOT!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!

I’m celebrating with a shower at the Fontana Hilton and a burger in Robbinsville. Then I’m marching out again tomorrow because I’m not done with this year’s obscure hiking project yet.

166 miles yet to go.

Shuckstack fire tower…looks dodgy.

Not as dodgy as the tower on Mt. Sterling

Worth risking life and limb.

I love these burls every bit as much as I love fungi.

Okay…let’s go to town for a burger!

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@rubythroatwhiteblaze

Another day, another pass—Silver Pass, PCT mile 886.3, 10,934 feet. Stopping less on the way up (to suck air and appease my racing heart). I could get used to this. Especially watching the moon set from my campsite at the end of the day.
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Just a few places I’ve spent the night recently. Motivation to keep going through the hard parts (and ALL the parts are hard out here)!
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#pct2024 #pacificcresttrail #sierrahiking #womenwhobackpack #womenwhohike #womenwhohikethepct #

Chanting Bukowski all the way to the top:

if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.

Also chanting: please don’t let me be the one who gets the helicopter ride today.

I wasn’t. And though, after

Training hike complete—524 miles from Grayson Highlands to Harper’s Ferry. All the body parts cooperated and even thrived (thank you ankles and knees and toes, especially). Hopefully these #traillegs are good to go on the next phase of t

When you’re halfway through a 19.8 mile day with climbs adding up to 5,000+ feet, humidity through the roof, temps in the 80’s and a reservoir presents itself? You don’t ask questions when your feet veer off course in a beeline tow

Less than 100 miles to go. We are in the bittersweet phase of a long hike where the end is near and though I’m excited to go home and eat donuts from @holedoughnuts (and see my husband and dog), I know I’ll be twitchy soon and longing to

I’ll never be one of those “birders” who hikes with binoculars or stands around for extended stretches of time staring up into the leafy green. I wish. But the trail won’t hike itself and while I’d love to see all the

362 miles in. 162 to go till I get to Harper’s Ferry. Feeling all the bittersweet feels of my warm up hike coming to an end. Along with the giddies when I win the campsite lottery and get to spend nights and mornings on a cliff overlooking t

After three nights in the BeeChill Hostel in Daleville (highly recommend for the outdoor shower and that they served ice cream for breakfast), this little introvert is finally alone in my tent, watching the sun set thru the trees, bugs knocking again

Last year I attempted to long hike on the CDT. I failed spectacularly. Twice. Made it 45 miles in New Mexico (and wasn’t even the first one off the trail…the desert is a bully with spiky things, shifty ground and dead cows). Made it 7

Yesterday, I heard the sound of Big Creek and got a case of the SHIVERS (aka the heebie-jeebies). I was sure the final 30 feet of the Benton MacKaye Trail would involve yet another barefoot river ford. I can’t count the times this trail leads

Captivated by Katahdin. I can’t stop staring, can’t get enough, can’t pull myself away. I haven’t felt this way about a mountain since I fell in love with Mt. Rainier. What is your favorite mountain?
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#katahdin #badass

9.19.19...Nailed it! And no one got hurt (except a toe I stubbed, but he seems to have forgiven me and plans to hang on to his toenail for now). When I hiked most of the AT in 2017, I worried about so many things that turned out to not such big deal

The End....Day I did finish the Long Trail. Sunny. Cool. Dry. No chance of hypothermia. .
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#longtrail #longtrail2019 #longtrailvt #longdistancehiker #hikeyourownhike #52hikechallenge2019

Day I was supposed to finish the Long Trail...2.6 miles from the end, after hiking in a deluge with no rain gear (for future reference, an umbrella is not appropriate on the Long Trail for many, many reasons). I found my husband at the last road cros

Passed mile 200 today en route to the top of Vermont...Mt. Mansfield. Had some flashbacks to Maine, especially that part where I ended every day glad no one died. .
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#longtrail2019 #longtrailvt #longdistancehiking #womenwhohike #52hikechallenge20

Good night from the Puffer Shelter...better than Netflix.
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#longtrail2019 #longtrail #womenwhohike #lovemylife #longdistancehiking #52hikechallenge2019 #sheexplores

I love a nearo! Not so much out of town. Give me a nearo into town and I’m in heaven.

Hike a few miles to the road, hitch a tide to the nearest coffee and kale omelette (I lovermont!), spend the day exploring some quaint little enclave—

In 2017, I remember thinking how Vermont was like baby bear’s bowl of porridge...just right. Not too hard, not too easy, no one gonna die. Then the Long Trail peeled off from the AT and shit got real. Day 10 brought nine piles of moose poop

On the Long Trail this month, happy to be back for a little white blaze snack, an amuse-bouche, if you will. The first leg of my quest for a Triple Tiara.

I always get a little anxious before getting back on the trail, and this time was no differen

BMT/AT Figure 8 Day 35: On the Home Stretch, Now

Oct 6 BMT/AT Figure 8 Day 35: On the Home Stretch, Now

BMT/AT Figure 8 Day 33: Happily, Giddily Breaking the Rules

Oct 4 BMT/AT Figure 8 Day 33: Happily, Giddily Breaking the Rules