Flying, Hiking, or Just Staying Home
Sharing my experiences from every walk of life
Quick Appalachian Trail 2019 Update #2
This is going to be short and sweet, just a quick update that all is well here at the moment I’m writing this!
My tooth is still grey/purple 🤷♀️. That’s that pretty much. I found a dentist, that didn’t lead to much. I’m assuming I’m going to need a root canal or worse when I get home.
I don’t really want to say exactly where I am right now because posting my location in real time along a hiking trail before heading back into the woods for the internet world to see just does not add up to a great idea to me.
In summary:
Lessons learned-
-Don’t forget to refill your toilet paper supply while in town 🤦♀️. Thank god for extra wet wipes.
-Don’t forego sunscreen to save pack weight because you think you don’t usually burn, overlooking the fact that your skin hasn’t seen sun in 6 months and the trees are still pretty bare in April.
– If you’re not an early riser morning person in real life, you’re not suddenly going to become one on the trail.
-If you poop 4 times a day at home, you’ll still probably poop 4 times a day on the trail so have fun digging a hole and timing it with flatter terrain.
-Invisalign is impossible to maintain on the trail. Unlikely the orthodontist will understand.
I can summarize how the trail feels in 2 ways for anyone who hasn’t backpacked before.
For DCI folks: Picture the first week of everydays and everything that encompasses that experience. That is the trail in a nutshell.
For everyone: Put 30 or so pounds on your back, get on the stairmaster on and off for 8 hours, yes the stairmaster, no not a treadmill with slight incline, the stairmaster, and then sleep on a slightly uncomfortable surface.
Anyone can get out here and do this, for real. But pictures cannot possibly convey what it feels like or capture the ups and downs so I have taken my best shot at summarizing.
I hope to tell stories, but time seems to fly on a day in town. By the time I’ve completed the hike to the gap in the road to the mode of transportation and gotten to the place of lodging and done laundry and planned my next stretch of trail and gone to the store accordingly for food and gone to the post office to pick up a package, you get the idea, somehow the day is over. Even in writing this I think I just set myself up for taking the later shuttle to the trail tomorrow and probably doing less miles but this ain’t no race so that’s ok.
I had a hiking buddy last week I kind of fell into synch with as happens out here. He told me I was one of the most indecisive people he’s ever met. I hope everyone reading this who knows me is laughing at how that means I’m my true self out here 😂.
Signing out for now!
Flying, Hiking, or Just Staying Home 