We're back!

Well, the test hike was a success. We hiked about 70 miles over six days, from Salisbury, CT to Dalton, MA. For me it was hard going at first. The pack (full of food) was really heavy, and life on the trail was a major adjustment. Every day entails many house of hard labor, after the days goal is accomplished there's no couch to relax on. There's a tent to set up, sleeping pad to blow up, water to filter, food to dig out and cook, dishes to wash, bear bags to hang, etc. I was stressed out mentally and physically. It was hard for me to eat, despite the fact that I was certainly burning more calories than normal.

Here's an overview of all the terrain we went over. It seems that my main coping mechanism for hiking is that I forget most of what I walk over as soon as I've walked over it, so I'll let AJ narrate the story of what we walked through.

Some of my personal highlights from this trip:

Day One: We thought we heard a bear running through the woods (eep!) and came around the corner to see what looked like a dead bunny (even worse!). But in reality, what we had heard was a deer running away, and there was a fawn lying on the side of the trail. Super cute!

Day 3(?): We walked with Tiger Bomb, a totally legit hiker. How do we know she's the real deal? Well, she's the woman pictured on the 2009 Appalachian Trail Data Book, of course! She autographed our book for us, and at one point even asked us for help and advice in finding her shelter for the night. We both started from the same place, but we ended up walking four miles farther than she did. How gratifying!



Day 4: The Upper Goose Pond Cabin. This place is a little cabin in the woods, with a bunk house, kitchen, and fireplace. We sat by the fire and heard the stories of our fellow hikers Bill and Tia, along with caretaker, Slowfoot Dave. This night probably merits a separate post.

Also, we took a "bath" in the pond, which, as you can see, is beautiful. It was cold, refreshing, and weirdly hilarious. There was no electricity or plumbing in the cabin, but it felt totally wonderful and luxurious to be there.

Day 6: Arriving at the Kay Woods Lean-To. Technically, I never saw the Kay Woods Lean-to. It was .17 miles off the trail, and I doggedly refused to walk to it, even though AJ wanted to. It was cold, and raining, and gross, and we'd hiked over nine miles at a pace way faster than anything we'd ever done before. Arriving at this lean-to meant that we were less than 2 miles from finishing the hike. I felt so accomplished and strong.

Final Preparations for MA

I took a few pictures of our preparations in recent days. The major developments were that
a. Our tent arrived
b. We bought food

There's the tent. It's about six pounds and out of the box it was bundled like a baby. Very cute.

As soon as the tent arrived, we had to set it up in the basement Bill Bryson style. Here's AJ putting up the tent (warrior style) while I helped by taking pictures.


Despite my lack of assistance, the tent was soon assembled. It's really great inside... tons of windows, good height, the whole deal.


In the food department, things were done very meticulously. For our six day hike, we decided that we would need 30,000 calories. 30k will allow us each about 2,500 a day, which, while seemingly a bunch, pales in comparison to the 4 or 5 thousand that this kind of hiking apparently burns each day. We added up the exact calorie content of all the food pictured and made menus for each day. Mac and Cheese, rice, cous cous, cliff bars, candy bars, trail mix, tuna, beef jerky, dry milk, etc. We shopped at 6 different stores to get all this stuff, and attempted to get as many calories as possible per pound. We're bringing about 32,000 calories (some extra just in case!)

All together the food for the six days weighs about 23lbs (yikes!).

Altogether, the two of us will be hauling 83lbs of gear!

Blister Sisters

Yesterday we went on a training hike over the Seven Sisters, which is Part Seven of the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail (M-M Trail). It was really hilly terrain, much more than we'd done before... at parts it was basically rock climbing. I know that terrain makes a difference, but I couldn't believe how much it slowed me down and tired me out. After a mile and a half, I felt more fatigued than I had after over five miles on a flatter hike.
Here's the elevation guide, for that section of trail, so you can see what it was like. It the jagged rockiness made it feel a lot more hilly.


While I'm not going to pretend to be in good enough shape that I wasn't having some muscular and aerobic problems, these issues were not nearly as pressing as the pressing of my large blisters against my boots. You see, I moved out of my dorm room the day before we went hiking, and all most of my clothes (including all my hiking socks) stayed in my mom's car, which was gone by the time I was looking for them. So I hiked in lightweight socks instead of my normal medium weights. Big mistake. 3My feet were sliding all around. I could feel the process start: one on each heel, and one under each big tow. Eventually, the big beauty on my left heel broke, and oh boy, could I ever feel it when it happened! By the time I got my sock off at the end, the piece of skin that had broken off had migrated halfway down the side of my foot (the blister actually extends about twice as far as the broken skin...mmm).
So, the lessons learned are:
1. I should not wear thin socks, or else, I should wear two pairs. Blisters suck.
2. Rocks are kind of a pain, and really slow me down when I have to go up or down big ones.
3. Terrain is super important in determining speed and ease in hiking.
4. Food tastes really good, and makes me feel a lot better when eaten in the middle of a hard hike.

There is less than a week until our week long MA hike. I'm apprehensive about the pace we've planned (15 miles/day) and how the weight of the pack will affect my stamina.

Real Estate

AJ has provided us with a beautiful new summer home!


The Eureka Pinnacle Pass Tent weighs less than seven pounds, and features a spacious open floor plan. Over 48 square feet of space within, along with almost 14 additional square feet of vestibule space--perfect for cooking on those rainy nights! The Pinnacle Pass also features high ceilings at 4'2''.

It's a beauty.

Every day, we will rebuild it from the following parts:

And then, we will have a shelter for the night. A breezy, mosquito-free enclosure on the nice nights, and a an escape from the rain on the... other nights.



In other homey news, we also now have a kitchen set, complete with a 1.1 L Pot, Spork, and bowl. And I got a nifty silicone bowl and cup set for my birthday, alone with an anti-bear food storage bag. So, in short, we are all set for some lightweight, collapsible luxury living on the trail this summer.

Dress Rehearsal! Places Please!

As Hannah mentioned, we will be departing very shortly to take part in a 90-mile hike. In accordance with recommended safety guidelines set forth by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, we will not disclose any detailed itinerary, though I have planned one to the 1/10th mile. Also according to these guidelines, I will disseminate copies of this itinerary only to a few trusted individuals who can help arrange search parties if the need arises. There are a lot of safety guidelines set forth by the ATC. After reading them all, I have the feeling that the trail is not a safe place at all, but many people assure me that it is a safer place than most.

Our plan coming up is to hike approximately 15 miles per day. I know, for me, a 15-mile hike is a perfectly doable distance in a single day. What I don't know is if it is possible every day. Since March 1st, I've logged 122 miles hiking and 60 miles biking, but I've always had at least one day of rest between hikes/rides. What I've noticed is that I have a mild case of patellar tendonitis that causes me slight discomfort after the longer hikes (>10mi.). What causes this discomfort to abate, I imagine, is this nice day of rest (which is actually a day of work since I hike on my days off...) - I will soon be investing in my own set of Cho-Pat knee straps so I can fit in with the cool kids. Fingers crossed.

The opportunity to take this "dress rehearsal" hike can't really come at a better time. I've been dreaming almost nightly of hiking, and when my mind wanders during the day, it has something to do with the trail most of the time. We will be able to try all of our gear and hopefully get a sense of what we need and don't need. We should also derive some encouragement from the following fact: after completing Mt. Greylock, we will only encounter 2 taller peaks between Virginia and returning to New England. This gives me the sense that if we can climb Greylock, we can conquer anything else in our path before unleashing our newly acquired athleticism on the tall peaks of Northern New England.

People seem to have really strong opinions of us and our hike. One side says we cannot possibly make it, and they have no faith in our abilities. The other side says they have no doubt we will hike all summer and still ask for more when we finish. I've been shocked by which sides people have taken (and truthfully, that people actually care). Individuals I thought would support us do not, and others I did not think would care really seem to have all the faith in the world in our abilities. Our mission is to prove the first group wrong and not let the second group down. This trip has already been a learning experience, and I can't wait to see what future lessons the trail will bring us. Scores of hikers insist it is a magical place.

It's been too long

Alright, I know, it's been far too long.

Yes, we are still planning to hike. And it seems that the plans are getting more and more ambitious. AJ has been training like a champ, seems like he's hiking practically all the time that he's not working. I have been slacking, in theory working on my finals. We did hike almost 10 miles together one day, and it felt free and easy.

On May 22 we will be doing a test run: hiking for six days and trying to complete the MA section of the trail, a length on 90 miles, concluding with Mt. Greylock the highest mountain in Massachusetts. Oh boy!

With any luck, as we gain elevation, we will move backwards in time and I'll be able to send sweet postcards from the top!

I've been having some nervousness about the summer mileage, which could get up towards 1,000 miles. That's a really long way! Will we get really bored from walking? Will it be uncomfortable 100% of the time? Will it be really awful to eat camping food for so long? Will I get insane blisters (I always did when I was a runner...)? Will we get lyme disease? Dysentery? Eaten by bears? Stress fractures? Hard to say.

We're still definitely gonna do it though, and of course, I'll let you know!