Thru-Hiking Journal

Day 127 - July 5th Daily miles: 15.3 Official distance covered on trail: 2020.2 Finally. Finally we had good weather. Finally we got to see Maine's beauty. Today was such a good day of hiking. We didn't start hiking until just after 10:00, and the hostel provided a great breakfast, so we were rested and fueled when we began. The hiking itself wasn't too hard at any point. We went over a stretch of mountains called the Bigelows, and we were able to take long breaks at several

Day 112 - June 20th Daily miles: 9.3 Official distance covered on trail: 1803.7 WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. Today was the most perfect day. I'm still just buzzing. It started with waking up in a comfortable bed at 6:30 and not immediately having to move. We decided that we were only going to do 9 miles today, so we didn't have to get started particularly early. And then when we got out of bed, it was nice to get out of a bed and not up off the ground. We finally started hiking aroun

Day 98 - June 6th Daily miles: 17.6 Official distance covered on trail: 1541.5 Ok, I concede defeat: I already like my trail runners better than my boots. I am already switching my allegiance for long distance hikes to trail runners. Y'all happy??? The camping rules in Massachusetts are pretty strict, and there are no stealth sites throughout the state (or at least any that are technically allowed; I'm sure some people have made makeshift sites, but you're not supposed to), s

Day 88 - May 27th Daily miles: 23.2 Official distance covered on trail: 1324.6 Spent a lot of last night awake due to some pretty intense thunderstorms. I kept thinking it was the universe cleansing our palette of the past several weeks of just-okayness. New state, new beginnings, right? New Jersey has already proven to be really beautiful. Lots of lakes and ponds and streams, which I love hiking near. The rocks haven't totally died down, but even the really rocky sections we

Day 78 - May 17th Daily miles: 21.3 Official distance covered on trail: 1106.1 Man it feels goooooood to be back on trail! After taking 4 days off in DC to rest, we were all just itching to start hiking again. DC was a lot of fun though! Met all of Wilson's roommates, who were lovely; stayed with my friend Jackson, who was kind enough to let me and Mitch and Scott take over his apartment for a few days; and even saw my college friend Karrie, who just moved to DC for a nursing

Day 63 - May 2nd Daily miles: 20.5 Official distance covered on trail: 884.9 First day in Shenandoah National Park and also first day in my new boots! I have a few small blisters and my arches are sore, but I'm optimistic they'll be broken in soon enough. My last Salomon boots didn't need much time at all, so hopefully these are about the same. Was definitely ready to take them off at the end of the day, though. Since the tread is so new and hasn't worn down yet, I felt my fe

Day 50 - April 19th Daily miles: 12.7 Official distance covered on trail: 669.4 Today was the perfect example of the classic saying, "It's about the journey, not the destination." We'd set out to do 18.5 miles today but let ourselves do fewer so we could spend a good evening together. Girl Scout calls these days "smiles over miles" days. Tomorrow is Problem's 21st birthday, so while we resupplied, we also got a bunch of stuff to adequately celebrate such an occasion. She pref

Day 38 - April 7th (continued) Daily miles: 11.9 Official distance covered on trail: 472.4 Not much else to report on this day. Ate a lot of food. Drank a lot of drinks. Enjoyed the warmth while in town. We stayed at this one restaurant for about 5 hours just enjoying the sun and some good replenishments. We hiked back out to the trail and did a whole half mile to our campsite. Girl Scout has invented a new game for us to play. He found a clothespin at our campsite yesterday,

Day 26 - March 26th Daily miles: 11.0 Official distance covered on trail: 285.9 Hot Springs treated us so well. I would definitely go back! We stayed at the Iron Horse Station, and it was easily the best hotel experience I've ever had. Gary, the owner, was so kind and accommodating and fun to talk to. He's spent time in Ohio and his wife used to teach special education (which is what I do for work, in case you don't know), so we had a lot to chat about! The hotel itself had s

Day 17 - March 17th Daily miles: 0.0 Official distance covered on trail: 164.7 Hotel beds are so much nicer than I remember. I woke up feeling so refreshed and ready to go. Packed up our stuff, headed to the lobby, was all prepared to take a shuttle back out to the trail. Then, we saw every other hiker in the lodge hanging out in the lobby glued to their phones. As soon as Mitch and I got to the couches, it was apparent that the morning was a little more complicated than we'd

Day 12 - March 12th Daily miles: 15.5 Official distance covered on trail: 125.2 Woke up this morning with relief. A few days ago, there was a prescribed fire in the area we camped in. We'd gotten official word that the burn had passed, and it was safe "but possibly smokey" in the area, but when we got back to our camp site after our day in town, we could see fires nearby. They weren't on or near the trail, but close enough that we could see them, which was unsettling. Not muc

Day 6, cont. - March 6th I know we've only been hiking for 5 days, but wowww did a day in town feel great! I don't think a hotel room has ever felt like such a luxury. A shower has never left me feeling cleaner. A load of laundry has never brought me such joy. Even the hotel breakfast was fun. Dee, the woman running food service -- "Dee for Dee-lightful," "fourth letter followed by two fives" -- was just a hoot, and she made sure we went to our rooms with full bellies and smi

Day 1 - March 1st Daily miles: 11.6 Official distance covered on trail: 2.8 So... we started our hike today. Instead of the official southern terminus at Springer Mountain, we chose to begin 8.8 miles south at Amicalola Falls State Park. So far this year, 361 people have begun their journey there as well. My number in the log book was 362, Mitch's 363. Today started without fanfare. There was a small group of people from the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club who talked to us abo

One of a Billion AT Gear Lists on the Internet Today All our stuff (minus food and water) for the next 4 months If you search "backpacking gear list" on your preferred search engine (s/o to Ecosia , which donates 100% of its profits to organizations and nonprofits that focus on reforestation and is carbon negative; I've made it my default search engine on my phone and laptop and it does everything you need it to do but has better environmental contributions), you will find a