April 2021 – The Unpolished Princess

T-15 Days

In 15 days I’ll fly to Washington DC and take a train to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. That doesn’t seem like such a big deal. When I follow that statement up with “to start my Appalachian Trail Thru Hike” it sounds a bit strange. For those of you that know me, you know I’ve had dreams of completing the AT for several years now. I know I was talking about it back 2017. I made big strides to pay off credit card debt and save money with the intention to start March of 2020 in your typical NOBO fashion. I’d start at Springer Mountain in Georgia and hike the 2200 miles to Mount Katahdin in Maine. When I think about that now, I just laugh.. I wanted that thru hike last year so bad that sometimes I still tear up over its demise. Everything I planned fell apart with such a quickness I almost didn’t see it happen and it definitely took some time to process the loss of the dream I had been envisioning for so long. However, with all the chaos and uncertainty 2020 brought us, it made me certain of my determination to do the AT as soon as possible.. which brings us to now.

The AT is a continuous footpath that traverses 14 states from Georgia to Maine. The people that choose to complete the train in its entirety within one year are considered “thru hikers.” There are many approaches to thru hiking such a long trail: northbound, southbound, and what we call a “flip flop.” Any way you choose to hike the AT comes with its own benefits and unique challenges. South to North, or NOBO for Northbound is the most common. People set out for the North Georgia Mountains any time from early March through early May and start their walk north to Katahdin. This way seems best to most because its a straight line and you finish in Maine with its gorgeous views and by the glorious victory of reaching the summit of Mount Katahdin before Baxter State Park closes October 15th. On top of all of that, you also get a guaranteed tramily (trail family), because of the amount of people starting at the same time.

Hiking Southbound, or SOBO has its appeal for some, too. Its far less common and seems to be anti climatic for many to end their grueling 2200 miles at Springer Mountain. Views from Katahdin are said to be spectacular, Springer.. not so much. However people starting in Maine and hiking south get to start later in the year, waiting for the snow to melt in the northern states, and they don’t have weather restraints dictating their finish since Georgia’s winters are rather mild.

Now we come to the Flip Flop, which is what I now set out to do in just over 2 weeks 🙂 A flip flop is basically where you start somewhere in the middle, hike one way to the trail end, come back to your starting point and then hike the opposite direction to the finish. It sounds more complicated, and there are more logistical kinks to iron out than the other two options, however, this way does have its perks, too. My plan is to start in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia and hike north to Maine. Once i summit Katahdin, I’ll fly back to Harper’s Ferry and hike south to Springer Mountain, which is only an hour and a half from my house. So, the benefit to me is that I get Mount Katahdin as a great “half way” mark, and then I get to hike home for my finale. The other perks to a flip flop is that by starting in May, I miss the majority of the super cold nights on the trail, and the bad weather that comes with that. I’ll miss the dreaded “Black Fly Season” in New Hampshire and Maine due to the snowmelt and slush that gets the bugs going in early summer, AND to top it all off, which may not seem like a perk to many but 100% is for me this year, I’ll miss the majority of the overcrowding on the trail that happens during March and April (we are in a pandemic after all). So, while it may take more time for me to meet folks and have a tramily, the anxiety I now have in crowds is somewhat eased.

Anyway, I’ll be updating from the trail once I start (assuming i can figure out the wordpress app lol) but until then I’ll be posting my gear list and thoughts leading up to day one. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.. hopefully I’ve set up the comments and subscribe deals correctly.. knowing me, probably not, bare with me folks! haha

Learning Curves & Prep Work

Last night I went over to my best friend, Lauren’s house and her fiancé, Jacob, helped me with this blog of mine. He was able to clean it up, make it easy to read, and get rid of all the random weird stuff that came with the “theme” of the page but wasn’t needed. He also set up the comments and the subscribe option so you can enter your email and be notified when I post. I find it kinda funny that anyone would be interested in reading about my journey, but here we are 🤣 Oh, and another biggie-he secured the site-whatever the hell that means. I really would have thought Xanga and MySpace prepared me better for this. Clearly not..

When I got home, my friend David let me FaceTime him and do a pack shake down. David hiked a big chunk of the AT a couple years ago, and he’s helped guide me tremendously.. with gear choices and motivation. With his help last night I was able shave off 2 pounds! That sounds like nothing, but when you’re carrying it on your back, trust me it’s huge. Haha. I plan to post my official gear list sometime within the next week, as I’m still dialing it all in. Stay tuned 🙂

As far as training goes, I’ve been a pretty busy bee since I’ve gotten home from my last covid crisis contract. I’ve hiked 5,6,8, & 10 mile days all while carrying my pack or Jacob’s weighted vest. The vest was 27lbs, with my camelback on top of it while Lauren and I walked 10 miles on the silver comet trail. The other days were just my pack, weighing in at 24 pounds prior to David’s shakedown. Today I knocked out another 6 miles carrying my pack at 22 pounds, but I added some weight from the vest to it, plus 2 liters of water, so it was around 30lbs total. Honestly, it felt good. I’m so ready to start my thru hike! The people at Kennesaw mountain were looking at me crazy with my big ‘ole pack while they’re just carrying a desani bottle or nothing at all.. lol

Anyway, thanks for following along. The more of you that subscribe will probably cause a feeling of necessity to keep my journals up to date while hiking.. and motivate me to succeed completing the trail. I have a weird sense of unnecessary obligation, and creating this one almost feels like a safety net to push me forward.. to not allow myself to quit out of mental weakness. So, do me a favor.. subscribe already 😉

Gear!

Alrighty. Here goes.. this is everything I plan on taking on the Appalachian Trail with me. It’s currently totaled at a base weight of 20.9lbs (total weight without food or water).

First up: my backpack that’s going to be the holder of all the things. I learned a tough lesson when hiking the JMT: weight matters, including the actual weight of your pack when it’s empty. My JMT pack was 6 pounds by itself 🤣 Rookie mistake. This one only weighs just under 3 pounds. Wahoo!

I’ll be carrying my old trekking poles that I got off of Amazon in 2016. They’ve treated me well all these years, and unless one breaks, I don’t see the need in replacing them. They weigh a pound together, with duct tape wrapped on them, but that weight isn’t included in the total pack weight since they’ll be in my hands. I’m also bringing an umbrella-which happens to be my luxury item, haha! When my friend Andrea and I hiked the Camino de Santiago (550 miles across Spain), my most glorious possession was an umbrella during the relentless pouring rain. You vastly underestimate how wonderful it is to not have water constantly dripping in your face for hours and hours on end.

My tent is single heaviest thing I’m carrying (4 lbs). It’s a MSR hubba hubba 2 person tent. I know it’s not cool to have a stand alone tent, but to be honest, I hate having my tent rely on me to stake it perfectly to stand up.. lol

My sleep system adds up to a total of 2.9 pounds.. that includes my REI Magma Quilt, a sleeping bag liner, a pillow (princess remember), the stuff sack that holds all of that, and my sleeping pad that comes with a little air bag to help inflate it quicker. I also have a 3 ounce emergency bivy to keep warm on super cold nights. All of these things will stuff down in a trash compactor bag with my clothes bag to make sure that my clothes and my sleep stuff always stay dry.

The food “gear” I’m bringing includes everything that isn’t actually food or water. It all adds up to 15 ounces. This includes the 35L dry bag, cord, caribiner, and rock ditty bag to hang it, a jet boil to cook my food with, along with a fuel canister, a lighter, collapsible bowl, spork, and titanium mug, as well as a water filter. My knife is larger than you’d technically need, but it’s also for protection and will be on my person when I’m hiking, and I’ll have a little thing of pepper spray, too.

My electronic ditty bag has my Anker battery pack for charging all the things, Garmin InReach, headlamp with an extra set of batteries, my charging cords for my iPhone, garmin watch, battery pack, and InReach, headphones and AirPods. All of this (not including my phone or watch, bc those will be on my person) weighs in at 1.8lbs.

The toiletries and Med kit coming with me weigh in at 21 ounces together. The toiletries include a hairbrush, hair ties, a few Bobby pins, a folding toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss (my hygienist will be so proud), tweezers, a little hair groomer/trimmer (look, I can’t handle the idea of my unibrow making a comeback), qtips bc I have sensitive ears lol, chapstick, face sunscreen, earplugs, spray deodorant (it literally weighs an ounce AND keeps my underarms from chaffing-I could care less about smelling.. but I cannot handle raw underarms. Deodorant weighs less than body glide-so that’s how that decision was made), and a couple tampons. I have a roll of toilet paper and a thing of hand sanitizer, along with a few disposable masks and a baggie of baby wipes that will all fit in the “brain” of my pack and are easy to get to in a hurry (the brain will also have my little wallet with my ID, cash, & credit card, plus a little notebook and pen to write in if my phone is dead). The meds I’m bringing are a 3 month supply of my birth control, ibuprofen, Tylenol, Benadryl, Imodium, and in case I get sick I have a packet of Azithromycin (ZPack) and a medrol dose pack (steroids). The medical “kit” has bandaids, moleskin, tape, super glue, water purifying tablets, triple antibiotic ointment packets, alcohol swabs, and a couple sterile needles in case something looks like it needs to be popped (aka a blister or whatever 🤣)

And last but not least: the clothes!I’ll have a rain jacket and rain pants, a tank top and shorts to hike in, plus a long sleeve hooded top to hike in during colder weather. 2 sportsbras, 3 undies, 3 pair of socks (one pair will be specifically to sleep in). I’ll have a tshirt and a pair of leggings to sleep in, a pair of warm gloves and a pair of sun gloves, a warm headband that covers the ears, a regular headband and a full size buff (covers the neck to protect from the sun), sunglasses, a little camp towel, a pair of hiking sandals that I can wear with socks (I’m super cool, I know) and are also safe for water crossings, and finally, a pair of trail runners.

And I think that’s everything! Well, besides a 2L water bag and a connector for it so I can filter a larger amount of water at a time once I’ve made camp for the night.. I’m still waiting on Amazon to deliver it 🙂