Month: June 2021

Start: Salisbury, Connecticut (AT mi 1502.2). Stop: The Hemlocks Shelter (AT mi 1515.9). Today’s miles: 13.7 miles. Total AT mileage: 491.2 miles. States Completed: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut

I didn’t sleep too well at Maria’s. Not sure why, because it was comfortable and I had a fan on me, but I just couldn’t stay asleep. I was awake after midnight, stretching in the floor. Then back to tossing and turning in the bed. Frustrating to say the least.

I got up and packed quickly and as quietly as I could. I walked down the street and met Lizard by the road we were starting on. We hiked together for a few miles, then she pulled ahead. It was another gorgeous day. Bright but in the 70s, so not terribly hot. I felt a little nauseous though, which could have been from a number of things.. I ate that huge dinner last night, I was probably dehydrated from yesterday’s long mileage but I didn’t drink any water really after getting to town, and-I had a slice of cheesecake for breakfast. Hahaha

Connecticut’s trail maintenance people are some of the best I’ve seen so far, I’ve truly loved almost all of it. There has been a couple rocky descents that felt rough underfoot, but that’s seriously it. I’ve really enjoyed all the beauty this state has shown me.

Today’s terrain when up and over 3 mountains. The first was Bear Mountain in Connecticut, the highest peak in the state, on the way down we crossed into Massachusetts. I met Lizard at a large stream and we ate lunch (she was mostly done by the time I got there lol). I didn’t see the sign saying we were in Massachusetts, but according to my maps, we definitely were. I was sad about missing two stateline signs now (I missed NY/CT because of not having my phone).
After eating, I continued down the path beside the stream for awhile, and once I crossed over, boom! There’s the sign! I hadn’t missed it after all! I was so excited! Another state down! Only.. a lot more to go lol, but getting closer to half of the states being completed 😉

The next mountain was a 2+ mile ascent and I was just so dang slow. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the pace. Also, I knew once I got to the top, I had to go down and come back up an even steeper ascent before going all the way down again to get to the shelter. Lord. Every single time the wind would pick up and blow through, I’d stop to let it cool me off. I never took my pack off and sat down, but I did do way too many pauses.
The final climb was damn brutal. It went straight up for close to a mile. Like 70-80 degree rock faces that at points were so steep they had put wooden “steps” to help you not slip to your death. Ok, that’s slightly dramatic, but the way the gnats were attacking my face and making me nutty the whole way up, I could see how easy it would be for me to slip and have a significant fall, all due to making sure I smashed the bug flying in my face. Things near my face make me a bit crazy. Clearly.

I made it to the shelter close to 6pm, a whole hour after Lizard. I went and got water to filter. Once back at camp I decided to sleep in the shelter (which is crazy.. because you know, gnats) but I didn’t see anywhere I wanted my tent and the weather app says it’s supposed to rain overnight. Annnnd, honestly, I was just too tired to deal with setting it up.

Tie-dye ended up coming in a bit after me! He’s staying in the shelter, too. Lizard has her hammock up. The three of us ate dinner together and chatted about life. Tie-dye started in GA,I didn’t realize that until today.

We were all three about ready to turn into bed when a weekender comes barreling up to us. Im not sure if he’s retired or still active army, but he has definitely served.. and man he came up the little hill to us quick! He lives nearby and is doing weekend backpacking trips over the summer. We stayed up and chatted with him for awhile. Then as he started setting up his tent, I came and got on my bunk in the shelter.

There’s another group of people down the way some, and they’re quite loud. If you ever forget what day of the week it is, you’ll quickly be reminded when it’s a weekend! Haha I don’t think they’ll be loud for long, it’s sprinkling a little.
I’m putting in my earplugs and hoping for some restful sleep tonight. Maybe I’ll get lucky.

Start: The Hemlocks Shelter (AT mi 1515.9). Stop: Tom Leonard Shelter (AT mi 1530.3). Today’s miles: 14.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 505.6 miles

I had another bad night of sleep. I tossed and turned and just couldn’t stay asleep.. it’s extremely frustrating, especially when you’ve taken all the steps to ensure you should be sleeping well. Pad went flat? Got a new one. Way too cold? Got my warmer bag. Feet aching? Make sure to take ibuprofen before bed. Other people snore? I have earplugs. And yet-I still can’t sleep.

This morning was the first time on this adventure that I said to myself, “I don’t want to do this.”
Tie-dye said he slept poorly too, that he was just restless. We ate breakfast together and then I started to slowly pack. Lizard got up while I was stretching, and we ended up hiking together some of the morning. The plan was to get 8 miles to road crossing to town, hitch in, resupply, hitch back, and knock out another 6+ miles to the next shelter.

That 8 miles had me in a fit. First it was a downhill that takes careful foot consideration. I’ve fallen in every state (except NY, I just rolled my ankle twice there), so being in a new state makes me cautious! The downhill wasn’t too terrible, but it started getting muggy, and with muggy comes buggies. So when you’re me and can’t move quickly downhill, suddenly you’re peppered with gnats absolutely everywhere. Ugh.
Then, once we got to the bottom, where the nice, flat, easy rolling trail appears.. it’s also swampy/boggy/standing water. Cool. So the easiest part of my day had me smacking my arms and legs every 4-6 seconds because the mosquitos were flipping swarming me! Bees were burrowing into my hair, mosquitos were biting me through my shirt, all over my arms, hands, legs, neck, face, and gnats were diving into my eyeballs and mouth. I most definitely got choked by a couple bugs today.

I was so absolutely over it. But, at some point early morning, FarOut messaged me and I found out they were planning to get to the same shelter! So, even though I was completely miserable, her little message was able to help sway my mood.
We made it to the road. As we started walking to town, with our thumbs out, we quickly got a hitch (in a Lexus no less). He dropped us off at the market and grocery store. We ate lunch from there, I sucked down Gatorade like my life currently depended on it. After we got everything we needed, we sat outside in the shade for a bit.. packed and then hit the road again. It was close to 3pm I think, maybe a little earlier.

So many cars and trucks flew past us on the way back, none stopping. Lizard even tried walking backwards so they could see her better and want to pick us up! Lol.. we walked a good 10 minutes or so before an older gentleman stopped and got us. He was actually a trail angel going to pick another hiker up to bring into town. How perfect.

We had just over 6 miles to go to get to the shelter. It took me forever. I didn’t show up til after 6pm. All the tent sites were snagged by then, so I’m in the shelter again. It was a trek to get water from here.. so after doing that we ate dinner. Tonight it’s Lizard, FarOut, HotSauce, Towely, wizard, killer, a hammocker, 2 weekenders, Swepes, and his wife. Big group!

When I laid down I was immediately attacked by bugs. So, I’ve haphazardly “hung” my tent in the bunk space I’m in. It’s not the best, but it’s bug free, so I don’t care. I’m just praying I sleep well.
I hope you do, too.

Start: Tom Leonard Shelter (AT mi 1530.3). Stop: Shaker Campsite (AT mi 1541.6). Today’s miles: 11.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 516.9 miles

Oh, last night was a night. My tent inside the bunk thing worked well, until some time after 3am. An owl started hooting, and then mice or some other type of rodents started going bananas in the shelter. I could hear them scurrying all over the place-and apparently over and through my shoes, which they knocked off the top bunk, then making my trekking pole fall and causing my tent to fall onto my face. Not that I was getting any decent sleep before that, but still. Holy hell.
I got up after 7, still frustrated that I couldn’t sleep. I packed and took my breakfast over by where Lizard, Sauce, FarOut, and Towely had camped. I ate while chatting with them and then we slowly got out of camp sometime around 9ish.. maybe a little later.

I was able to keep up with the 4 of them for a few miles, on the easy terrain, but once it went uphill I wasn’t able to maintain their pace. They are quick! Within the first mile or so, we ran into Tie-Dye, TownLegs, TBird, and DoubleDecker coming the opposite way! They were slack packing today. They all looked so light and carefree. I need to slack pack soon! Who wants to drive up here and be at my beck and call? Haha

On the uphill, which was nothing like the terrible climbs the other day, I was getting a little hard on myself. I hike so slow in comparison to my friends (I really always hike slow, this isn’t new, ask Andrea lol). I was complaining to myself that I’m overweight and I shouldn’t have let this happen.. if I had taken better care of myself last year I would be able to keep pace.. bla bla bla. And then I remembered a friend’s FB post the other day. She posted about body positivity, and honestly it resonated with me. I’m always so hateful to myself over this body-the one that’s done almost 40 half marathons, several 200-550 mile hikes, 2 sprint triathlons, so many other running races I couldn’t keep count, climbed Kilimanjaro.. like seriously?! I need to learn how to have some grace and be thankful as hell that this body I’m in keeps waking up (well, I’ll learn some grace over the whole lack of sleep thing, too) everyday and allowing me to hike this hike. Even if it is at a slower pace than I’d prefer. I’m still freaking doing it.

I got to the picnic area we were meeting at to eat lunch and go swimming. Which is exactly what we did! We ate, Sauce let a guy borrow his lighter to start their grill, so he gave him some beer. We had blue moons and hiker tortilla food.. and then we swam. In all of our hiker glory! The day people are probably like who are these dirty people swarming our beach in their undies? Weekends can get awkward at times.

We sat out in the sun to dry out, then started hiking again.. FarOut and Lizard hiked in their “bathing suits” I hiked in my mine too, just with my shirt over my top.. mainly because my pack would rub me raw on bare skin. But, hiking in just undies was very freeing, and helped me dry out my horrible returning heat rash quite well. I’ve been doing all the things to help prevent this heat rash, it doesn’t seem to matter. Lizard even shares her special face wipes with me-haha maybe they will start helping soon. Something eventually has to give? Right?

I actually hiked decently fast (for me) to the campsite we were aiming for. I started thinking about all the reasons I was choosing to be out here. And how, as absolutely difficult as this is, it doesn’t compare even a smidge to how difficult work was this last year. Out here I’m struggling physically and mentally with my personal strengths and weaknesses, but I’m not holding the hands of someone taking their last breath, or catching a 26 year old daughter as she starts to collapse after she realizes her mom is no longer alive, or any of the multitude of heart-wrenchingly sad things I’ve witnessed this last year. So, in comparison, I’ll take this type of “hard” over the actual “hard” stuff I’m used to doing.

Once at the campsite, I set up my tent. I think this is the key to better sleep, actually being inside my tent, bug and hopefully critter free. On the way here we were worried that there wouldn’t be enough room for us all.. kinda like what happened to those NOBO hikers we met way back when that were pissed there weren’t any spots for their 7 tents.. haha now our tramily is like theirs.. we need space! And if the campsite was full, we (I specifically lol) would have to keep hiking until a decent enough stealth spot was found. Sometimes that’s easy to do, sometimes you’re miles up on a mountainside and nothing is even semi flat for a really long time. The next shelter is another 10 miles from here.. let’s just say we were all quite thankful we fit 🙂 FarOut and Sauce got their tent on one of the wooden platforms, Towely got the other, I found a flat spot for my tent (I have to stake my tent regardless, it isn’t free standing). Lizard hung her hammock and there were 3 other tents and another hammocker already set up.

Our group ate dinner together, and then Wizard, Killer, Sweeps, and Lilo came back from their dinner (family picked them up at the road and took them to a restaurant). They brought back stuff for s’mores! So, they all set to make the fire-which was a challenge at first. I think Lizard and FarOut had the magic touch, along with the fresh cut shavings from Sweeps. After the fire got going, Lizard walked over and got the other hammocker, I’m blanking on his name now, to join! And he did 🙂 Before we went our separate ways, Wizard did a few magic tricks for us. He’s damn good with a deck of cards! I never once saw how he did the tricky things he did! It was pretty impressive!

Tonight was the almost perfect summer solstice party! The only way it could have been any better is if the rest of our tramily was here, too. Cholula and Curmudgeon had taken a zero in the last town, and I don’t know if Derby did, too.. Beaver is a day behind after he took a zero in Salisbury, and Costa left trail from Kent, because he has a surfing trip in Costa Rica to get to (can we say jealous?). It seems like after I got my phone in Kent everyone has dispersed. I know we’ll eventually reconnect or split more, it’s the nature of the trail and timing. It truly made that last river party that much more epic.

Sorry I’m so long winded today. I’ve had a lot on my mind. I’m thinking I’m in a better headspace now, I guess time will tell on that one. Sweet dreams, y’all. Let’s pray I fall asleep to these frogs and crickets chirping and sleep soundly all night! Tomorrow is a big mile day!