Date: 2012-08-20
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

A week since summit day and Eric and I are back in Ohio, piecing our life back together. We stayed in Millinocket for 2 days waiting for my dad to pick us up and take us to the airport in Boston. Most hikers seemed to leave town pretty quickly, either taking a shuttle to Medway and then a bus to Portland perhaps, or they had family picking them up from Millinocket, too. The AT Lodge and Cafe in Millinocket deals with the logistics of getting hikers to and from airports and the trail all the time, so they had a lot of information about travel options if anyone needed it. Most hikers were so happy for themselves to have made it all the way and are glad to be going home to heal their bodies. It seems almost unfair, though, to have to find a job and go back to real life after experiencing something so basic and simple. I think maybe I can't go back to how things were before, because I do feel different. I feel an appreciation for food now that I'm eating healthier, smaller quantities (not to mention eating much slower). Water flowing clean out of a faucet seems like a miracle. A shower every day seems pointless and wasteful. I have still yet to wake up in the same place more than twice in 5 months ¢ I enjoyed how different every day was and I want to keep it that way. ERIC IS STILL WEARING HIS HIKING CLOTHES AND IT'S BEEN 7 DAYS SINCE WE FINISHED! I can barely answer direct questions about our hike, for example: What was your favorite part? How was the trail different than you expected? What was the hardest part (mentally and physically)? Those questions seem so complicated for some reason. The original point for me writing this trail journal was to give detailed information about our hike on a daily basis, specifically for those who wish to hike in the future, section or thru. It turned into something more, I think. It motivated me to keep writing and observing, which helped keep me focused. We felt so glad that many were reading and taking something from our observations; it gave the hike more purpose. There were some questions asked in the guestbook over the months that I never answered, so I wanted to take time to do that now. Any questions people have about the hike are welcome!--What is the weight of your backpacks?We started the trail paying oh so close attention to the weight of our packs. They were 14 lbs each when starting. We ended up slowly collecting things along the way, such as insect repellent, sun screen, cortizone cream, diaper rash cream (which helps with chaffing by the way). We gained a pound each somewhere in there, and I believe that was our new normal. With 3 days of food and full water, our packs would be 25-30lbs each.--Have bears been a concern at all and do you need to hang your food at night?We never felt in danger of attacks by bears. They are curious and they like hiker food, but were never a threat. We always hung our food if there were bear cables, or in a bear box if one was provided, and if at a shelter, we would hang them from shelter hooks (this was mostly because of chipmunks and mice that will chew through anything to get to the food). However, in the Smokeys or in areas designated as high-use by bears, or if bears have been stealing food, we hang a bear rope in a tree at least 15 feet off the ground and 8 feet from the trunk of a tree. Most of the time this wasn't necessary, and most hikers by the end of their hike don't hang bags because we get lazy.--How does the whole ¢it's raining and I'm setting up a tent¢ thing work. I'd imagine you are just wet a lot?If possible, we would keep hiking to a shelter and then change into dry clothes there, stay in a shelter and avoid setting up a tent in the rain altogether. If we can't help but set up a tent in the rain, we would try to wait for a lull, and then throw a tent up as fast as possible. Luckily, we never had to set up a tent in pouring down rain. --I have the data book and thru-hiker's companion. What resources did you use to plan and research your hike?We started out with the Thru-hiker's companion as well. I read a lot of past hikers' trail journals, especially Marc DeLuca ¢Spokes¢ 2009 and David Miller ¢AWOL¢ 2003 to get to know each section of the trail. I followed along their trail journals with the companion and planned our hike roughly on an excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet had all of the shelters listed, their distances apart and towns that I could stop in. (It's pretty detailed, I know. Not all hikers plan out this way, I used it as a rough guide to see approximately how much time it would take us to hike the whole thing. I knew plans could change.) We used www.whiteblaze.net (a website for AT enthusiasts) a lot to get information on hiking gear and asked any questions in the forums on the website. There are also articles written by experienced hikers on health and safety, disease, food dehydration, dangers on the trail, anything else you can think of. There's lots of information, it's great!--Have you learned anything about each other that you didn't already know?For me, I learned Eric is very cooperative and trusting. He cooked and cleaned for us every single night (except for the very few times he didn't feel like it and I gladly helped out). We divided up duties pretty well even though I think he had more of the work and he never complained about his share, a big help and good example for me. He trusted me with the guidebook and in planning how much we would hike each day and to where. He was up for anything! The trail was great time for us to spend together ¢ probably 23 hours a day. I know we've become much better friends because of it.I can't thank everyone enough for writing to us in the guestbook. It helped tremendously during the hike and I just read over every single one again. It still helps me today. I hope this journal is useful to others in the future and it has inspired me to reach out to other hikers and encourage, support and make connections. Thank you!