Date: 2009-10-20
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Well, it¢s been a little over a month since I completed my hike. Not a whole lot of exciting things have happened, other than seeing all of my friends and family. I¢ve been resistant to the fact that it¢s really over, but slowly I have adjusted back to my life. My body is finally feeling pretty good. My knees still ache once in a while and my feet are tingly every morning, but other than that I feel good. My body has had plenty of rest, it¢s telling me it¢s time to get out and keep hiking. I wish I could, I miss the trail every single day, miss the simplicity of it all, but down the line I will certainly find myself to another long distance hike. Parts of every long distance trail look appealing, I have no idea where I¢ll end up, but there is plenty of time to research and see what will be next. For now, I will continue to dream in the same way I did before hiking the AT, for this was just the beginning to the many adventures that lie ahead. Here is where I¢d like to give some advice or tips to up and coming thru hikers, and if anyone would like more input, feel free to sign my guest book and leave your email address so I can reply. I am more than happy to respond to questions or concerns.If your clothes are damp, but not soaking wet, you can dry them by sleeping with them in your bag. Otherwise you have to suck it up in the morning and put on cold soggy clothes, but don¢t fear, they will dry fast.Always always have dry socks to change into.Hot water bottles and hand warmers do miracles on frigid nights.If the temps will be freezing, only collect enough water for dinner, then recollect in the morning. We all woke up to frozen water the first morning, forgetting it would freeze. Keep items you will need for the day handy, like snacks, lunch and a long sleeve shirt. Your stuff sack of clothing makes a decent pillow.Skip on the Nalgene and use a Gatorade bottle, it will save some weight.Aqua Mira works perfectly fine, my filter was sent home from Neels Gap and I was very happy.A wind screen can be helpful and makes a stove work more efficiently, having water boil faster.Removing your insoles helps your shoes dry a bit faster, I did that every night.If you find your pack to be uncomfortable or unbalanced, make sure you take the time to repack it, otherwise one side of your body will hurt like hell at the end of the day. I was too stubborn to stop in the beginning. After some time you get it down to a science and for the most part it will be balanced. In a down pour, I always wore my rain jacket, even if it was warm out. The rain made me cold so the jacket helped keep me warm. You will get wet with sweat under the jacket, but wetter with rain, and I hated soggy clothes. For the most part, glove liners and over mitts were fine during the day, and a thin pair of fleece gloves were perfect for around camp. The more form-fitting clothes were, the warmer I stayed. I only wore legging type pants. If you hang your food with several others and it¢s a heavy load, use a sturdy stick to wrap the rope around to make a handle to pull the rope. Otherwise, you may slice your fingers off!Have an extra carabiner or 2, just cause. I always found a use for them.I carried a book for most of the hike, but at the end of the day I journaled and went right to sleep. I had good intentions of reading, it just never worked out.Maps are very helpful. I never had my own but we all sort of shared Rockets. If you don¢t want to carry spare change, use it to buy a candy bar. Or, hang on to those quarters, they are handy for laundromats or the occasional soda machine. I got seriously sunburned in the South before there was tree cover, so I would have appreciated a baseball hat then. I eventually bought one in Daleville and carried it all the way to Maine. I didn¢t often wear it, but it weighed nothing and was helpful when walking in the open sun for a while. I had a stuff sack for everything to stay organized, I even had separate zip locks for meals in my food bag. One zip lock for each meal, and one for snacks. Using sanitizer on a little piece of tp was perfect for starting fires. That or a little denatured alcohol. The better you stake your tent out, the less condensation you will get.If it¢s raining buckets, a pack cover does nothing.If you use mail drops, don¢t buy things you will already be eating, like pop tarts and Lipton/Knorr, you¢ll kick yourself. If you have the time or desire, mix it up with some dehydrated meals. I always got excited when I had a special treat in mine, like the candycane Oreo¢s or Mountain House Raspberry Crumble. It was like Christmas. I also had some toiletries in mine, like wipes, tooth paste and sanitizer, but all were unnecessary since they are easily accessible. I sent all of my mail drops to Hostels, that way I was not on any sort of schedule trying to get to a PO before they close for the day, or worse, weekend. Well, that¢s all I can think of for now, I hope that you find it helpful. Research as much as you can and test gear when you can. Everything comes down to personal preference and comfort. You will probably stress over a lot of things pre-hike, but just get out there and start hiking, the rest will fall into place. Thru hiking is extremely demanding and asks a lot of you, sometimes you will have nothing left to give, but somehow you find it in you to keep going. So you just have to find ways to work through the discomforts that each day brings. Best of luck to anyone out there considering a thru hike. It¢s the best thing I have ever done with my life. Ask anyone who has done it, and I am sure they would say the same. Despite all of the bad weather we encountered, the mosquitoes, lightening, hail, 80 mph winds, mud, slippery rocks, falls, scrapes, aches and pains, I would have done nothing different or changed a thing about it. This is how it was meant to be, and for all of this, it has made me a stronger person. I know what it truly means to be uncomfortable.