Date: 2009-12-29
To: The Journey Begins
Miles today: 0.0

So here it starts. My trail journal. I heard about this site from a 1998 thru-hiker that I met on NWhikers.com. I live in Seattle and have been hiking, backpacking, climbing and mountaineering out here for the last few years, so NWhikers is a good resource for that. I wish I would have found this site awhile ago since it is chalk full of useful information. I just finished reading Wags trail journal from her 2009 thru hike and it was utterly entertaining and useful. (Wags trail journal was suggested on the site Trailspace.com by a member there) It made me feel better about thru hiking the AT as a solo female. Her gear list was also awesome!   So my dream to hike the AT formed about ten years ago. I can¢t place exactly when but it was about the time that I was hiking around on the east coast for a few summers. I like the idea of the challenge and simplicity of 6 months on a trail. The trail community that forms on the trail that I have been reading about lately is an added bonus and looks to be one of the most valuable things that past thru hikers have taken away from the trail. I am really looking forward to that.So, I have been hiking with my family in the summers since I was 15 (I¢m 28 now) and really fell in love with the outdoors. But since I lived in flatland areas like Chicago and Dallas up until four years ago, I haven¢t really been able to develop my outdoors experience.Then four years ago I up and moved to Seattle out of the blue for a change and to be near the mountains. Over the last three years I completed my bachelor¢s degree (finally!) in Environmental Studies at the University of Washington.   I actually just finished a couple weeks ago. I decided to attempt my 2010 thru hike this time last year when I was contemplating what I would do with my life once I finished college and had the free time and money.   But March 2010 was a good amount of time away from then and I wanted to pursue other outdoor adventures in the meantime. So I signed up for the Basic Alpine Climbing course through an amazing organization here in Seattle called the Mountaineers in early January 2009. It was a nine month course that taught mountaineering and climbing skills so that I could summit bigger mountains with glaciers and technical climbs. I have wanted to summit the highest peak in Washington State Mt Rainier, a 14,000ft glaciated volcano here, since I moved here. (This is one of my other passions, trying to bag the highest peak in all of the fifty states. I am at 20 now). Alas, I did not bag Mt Rainier this summer, but I did summit Mt Hood, the highest peak in Oregon as well as a few mountains here in Washington over the summer. It was an amazing experience that has brought my outdoor skills to a new level. I also met some incredible people and have been getting out backpacking, climbing and hiking almost every weekend this year. This experience has made me even more confident in my bid for an AT thru-hike. Because, really, if I can deal with the mental challenge of hopping crevasses on a glacier on Mt Baker in the middle of the night by headlamp and muster the patience and endurance it takes to climb 7,000 feet in one day and then turn around and climb another technical peak the day after on 4 hours of sleep, then I can do just about anything. So now that school is finished, I have started planning for my hike that is scheduled to start in late March 2010. A little late in the planning game, but I¢m confident I can get everything together by then. After much deliberation, I splurged on the full set of ATC guides and maps. I have heard mixed response from hikers on whether to make this purchase or not. Some say that they are an unnecessary expense since the trail is well marked and you can get all the info in the guidebooks from the Data Book or online. But I decided to get them for further ease of planning beforehand and to have something to focus on while on the trail. I can imagine sitting in my tent each night looking over the map and reading the current guidebook to plan my next day and to help me visualize my goals for the next day and week. til next time!-Beth