The Packing it Out Crew Hits the PCT

The Packing it Out logo - taken from their Facebook page. 

By now, if you've been reading this blog or even are remotely interested in hiking in general, you know of the books Wild and A Walk in the Woods.  You also know that anyone who is an actual hiker (and not an armchair adventurer) is SO TIRED of hearing about those books (and movies!)  With the popularity of Wild the Pacific Crest Trail has seen a huge upping of trail traffic and is even speculated to see more visitors than the Appalachian Trail this year.  This is one of the reasons I personally have decided to wait until the "hype" dies down to hit the PCT.  There were a ton of problems on the PCT last year, the first year of thru hiking since the movie Wild premiered. Legendary hostel Hiker Heaven, operated by the Saufley's , closed for the season (and has thankfully since reopened).  Ziggy and the Bear of Whitewater Trail House had their donation jar stolen more than once.  Trash and poop problems became so large it prompted blog posts by the PCTA themselves to tell hikers to quit pooping under rocks (which was featured in Cheryl Strayed's book).  

With the more recent complaints of poop at Eagle Rocks and trash being dumped behind and over rocks WITH A DUMPSTER ACROSS THE STREET it couldn't be a better time to hear that the Packing it Out Crew has decided to hit the PCT.  Packing it Out did an AT thru hike last year with the goal to remove 1000 pounds of trash from the trails.  That 1000 pounds includes tires, mattresses, and countless cigarette butts.  They didn't even count the number of times they had to properly bury someone's toilet paper for them (gross, right?!)  With the season getting late for PCT NoBo's, the hikers are about to hit the trail from Campo to head north.  They deliberately chose a later starting date to get behind most of the trail traffic to help clean up the trash.  

The fact that we need people to hike behind the pack and clean up after them is both uplifting and infuriating to me.  With more trail traffic than ever it is so important for hikers to be practicing Leave No Trace ethics to the best of their abilities.  If the words "Leave No Trace" annoy you, follow the ethics you most likely learned as a scout - leave the place better than you found it.  As a guide in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited National Park in the country, I pick up countless pieces of trash every day (and do not touch the toilet paper or tampons if I don't have a biohazard bag handy for them).  It is so incredibly sad to see that the solution most people have for trash/toilet paper disposal is "well, I'm done here, I'll just leave it."  

Toilet trash under a rock on the PCT.  (Photo from the PCTA website). 

If you haven't heard about Packing it Out, I highly recommend their blog here. And for those of you who are just recreational hikers please carry an extra bag for trash when you go out.  You don't have to pick up anything too disgusting, but just pick up some small things.  Microtrash (bottle caps, plastic rings, pop can tabs, pieces people pulled off candy bar wrappers) can really add up!  Let's all try to leave the trail a better place than we found it!

Do you like to take hikes in your area but find a lot of trash?  How does it make you feel to see trails and waterways with garbage?  

Women in the Woods - Why More Ladies Should Quit Being Afraid and Get Outdoors

Recently on my trip up and over Mt. LeConte I saw something that incited rage. I saw the one thing I hate more than anything else when I'm hiking.  Trash? Toilet paper strewn about? People hiking in flip flops?  Not even close.  I saw college-aged girls acting like walking up a hill was the hardest, most soul sucking, worst thing they've ever done in their lives. For more than 4.5 miles this group of three men and three women leap-frogged us on trail.  Each and every time we got in ear shot one of the women would be complaining, whining, or generally wishing death upon her boyfriend for "making me do this hike!"  As a woman who discovered hiking later in her 20s, nothing makes me angrier than to see women act like they're damsels in distress when in fact they are perfectly capable of doing anything they set their mind to!  Here's why I advocate for women to stop acting like they're delicate ladies and start acting like the badasses they always knew they could be. 

Climbing Baker Peak on the Long Trail in 2015 (in a skirt, like a boss!)

Despite it being the year 2016, we still live in an era where women are seen as fragile.  When I meet people during a long-distance hike or even a short and simple backpacking trip the most common question I'm asked is if I'm scared when I'm hiking.  The second most common question people ask me is if I carry a gun.  The truth of the matter is I am rarely scared and I would NEVER advocate carrying a gun on a hiking trip.  Not only would it be added weight I'm not willing to add to my gear, a gun is not necessary out on the trails.  A handgun especially will do nothing in ways of protecting me from wild animals.  These answers always tend to shock people and I often get a head shake and a million reasons follow as to why I should be afraid (rape, murder, blood-thirsty bears) and how if I was their daughter I'd never be allowed to do what I do.  I always just smile and thank them and go about my hike.  I wasn't aware that as a woman in my early 30s I needed anyone's permission to do ANYTHING, let alone do something that brings me great joy!  As a hiking guide who does a multitude of trips ranging from hour-long nature walks to week-long customized backpacking trips I have this conversation often. 

Lets expand on the topic of being a woman out in the woods.  Since the publication of the book Wild and the subsequent movie of the same name, seeing women in the woods is more and more common.  While it was estimated only 10% of Appalachian Trail thru hikers were women in the early 2000s, that number is now closer to 25%.  My recent week out on the AT in Georgia is showing me the number will be even higher this year.  I am grateful for this in so many ways.  As a woman who loves backpacking and distance hiking, nothing makes me happier than seeing a duo or group of women out on the trail enjoying themselves and supporting each other.  As a woman who loves backpacking and distance hiking I can also tell you that nothing makes me feel stronger, sexier, or more beautiful than the challenge of completing a day on trail - covered in dirt, sweating, and maybe even with a few new scratches and bruises to show for it.  After spending several years growing up and into my identity on long-distance trails I've never felt more beautiful and confident in my abilities than I do right now.  

While I would have never considered myself an athlete in years past, recently I've come to terms with the fact that I am indeed an athlete, and a strong one at that.  Covering near-marathon distances nearly every day for weeks on end makes anyone an athlete.  Spending day after day after day in a cycle of cardio makes you an athlete.  Challenging your physical abilities for even a weekend at a time makes you an athlete.  Crying during your lunch break on a physically challenging day on trail?  You guessed it - you're an athlete.  I walked 2184.2 miles from the state of Georgia to the state of Maine and still didn't consider myself someone with any type of athletic ability.  Backpacking and spending time in the wilderness had me come to terms with the fact that my body is strong and capable of taking whatever I can throw at it.  I even recently decided to run a marathon and I'm even considering running an ultramarathon in early 2017.  I even have proof that hiking has physically changed my life.  

Getting back to that group of girls I mentioned earlier - I get why they acted the way they did.  Hiking up Mt. LeConte is hard.  It's really hard.  They're young and pretty.  I get it.  My first real hike was an 8-mile round trip to Ramsey's Cascades and I did it because I wanted to impress a boy. I probably acted obnoxious too.  We teach girls that it's okay to be whiny as long as you look adorable doing it.  We teach little girls that being pretty is a great goal in life.  Sure, looking your best is a great thing!  Who doesn't want to look and feel great about themselves?  But I'm here to advocate for change.  I'm here to tell you that we should be teaching girls to get down in the dirt and play rough.  I'm here to tell you that we should be teaching girls skills to be self-sufficient.  I'm here to advocate for teaching girls we don't have to be afraid and we don't need someone protecting us all the time.  If I had it to do all over again, I would have told those girls to quit their bitching, woman up, and climb that goddamn mountain (to paraphrase Jack Kerouac). While it would have been harsh, I can guarantee you that getting to the top and taking it all in would have made their misery disappear instantly.  

What do you think about hiking or running alone as a woman? Would you let your daughter take a backpacking trip?  I'd love to hear your opinion! Leave me a comment below or find me on Facebook or Twitter to get the conversation started!

Trail Talk Tuesday - Things I've Been Doing Lately

While I normally try and have an adventure post for you guys on Tuesday afternoons, this week will be a little bit different.  It's not that I haven't been hiking, because I have, but because I do a lot of the same hikes repetitively.  Here's a little update from the world of Sprinkles & NoKey. 

Spring seems to be here now in the Smokies!  The early blooming wildflowers have sprung, the trees are blossoming, and we even recently needed to mow the grass.  While I still think we are going to have one more cold week in the near future (because we always do!), I think we've definitely transitioned into warmer weather.  Due to my erratic work schedule and NoKey's mostly set, but strange, schedule we haven't had time to do much hiking together.  The hikes I've been doing for work have mostly been short, less than 3 hours a piece, and I've done mostly the same routes each time.  I do love being a hiking guide, but it doesn't really make for good blogging to write about the same trail over and over and over again!  Also, many places we hike are on quiet nature paths or off-trail hikes, so they don't really translate well into adventure hiking.  

I am feeling more comfortable being in charge of guiding people though!  While I'm technically still "training" it actually feels very natural to me to point things out to people.  I've done a little bit of testing this out on a few friends I've taken on personal hikes and I think it feels pretty natural in conversation to talk about plants, trees, the neat volunteer projects happening here in the park, etc.  Even though the hiking part of the job isn't challenging, teaching people about the park I love so much has been such a rewarding experience.  I'm truly lucky to have fallen into a job like this.  

All this talk about hiking also brings me to another part of my hiking life - what is my next long hike?  NoKey and I talk about this a lot.  It's so funny how after the AT we were pretty much set on taking some time off, but after our shorter hikes in the summer of 2015 we just want to hike some more! We've been talking over long trail options and we've really narrowed it down to a few with one major contender (and spoiler alert - it's not one of the Triple Crown Trails either!).  All of this will depend on how much money I can save up and when I can take the months off work.  If we get another warm winter next year, that will definitely mean we will probably take off for a few months!

In other backpacking news, I recently did my first solo trip guiding a backpacking trip.  It was a lot of fun to do a shakedown hike with a wannabe thru hiker.  I have a newbie backpacking trip going on this weekend, which I am really looking forward to doing.  I also have a week-long hike on the Appalachian Trail planned in a few weeks right after my marathon (because I'm a crazy person!)  Anyway, I feel like this post has rambled on long enough.  I just wanted to write down some of my recent thoughts to let all of you know what we've been up to recently. 

Have you spent any time outside recently?  Is the weather feeling like spring where you live or are you still stuck in the snow?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

When Quitting the Trail is Okay - How to Decide to End Your Thru Hike

Here's a true story - I've bailed on a thru hike before.  For those of you who have followed this blog for a while now, you'll know that NoKey and I bailed off the Finger Lakes Trail back in the summer of 2015.  We quit for a few reasons - I got a MRSA infection and a respiratory virus; it rained every single day; parts of the trail were completely underwater, meaning we did a LOT of road walking; the trail conservancy was very rude to us on the phone and didn't offer us any help when were were looking for a place to camp (and the president of the conservancy did call to apologize, but the damage was done); and the biggest reason of all - we weren't having any fun at all. Our thru hike was a failure.  I even wrote a post about how yes, we didn't finish our hike and it failed and why it wasn't a bad thing.  For us, the decision to quit the FLT was the best one and I don't regret it.  In my post last week I talked about reasons why thru hikers will leave the trail.  This week, I want to talk about when leaving the trail is the right decision and how to make the call.

When It's No Longer Worth It

You may have set out to conquer the trail, but now it no longer seems important to you.  Sure, no one said thru hiking would be easy and you get that, but no one said you had to finish the trail as a thru hiker either.  There are many, many different ways to hike a long distance trail and you can complete it (or not!) any way you choose.  When we decided to quit the FLT and take a vacation we had taken quite a few days to talk about our decision.  We had taken a weekend off to avoid more rain.  We hiked out and then I woke up incredibly sick.  We went back home to recover and during the first week after little improvement we decided that the rain would never let up and I probably wouldn't get any better (it took me almost a month to shake the MRSA and respiratory virus).  What is the point of killing ourselves every day if we don't want to be there?  Like I said last week, there are many reasons why you can decide to get off trail. 

When You Don't Care About the Trail Anymore

Hiking the trail can sometimes be like a bad relationship.  It mentally and physically exhausts you, sometimes for weeks on end.  You give yourself to it 100% and you get nothing in return. You've even given up most of your "normal life" to spend time with the trail and it's like the trail doesn't even care!  Now, if this was a relationship with another person chances are you'd be ready to call it quits and break up.  Sure, you might Facebook/Instagram stalk the trail for a while.  Every once in a while you'll feel nostalgic and pull out that picture of the two of you together.  You might even like a photo posted of the trail with it's new hikers.  Time will heal your wounds.  

When You've Tried a Second Time and Feel the Same

So sticking with the bad relationship concept above, maybe you and the trail broke up.  But sometimes exes get back together, right?  Maybe you broke it off with the idea of thru hiking but for whatever reason you two found your way back to each other.  Then, you and the trail fall back into old habits and it turns out the relationship hasn't changed at all; everything is exactly the same.  

The bottom line is this: 

THRU HIKING ISN'T FOR EVERYONE!

And you know what? That's okay.  Nobody said you have to thru hike a trail for it to magically "count".  What's more is that most trail conservancies recognize trail FINISHERS, not trail thru hikers.  Sure, you might be able to order that extra "thru hiker" or "end to ender" rocker patch for your certificate, but at the end of the day being a thru hiker is just a title.  In a world where we place a lot of emphasis on extraordinary achievements, at the end of the day whether you set the fastest know time, slowest time ever, hike a section over 20 years, or hike it all in six months - anyone who has finished a long trail all gets to say they're a completer.  

Maybe you're on the fence about breaking off your thru hike.  For those of you who haven't decided if getting off trail is right for you, here are a few pieces of advice: 

-Take a zero day.  If you're still on the fence, take another.  Maybe take a week off.  Talk it out with other hikers at a hostel.  Make a plan to hike to only the next town and see if your feelings change.  
- Think about how you'd feel if you quit.  Maybe you're thru hiking to prove something to someone (yourself or a loved one).  If the idea of quitting doesn't make you all that upset, it's probably time to call it.  

Have you ever been on the fence about quitting a hike?  Maybe you've spent tons of time planning and dreaming only to have it turn out differently than you'd imagined?  I'd love to hear how you dealt with getting off the trail.  Leave me a comment or find me on Facebook and get the conversation started!

Four Reasons Hikers Thru Hikers Quit (and one that trumps them all!)

It's no secret that most people who set out to thru hike fail.  According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, only 20-30% of people who report starting a thru hike will actually finish. While taking on the task of thru hiking seems glamorous and exciting, after spending several weeks on trail many hikers realize that the romantic idea of doing a long hike isn't always all it's cracked up to be.  This post is going to touch on the four main reasons thru hikers quit, plus one fifth reason that is the most powerful of all. 

Injuries

Many people attempting a thru hike are complete newbies to the world of multi-week backpacking trips - myself included.  For me, I trained for my thru hike and started my hike with bigger hiking days, 15-20 mile days.  Many people do not do this and think that a thru hike is a lot like a day hike.  I mean, a lot of people can do a 15 mile day hike with no problems! They go big too early and end up with a common hiking injury.  Shin splints, sprains, strains, and exhaustion are all very common in many new hikers.  Unfortunately, many hikers don't let their injuries properly heal and end up reinjuring themselves pretty quickly.  This definitely ends a lot of hikes!  (and if you want to know how to avoid injuries, check out a this post I wrote in November 2015!)

Money Issues

Leaving the working world behind for 4-7 months can be expensive!  I've seen estimates of $5000 per person to successfully complete a thru hike and that can be very realistic.  I myself did the trail on $2800, but I didn't need to replace any of my gear or electronics and we often found cheap places to stay instead of zeroing in expensive motels.  Many people we knew who quit the trail north of the Mason-Dixon line quit because they were running short on cash and had pretty much exhausted all other resources for backup cash.  Sure, some hostels offer work for stay and you can resupply a lot out of hiker boxes at post offices or hostels, but that can only get many hikers so far before throwing in the towel.  After taking more than 50 zero days on our AT thru hike, NoKey and I developed a Near-o system on our three 2015 thru hikes of various shorter trails.  The near-o system of hiking into town early in the morning, resupplying and freshening up, staying in the hostel, and hiking out the next day not only saved us money but also gave us the mental boost we needed to keep hiking.  Taking too many zeros can definitely deplete your cash flow!

The Honeymoon is Over

If you think about it, the idea of thru hiking is incredibly romantic!  Just you and your gear, powering through hard miles, rolling into camp for a hot meal and a beautiful sunset at a mountain overlook every night... what's not to love about that?!  Well, as someone who has thru hiked before, I can tell you those kinds of days are few and far between.  Sure, you can still have a great time on days that don't look like that, but for many the repetitive nature of hiking day after day after day just becomes too much.  The trail isn't as fun as they thought it would be.  The work isn't worth the reward.  Quite frankly, thru hiking can be INCREDIBLY BORING a lot of the time.  Many people you meet will ask you all about your "hiking vacation", but I personally find that a thru hike is like a low-paying full time job.  You log 10-16 hours a day of hard work (walking all day long) for mediocre food before collapsing into your sleeping bag.  Make no mistake, thru hiking is definitely not a 6-month vacation!

Family Issues

I left this one for last because it's the one that is often unavoidable.  We can't control what happens at home and an illness or the death of a relative can happen.  Sometimes hikers can bounce back and come back to the trail, but often times those hikers don't stay back on trail. It's also very common to miss your family and friends back at home, especially if a hiker has kids.  Missing out on milestones or big events in a family member or friend's life can be tough. 

And finally, the one that happens that many people don't think about: 

You Find What You're Looking For

Many people decide to take on a thru hike while they're in a transition phase of life - recently graduated school, retirement, being laid off from a job, etc.  You'll find that many trails often have people from all walks of life who are out on the trail trying to discover their next path in life.  In fact, I'd find it fair to say that every single person on the trail is definitely looking for answers to some question they have.  Sometimes you'll find what you're looking for before your trail ends.  This is another reason the quote "it's about the journey, not the destination" is so true and popular among many hikers.  

These are just a few reasons why thru hikers quit the trail before finishing, but I've found them to be the most common!  Be sure to check out my post next week on why quitting the trail isn't a bad thing - and why for some people it can be the right thing to do.  

Have you attempted and quit a thru hike or other major goal in life?  How do you feel about your decision?  I'd love to chat with you about it!  Leave me a comment below or catch me over on the Facebook page to get the conversation started!

So You Wanna Be a SoBo?

Most people reading this blog know that I thru hiked the Appalachian Trail as a northbounder, or a NoBo as it will be abbreviated in the rest of this post.  When I lived and worked in Millinocket during the 2013 thru hiker season I had an idea in my head that Southbounder (SoBo) hikers would be more prepared and better equipped to deal with the journey beginning the trail in Maine. I was sorely mistaken by the people I met getting off the bus in Medway, Maine who were ready to tackle the trail.  While many people do some degree of research about the trail in general, I found it was incredibly common for people to chose a SoBo thru hike just because they graduated school in May or June - having done absolutely no research on what it truly means to start a hike in Maine that early in the season.  If you're considering a Southbound AT thru hike, check this post out and think about a few things you might not have known!

Katahdin can mean the end of an epic journey for many, but the very beginning of a difficult first month for a few!

Before delving into the things you should know about hiking SoBo on the AT, here are a few quick facts from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy: 
- In 2014 it was estimated 2500 hikers began hiking at Amicalola Falls in Georgia to hike NoBo.  It was reported that 242 hikers began hiking SoBo from Baxter State Park. As of March 2015, 653 hikers reported completing a NoBo thru hike and 76 had reported finishing a SoBo thru hike.  Obviously, SoBo is much less crowded as a direction to hike!  
- Numbers of completed hikes on the AT are also steadily rising.  According to their statistics, the number of thru hikers reporting a completion each decade has doubled steadily since the 1970s.  More than 15,000 people have now reported a completion of a thru hike!

Now that you know a few things about people on the trail, here are a few things to consider about starting a SoBo thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. 

The Weather in Maine in May and June

When I arrived in Maine in late April in 2013, there was more than a foot of snow reported to still be on the trails on Katahdin.  By late May, this was still in the double digits.  The snow began to melt in late May, but the mountain didn't officially open for hiking until June 3rd that year.  We had already had more than a dozen thru hikers stay with us by that date.  Some hikers gave up on waiting and began their hike in the 100 Mile Wilderness.  Unfortunately for them, the recent heavy snow melt also meant the wild streams of Maine, which are nearly completely unbridged, were dangerous and cold to cross.  Statistically speaking, we pulled out nearly 80% of the people we dropped off at Baxter State Park or on the Golden Road after approximately 50 miles of hiking - at Jo Mary Road.  I would easily guess another 5% had dropped out by the time they reached Monson. (Statistics are rough and include both hikers that claimed to be thru hikers and section hikers.)  When asked what made them throw in the towel we heard mostly that it was cold at night, the streams were dangerous to cross, and the black flies were maddening.  Not only will the black flies be swarming, the mosquitos and gnats will be relentless.  NoKey and I did a day hike over Chairback in late June and by the end of our 16-mile hike we were both covered in bites and blood from the flies.  I spent the early part of my summer scrubbing blood and scabs off my neck and face!  While June means summer to most of us, in Maine I would compare the weather to early spring in most other places. 

The Logistics of Getting to Katahdin

Thru hikers are known for their ability to improvise and do it well.  Unfortunately, Baxter State Park isn't the place to try your new skills on improvising!  Not only do you need to find a way from the bus stop in Medway to Millinocket, there are a few things you need to know about getting into Baxter State Park.  First of all, you cannot drive in after dark.  When the bus arrives in Medway, more than an hour away from the park entrance, at 7:30 p.m. (if it's on time, which it often is not!), if you haven't found a way in to town, chances are you're hitching a ride.  Baxter State Park will NOT let you drive in after dark unless you've got a long-standing reservation for a campsite - and you're going to get an earful about your late arrival as well.  As a shuttle driver, I was scolded several times for people who poorly planned their arrivals.  Also, a good 90% of SoBos were not aware that they needed a RESERVATION to camp in the park the night of their Katahdin summit.  Hiking Katahdin is a 10.2-mile round trip hike.  It is another 9 miles out of the park to the Abol Bridge Campground.  Unless you can do a 20-mile day easily in New England, and we only had TWO hikers (that I know of) the whole season who did it, you need a camping reservation!

Hiking the 100 Mile Wilderness

Many of us who have hiked this section of Maine can tell you the name evokes deep, dark, secluded woods.  However, the experience of hiking through here is completely different.  For NoBo hikers, it's a 3.5-4 day hike.  For many of our SoBo hikers, I found the early June arrivals took between 8 and 12 days to get through.  It should be taken into consideration that streams will be too deep to ford this time of year and you may spend a day or so waiting for the river to drop.  We had several hikers get swept downstream during the summer of 2013.  The trails in Maine are very primitive.  The MATC takes pride in keeping their trails looking like the did 75 years ago when the AT was built - minimal bridges and switchbacks definitely make for harder hiking.  If you aren't used to hiking in New England, you will definitely have a rude awakening when you begin your hike in Maine.  If it's raining, your trail will look like a river.  If you see a mountain, you will climb straight up and over it.  Many people who have trail experience in other places of the country definitely report struggling a bit in this section.  Instead of carrying 8-12 days worth of food, I highly recommend looking into doing a food drop bucket like those offered by hostels on either end of this section, and carrying a lighter pack!

Minimal Support or Trail Magic

This factor of hiking SoBo is one that many don't think about at all.  While more hostels are staying open longer each year, SoBo's may have less of a chance of finding cheap places to stay during their hikes.  Especially for hostels on the southern end of the trail, their NoBo season is hectic enough for them!  I know where I worked in Maine, Baxter State Park closed for camping at Katahdin on October 15th and that's the day we drove out of town.  Again, more and more hostels are reopening or staying open to accommodate the throngs of people every year, but it is something to consider. Trail Magic in the traditional sense of the word isn't common for SoBo hikers.  Many NoBo's these days are experiencing trail magic nearly every day in the form of free snack cakes or a cold soda left in a cooler at the roadside.  While the ATC is starting to strongly discourage trail magic left as trash at trailheads, many SoBos don't see much of this at all, especially after they've passed the last NoBo thru hiker bubble.  However, one shouldn't think of trail magic as just free food.  Trail magic can take many forms, be it a hitchhike you we're expecting or an offer of a hot shower and a ride to town.  While the magic may not be in the traditional sense, SoBo hikers often say they don't feel like they're not being provided for. 

Fewer Hikers on Trail

While I have met both introverts and extroverts who were SoBo hikers, definitely be prepared to be in the minority of hikers on the AT.  With less than 10% of thru hikers choosing the SoBo route, you'll deal with fewer thru hikers.  While this can be nice if you're wanting a less crowded experience on your thru hike, you'll definitely have to deal with fewer services and less traditional trail magic, as mentioned above.  That being said, working as a hiking guide in the Smokies, I meet many SoBo thru hikers in the fall.  They're usually traveling in a group, albeit a small one.  Like any hike of this length, chances are you'll find a few people to hike with for a given period of time. 

The Difficult Start

While I mentioned the 100 Mile Wilderness near the beginning of this article, I didn't mention the rest of the state of Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont.  While the 100 Mile Wilderness is actually relatively flat, it still takes many SoBo hikers longer to complete it.  While Maine is only 281 miles of hiking, it's not an easy 281 miles!  It takes a lot of SoBo's between 3-4 weeks to complete this state, only to move on to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  It's definitely a trial by fire for those who have never hiked in New England!  Granted, the portion of the AT in Vermont is a lot smoother and less difficult, it's still bigger mountains for SoBo hikers.  The good news is, in my opinion, the hardest mountains and climbs are definitely behind you once you hit Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts. 

While my experiences working with SoBo thru hikers in Maine was only for a season, I got a lot of insight into the mindset of a person deciding to tackle the hike this direction. As someone who had hiked the trail NoBo and met many SoBo's along the way, I just always assumed the SoBo hikers were more prepared and better equipped to tackle this difficult section of trail. Based on the many, MANY people I met, both thru hiking and section hiking alike, I couldn't believe how wrong I was!  

Here is my advice to anyone looking to do a thru hike as a Southbounder: 

1) Get your reservation set up for Baxter State Park at Katahdin Stream Campground.  Set it up for the day after you arrive in Maine. If you get off the bus July 1st, stay in town that night and head up to Baxter State Park early on the July 2nd to hike Katahdin and camp at Katahdin Stream Campground. I cannot stress this enough!  Baxter State Park is already warning the AT of skating on thin ice due to the sheer number of people trying to cheat the system.  Don't be that guy - make your reservation!
2) Make sure you have enough food to get through the 100 Mile Wilderness.  Again, I highly recommend doing a food drop bucket from one of the hostels if you think it's going to take you more than 5 days to hike this distance!  Yeah, it costs upwards of $35, but if you're carrying half the weight in food, it is worth the money!
3) Start in July - not June!  I know you're excited to get on the trail. I get it!  The weather is drier in July.  The bugs have chilled out a bit, the nights are warmer, and the streams are more tame.  You'll see more people in Maine and New Hampshire as a result, but if I were to do the trail SoBo I would wait until July 4th at least to start. 
4) Don't let the crowds freak you out.  They'll be gone soon!

After all that I've said here, I will definitely say that if I were to ever thru hike the AT again I would definitely do it Southbound.  After hiking shorter and less densely populated trails in the summer of 2015 I definitely prefer the smaller crowds and I plan on hiking the PCT as a Southbounder as well - whenever it is I can save the funds to do so!  I think hiking as a SoBo has many appeals, but as with any hike it definitely helps to do your research and make sure the direction you chose is right for you.  

Did you do a thru hike in the opposite direction from most other people?  What would you add to this list of things to know? Leave me a comment or find me on Facebook to get the conversation started!

Trail Hygiene - So Much More Than Just Clean Hands!

Backpackers who have been on trail for more than a few days know that we don't smell like roses.  Your days have been spent sweating your way up and over mountains, across streams, and into camp.  If you've not been out on trail for a few months chances are it's harder than you remembered to walk those miles with a pack on.  All you want to do is make your supper, climb in your tent, and sleep like a log.  In fact, many long-distance hikers do the same thing! We push through long days to eat, sleep, wake, and repeat.  One thing that I definitely saw fall by the wayside was personal hygiene.  This post will be about how to keep yourself a little bit cleaner with minimal effort - which means so much more than just using hand sanitizer once a day!

First of all, I want to talk about the Norovirus.  Norovirus is a nasty little bug that seems to make an appearance every single season.  If you click the link you'll see a post I wrote about the terrible symptoms and ways you can contract the virus on trail. You really don't want this - so let's talk about the things you can do to keep yourself clean on trail.  

Hand Washing - Not Just Sanitizer!

Hand sanitizer - so easy!  You just slap some of this stuff on your hands and go on your way.  Well, it might be easy, but it's not so fail-proof these days!  I personally hate the stuff and pretty much only use it as fire starter.  It always leaves me feeling sticky.  Because it felt sticky and I was already grubby I just quit using it.  Hand sanitizer also encourages the breeding of super viruses and bacteria, which I won't go into in great detail here about those things - just know that we as a society are teaching bacteria and viruses to evolve and are doing more harm than good by over sanitizing everything we own making the bad bacteria breed stronger and the good bacteria (probiotics that naturally live on our skin) die off.  One thing we do as guides in my company is hand washing before meals.  We heat up just a small amount of water with our stoves, lather up, and rinse.  It takes less than 4 ounces of water and only a drop of Dr. Bronner's soap to wash up.  Now that I know how easy it is, I make it a priority every day at least once! It doesn't take much time and having clean fingernails is definitely a plus!  You can see the Center for Disease Control's recommendations on Norovirus here. 

Brushing Your Teeth

You're tired and it's been a long day.  You want to eat and go to sleep.  I recently wrote an entire post about how important it is to take care of your teeth on a long hike, especially since your body is getting poor nutrition and is stressed more than it would be back at home.  Please check out this post for more info about dental hygiene and why it's important on a long hike! 

Laundry Day is Worth the Money

While doing your laundry may start to seem like a moot point after you've settled into smelling like a funky hiker, it actually can do a lot of good for you and your hygiene!  As you've read in my Norovirus post, lots of nasty things can live in your clothing.  Even if you don't want to pay for doing a load of laundry at a laundromat, just rinsing your clothes clean when you shower on trail can help tremendously.  You'll find that on those hot summer days, your sweat will dry and form salt crystals.  These can really hurt when they rub your skin directly.  Washing your clothes with detergent in a laundromat is definitely worth the few dollars to get rid of the pain!

Washing Your Pack

When we were taking a near-o day in Daleville, Virginia (a day when you don't hike very many miles and stay in town for the night), some friends of ours were taking the afternoon to wash and dry their packs.  Not only does it help with that funky thru hiker smell, it will help wash off the salt crystals and whatever else happens to be living on your pack.  If you're doing a longer hike, chances are you have tossed your pack around in a few shelters, in patches of dirt, on the side of the road, etc.  You can pick up more than a few microorganisms this way!  All you need to do to wash your pack on trail during a near-o or zero day is some Dr. Bronner's and a bathtub.  Prerinse your pack - rinsing until it runs more clear, scrub it down with the soap using your hands, and rinse again until water runs clear.  Let it drip dry in your tub or outside in the sunshine. 
**I shouldn't even have to say this, but please make sure to clean up your mess if you're doing this in a hostel! Hostel owners, especially during the hiking season, already have a full schedule of cleaning up after you - don't make them clean up your mess!**

When All Else Fails - Baby Wipes!

Baby wipes are one of the most important things I carry on a long hike.  They can be used for their usual purpose or a quick wipe down when you're feeling funky.  In the hot summer months, when the bugs were at their highest swarms, we often found ourselves applying too much bug spray multiple times a day.  Add this to the layers of dirt forming on your legs and you've got what NoKey and I like to call "human varnish".  We'd have layers of dirt alternating with bug spray in thick, nasty chunks.  The baby wipes at the end of the day helped clean all this off and leave your skin feeling a little less funky.  We always went with the unscented version, which also work great at wiping residue out of your cook pot.  

While we all know smelling bad is just a part of being a backpacker, taking a few moments each day to clean yourself up a bit can not only be good for your mental state after a long day, it can really help keep you healthier!  What are some ways you keep clean when you're taking a backpacking trip or a long hike? Is there anything you'd add to the list?  I'd love for you to leave me a comment or connect with me on Facebook and let me know!

The Art of Hitchhiking

It's no secret that long-distance hikers frequently hitchhike to get around and get into towns.  It's also no secret that hitchhiking has a bad reputation.  We all grew up listening to stories of axe-wielding hitchhikers and murderers on remote mountain roads.  However, when you're hitching a ride on a mountain road near any long hiking trail, chances are anyone willing to pick you up knows exactly who you are (a hiker) and what you're doing.  NoKey and I even hitched our way down the length of Vermont after we finished our Long Trail thru hike in the summer of 2015.  This post is going to give you some tips and tricks to getting a ride AND doing it the safe and smart way!

NoKey giving me the thumbs up for throwing up my thumb and getting us a ride!

My first hitchhiking experience on the AT was in Georgia at Unicoi Gap.  We were 50 miles and 3 days into my thru hike and there was a big thunderstorm about to roll through.  A guy I met in camp the night before, Zip Code, was going to go into Hiawassee to get a hotel room and invited myself and another hiker, Fisher, to join him to get out of the rain.  Wanting to take a shower after getting sunburned and dehydrated the day before, I gratefully accepted his offer.  Zip Code had hiked this part of the trail before and was very comfortable hitching a ride.  He told me to wait on him at the trailhead and we would go down into town together.  A group of 5 of us stood on the side of the road with our thumbs up and immediately we were picked up by a pickup truck.  The rain was heavy and we all jumped in back, getting soaked and pelted by rain all the way to town.  I had been nervous to hitchhike, but this first experience proved to be just fine and not the least bit scary!  My first piece of advice for hitching a ride, especially for those who have never done it before, is that there is strength in numbers (but not too many numbers!)  When you're on the AT during northbounder season in Georgia you'll see many pickups loaded down with hikers in the back.  People here are used to seeing the droves of hikers at trailheads and often will tell them to jump in back.  My first several hitches were done this way with a group of people I didn't know very well, but we were all hikers going to the same place.  You'll also find that there are a lot of people offering free shuttles to hikers during the peak of the hiking season.  Between the pickups and the free shuttles offered in the first few hundred miles, I never felt uncomfortable or nervous after my first hitch.  

Hikers in the back of a truck, enjoying the free ride!

So, let's say something has happened and you need to get further from the trail.  Maybe you need to get to a healthcare clinic or you need a piece of gear replaced and you end up taking a few rides to a town a little bit further out from the trail.  Well, most places close to the trail will still recognize you as a hiker.  In fact, when we were hiking the Benton MacKaye Trail, which is near the AT in Georgia but more than 50 miles from it in other parts, people would ask us if we were hiking all the way to Maine every single day!  The point is people close to the trail will still normally recognize you as a hiker and hitching will still not be too hard.  Many people who shuttle go to bigger towns for hiker needs as well, so you can always call a shuttle or a trail angel if you need assistance.  But what if you're set on hitching a ride to save some cash?  Well, a simple sign has always worked for us!  When we hitchhiked the state of Vermont we got a ride into Burlington, which is pretty far from the Long Trail.  When we were trying to hitch out of town and no one would pick us up, we ran into a gas station and wrote a sign on a paper plate - "Hikers Going South."  We were picked up in less than 5 minutes.  The woman who took us told us the sign let her know we were hiking and she felt safer picking us up.  We used the sign a few more times that day on bigger roads further from the trail and everyone who picked us up also told us the sign let them know we were pretty much harmless smelly people.  

Never underestimate the power of a well-written and easy to read sign!

Another helpful tip I've found is to smile and be friendly!  While it seems cheesy, standing on the side of the road looking grumpy, sweaty, and filthy doesn't really lend itself well to getting a ride.  When we were in Vermont near the town of Jay we were trying to hitch a ride on 100 South.  This road is several miles from the Long Trail and outside of the village.  We were standing on the side of the road and not having much luck hitching.  NoKey and I would put out our thumbs and people would pass us.  I kept smiling and waving even if they didn't pull over.  A man actually turned around and came back to pick us up after about 5 minutes.  He said he wasn't going to stop, but he said me waving brought him back.  He said if we were that upbeat about standing on the side of the road in the sun that we couldn't have been too awful!  

So, now you know some techniques for landing a ride, even if you're miles away from the trail.  Here are a few safety tips to keep in mind before you hop in the car. 

1) Keep your valuables on your person!  If you're going in a car chances are you'll throw your pack and hiking poles in the trunk.  If that person pulls off and you've left something in there, chances are it's gone forever!  While I've never personally heard stories of someone driving off with all your gear, people do leave small things - gaiters, hiking poles, shoes - in trunks ALL THE TIME.  I personally pull out my wallet and phone and put them somewhere on me while I take a ride with a stranger. 

2) Trust your gut!  If someone pulls up and you feel like the ride is unsafe, make an excuse and catch a ride with someone else.  There's a lot to be said for trusting your instincts!

3) Strength in numbers!  Like I stated in my first paragraph, hitching a ride with other people until you get more comfortable is never a bad idea.  In the throes of thru hiker season this definitely isn't hard to do.  Do keep in mind that groups larger than 3 sometimes will have trouble getting a ride just because cars don't hold that many people.  When we were much further into the trail we found 3 was the magic number for getting a ride.  

4) Don't feel too proud to call a shuttle!  When we were outside of Caratunk, Maine on our thru hike we attempted to hitch a ride for 90 minutes in the hot August sun.  It was a Sunday in the late morning and everyone going into town was a tourist in a small car and not one person stopped for us no matter how happy we were.  It turns out there was a business just up the road that would have given us a free shuttle if we just checked the book!  The AT in general has great cell phone coverage and it's rare to  not be able to make a call.  If we just would have walked half a mile to the post office, they would have let us use the phone for free.  It would have saved us a lot of time if we would have just done that.  

This post just barely touches on my experiences with hitchhiking on a long-distance hike.  From my personal experience, I've never had a bad hitch or taken a ride where I felt uncomfortable.  On some of our remote trails, like the Finger Lakes Trail that traverses across rural New York State, we often have little trouble getting a ride.  I found that people truly aren't that bad in the real world and I've definitely gained a new faith in humanity from all my hiking experiences.  

Have you ever hitchhiked before?  Are you going to for the first time soon?  I'd love to talk with you more about this topic!  Leave me a comment with your thoughts below, or find me over on Facebook and let's get the conversation started. 

Five Things I Wish I Knew Before My Appalachian Trail Thru Hike

Deciding to attempt a thru hike of any trail is a decision that takes time and research.  While doing a quick google search for backpacks, shoe reviews, and even advice for dealing with any scenario you can dream up in your head can be a big help, I find that nothing can truly prepare you for the journey you are about to take on.  For the next few Thursdays I'll be doing a series of posts gearing up for AT Thru Hiker Northbounder season.  The first post I'm doing in this series is one of a more personal nature - the five things I wish I knew before heading out onto the Appalachian Trail for my thru hike.  

This woman sitting on Springer Mountain had NO IDEA what she was getting into, that's for sure!

1) The Best Laid Plans Have No Place Here

A lot of people go into a thru hike with some sort of plan. I got overwhelmed by details, but I did pre-plan my first day on trail.  I quickly threw that plan out the window when I arrived at my destination for the first night after only 3 hours of hiking and decided to move on.  Another example is the time NoKey and I decided to attempt our first 30 mile day.  We had looked at our AT Guide and decided that we were going for a big day.  The terrain was doable, the weather was great, and it was my birthday so we were both in a great mood.  Unfortunately, the book didn't show us just how rocky and terrible those ridge lines actually were!  We ended up only hiking about 15.5 miles that day and feeling defeated... but we did get to spend the night with about 15 other hikers who had equally terrible hiking days, so it all worked out anyway.  Every single day on the trail is a new day and so many things can change in an instant.  Attempting to plan out your entire trip before you even leave is futile!  

2) You Will NEVER Be Alone

While I figured I would see a few people every day, I had no idea how truly packed and crowded the AT would be.  I also figured the crowds would die down after a few weeks.  I never camped alone one time on the trail.  In those early days on trail if you need to go to the bathroom, even if you walk down a hill and out into the woods chances are someone will see you.  I always say if you are craving human contact and feel like meeting some new people, just step off trail and go to the bathroom and you'll see a ton of new faces as soon as you do!  As a woman, I was often asked before I left for the trail if I was afraid to be alone in the woods or why I wasn't taking a man with me on my hike (yes, seriously!).  My answer was always that I felt safe and confident in my abilities.  After seeing the throngs of people hiking in the south, I knew that I hadn't been wrong to assume I'd be around other people frequently.  As NoKey likes to tell people, if you're starting a Northbound thru hike in springtime, if you trip and fall and don't get up right away some stranger will come and trip over you!

3) You Will See a Whole New Side of Humanity

Let's face it - people suck. It seems like there's always one news story every single day that will make you wonder what in the world is wrong with people, am I right?  I have to tell you that after only a few hours on trail you will see humanity in a whole new and positive light!  There is a mantra that states "the trail provides" and has many meanings.  I have found personally that if there is something you truly need, you will find it at the exact moment you need it.  My case in point for this was hiking out of the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina.  There is an infamous climb up and out, over Cheoah Bald, and down into Stecoah Gap.  I hadn't seen a single hiker all day.  I was dehydrated, hot, and physically exhausted.  Crying, I came down the mountain to the road crossing.  When I arrived, a man asked if he could carry my pack and fix me up a plate of food.  His trail name was Hopeful and it was his birthday. He had thru hiked twice before and he likes spending his birthday doing trail magic.  This man sat me down, made me up plates and plates of food, refilled my water bottles, and sent me up and over the next hill with a pocket full of snack cakes.  I hiked up and over Jacob's Ladder into Brown Fork Gap that night with a full belly, witnessing one of the most stunning sunsets I had ever seen, and feeling grateful for my experience that day.  I can also say I have had bad experiences with religious people living in the southeast U.S.  After my first few weeks on trail my views on organized religion became much more positive as well.  It is amazing how truly caring people can be. 

4) The Small Moments Are the Best

So we've all heard the saying that the best things in life are free, or the best things in life aren't physical things, or even that it is the little things that count.  The Appalachian Trail has so many monuments and landmarks and vistas and parks... so many things to photograph and remember.  The moments that mean the most during your hike, however, are the small ones you spend with other hikers.  One of my favorite trail photos from my entire hike is the one I posted below - I'm signing the log book at a shelter, talking to NoKey and some other hikers at the table. I couldn't tell you what I wrote or what we were discussing, but I can tell you that the small glimpses into what my life was like back then are the most memorable of the entire trip. 

Photo taken by our friend, James "Tubesocks" Dzur in Pennsylvania - the day before we hit the halfway point of the trail.  This photo hangs in our living room.

5) Your Life Will Change - Drastically

The piece of advice I heard from experienced thru hikers before left for my hike was the one I didn't really know how to use... that my life was about to completely change and I wouldn't understand that at all until it happened.  Those people were right.  I always like to tell people the Appalachian Trail ruined my life in the best possible way.  I left a great job in healthcare, working from home with great benefits, to take on this hike.  When I got back home, I went back to my job and expected my life to be the same.  What I discovered was that while I was away the world kept turning.  People went on with their lives while I was out on the trail.  When I came home the world was still the same, but I was not.  I had very little tolerance for driving and traffic.  I no longer really cared much about my favorite TV shows.  That amazing job I had now felt empty and required me to sit still for much longer than I would have liked.  I gave up my life and moved to Maine, over 1500 miles away, to work for very little pay for very long hours in a hiker hostel for 7 months.  I turns out that for me to live the life I was meant to live I needed to get out of my comfort zone and I had done just that over the period of five months on trail.  After a few years of part time mindless jobs and hard work, I was fortunate enough to return to the hiking trails I loved for a short time.  After that, things fell in to place and I was able to find work as a hiking guide.  It took a long time, but I finally found where I was meant to be.  
 

These are only a few life lessons I learned on my long journey on the Appalachian Trail.  What things would you add to this list?  Are you gearing up for a thru hike?  Leave me a comment or connect with me on Facebook - I'd love to chat with you!

Transformation Tuesday - My Hiking Weight Loss Journey

While I normally do adventure recaps on Tuesdays, today I thought I'd do something a little different.  In the fitness community Transformation Tuesday is a big feature on social media across the internet.  Many of us like to share our journeys with each other if for no other reason than to say "life is never easy - I know it's hard and I got through."  It helps to inspire others to be their best selves.  I know for me that Tuesdays are always extremely motivational if for no other reason than I know this could be the story that changes someone's life!  For me personally, hiking saved me.  If it weren't for me finding this passion in my life I have no idea where I would be today.  Here is my story. 

This is me in June 2010, only 2 months after knee surgery and carrying more weight than I care to remember - both in my pack and on my body.  

After struggling through some personal issues in 2008 I had gained a few pounds.  My doctor was treating me for depression and the pills made me gain weight and slowed down my thyroid function.  The lower my thyroid functioned the more weight I put on and the more depressed I became.  It was a vicious cycle.  By early 2010 I was weighing close to 155 pounds. At 5'1" I was unhealthy and overweight.  Then, a slip and fall in a friend's kitchen caused major damage to my knee which required an easy surgery but required physical therapy to be able to walk and pedal a bike again.  I gained 25 more pounds due to the steroids and the physical inactivity.  I was absolutely miserable.  I had hired a personal trainer to help me lose the weight, but with my knee pain it was so hard to do many exercises without severe modification.  Weight training was helping me get stronger, but without cardio I knew I'd never lose the weight.  

Since I was in a lot of pain and walking was a skill I could manage I started hiking more seriously.  I could only do short day hikes, 3-4 miles, but since we live near a national park a lot of backpacking trips would fit this description.  I could do a round trip total of 6 or 8 or 10 miles in a weekend!  I started hiking as often as I could with a group I found on Meetup.Com that was local to my area.  I was often times the slowest person in the group, the one everyone took a break and waited for.  I was the one who didn't get a break ever because by the time I caught up to everyone they had been taking a break for a LONG time!  Sometimes I really got discouraged, but I had made some amazing friends in the group who helped support me and encourage me on those hard hikes. 

Me hiking through a rock quarry in August 2010 with my Meetup friends. 

Little by little, my injured knee got stronger every day.  After about 6 months of working with a trainer and spending my weekends with the hiking group I was able to start doing light impact cardio at a gym - elliptical and bike training.  While the pain in my knee was still aggravating, it had lessened dramatically and I was able to work on my endurance.  Combined with the strength training, I knew I was getting stronger and was slowly starting to do a better job keeping up with my friends on our hiking trips!  By the time we rang in 2011 I had dropped more than 30 pounds, my thyroid began functioning better on it's own, and my depression was lessening.  Not only was the physical activity helping my moods, but being outside in the fresh air and sunshine with good company was helping lift my spirits.  While I was shedding weight, I was also shedding a dark cloud that had been built up in my soul for a long time.  

Hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the Spring of 2011 - thinking how hard it would be to go all the way to Maine one day!

In the late spring of 2011 I met Jennifer Pharr Davis.  She was the female speed record holder for the Appalachian Trail.  She was going to try to (and did!) set the overall speed record during the summer.  I had already started throwing around the idea of doing a thru hike after spending some time with friends who had done large sections and, after meeting her and listening to how she spoke of the life changing experience of hiking the trail, I knew I had to do it... but how on earth would I manage something like that?!  That summer a friend of mine began a bucket list item - hiking the 900 miles of trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park before her next birthday.  She spent every single weekend out on the trails and by now I was one of the faster hikers.  I spent most of my weekends with Elise and other friends of hers doing obscure day hikes and combinations of trails that no one could ever even dream of!  With Elise at my side I took my first ever multi-day backpacking trip.  Because of all the hard work I put in with her, by the fall of 2011 I knew for sure I could not only start a thru hike but I also knew I would complete one!

Me at McAffee's Knob - the most photographed location on the entire Appalachian Trail.  May 2012. 

By the time I left for Springer Mountain in Georgia on March 27th, 2012 I had lost 50 pounds.  I was a strong hiker who for the first month of the trail didn't spend more than a night or two with the same person because I usually completed more miles.  I was physically prepared for the trail and even dropped 8 more pounds throughout the length of my hike.  By the time I walked to Maine I was the strongest and fittest person I had ever been in my life (with the worst diet probably!).  After getting back home to Tennessee I wasn't walking 20+ miles every day and the weight started to come back - much to my horror.  Granted, some of those last 8 pounds were caused by dehydration and would be gained back... but it's hard to tell yourself that when you've worked so hard to lose so much weight in the first place.  Hand-in-hand with coming back into the real world from a thru hike comes post-trail depression.  The inactivity and depression started throwing me back into a spiral of sadness I remembered from years ago and it scared me.  

I started running about a month after I got home from the AT as a way to stay busy and fit when I couldn't go hiking every single day. I was running 5K's at Thanksgiving and New Year's and doing the miles started to feel normal to me. After moving to Millinocket in 2013, I made it a priority to take a walk nearly every night around town.  Sometimes I even ran a 5K by looping twice around the greenway they had at Millinocket Stream.  It wasn't until we moved to Syracuse that I started seriously thinking about running as a way to fill my time.  I ran my first half marathon in the spring of 2015 after training through the brutally cold winter outdoors before daylight.  For the first time since finishing my thru hike I truly felt accomplished and proud of the things I was doing.  Running went from something I really hated to something that kept me focused and sane.  By the time we left for the Benton MacKaye Trail in the late spring of 2015 I was in the best cardiovascular shape I had ever been in!

Crossing the finish line of the Syracuse Half Marathon with an official time of 2:05:45 - better than the goal time I trained for!

I now consider myself extremely lucky to call myself a hiking guide.  I now get paid to share my love of the trails and backpacking with people who are new to the sport.  In my free time now I've run a multitude of races, added two more long-distance trails to my hiking resume, and I am even training for my first full marathon in the spring of 2016.  If you were to ask me 5 years ago if I ever would have seen myself here I would have told you that you were crazy!  

The reason I'm sharing this story now is because I feel like it's important to tell people that small changes add up.  I get messages of people asking me how to start hiking with a group; people who are slow and overweight like I was and are afraid to make others wait on them.  The reason I'm sharing this is to tell you that we all have to start somewhere.  Hell, I even had to learn how to WALK again before I could hike.  We all start slow.  We all need time to ease into it.  If you want to start hiking - GO FOR IT!  Hiking changed my life.  It saved my life.  I'd hate to think where I could be today without it.  

Has hiking caused a positive change in your life?  I'd love to hear about it!  Please leave me a comment or find me over on Facebook to get the conversation started!

Help the Millinocket Library!

Any hiker who has been on a hike long enough to make a few town stops knows the important role a library can play.  For many, the Millinocket Library is the last one they will visit on trail - maybe to book a flight home or upload all the photos off their camera before ending their hike. When I lived in Millinocket, I used the library all the time and was there at least twice a week checking out books for the low price of $25 for an out-of-towner seasonal library card.  

Checking out a book in the Millinocket Library - a blast from the past with the old school card system.  

The library in Millinocket could use your help.  They are in the running to receive a $2000 grant from the Maine Masonic Charitable Foundation.  This grant could go a long way in helping a struggling trail town.  Take a minute to vote every day from now until January 31st.  You can find the Millinocket Library down in District 24 (the last one on the page).  Thanks for your help, hikers!

Click the link below to vote: 

http://www.masoniccharitablefoundation.org/building-community/

How to Score Great Deals on Gear on a Hikertrash Budget

Hikers love their gear - that's no secret.  Any time you get a group of hikers together chances are they're talking about their gear or their food!  As with any hobby, the deeper you get into it the more money you're likely to spend on the latest and greatest gadgets and clothing to help you perform better.  Here are some tips for scoring gear at great prices when you've got a not so great budget. 

Buying Last Year's Color/Model or Factory Seconds

Sierra Trading Post is one of my favorite websites for outdoor clothing items.  I always buy my Smartwool socks and bras from them.  I've yet to find another website that not only has consistently low prices, but if you do a google search in another tab, chances are you'll find a coupon for free shipping or an additional 20-40% off your entire order.  This site is also where I bought SEVEN pairs of trail runners at one time for my AT thru hike in 2012.  At 65% off retail, I can definitely rock last year's model shoe. 

Flash Sale Sites

My absolute favorite flash sale site is Steep and Cheap. While years ago they specialized only in flash sales, now they have deals you can buy for weeks at a time.  I've scored Procompression socks on there for 70% off retail and I've gotten some other great workout equipment on there for as much as 90% off retail.  One of my favorite features on Steep and Cheap is the "hold shipment" option.  You can hold off on having your order shipped for up to a week if you're still looking for something.  This way, if you find more stuff later you can add it to your order and not pay for additional shipping.  I've also used The Clymb for gear, but I haven't shopped it in a while. 

Backpacker Flea Market Groups - Facebook

If you're a backpacker, chances are you're already a part of so many backpacker flea market groups on Facebook you don't need me to mention this.  If you are new to backpacking, trust me when I say GET INTO FACEBOOK GROUPS!  Join not only the flea market groups, in which people will sell used gear for discounted prices, but also any group for trails that interest you. People in nearly every group will have some kind of gear they're trying to unload for one reason or another.  Use the search bar feature on Facebook and type in "hiker flea market" and join!

Amazon

Come on.  You guys knew I was going to list this one.  Seriously though, I have found stuff on Amazon cheaper than I can get it as a hiking guide.  Not only is Amazon great for gear deals, they often have great deals on food - Clif Bars, ProBar, Kind Bars, Honey Stinger, etc. - for close to closeout pricing.  Sometimes you'll be ordering it in bulk, but if you do a lot of hiking, chances are you'll fly through that multipack of bars in no time. 

So there you have it - my tips for buying great gear at great prices.  Where do you shop to save money on that new piece of gear you're trying to buy?  Is there a great website I've forgotten to list?  Leave me a comment below or connect with me over on Facebook to get the conversation started!

Backpacking Pillows - My Favorite Luxury Item

Every hiker carries at least one luxury item - the item they don't really need but cannot live without on the trail. For many hikers early on during a thru hike, this item is usually something like a solar charger or extra batteries or sleeping clothes. My luxury item on the AT was a plastic princess crown I took great pains to carry without breaking on the top of my pack. I've seen hikers going SoBo carrying jack-o-lantern buckets around Halloween.  NoKey carried a pink necktie and wore it in town and on Katahdin.  After getting a few more miles under my feet, this summer my luxury item changed.  I now carry a pillow. Yep, I know it sounds ridiculous, but I love my backpacking pillow!

 Many backpackers will use a bag filled with clothing as their pillow at night. I was in this camp for many years, carrying a Thermarest bag lined with fleece as my pillow.  The problem, however, is that 1) Your pillow really starts to smell when it's filled with dirty socks; 2) Your pillow isn't very comfy when the only thing in it is dirty socks.  This summer on the Finger Lakes Trail, NoKey bought himself a Sea to Summit Aeros Pillow. I loved stealing this pillow when he would get up early in the morning. I was determined to buy one every time we went into town,  but no outfitters seemed to stock them.  Finally, after our Long Trail hike, I bought a pillow of my own - the Klymit Pillow X.  The pillow changed the way I slept at night. I no longer wake up with a crick in my neck. I no longer fall asleep to the smell of wet, dirty socks at my head.  Being that I backpack for a living now, comfort and a good nights' rest are key to making both me and the clients I take on trips very happy!

The red pillow above is the Klymit Pillow X; the green pillow below is the Sea to Summit Aeros Ultralight. 

Comparing the Pillows

Both of these pillows are incredibly small and lightweight - Klymit weighs 1.95 oz. packed and packs to a size of 3 x 1.25 inches. Sea to Summit weighs 2.1 oz. packed and packs to a size of 2 x 2.8 inches.  The real differences come in once you remove them from their stuff sacks. 

A dollar bill for scale of the size of the pillows in the stuff sacks - both pillows come with them. 

Inflating/Deflating Valves

The Sea to Summit has a unique valve system - it's a double valve that allows you to blow it up without losing any inside air. It takes me four breaths to blow it up completely.  If you want to deflate the pillow, you open the valve marked "deflate" and it will open right up and allows nearly all the air to escape instantaneously.  It's very quick to deflate. 

The Klymit pillow has a valve system similar to that on a blow up sleeping pad. You pull the valve to open it, blow it up with approximately 4 breaths, and then turn it to close it.  The real pain though is deflating this pillow - it fills up in four separate chambers, making deflating the pillow a job.  No matter how I've tried to deflate this pillow: pressing all the air out, rolling it, folding it, there is always air stuck inside and you have to be patient to let it all out. 

The top two photos show the double valve system of the Sea to Summit Aeros Ultralight - an easy and smart valve system.  The bottom photo is the valve on the Klymit Pillow X. 

Comfort for Sleeping

The Sea to Summit pillow has a curved shape and a soft TPU covering.  This almost feels like microfiber on your skin.  The shape allows for you to sleep on either your sides or your back and still have support for your neck.  If you're a back sleeper, however, you will have to play around with how much you inflate this pillow for neck comfort.  It only took us a few nights to figure that out though.  Also, the soft covering might feel nice on your face, but it's not so forgiving when your oily skin rubs on it.  This pillow shows a lot of dirt and wear and needs a lot of cleaning. 

The Klymit Pillow X, as I mentioned before, fills the air in four chambers, making an X-shaped indentation right in the middle of the pillow.  This is great because you don't need to play around with inflation levels.  Your head is naturally cradled and comfortable if you're sleeping on your back or side.  It doesn't have that nice soft coating on it, so it's a bit sticky on your face on a hot night.  

A happy camper!

NoKey and I both love our backpacking pillows and if you're hiking for a few weeks or months at a time, this is one luxury item I can definitely get behind!  They're light, small, and compact - I keep mine right in the stuff sack with my sleeping pad!  If you find yourself sleeping poorly on an overnight, I'd highly recommend trying the Sea to Summit Aeros Ultralight or the Klymit Pillow X for a better night's sleep!  Do you use a pillow in the backcountry? If you do, I'd love to hear about what you're carrying.  Leave me a comment below or connect with me on Facebook!

Disclaimer: Both of these pillows were purchased by us with our own money. We have no obligation to publish positive reviews of either brand and are doing so because we love both of the products.  Links in the post above are affiliate links. 

Welcome, 2016!

While most bloggers are writing New Years Day posts about their upcoming goals and trips for the year, I regret to say that I don't really have any for 2016.  My big goal for this year was to run my very first marathon in April.  Due to the fact that I'm working as a backpacking guide now, taking a big elaborate trip, the way we prefer to do our hiking, just won't be feasible this year. While the thought of not taking a thru hike in 2016 does make me kind of sad, I'm also okay with it being that I know I'll be spending quite a few nights out in the backcountry for my job. 

One thing we are hoping to accomplish this year would be international travel.  Now that we finally have started putting down roots and established a permanent address, getting a passport is going to be a much easier task.  We are hoping to save up some money and take some time off during the winter of 2016-2017 while I am off from my hiking guide job.  I don't get the opportunity to do much work in December and January since backpacking season is essentially hibernating during these months.  We have both always wanted to visit New Zealand.  NoKey's big bucket list item is hiking Machu Picchu.  Mine would be do thru hike the Bibbulmun Track in Australia.  We both also want to hike in Iceland, but the winter timeline we have doesn't really make that a good idea in December/January!

Whether you've resolved to get outside more in 2016 or even do an epic thru hike, I hope the new year brings you lots of adventure!  

Lessons I Learned From My First Solo Hike

Even if you've been backpacking for years, chances are you have been going with a friend or a group.  When I first began backpacking back in 2008 I was either going with my boyfriend or our local hiking group on trips.  When I first decided I was ready to attempt an AT thru hike I also made the decision to take my first solo backpacking trip.  While you are rarely ever alone on the 2189.1-mile Appalachian Trail, taking that first solo trip was really important for my self-esteem and it also taught me a few lessons. Here are a few things I learned on my first solo trip.

Be Flexible

Be prepared for your plans to change during a trip. My first solo trip was in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Back in those days a permit wasn't required for all campsites - you just filled it out at the trailhead and placed it in the permit box.  Since my campsite, Campsite #15, wasn't a reservation campsite, I filled out my permit and put my copy in the top of my pack and headed out on my way. When I reached my destination on that warm September day I discovered the spring feeding the campsite was dry. I made the decision to head back to Campsite 16 instead.  When I reached this site it was also dry, so I headed down the trail a little way until I found some running water.  I then backtracked up to Campsite 16 for the night.  I didn't get to follow my plan, but I stopped and thought for a few minutes before making a decision.  Learning to be flexible is incredibly important when you're backpacking!

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Despite being on a trip in the most visited national park in the country, I didn't see a single person the entire time I was out on my trip, which is incredibly rare.  After setting up camp for the evening, I kept hearing things moving around the campsite. I kept hearing knocking sounds. I stood stone still for several minutes, heart thumping out of my chest, before realizing it was a squirrel running around and dropping nuts.  It was crazy to me to hear something so loud come from such a tiny creature!  Thankfully I was able to learn this lesson before the sun set. I was definitely extra careful that night when I hung all my food and hygiene items in my bear hang though!

Expect the Unexpected

Remember I said above how I didn't see a single person the entire trip? Well, I did actually have company the entire trek out to my first destination: a dog.  The Smokies are a national park and therefore no dogs are allowed on trails.  This little guy followed me from the parking lot all the way out to my campsite, followed me back to the second campsite, accompanied me to get water, and then headed home when I started unpacking.  I named him Buddy and he definitely made me feel more at ease - a way to say "hey, you're not alone - I'm here."  Fun fact about this dog - I saw him again in the park a few months later.  He had on a name tag - his name was actually Buddy!

While my first solo backpacking trip wasn't long and strenuous, it was a major confidence builder for me while I was mentally and physically prepping for my AT thru hike.  I feel like being out there alone really helped me to realize how strong I truly was and helped me to understand that I am strong enough and capable enough to make good decisions when faced with a problem on a long hike.  I was totally prepared to be afraid or call it quits.  I was convinced an ax murderer would sneak up to my camp in the middle of the night and no one would ever hear from me again.  I was terrified a bear would climb a tree and steal all my food.  In reality, it was a completely uneventful and confidence-building experience. 

Do you backpack alone or with friends?  Have you dreamed of taking the leap to do your first solo trip?  I'd love to talk about how you like to backpack.  Leave me a comment or find my page over on Facebook to get the conversation started!

Reasons I Love Long-Distance Hiking

As hard as it is to believe 2015 is drawing to a close. Like many people this time of year, I'm taking some time to reflect on all the amazing moments I had during the year.  I'm so fortunate to have hiked on three long-distance trails and completed two of them, as well as half of the third before being taken off by a MRSA infection.  Somehow I got incredibly lucky to land a job as a hiking guide in the mountains where I learned to hike.  Yeah, this hasn't been a bad year at all. While I've been so happy to lead multi-night trips, long-distance hiking is where I find my true happiness.  This post is all about why I love hiking long trails. 

The thing I love the most about doing a long hike is the one thing I thought I wouldn't like: The Community.  I've never been much of a social person, but like many hikers I find when I'm out on a trail I've never met a stranger.  It's a lot of fun for me to be leading a hike on the AT through the Smokies on a trip I'm leading and running into someone who knows many of the same people I know.  Since becoming a guide here, every overnight hike I've been on I have run into someone thru hiking or section hiking who shares something with me.  It's a lot of fun to talk to someone who understands what I've been through and just talk trail for a few minutes.  Having this built in support system is so helpful on those long days when everyone is exhausted, but who has conquered all the obstacles you did that day.  

Unfortunately, cell phone signals are beginning to reach to the furthest corners of the longest trails. While this is a great tool to have for a Search and Rescue situation, it means that we are becoming more and more reachable.  While I do journal on my phone every night while we're on trail, I try to avoid turning off the airplane mode setting.  I like living off the grid of social media and 24-hour news for a few months at a time.  It not only clears my head, I feel like my mental acuity become sharper and clearer when I'm hiking.  My critical thinking skills seem to skyrocket when I'm hiking and Google isn't just a click away on my phone.  Having real conversations with other hikers face-to-face is one of my favorite things to do. 

Human beings are incredibly fond of patterns and usually resistant to change. Change is hard and uncomfortable.  Change makes you push your limits and see what you are really capable of doing. While hiking for a few weeks can cause you to form patterns, change is a constant. Having to adapt to weather conditions on the fly, choosing whether or not to take a side trip, or even what you're going to buy on your resupply are all decisions you're going to have to make in a split second.  An example of this was when NoKey lost his rain cover on the Long Trail. We didn't need to go into town, but it was going to be a huge risk to hike without one. While we didn't get caught in any daytime downpours after we bought the cover, not having it would ensure all of his gear getting soaked in a rainstorm. We chose to go to town and not only somehow managed to hitchhike successfully from a guy riding a bicycle, we met a true trail angel and did an amazing 18.7 miles that day. 

Hiking has played such an important role in my life the past few years. Before I began hiking I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, depression, and anxiety. I was 50 pounds overweight. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. As I began hiking more and more the weight came off and being alone with my thoughts was no longer scary. I learned I could push my limits and quitting when I was tired just wasn't an option when the car was still 5 more miles away. While I still have a long way to go to work on myself, I know hiking a few short months on a few long trails is the best therapy I've ever had.  

What is your favorite thing about taking a long hike - be it a long day hike or a few months out in the wilderness? I'd love to talk with you about your experiences!  Leave me a comment below or find me over on Facebook to get the conversation started. 

Common Hiking Injuries - How to Avoid and Treat Them

Injury prevention and treatment is something anyone participating in any sport will eventually have to deal with.  While many people don't consider hiking to be a sport, it's very easy to draw comparisons between hiking and high impact exercise like running and ultrarunning.  While taking your time to ease into hiking is always a great way to begin, overuse injuries are extremely common in novice and experienced hikers alike.  Here are my tips to avoid and treat common hiking injuries.

Sprains and Strains: 

First, let's understand the difference between a sprain and a strain.  A strain is when you have a pull or tear in a muscle or tendon while a sprain is when you have an overuse injury in a joint that causes damage to a ligament.  Muscle strains in hikers are commonly seen in the hamstrings, while a sprain is more likely found in the ankle.  Regardless of the difference in terminology, prevention and treatment for both are very similar.  

Prevention: Begin your mornings by hiking a slower pace, giving your body plenty of time to warm up.  I always recommend that you take a minute to stretch your ankles by writing your full in name in cursive with each foot about 15 minutes into your hike.  Stretching out your quads and hamstrings is also helpful.  This is easy to do by making a "figure 4", balancing one leg just above the knee of the opposite leg and bending at the waist.  Bend only as far as needed before you begin to feel a slight pull in your hip.  

Treatment: For an ankle sprain, stop and sit down.  Remove your shoe and take a look.  If it is beginning to swell, it's time to take action.  While in the real world we would recommend the RICE method (Rest, ice, compression, elevation), on trail it's important to rest, elevate, and compress - in that order.  Since not everyone has an Ace bandage on them, rest and elevation for 30-45 minutes after the injury can significantly help.  If you're having pain, ibuprofen (Vitamin I as many hikers call it) can also be helpful for both the pain and the swelling.  I also recommend sleeping with your feet elevated the night of your injury.  Just use your pack to keep your feet off the ground.  Take a zero day if you're in a lot of pain and give your body time to heal. 

Shin Splints:

Shin splints are the most common overuse injury I've ever seen on trail - and I've seen a ton of them.  I'm also very prone to them myself and often get them during race training as a runner. Signs and symptoms of shin splints can include tenderness, soreness, and pain in the lower leg, which may or may not be accompanied by localized swelling.  Lower leg pain when walking is the most common complaint.  Unfortunately, if not treated, shin splints can lead to another nasty injury called a stress fracture!

Prevention: Wearing properly fitted shoes with insoles is the best thing you can do to help prevent shin splints.  For hikers who prefer a lightweight trail shoe, I highly recommend going to a RUNNING store, not a hiking store, to be properly fitted.  Many running stores are trained to analyze your gait and see what insoles and shoes would be best for you.  If you want a heavier hiking boot, go to an outfitter and be properly fitted.  Since shin splints are an overuse injury, I recommend taking your first days out on the trail a little slower and doing fewer miles to ease your body into carrying a heavy pack and doing long days. 

Treatment: When you're out on trail a few days from town, treatment options are limited. As a long-distance hiker, I always carry leukotape with me and it's invaluable! NoKey and I call this human duct tape - it can work as K-tape in a pinch and also stays stuck to skin that is dirty and grimy for weeks on end (seriously, I had it on my feet for 17 days of straight rain on the Finger Lakes Trail and I still had to rip it off!)  Learn how to tape a shin splint by watching a YouTube tutorial.  This will help you tremendously in getting to town.  Once in town, unfortunately a few zero days will be in order.  That handy RICE method I mentioned above is your best bet for treating a shin splint, along with an NSAID (nonsteroidal antiinflammatory) like ibuprofen or naproxen (Aleve).  Shin splints can take a long time to heal, so being patient is key. 

Blisters:

Ahhh, blisters.  Everyone I know has had more than a few blisters in their lifetime and ways to treat and prevent blisters can vary from person to person.  The advice I'm listing below is the method I was taught at my recent Wilderness First Responder program last month and is on point with how I've treated blisters for a few years. 

Prevention: Since everyone's feet are different, I highly recommend you find works best for you in terms of prevention.  For all hikers, I highly recommend a wool sock and properly fitting shoes that can breathe.  Gortex is not your friend on long hikes because it can actually keep moisture from sweat inside your shoes.  Some hikers who get blisters between the toes find that Injini toe socks can be helpful to alleviate their toes rubbing together.  If you get blisters on the tips of your toes, chances are you need a larger shoe size. 

Treatment: Again, everyone treats blisters differently.  For me, I use a sterilized safety pin (sterilized with an alcohol pad) and pop the blister from the bottom, going underneath the healthy skin before the blister starts.  Gravity will clear the fluid from the blister.  Do not apply any ointment inside the blister and leave the "blanket" in place.  Cut a donut-style hole with moleskin and apply it around the blister.  Secure in place with leukotape.  Make sure to change this every night before going to bed to allow the wound to breathe and heal. If you feel like infection is imminent, you can place triple antibiotic ointment around the outside of the blister, but avoid putting it in the actual wound. 

Muscle Cramps: 

We've all been woken up in the middle of the night with a Charlie Horse pain in our calf muscles.  When you're out on the trail and you don't hike much, it's common to have some muscle aches and pains, pop a few ibuprofen, and continue on your way.  

Prevention: Dehydration is very common not only in long-distance hiking, but also in America in general.   In fact, it's estimated that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated and probably don't even know it!  Muscle cramping on trail is usually due to the fact that you aren't drinking enough water, which sounds like a simple fix, right? I highly recommend using a Gatorate powder or Nuun electrolyte tab in your water you drink with your camp dinner at night before you go to bed.  Not only do they taste like something other than water, they will help replace the vital electrolytes you lost during your hours of hiking during the day.  

Treatment: Just like with the prevention, treatment for muscle cramps means eliminating dehydration.  Unfortunately, just chugging a bunch of water after you cramp up isn't going to help much.  This rehydrating process can take a day or two, so be patient.  I highly recommend drinking an electrolyte drink with each meal for a few days after the cramping began.  Also, drinking more water is important.  Try to remember to take a sip each time you stop to take a photo or talk to a hiker.  

Chaffing: 

No matter if it's your first long-distance hiker or your fiftieth, you're going to chafe when you least expect it.  Whether it's on your thighs, low back, or even shoulders, chafe is definitely irritating and can be prevented and cured while hiking. 

Prevention: A lot of hikers quickly discover Body Glide is their friend!  Simply apply to wherever you've got friction and it will help.  I also highly recommend marino wool undergarments.  I'm a huge fan of Smartwool bras and underwear to prevent chaffing.  

Treatment:  NoKey and I are huge fans of something called Boudreaux's Butt Paste.  It's essentially a zinc cream for treating diaper rash and that's pretty much what chaffing is.  We apply a thick layer of this to wherever is starting to chafe and it will not only soothe the pain, it will help heal the rash.  Also, prerinsing your hiking clothes with you in the shower before doing your laundry will help cut down on the recurrence of chaffing.  If you've been wearing the same shirt for months on end and washing it only 2-3 times a month, doing a prerinse will definitely help cut out some salt crystals.  

I'm NOT a physician and what you're reading here isn't considered diagnosis or treatment for your specific injuries - ask a doctor what is best for your specific injuries after you get back to civilization!  

These are only a few of the common injuries I have treated on both myself and other hikers.  Do you have any trail injury stories?  I'd love to chat with you about what you would do differently.  Leave me a comment or head over to the Facebook page to join in!

Five Ways Running is Similar to Hiking

Many of you following me on Instagram know by now that when I'm not out hiking a trail I'm at home running and planning for my next race.  While I've got a few half marathons under my belt, I've taken the leap and decided to train for a full 26.2 mile marathon in the spring - The Covenant Half Marathon in April.  While I hated running before I was a thru hiker, after my 2012 hike I discovered that running is one of the few things short of doing another thru hike that can keep me sane.  I've noticed some similarities between the two in recent months.  Here's how I think running is like hiking. 

Time to Clear Your Head

Running is my "me" time.  Whether I'm running 3 miles or 13 miles, I can use this time during the day to walk off whatever is bothering me or think through some ideas.  In a world where we are increasingly dependent on electronic devices (yep, even when I run I'm tracking my progress!), taking the time to focus only on my breath and my thoughts helps me come up with more creative ideas, whether it's for suggesting new hikes at work or coming up with blog post ideas for you guys!  Just like when you find yourself wrapped up in your own thoughts on a long and quiet hike, running can provide peace for your mind. 

Runner Hunger

Just like when I'm on a long hike, when I'm training for a race my appetite hits out of control hungry girl mode.  I normally eat a lot of small "meals" throughout the day anyway, but when I'm in the middle of training I am eating around 8 times a day with legitimate hunger pangs. When I'm really in the thick of training, just like when I'm hiking I can tell you what time it is just by the growling of my stomach.  Second breakfast is REAL people!

The Internal Struggle

Something a lot of people don't know about me is that I'm mostly a pessimist.  When I was on any given long distance hike I never had the idea in my head that I would succeed and complete the hike - or any hike for that matter.  I had a blog follower ask me years ago when I knew I would finish the entire AT and I told them the minute I touched the sign on Baxter Peak of Katahdin was when I knew I would complete the trail.  The same is true for me and running. On any given run, especially on my longer days, I don't ever feel like I'm going to complete the entire length of the mileage I've planned until I'm back at the car stretching.  I have no idea why, but maybe it's a good way of keeping myself from getting disappointed on less-than-stellar runs. 

Exhaustion After a Long Session

No matter how fit I think I am or how good I'm feeling, a long run - just like a long hike - can drain me.  When I'm on a long-distance hike using the excuse of getting into town and getting some delicious and greasy food will make you do incredible distance.  When I'm training for a big race, the promise of getting extra brownies and a big serving of chocolate milk is enough to make me push harder.  Also just like when I'm on trail, that big push will zonk me out and render me useless on my recovery day.  On trail, we take zero days.  In the real world, I take binge watch a TV series days. 

The Sense of Accomplishment

When you finish a long hike you are on top of the world!  Exhausted and possibly swearing off hiking forever, but on top of the world nonetheless.  The same is true for running.  When I finished my first half marathon nine months ago I had trained all winter, sometimes getting up and running before the snowplows came and scraped away the layer of powder falling the night before.  Running by headlamp with flashing reflective clip-ons in the pre-dawn hours all to say I ran 13.1 miles without stopping.  When I finished the race I was jubilant and I ugly-cried after they gave me my finishing medal.  There is something about the hard work and dedication paying off that can make running and doing a long hike incredibly rewarding. 

These are just a few of the things I find running and long hikes have in common.  Do you run for fun?  Did you take up ultra running after a thru hike?  I'd love to chat with you about your experiences.  Please leave me a comment below or click on the Facebook post and get the conversation started!

Brushing Your Teeth in the Woods

Whether you're headed out for one night, one week, or even half of a year you're going to need your toothbrush and toothpaste.  While brushing your teeth at home isn't really something you have to even think about much, on the trail dental hygiene is crazy important.  This post is going to be dedicated to the one subject no one ever really talks about and most hikers skip - how to keep your teeth and gums healthy outdoors. 

Before delving into the "how to" section of this post, I'd like to mention common dental issues that hikers can face.  A friend of mine, despite all her brushing on trail, ended up with three cavities after a 6-month hike.  Considering the amount of high sugar and high fat foods, along with carbonated and sickeningly sweet drinks a hiker consumes, it's no surprise that even with regular brushing cavities are a common problem. Another thru hiker I know had a molar crack completely in half and fall out while consuming her dinner one night.  Thankfully, she was a short way from a town where she was able to be seen by a dentist on an emergency basis.  Commonly, plaque buildup can cause gingivitis - a swelling and bleeding condition of the gums.  Having a bloody mouth while you're trying to eat boiling hot and incredibly salty food is never a fun time!  If any of these scenarios don't sound like fun to you, you're not alone.

Saying that most hikers don't brush their teeth regularly is not a shock to many of us.  It's been a long day and all you can think about is eating your dinner and crawling into your bag.  If you aren't keeping your toothbrush in your food bag, chances are you've skipped this important action more than once on trail.  The number one way I advocate to remember to brush your teeth is exactly this: keep your toothbrush, toothpaste, and any other oral hygiene items in a Ziplock in your food bag.  If they're close at hand when you're cleaning up your dinner, you won't forget to brush!  Since your brush and toothpaste smell like foodstuff to mice and bears, leaving it in your food bag is an even better idea so it can go in your bear hang/bear can at night. 

Since we've talked about an easy way to remember to brush, let's talk about the toothbrush and paste you're carrying on trail.  Many hikers opt for a travel toothbrush because of its small size and weight.  Alternatively, if you have a brand or firmness of brush you prefer to use at home, you can cut the handle off to make it travel size yourself.  A tube of travel-sized toothpaste will last you easily 2-3 months in the backcountry.  Dental floss picks are also a popular item on trail due to their small size and disposability options.  These come in handy after a meal that just doesn't want to come out of your teeth!  Options I don't recommend on trail are single use disposable finger brushes, which are often expensive, heavier, and not so great at cleaning teeth.  

So you've picked out your brush and toothpaste of choice.  Is there really a proper way to brush in the woods?  Actually - there is.  For brushing in the backcountry, you're going to use a LOT less toothpaste than you normally would.  I recommend just a small dab in a thin layer on a dry brush.  This way, there won't be too much to spit out onto the ground.  After brushing as you normally would, the "spew" method is the most taught in Leave No Trace principles.  We recommend you spray it, blowing a wide area of toothpaste as to  not concentrate a large glob.  Also, if you're out in the woods, digging a cathole is an acceptable method of disposing your extra paste.  The final method taught by Leave No Trace is to swallow it.  Yes, I said to swallow your toothpaste.  Keep in mind that you aren't using even a quarter of what you're probably using at home.  I always use toothpaste without fluoride anyway, so that isn't a concern for me.  Tom's of Maine is a great non-fluoridated brand available here on minimus.biz. 

Did you experience any dental problems on your long-distance hike?  What is your method of keeping your teeth clean in the woods?  Leave me a comment here on the blog or over on my Facebook page and let me know!