Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the National Parks

Unless you've been living in a cave (and I won't judge!) you know by now it's the 100th anniversary of the National Parks System this year.  With 2016 quickly coming to a close, I wanted to share two really neat infographics with you guys regarding the parks in our country.  

This first one shows all the National Parks in the country plus their locations and the number of annual visitors.  Some of these parks I haven't heard about before.  Yes, even someone who hikes for a living can't name all the national parks!  This second graphic may be of more interest to many of you guys because it shows the most and least visited parks. 

Is it surprising to see the Smokies has more visitors than the second, third, and fourth most popular parks combined? As a Centennial Ambassador for the NPS this year I've been doing many, MANY social media posts trying to encourage people to get out and find their favorite outdoor spaces and I can definitely tell  you we've seen SO MANY VISITORS in the Smokies this year.  

Thanks to Cotopaxi for sharing these graphics with me! (not an affiliate link or an ad!)

Have you visited any national parks this year for the centennial? What is your favorite place to visit?  Would you consider visiting some of the more remote and less crowded parks? 

Ultimate Coffee Date - What I've Been Doing Lately

It's hard to believe another month has come and gone and it feels like I hardly even blinked!  So, in the spirit of having a relaxing morning, pull up a chair and a cup of coffee to see what we have been up to lately over at Sprinkles Hikes. 

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: That it has been four years since I completed the hike that changed my life forever.  It's hard to believe it has already been four years since summiting Katahdin - 9-11-12.  We chose the date to mark NoKey's birthday and make it a great memory in our minds.  We even waited six days to summit to make sure we got the date perfect.  It was definitely worth it.  If it weren't for my thru hike I have no idea who I would be and what I would be doing today. 

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: how proud I am of NoKey.  He has been training to run his very first half marathon - the Millinocket Half Marathon - on December 10th.  I hired the amazing Abby over at Back At Square Zero to coach him through the build up to make sure he doesn't overtrain.  He dove in head first and hasn't looked back.  

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: that I know I've been neglecting the blog recently.  I have a ton of ideas for posts during my "off season" and can't wait to share them with you!  It's been incredibly hard to get things written down recently due to my hectic schedule.  I promise to share them all soon!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: I have started a new AT Shakedown program at work!  If you're looking to do a thru hike in 2017 and you've done your research and purchased your gear, but are overwhelmed at all the information on the web for preparing to leave civilization behind for a few months? Let an experienced long-distance hiker help you! On our AT Shakedown Hikes you'll not only get to practice using all your new gear, you'll also learn how to throw a bear line, use your guide book to plan out your days, and even how to plan and prep mail drops or resupply stops. We will also cover basic first aid and fire-building skills. After your shakedown hike you'll feel confident and ready to tackle the journey of a lifetime!
For info, contact info@awalkinthewoods.com!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: I am super, duper excited for fall!  While it's true that the next 5-6 weeks of my life will be incredibly hectic, I'm definitely ready for cooler temperatures, camp fires, and sleeping outside!  I absolutely love backpacking in the fall months.  

How was your September? Is there anything you're definitely looking forward to in October? I'd love to hear about your month - leave me a comment below!

This post is a link-up with Coco @ Got 2 Run 4 Me, Lynda @ Fitness Mom Wine Country, & Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner!

Choosing a Water Filtration System

Working as a hiking guide I get lots of questions about water safety.  Frequently when I talk with clients on a hike regarding the spring water in the Smokies, where I work, people will inquire whether or not the water is safe enough to drink.  This is where my hiking guide hat goes on and I let people know with all water it is strongly encouraged to filter out contaminates or to treat it with a chemical drop/tablet.  With all the changes to gear on the market lately, I thought it would be helpful for newbie hikers to compare water filtration methods to help you decide which method is right for you. 

No Filter, No Problem

But this article is all about filters, right?!  Well, we can't talk about water filters without talking about the fact that some people just don't filter water.  And that's ok!  The no filter method was the most popular method I saw when thru hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2012.  In fact, I know many, MANY thru hikers who didn't treat their water after miles of hiking back then.  By not filtering your water, however, you are opening yourself up to contamination issues, Giardia being the most common here on the east coast.  With many, many options on the market, I highly recommend looking into some of the lighter weight filters or treatments on the market today. 

Aquamira Drops

Aquamira Drops were my go-to method of filtration back in the mid 2000's.  In fact, it's the first method of filtration I ever used.  With this method, all you'll need to do is mix together Part A and Part B in the provided cup, wait for it to activate, and add it to your water.  The upside of this is that these drops are pretty cheap in the world of water filtration.  They're also incredibly lightweight.  However, in my experience, Part A and Part B never seem to run out at the same time despite using the exact same amount of each drop.  You'll also be waiting 15 to 30 minutes for your drinking water after the drops have been added.  Another downside? Unless you're pre-filtering your water, you might find yourself drinking a little bit of sand at the bottom.  These drops, when they've sat too long in your hydration bladder or bottle, can also taste strongly of chlorine.  

Iodine Tablets/Drops

Ahhh, good old Iodine.  In tablet form or in tincture form, this stuff is great to carry in your pack.  On my guided trips I carry iodine solution in my first aid kit for disinfecting wounds and kitchen utensils.  In a pinch, I could use it to treat my water too.  Of course, the downside to iodine solution/tablets is the same as it is for Aquamira - waiting to drink water and also possibly drinking up some sand or dirt.  Unlike Aquamira, however, iodine doesn't taste like chorine.  It tastes like iodine - and it tastes like iodine all the time.  

Bleach Drops

Yes, I said bleach drops.  Believe it or not, the stuff you use to get your whites clean in the laundry can also be used to purify your water.  A few drops will do the trick.  Carrying a small dropper of bleach can be an extremely cheap, lightweight solution to keeping your water clean.  However, carrying bleach often means you've repackaged it.  Making sure you've got the bottle sealed up tight is crucial in your pack.  Spilling bleach on gear is never fun!  Like Aquamira and iodine, drinking sandy water is also a possibility.  Again, water that sat in your hydration bladder or bottle too long will also possibly have a chlorine aftertaste.  

A FILTER PUMP

There are many brands of water filter pumps out on the market right now.  NoKey has formerly owned an MSR Sweetwater Pump and the gear shop I worked at in Maine also carried Katadyn Micro filters.  Years ago, these filters were your best defense against not only bacteria, but also protozoa.  However, these days these filters can definitely have a few downsides.  First of all, these filters are pretty heavy, weighing in at a pound or more sometimes.  There are quite a few parts to keep track of, which can make cleaning difficult.  Also, the filters have what we would now consider to be an extremely short shelf life, sometimes as low as 750 liters of water.  Many hikers now find it cumbersome to have to find water deep enough to float your filter, pump your water, and hold your bottles.  However, on the plus side, your water won't have that funky flavor chemical drops tend to leave in the bottle!

Sawyer Mini/Squeeze

The first time I saw a Sawyer filter was in 2012 and I only knew three people using one.  In 2013, it was damn near the only filter I saw on the trail.  This tiny filter has a life of 100,000 liters and weighs approximately 2 ounces (the Mini, not the Squeeze).  It's a lightweight filter that I personally put right on the end of my Camelbak hose and drink right out of, eliminating the need to squeeze water altogether.  The downside of this filter is the fact that many people find the collapsable bottles that come with the filter to be cheap and low-quality.  It also does need to be back flushed regularly to keep it running at a decent speed.  Many people think these filters are too slow.  

SteriPen

This UV pen took the market by storm several years ago when they were first released.  Using UV light to treat water seemed like something straight out of science fiction.  By removing viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, this thing seemed to be the perfect water filtration solution.  The fact that it doesn't use chemicals to treat the water and, frankly, it looks cool, are big selling points to hikers.  The downside to this pen is the thing that makes it neat - it's electronic.  Taking electronics out into the backcountry can sometimes be disastrous.  The SteriPen needs batteries and I've seen these pens fail many times when it comes treating water.  While they're quick to use (1 minute for 1 liter of water) like other methods, you may want to pre filter water to avoid getting sand or debris in your bottle. 

Boiling Your Water

Of course, the tried and true method of boiling water to sterilize it never goes out of fashion.  Of course, if you don't carry a camp stove or maybe if it's been raining for a few days and you can't dry out any wood to build a fire, this can be a problem.  Also, this method will take a little while. Building the fire, boiling the water, and then letting it cool down to a drinkable temperature can take upwards of 20 minutes.  

Here are just a few of the most common methods of treating water in the backcountry.  What water filter method do you use?  What do you like and dislike about your preferred method?  

Planning an End-of-Summer Adventure

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SToKCoffee #cbias #CollectiveBias

With Labor Day marking the end of summer it also marks a short break for me.  We are in the lull period between summer vacation and leaf-changing season.  This makes it the perfect time to plan an end-of-summer adventure with NoKey!  Since both of us really enjoy taking bold, active, exciting trips with short notice and we both have only a few hours a day of free time, this meant we needed to do some planning quick.   

Enter: SToK Coffee

NoKey and I discovered SToK Coffee over the summer while we were on our weekly shopping trip to our new Walmart.  We had heard a lot about cold brew coffee and with the temperatures so warm we decided to give it a shot.

SToK Coffee stood out to us for a few reasons.  We love Arabica coffee and this blend was also pure coffee with no weird ingredients.  We also loved how smooth it tasted as compared to what we normally drink hot in the mornings.  The almost fruity, Brazilian Blend flavor profile definitely went down easy.  It may have been slow-brewed, but it was definitely fast-sipped!

Of course, when I'm planning a trip I always love to eat well!  Coffee has always been a problem for us because we've often resorted to drinking an instant blend with some sort of powdered milk and sugar.  While it's great when you're in the backcountry, front country adventures need something more special.  I'm super glad that SToK Coffee is already cold and can easily be kept in a cooler, ready to drink, for those early morning starts.  It's also available at Walmart with the Iced Coffees and Teas so that makes it easy for us to stock up if we ever need to grab any more.  

Since we both have been working long hours over the summer, sometimes with me not being home for a few days at a time, we knew that planning a trip was going to be tough.  We often were doing reading and research about destinations late at night and the caffeine we were getting from SToK Coffee definitely kept us going!  Toward the end of trip planning it almost felt like our vacation ideas were only one late night away from becoming a reality.  While going through this process, I decided to share some tips with you to help you plan out your next adventure: 

Plan a Destination Based on Your Needs

Want to go trail running and kayaking?  Make sure that your destination has both of those options close by!  If you're taking the time to pack the gear you'll want to make sure all the activities you want to do are going to be either at your campground or close enough to not be a huge drive.  If you're planning on taking your dog along, make sure your park allows dogs in all the places you're going.  It's very common here in the Smokies for people to bring their dogs camping, but when they get here people are shocked when dogs are not allowed on our hiking trails!  Doing a little reading ahead can help you prepare better.  

NoKey marking some mapped routes on our map. 

Lay Out All Your Gear

While this might seem like a no-brainer for many, laying out every single piece of gear you want to bring is SO IMPORTANT!  NoKey and I have packed up and driven hours away to go camping with our dog only to show up to the campground in the dark without our tent!  Thankfully, other campers had extra gear but it was so embarrassing!  Don't let this happen to you - lay everything out just before you pack it and go over the activities you'll be doing.  Make sure everything is in order before you pack it all up!

An Epic Trip Calls for Epic Gear!

Pack Smart and Plan Ahead

If you're headed out for a front country camping adventure you've got plenty of room to bring extra items.  This doesn't mean, however, that you should cram everything into the vehicle and drive into the sunset though!  If you're going to be doing many different activities, try to keep all like items together in your vehicle and keep your coolers easily accessible.  Also, make sure where you're going has ice for your food nearby.  Having to drive an hour round-trip for a bag of ice can really put a dent in your adventure time.  You've got to keep your SToK Coffee cold to get going in the mornings, right?!

Be Flexible

While planning for your trip, make a few back-up plans.  When planning a trip this time of year, give yourself extra drive time for the early leaf-peeper tourists in the area.  When planning trail adventures, always have a back-up plan.  The thunderstorms that often come in late summer can damage or erode trails and cause trail closures.  Having a back-up hike planned will help ensure you're not spending a few hours in the early morning scrambling for a new plan.  Be prepared with a map of the surrounding area as well.  

Traffic can be tough! Always plan ahead!

These are a few of my tips to help you plan out your next trip.  What do you like to do to ensure your vacations go smoothly?  I'd love to hear about it!  

Be sure to check out SToK Coffee on their website or check them out at a Walmart near you.

Ultimate Coffee Date - What I've Been Doing Lately

Hey guys and welcome to September!  While it's meteorologically speaking technically fall, it definitely doesn't feel that way around here to me...!  Summer has been hot here in the Southeast and I can't believe it's technically over.  While it seems like summer flew by, August went by fastest of all.  In fact, I didn't realize it was already September until earlier this week when my schedule showed the end date of September 4th.  I guess it's been busy around here!  With it being the first Saturday of the month, it's time for my Ultimate Coffee Date catch-up post.  Here's what I've been up to recently. 

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you:  That I'm totally obsessed with cold brew coffee now.  With August being so incredibly hot all month long we gave up drinking hot coffee and just let it go cold in the pot before drinking it.  With all the buzz I've been hearing for months and months about cold brew NoKey and I finally decided to try a brand from the store only to find out we're absolutely smitten with it.  

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: Some of my favorite trips of the season were in August.  This month I played REI Adventures Camp Host a few times - meaning I didn't actually do any hiking during the 4-day camping trips.  I stayed back in camp and prepped food all day and I loved every minute of it!  I'm super excited to have this new aspect to my job.  While I absolutely love hiking and guiding, it's nice to switch things up a bit too!  Speaking of switching things up...

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: I've taken on so other responsibilities at work as well!  With two of our ladies due with baby girls this winter, I'll be taking over some office duties to help fill in.  If you try to reach the office I work in throughout this "off season" chances are we'll be talking to each other!  I'm also taking on some additional responsibilities to help out with all the paperwork we receive for backpacking trips and gear rentals.  I'm super excited to be learning new things. 

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: I did some hardcore adulting this month.  Early on in August my washing machine caught on FIRE and needed to be replaced.  I also helped NoKey rescue two stray dogs, made optometrist appointments for both of us, got NoKey into a great dentist, and found us primary care physicians.  Adult level: Expert.  

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: Labor Day Weekend totally snuck up on me.  Like I said in the first part of the post, I didn't even realize it was almost September/Labor Day until first thing Monday morning!  How in the world did that happen?!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: It's time for me to start seriously running again.  All summer long I've been training with NoKey for his Couch to 10K program.  We're both running a few races together this fall, including a 5K, a 10K (maybe for both of us, but maybe just me) and NoKey will be running his first half marathon in December.  I'm also signed up to run The Pistol 50K on New Years Eve and maybe even helping pace a friend in the 100-miler at the same event.  Time to get serious again about running!

Well guys, that was my month in a nutshell!  I really feel like I've been slacking on blog posts here lately.  I've been pretty busy with trips this summer and haven't really been inspired to write about much of anything and for that I apologize.  Is there anything you'd like me to tackle on the blog coming up this fall?  I'd love to know what you'd like to see on the blog.  Leave me a comment below to let me know!

This post is a link-up with Coco @ Got 2 Run 4 Me, Lynda @ Fitness Mom Wine Country, & Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner!

Beating the Summer Heat on a Hike

Even though we're looking at Back-to-School times here in the south, it seems the relentless summer heat just won't give us a break!  The Dog Days of summer started here back in early June and are continuing well into mid-August.  You know the heat has been terrible when the weather reports we are getting a "break" from the heat when the heat index is below 100 (but still above 90!)  Other than for work, I've been trying to stay indoors as much as I can this summer, but when I'm out for a run or hiking at low elevation I still need a way to keep cool.  Here are my favorite ways to beat the heat during summer time. 

Stay at High Elevations

Where I live, the high elevation hiking runs consistently 10-12 degrees cooler than it does in the nearest town with a weather forecast.  Is it going to be 95 in the valley today? Chances are it will barely hit 75 up high with the gentle breeze!  A bonus for me is the fact that high elevation in the Smokies also means hiking on the Appalachian Trail and that means views for miles and miles on clear, sunny days.  It also means hiking in the overcast fog on not-so-clear days.  Either way, both options are beautiful and MUCH cooler. 

Where I live, high elevations mean boreal forest, fog, and sunshine breaking through!

Reduce Your Mileage

Can't get away from the heat no matter how high up you go?  Reduce your miles!  Just because you CAN hike 22 miles at a time doesn't mean you HAVE TO!  Starting a hike in the morning and doing shorter miles to get done before the peak of the summer heat helps you stay a little cooler - not to mention beat the crowds at whatever your destination may be.  

Get Up Earlier

If you've ever looked at sunrise hiking photos on Instagram with envy this is your chance to emulate what you've been coveting - start super early in the morning (in the dark by headlamp or flashlight!) and hike up to a vista or waterfall for a sunrise viewing!  Not only will you really beat the heat, you'll be finished before most people are even arriving at the trailhead.  You'll have done more before noon than most people do all day long on hot summer days!

Get Wet

Waterfall hikes are always popular in summer months, but you don't have to hike to a waterfall to get wet on trail.  Taking a hike with several stream crossings or river fords will give you an opportunity to jump in and cool off.  Bonus points if you get your hair/hat wet or drape a wet bandana around your neck for the next mile or so.  Keeping cool has never been easier

Looks like a great spot for a swim break to me!

HYDRATE HYDRATE HYDRATE!

Dehydration in the summertime - the most common trail injury I see as a guide.  Not only can the direct sunlight dehydrate you, so can the humidity.  In the Smokies, a temperate rain forest, dehydration can set in VERY quickly.  As a guide, I usually have 3-4 electrolyte options on me at all times, including salt tablets, Nuun hydration, Honey Stinger Chews, Fuel 100 Electrobites (code SPRINKLES will save you 25% at checkout!), and Enduropacks electrolyte spray in my backpack most, if not every, of the time I hit the trails.  If you're out on a hot day it is super important to check in with your hydration status.  Feeling thirsty?  You're already well on your way to dehydration!  With 75% of Americans in a constant state of dehydration it's hard to convince people to drink water.  Make sure you're carrying at least 32 ounces of water on a half-day of hiking and 64 ounces for a full day.  It also never hurts to pick up a cheap and reliable water filter (I recommend and use the Sawyer Mini).  

There you have it - my favorite ways to beat the summer heat on a hike.  What would you add? How do you stay cool in the Dog Days of summer?

This post is a Friday Five link-up with Courtney at EatPrayRunDC,  Cynthia at You Signed Up for What and Mar at Mar on the Run. 

Ultimate Coffee Date - What I've Been Doing Lately

Well guys, July flew by and it's already August!  Somehow summer has gotten away from me and the blog has kind of taken a backseat to all the other happenings in my life right now.  I promise that once late fall and winter get here I'll have more photos and posts for you guys.  Working as a backpacking guide my days and weeks kind of all lump together and getting time to sit down and write like I did back over the winter is tough.  I've decided to jump into the Ultimate Coffee Date link-up to give my readers a chance to see what's been going on over behind the scenes here at Sprinkles Hikes.  I hope you enjoy it!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: I was in a car accident on July 2nd and it's kind of left me mentally screwed up.  Thankfully it was a one-vehicle wreck and no one was hurt!  I was on a back road that wasn't designed for big vehicles and the road gave out from underneath the car I was driving.  The vehicle was totaled and no one was injured,  but the insurance company was much less than helpful and it was a mess for everyone else who was involved.  It took more than 20 days for them to even deal with it!  Now I'm pretty stressed about driving ANYWHERE, especially on gravel roads.  I know it will go away in time, but I'm still kind of nervous.  

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: I've been working a LOT recently.  When I'm not working I'm actually out hiking to have fun!  I've been doing a ton of hiking and seeing lots of trails here in the Smokies which is a really great thing.  

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: Since I have been working a lot, all my days are running together!  I feel like I'm just a parrot of myself at this point, reciting the same facts over and over and over and sometimes I forget if I already said the things I said only 10 minutes ago!  I also pretty much never have any idea what day it is, but that's never a bad thing in my book!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: Despite all the work, I've actually had time to get in a  little bit of fun!  We took our annual Guide Getaway the third week of July.  Our company shut down for three days and everyone got together to go camping down at Tsali Campground in the Nantahala National Forest.  We spent three days swimming in Fontana Lake, boating, tubing, water skiing, trail running, and attempting to mountain bike on some of the famous trails down there.  It was a great time to get away and I think we all needed the vacation!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: That while I was on that getaway NoKey and I went hiking down at the infamous Road to Nowhere.  We also got stung by yellow jackets on this hike - me getting stung in the FACE before screaming "RUNNNNNN!"  Yellow jackets are nasty stingers - they lay a pheromone on you to let other yellow jackets know you're a bad guy and repeatedly sting you.  I also got stung in the biceps and the calf while NoKey got stung five times just under his shoulder blade.  We spend the last mile and a half of our hike kind of jogging, me with lots of snot running down my face from being stung in the septum, back to the car and freaking out any time we saw anything flying around!

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you: NoKey is making me so proud with his half marathon training!  We are training to run the Millinocket Half Marathon and I just recently signed up for the Pistol Ultra 55K race on New Years Eve (my first ever ultra!)  He and I have been out running in some gnarly hot and humid conditions, but I'm so proud of him for sticking with it.  I bet he runs faster than I will on race day!

So guys, that was my July in a nutshell!  While it sounds kind of sad while I'm reading this post back, it was a great month regardless.  What have you been up to lately?  I'd love to hear how your July went.  Leave me a comment!

This post is a link-up with Coco @ Got 2 Run 4 Me, Lynda @ Fitness Mom Wine Country, & Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner!

The 14 AT States - Common Perceptions and Misconceptions

Whenever people talk about states along the Appalachian Trail just the mentioning of the name will give you an image in your head.  For those of us who have travelled the trail in those states, however, our perception of those states can be quite different.  My topic today is kind of a fun one - the expectation versus reality of the states along the Appalachian Trail.  

The map image came from The Cat's Meow Village and is available for purchase!

Georgia

Expectation: Springer Mountain - the beginning or end of a long journey. 
Reality: Well, you do get Springer Mountain.  You also get the crowds of newbies and all the excited and nervous energy that comes along with that journey.  It's truly a magical (albeit crowded at times) place!

North Carolina

Expectation: Max Patch-like views, your first/last state line to cross
Reality: Big climbs (anyone remember crossing from Georgia into North Carolina?!), your first 5000 foot peak, gorgeous southern Appalachian balds, and two trail town stops you can walk right into - the NOC and Hot Springs!

Tennessee

Expectation: The Smoky Mountains - this can mean snow or dreary weather to most hikers
Reality: You do get the Smokies, but we get good weather here too!  You also get the Roan Highlands, more gorgeous vistas, and views of the Nolichucky River from a cliff face further north near Erwin. 

Virginia

Expectation: "After Tennessee, Virginia is flat! You'll make easy 30-mile days there!"; the ponies and McAfee's Knob
Reality: Virginia isn't flat, and easy 30 mile days on the AT are hard to come by. Sure, you do get the ponies, and McAfee's Knob.  You also get Dragon's Tooth, Tinker Cliffs, and Shenandoah National Park.  You also get the Green Tunnel and the Virginia Blues.  The Blues are common for thru hikers (I even got them!) because of the Green Tunnel effect.  By the time most thru hikers reach VA spring has sprung and you're constantly in tunnels of rhododendron.  It can seem like endless miles in a persistent green state.  

West Virginia

Expectation: The halfway point at Harper's Ferry
Reality: While West Virginia is a short state with the fewest miles (many hikers do a 4-state challenge and skip through it in a matter of less than an hour), the actual halfway point of the Appalachian Trail is still quite a bit further north in Pennsylvania.  The Appalachian Trail Conservancy's Headquarters, however, is in Harper's Ferry and is a really cool place to stop by and kill a few hours!

Maryland

Expectation: A short and easy, relatively flat state without anything to see
Reality: It turns out Maryland is one of the prettiest states on the AT.  With lots of park/green space, relatively well-maintained trails, and really cool things to see, lots of hikers doing the Four State Challenge miss a really neat place.  Also in Maryland are Gathland State Park with a memorial dedicated to War Correspondence and the original Washington Monument.  You've also either just crossed or are about to cross the Mason-Dixon line into Pennsylvania. 

Pennsylvania

Expectation: Rocks. So.MANY.ROCKS.
Reality: Not so many rocks.  With approximately 230 miles of trail in Pennsylvania (lovingly nicknamed Rocksylvania), it seemed that every time we thought it was about to get rocky we would hear that it was actually not rocky yet.  We rolled into Caldonia State Park to hear that it actually doesn't get rocky until Duncannon.  Then when we got to Duncannon we were told it gets rocky at Port Clinton.  Then in Port Clinton we were told it doesn't get really rocky until Wind Gap.  By the time we hit Delaware Water Gap everyone had mixed emotions.  Many felt we never hit the rocks and others like we only hit rocks.  Little did the northbounders know what rocks would await us further north!

New Jersey

Expectation: Dirty water, smoggy and polluted air.
Reality:  It turns out New Jersey is actually a very pretty place to go on foot!  They don't call it the Garden State for nothing!  Walking through New York/New Jersey didn't take us over the highest peaks, but we did visit an ice cream stand, a beach at a state park, and walked through the Wallkill Game Preserve - a birding park that was absolutely gorgeous.  Lots of boardwalks and tall grasses awaited us here. 

New York

Expectation: Whenever you say New York, most people only think New York City. 
Reality: Well, you can actually see NYC from the trail!  From West Mountain Shelter and Bear Mountain you have gorgeous views are you're only about 30 miles away from it.  We also could hear cannon fire from nearby Westpoint.  You also can hike from deli to deli on this section of trail, as they're close to every trail crossing. A lot of thru hikers are surprised to find those promised rocks of PA in New York instead!  NoBo's and SoBo's alike complain of sore feet here!

Connecticut

Expectation: Snooty people who are rude to hikers. 
Reality: While the town of Kent, Connecticut has a reputation for being inhospitable we found that many people who went in didn't have a bad experience.  We stayed in a town called Falls Village and ate a very nice dinner at an incredibly upscale B&B and were treated very kindly.  We were also allowed to camp in the backyard of a quaint cafe here.  While the mosquitos were killer, the people were friendly!

Massachusetts 

Expectation: Massholes. 
Reality: Gorgeous hiking and history, phenomenal views into Vermont from Mount Greylock, and the Cookie Lady all make Massachusetts amazing.  Hiking through the Berkshires region in summertime is going to give you bogs and boardwalks and rocky summits.  You get a little bit of everything. 

Vermont

Expectation: Mud
Reality: Okay, so there's a lot of mud.  But there's also some incredible trail maintenance!  When I hiked through in 2012 so much of southern Vermont was still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Irene.  When we hiked the Long Trail in 2015 it was very clear how much amazing work the Green Mountain Club had done to clean up the damage as well as drain a lot of the standing water on trail.  You also get gorgeous fire tower views in more remote places than you've seen further south, breathtaking boreal forest, and glacial ponds for swimming.  

New Hampshire

Expectation: Getting your butt kicked in the Whites and freezing cold temperatures even in summer.
Reality: The Whites do in fact have some of the worst weather in the world, especially on Mount Washington - the highest point in New England.  While we were here we didn't get many views, but The Whites were also known for making all the butt kicking worthwhile by rewarding you with alpine summits (meaning you're above tree line).  One thing I didn't expect in New Hampshire was the fact that despite being a strong hiker I would slow my pace to approximately a mile an hour - something that does happen to a lot of thru hikers!

Maine

Expectation: Katahdin and the epicness that is the 100-Mile Wilderness
Reality: You have 281 miles to hike in Maine before you finish the trail and first you are going to travel through some mountains even harder to hike than the Whites!  Southern Maine doesn't get nearly the attention the neighboring Whites do, but they're just as hard and exhausting.  The infamous Mahoosuc Notch is the hardest mile of trail (or most fun depending on what you're into!) on the entire AT!  Of course, you also get amazing views from those alpine summits, ponds so big they look like oceans, and then you get to cross the Kennebec River in a canoe.  You'll also find out that the big, bad, and scary 100-Mile Wilderness doesn't live up to it's hype and you'll make it through unscathed for your big finish at the summit of Katahdin.  

So, there you have it, the common ideas of what it's like to hike the fourteen states of the Appalachian Trail versus the reality of hiking them from someone who has.  Have you hiked through any of the states listed above?  What were your impressions of the Appalachian Trail there? I'd love to get your input in the comments below!

My Favorite Views in the Smokies

As a hiking guide in the most visited national park in the country I am often asked about my favorite places to go for a hike.  While I do a lot of the same trails guiding people, since my hobby and my job coincide I often find myself looking for other less busy trails to hike when I'm out for myself.  One of the things the Smokies is known for would be the stunning views, many of which have mountain ridge lines for days.  Here are a few of my favorite views in the park. 

1) Mt. Cammmerer

Mt. Cammerer's Fire Tower is a unique shape and built right into the rocks with a cistern built in below.  I've never been in another tower like this one!

Mt. Cammerer can be a long day hike and can be hiked in a few directions. You can make this a strenuous 10 mile out and back hike or you can make it a less difficult, but still long, 15.5 mile loop hike.  Regardless of how you decide to hike to this amazing mountaintop you'll be rewarded with views into the Cherokee National Forest, back into the Smokies and North Carolina, and views of the Appalachian Trail.  You'll also be seeing them from a really unique and gorgeous fire tower.  The views up here in the fall and winter cannot be beat!  If you're out doing a thru hike or section hike of the Appalachian Trail in the Smokies, the 1.2-mile round trip to the Mt. Cammerer fire tower is definitely worth it.  

2) Bradley View

The Bradley View is one I would highly recommend you see on a backpacking trip.  While you can see it on a day hike, to make it out and back in one day would be challenging and would require a nearly 17.5-mile out and back from Newfound Gap Road to visit.  I often get to see Bradley View on backpacking trips when I'm staying at the Peck's Corner Shelter or if I'm hiking down a side trail off of the Appalachian Trail.  Regardless of where you're camping, the Bradley View is one of my favorite in the park.  Usually when we get a view from a mountain top we are seeing other mountain ranges and some signs of towns in the valley below.  At Bradley View you're looking out onto a sea of mountains without a cell tower or road in sight.  With up to as many as nine different ridge lines present this view will definitely take your breath away.  This point is located approximately 1.5 miles Appalachian Trail "South" of the Peck's Corner shelter.  

3) Spence Field

Spence Field is another hike that can be done either in the daytime or you can camp up at the shelter nearby overnight.  You can hike this in a loop or as an out and back.  My favorite way to see Spence Field though is to camp at the Spence Field Shelter.  Less than a half a mile from the shelter round-trip you will head up to the field just before sunset for some stunning views with Fontana Lake below you.  If you head back to the shelter just before the sun drops in the sky you'll have enough daylight to make it back to the shelter without a headlamp.  To make this hike, you can hike up from Cades Cove picnic area via the Anthony Creek Trail, Bote Mountain Trail, and follow the AT to the field.  Return by the same route or you can continue "south" on the AT to the Russell Field Trail back down to the Anthony Creek Trail.  

4) Shuckstack 

The view looking toward Nantahala National Forest from Shuckstack in the fall.  It's easy to see why the mountains around us are called the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Shuckstack Fire Tower is located only 0.1 miles off the Appalachian Trail at the "southern" end of the trail in the park.  This fire tower is notoriously rickety, but the climb is definitely worth heading up for!  Climbing up the flights of stairs on the tower you'll feel and hear the wind catching and then you'll come into the top of the tower - views of the Nantahala National Forest, Fontana Lake, the Smokies, and the largest undeveloped tract of wilderness left in the eastern United States will be your reward.  This hike can be done many different ways, but an out-and-back from Fontana Dam is the most popular route.  This 7-mile round trip hike also gives you the opportunity to see the largest hydroelectric dam east of the Mississippi River before your hike. 

5) Mt. Sterling

Looking at the AT from Mt. Sterling on a winter day - the highest point is Mt. Guyot and the AT follows the ridge line down and out of the park. 

Of course I would save my favorite view for last!  Mt. Sterling boasts the highest backcountry campsite in the park as well as the highest point on the entire Benton MacKaye Trail.  Looking north from the top of the tower you'll have an epic view of the ridge line the Appalachian Trail follows.  You'll have views of Snowbird Mountain and Max Patch Mountain.  You can see the Blue Ridge Parkway cutting across the mountains in North Carolina.  Best of all, this hike rarely has others to share the view with.  You can make this hike as short as 4 miles round trip view the old NC 284 gravel road and the Mt. Sterling Trail.  You can also hike it as a 12.2 mile up and back on Baxter Creek Trail or you can make a 17.1 mile loop hike by taking Big Creek Trail to Swallow Fork Trail to the Mount Sterling Ridge Trail and finally hiking down the Baxter Creek Trail.  

These are just a few of the many, many places I like to hike to avoid the crowds.  Where are some of your favorite places in the Smokies?  Do you like to hike to a view?  

Join the Friday Five Link Up hosted by DC area bloggers Eat Pray Run DC, Mar on the Run and You Signed up for What?! Don't forget to visit all the hosts and a few other bloggers to spread the fun! 

Red Beans and Rice - A Front Country Camping Favorite

Even though I'm a backpacking guide I still enjoy heading out for a front country campout every now and again.  The fun thing about heading out for a campout when you've got a car is the fact that you're much less limited on your food choices.  You're also able to bring a lot more friends with you to enjoy the campout as well!  Whenever I'm heading out for a front country camping event, I often find myself looking at my cast iron dutch oven for food preparation.  It can be used to make tons of dishes from savory stews to monkey bread to even fresh batches of biscuits!  My favorite recipe to make for a crowd though is my famous red beans and rice.  This make-ahead meal can be prepped in the days leading up to the event and then reheated on your grill or campfire when you get there.  

If you've read any of my recipes before you know that I don't take shortcuts when it comes to using more natural ingredients.  Many of you may remember that when I was prepping for my thru hikes last summer I even made my own chicken stock to use to cook the rice.  When making this recipe I decided I wanted it to be a little healthier, even though I was going to be out camping.  I started with dry beans soaked at home overnight for less sodium.  I also chose al fresco's Sweet & Smokey BBQ Chicken Sausage.  It's made with lean, skinless chicken meat, al fresco’s chicken sausage products contain 70% less fat and 30% less sodium than average pork sausage. Better yet, all of al fresco’s chicken sausage flavors are gluten-free and are packaged fully cooked.  This meant all I needed to do was brown the sausage and I was ready to get cooking!  Here's my recipe for red beans and rice to feed a crowd: 

Sprinkles' Red Beans and Rice: Cook time - 3 hours, plus reheating time at camp

Ingredients: 
1 Package al fresco Sweet & Smokey BBQ sausage
1 1 lb bag dry red beans (soaked overnight)
1 sweet onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 clove elephant garlic (or enough to equal 2 tablespoons)
3 dried bay leaves
1/2 Tablespoon ham base seasoning
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon Louisiana Hot Sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste

For Serving: 
1 cup brown rice, cooked in 2.5 cups water
Green onion for garnish

Browning nicely! 

Veggies are so pretty! 

Put your dutch oven over medium high heat and add sliced up al fresco Sweet & Smokey BBQ Sausage, browning it to your liking (I like mine nice and crunchy!).  Remove from the pan and set aside to add later.  While the sausage is browning, chop up all your veggies including the garlic.  Add them to a bowl, along with the ham base, cajun seasoning, and bay leaves.  After removing the sausage from the dutch oven, add this bowl into the pot.  Cook until the veggies have softened - about 5 minutes.  Add in your drained and rinsed red beans and stir.  Now, cover the mixture with enough water to keep everything covered about three inches.  Place the lid on the pot with a slight gap to allow for evaporation and simmer for about 90 minutes - stirring every 15 minutes or so.  After 90 minutes, add the sausage back to the pot along with the hot sauce and let this cook down with the lid on, but slightly ajar, for another 30 minutes or so.  Continue to check this every few minutes to make sure it's breaking down properly.  When you're adding the sausage back to the pot, this is when you're going to want to start the rice if you're going to be eating this right away.  After about 30 minutes the bean mixture in the dutch oven should thicken up like gravy.  Before serving, check the salt and pepper seasonings and add more to your liking.  Serve over brown rice with green onions on top, along with salt, pepper, and extra hot sauce!

Yum! Dinner is served! 

Al fresco also has a Summer Grilling Sweepstakes going on RIGHT NOW that you can check out by clicking the link: http://www.alfrescoallnatural.com/promos/summer-grilling-sweeps .  All you have to do is vote for your favorite recipe and you'll be entered for a chance to win $500 and a new grill (valued at $500)!

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by al fresco and TapInfluence through FitFluential.  As always, all opinions are my own. 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of al fresco. The opinions and text are all mine.

Trail Trash - Why You Should Pack it Out

I recently linked to a really inspiring group hiking the PCT in 2016 called Packing it Out.  These guys hiked the AT in 2015 and packed out over 1000 pounds of trash during the duration of their hike.  Recently, the Packing it Out crew got 126 pounds of garbage in one haul making it their record breaker!  While it's really inspiring to hear of someone doing work like this, it makes me wonder as a guide and a hiker myself why in the world it's necessary to need hikers to have to do this in the first place.  My post today is more of a rant about why I feel like it's getting more and more important for all hikers and walkers to pack out their garbage. 

Chances are you've been on a hike for a few hours or maybe even an overnight backpacking trip and you've seen what I have dubbed to be Charmin Flowers - blooms of used toilet paper women leave behind on the side of the trail after they pee.  Recently, I was at a campsite in the Smokies where an active bear warning was posted.  Imagine my shock when I wandered into the woods and found panty liners stuck to the base of trees!  No wonder animals are a problem at this particular campsite!  The next night on our trip we had a problem bear wandering through camp several times.  He was not afraid of us and even kept digging holes at the further edge of the campsite and eating something.  After we finally pelted him with rocks to let him know he wasn't welcome, I went to investigate.  Yep.  It was a hole someone threw their toilet paper into and hardly buried at all.   Living in the US we are all used to living in a disposable society now.  You throw your garbage in the can and someone comes once a week and picks it up and you never have to think about it again!  You can flush things down a toilet and they're magically gone!  However, when it comes to heading out into the woods people often have this same disposable mentality.  Your toilet paper and small trash isn't magically gone at all - someone else has to pick up after you... and isn't going to be happy if they're the ones peeling your panty liners off a hemlock tree!

Another way we are seeing garbage in the woods is by people who truly mean well.  A former thru hiker will hike a cooler full of goodies, maybe with a few bags of snacks as well, out to a trail junction and leave it for other grateful hikers.  Unfortunately, our former thru hiker isn't coming back to pack that cooler and garbage out - he has just left a note on the cooler and trail magic for hikers to pack out their trash to the trailhead.  How many hikers do you think are going to do this?  Chances are, the hikers will leave their trash inside that cooler, which will sit in the sunshine and cook for a period of a few days or even weeks.  Animals may come by and tear apart the cooler trying to get to the sweet smelling food trash inside.  The cooler may get knocked over and the trash will blow into the nearby woods.  Either way, our well-meaning hiker has created a problem for someone else to deal with.  

My most common place to find garbage, however, isn't either of these two, although the toilet paper is becoming a bigger and bigger problem where I'm at now that it's summer time.  The most common place I get to pick up someone else's inconsiderate litter is from a fire ring or a fireplace.  If you're the kind of person who is burning garbage on your backpacking trip I have some advice for you - STOP IT.  If you're a person who believes it's the best way to deal with trash let me offer you some statistics on black bears.  Black bears can pick up and track a scent for two miles.  There is no better way to invite an animal to your campsite than to burn your trash.  Also, I guarantee your fire isn't anywhere near hot enough to burn the things you're tossing in there.  The most common culprit would be Mountain House freeze dried food bags.  Next would be aluminum foil, followed by tin cans, beer cans, and the pop tops from glass bottles.  Why you'd pack glass bottles in a backpack and carry them is beyond me, but I can promise you the items you're attempting to burn aren't going to be gone completely.  It turns out someone like me has to dig through that fire pit and pack it out for you.  Meanwhile, you were out for just one night and were capable of doing it on your own.  

The final thing I want to talk about is something I don't see a lot in the Smokies but I do see a lot in the neighborhood I live in - dumping.  I live in an area only a few miles from a small local trash collecting facility.  This facility was recently closed for a few months to repave it and bring in better collection and recycling systems.  Instead of driving on a few more miles to a larger trash facility, people around here decided the remote, curvy road I lived on was a much better place to dump their tires, recliners, fast food trash, and even leave their entire trash cans filled with garbage in front of an empty house at the end of the cul-de-sac.  Dumping is a problem on distance trails as well, especially at remote trailheads where road access sees sparse traffic.  Either way, again, this trash isn't disappearing.  Someone else has to pick it up for you.  

I went on this rant for a reason.  I want people to start thinking about what truly happens to your trash in the woods when you leave it behind.  Someone else has to walk behind you to pick it up.  If you're big, bad, and strong enough to go out for a hike into the woods you are definitely big, bad, and strong enough to pack out everything you brought in with you - even apple cores, orange peels, peach pits, etc.  I am a strong advocate for packing out your own toilet paper as well.  By packing out your garbage, you're not only keeping the woods a prettier place, you're also helping keep animals wild by not allowing them to get access to human garbage.  

How do you feel when you see litter out on the trails?  Are you the kind of person who picks up microtrash?  What's the most bizarre thing you've seen discarded? 

Fuel 100 Electro-Bites: A Food Review

Update: Use code SPRINKLES at checkout for 25% off your order (not an affiliate link, feel free to share!) 

With the heat of summer in full swing I've been constantly attempting, and sometimes losing, a battle with my electrolyte balance.  Between my work outdoors as a full time hiking guide and helping my boyfriend train for his first half marathon, I've been spending a lot of time in the low elevations of East Tennessee - often times in sweltering heat and humidity with heat indexes in the high 90s and low 100s.  When I was offered the opportunity to try out Fuel 100 Electro-Bites I jumped at the chance to try something new.  Here are my thoughts on this product. 

After doing some research regarding Fuel 100 Electro-Bites I was excited to try them out for two reasons - the first being that they weren't fruit chews and the second being that they weren't sickly sweet.  While this product comes in five flavors, only three of them are flavors that sound sweet: pumpkin spice, apple cinnamon, and salty vanilla.  The other two flavors are simply salty and salty vinegar.  This immediately appealed to me because of recent I've been all sugared out and I've been on a quest for savory fueling options that are also easy to eat on the trails or on a run.  These tiny bites fit the bill!  The other thing that appealed to me was the fact these were a dry, baked product.  No sticky gels, chews, or sweet drink mixes.  Don't get me wrong, I love a sweet electrolyte tab after a hot and long run, but getting the chance to try something different was definitely a plus!

I took these out on a training run on a night when the heat index at sunset was 94 degrees.  Even though I ran an easy 3.5 miles I knew I had sweat more than I did on 10 mile runs back in the winter time.  If I don't replace electrolytes immediately I usually get dull and throbbing headaches so being able to grab them and go was a big plus for me.  I ripped the tab off the bag of the apple cinnamon bites and dug in!  The first thing I noticed was the fact that even though these bites were dry, they didn't make my mouth feel dry.  The crunchy little bites were actually fun to chew and were easy to swallow despite being hot and sweaty.  I was able to follow the bites by drinking down some cold water and felt great.  The apple cinnamon flavor was very mild and the hint of coconut oil was delicious as well. 

Easy to refuel after a long, hot run! 

I also brought along the salty vinegar flavor on a longer day hike during a humid and hot June afternoon.  The vinegar flavor wasn't overpowering and again the coconut oil was very mild and present as well.  These bites stored well in a pack and since they're baked they don't melt the way an electrolyte chew would.  You also don't have to worry about adding a tab to water and waiting for it to mix before drinking.  All you have to do is rip the top off and start snacking!

I've got my fuel for after the hike! 

Personally, I loved these little electro-bites and would definitely buy them again.  The fact that they're so much different from anything I've tried recently really sold me on this tasty and quick fuel for athletes.  They're formulated for distance athletes and have 100 calories per pack, including 190mg of Sodium, 55mg of Potassium and 46mg of Magnesium. Fuel 100 Electro-Bites will have a place in my pack for the rest of the season for sure!

A handful of baked electro bites - yum! 

Have you tried any new electrolyte replacement products recently?  What's your favorite way to refuel during a hot and humid summer run or hike?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received Fuel 100 Electro-Bites for free from Fuel 100 as coordinated by Outdoor PR in consideration for review publication.  All opinions, as always on this blog, are my own.

Five Things I Love About Being a Hiking Guide

With summer hiking season in full swing it seems like I'm hardly ever indoors anymore!  If I'm not out on the trails for work you can usually find me out in a state park or national forest with my dog and NoKey.  I recently had a client ask me what it's like to have your passion and your job be the exact same thing and if I found it hard to find a balance between the two.  For me the balance isn't tough because I do my guiding in the Smokies and I do my hiking for pleasure outside of the national park.  There are a few reasons for this - heavy traffic near the Smokies, the fact that no dogs are allowed on trails, and the fact that the trails I hike for work are usually incredibly popular day hikes are some of them.  For me though, being a guide feels like a natural thing and it feels like it is truly where I need to be in life right now.  I feel incredibly fortunate to be doing what I do for a living.  For today's Friday Five post, I'm going to tell you the five things I love about being a guide.  

1) Teaching 

It might sound cheesy, but there is something really incredibly satisfying about teaching someone how to find what they're looking to learn out in the woods.  Whether it's taking a one-hour  nature walk and showing someone they can chew on a particular leaf or taking someone out for a customized backpacking trip and seeing them become more confident with their gear, the fact that I've taught someone a lesson they will remember is incredibly satisfying. 

2) InTroducing People to Nature

Sometimes I'm guiding a nature walk for a hotel or resort.  While these nature walks aren't strenuous or even long, by taking these groups out on a gentle walk away from the hustle and bustle of gateway towns around the park I'm showing them something they've possibly never experienced in life - and something they may never experience again.  We often get people from flatter places in the midwest or from large cities like Chicago or New York who don't make it out to the woods often.  Showing to people how much beauty you can find just beyond the concrete jungle can be such a rewarding experience. 

3) The unpredictability

It's pretty fair to say the outdoor industry is incredibly unpredictable.  Over the winter several of my hikes had to be canceled altogether due to weather-related road closures.  Sometimes my high ridgeline day hikes have to be rescheduled or even moved to a low elevation route due to thunderstorms.  Living in the mountains of East Tennessee will definitely keep you on your toes weather-wise!  Some days I'll only be scheduled for a short 2.5-hour walk only to be working an additional 8 or 9 hours due to unscheduled hiker shuttles or last-minute getaway hikes.  The unpredictable nature of my job always keeps me on my toes!

4) The Unexpected

Like the weather isn't the only thing that can throw curveballs at me out in the woods!  Sometimes it can be difficult to predict how our clients will react outdoors as well.  Even though we are filling out waivers and doing health questionnaires the physical ability of our group on a hike can keep us on our toes.  I had a scheduled hike up a difficult mountain where the first two miles were faster than usual and the clients were laughing and having fun.  The next two miles up, while not any more difficult, quickly fell apart and turned into me having to decide to make the call to turn around.  It took me 11 hours to hike approximately 7.5 hours on that trip and we never did make it to the top.  The clients, however, were still happy with the hiking and the interpretation I provided during the walk so it at least helps you feel better about making a difficult call. 

5) The People

There is something incredibly satisfying about introducing yourself to a group of people you're going to see over the next several hours and knowing that you're going to be able to show them things they've never experienced before.  Even though my job relies heavily on being able to do interpretation on the things around me, I often get to know my hiking clients on a more personal level, especially on a longer day hike or an overnight trip of any length.  Getting to learn things about people on such a personal level and connect with someone on a trip is the single greatest thing about my job.  Building a close report during such a short period of time really can't be done in any other setting.  

These are just a few of the things I really love about being a hiking guide.  When I first got into guiding I had no idea what to expect but now I can honestly say that I have found where I need to be right now.  

Is your passion your career?  What is it you love about what you do?  Would you be able to work at a job that closely mirrors the hobbies you have?  

I'm linking up with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar and some of the other folks who link up with us – and please don’t forget to link to your hosts if you are participating!

My Favorite Gear for Newbies

Backpacking gear can be daunting, especially for newbies!  When I first started backpacking several years ago it seemed like it was really difficult to discern what gear I wanted to buy and what could wait.  While I had many friends who were backpackers, not all of them were looking to get the same experiences out of a trip that I was.  While some backpackers are able to carry bigger packs and heavier weights, this was definitely not something I could do!  After a few years of trial and error with gear I've narrowed down what works best for me.  As a person who now leads guided backpacking trips for a living, helping people pick out some great essential pieces of gear is something I do on a constant basis.  Here are the five things I've picked as my favorite gear for new backpackers.  

1) Sawyer Mini Water Filter  This water filter is light, small, fast, and easy to use.  You can even use it inline on your Camelbak/Platypus/Osprey hydration pack to make water filtration fail proof!  I love using this filter inline while I'm hiking and I'll set it us as a gravity system for filtration in camp at night.  With filtration being this easy, you have no excuses to not filter water. 

2) JetBoil Flash Stove  While there are lighter stoves on the market, stoves don't get much easier to use than the JetBoil Flash.  This stove has a built in ignitor to make lighting the stove with a lighter/match/flint completely unnecessary.  Add to the fact that the pot has an integrated cosy, tight fighting lid, and a built on cup and you've got a pretty simple system that any newbie will appreciate!  I use this stove when I'm guiding trips due to the speed of the boiling and it's great when you've got hungry hikers to feed. 

3) Black Diamond Storm Headlamp  This headlamp has lots of neat features in a tiny package.  While you can definitely find lighter and cheaper ones out on the market, this one has all the features you've ever needed in a light.  The brightest setting is up to 250 lumens which makes it great for an impromptu night hike.  It also has the all important red light setting on it, which not only helps you keep your night vision but also keeps from waking up the entire shelter when you need to get up in the middle of the night.  My favorite feature of  all is the lock feature - you turn this feature on and your light won't turn on in your pack.  Stopping for lunch and discovering your headlamp has been on all morning is a real bummer - and battery killer!

4) Z Packs Cuben Fiber Stuff Sacks   Cuben fiber is expensive stuff, but great backpacking gear is an investment and take it from me, I wish I would have bought these a LONG time ago.  Cuben fiber is strong and light and practically indestructible stuff.  I currently have their food bag and a medium sized sack for my clothes.  They're great for keeping my stuff waterproofed, especially for those long rainy nights my food is hanging off my bear line.   

5) Thermarest Inflatable Sleeping Pad  I truly believe you'll get a better night's sleep on an inflatable mattress over one of the roll-up or accordion style foam pads.  After a while foam pads will start to break down whereas I've actually given away my old inflatables as hand-me-downs to other backpackers and they're still going strong.  In fact, the company I work for still has old Thermarest pads from the 1990s that we send out with clients today!  While there are many other brands on the market to chose from, I personally use a Thermarest and it's a brand I'd highly recommend to anyone.  

These are just a few of my favorite pieces of gear to recommend to newbie backpackers.  What is something you would add to this list?  What piece of gear was most beneficial to you when you were learning to backpack?

I'm linking up with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar and some of the other folks who link up with us – and please don’t forget to link to your hosts if you are participating!

Milestone Pod - A Smart Pedometer! {and Giveaway!}

I've recently jumped on the fitness tracking bandwagon, but not in the traditional sense.  You won't see me running around constantly using my Garmin or wearing a tracker or anything like that, but during the course of my marathon training I started getting obsessed with the data my watch was giving me.  I loved seeing how my pace changed mile by mile.  I really liked watching how I progressed throughout the length of the training.  I also really liked watching my stats change on Strava and even getting a course record locally for a segment. Sure, I live in a small town where hardly anyone runs, but I OWNED that CR!  I recently heard about Milestone Pod through Twitter. It's a small device you can wear on your shoe while you're out running and it will give you not only your mileage, but also gives you feedback on your gait, stride, and even your leg swing!  When I heard about the fact that it didn't use GPS at all I knew I wanted to try it for hiking.  Here's my review of Milestone Pod and how it works for me. 

The first thing I had to do when my Milestone Pod arrived was download the free app and set it up. The app was easy to find and set up and I could use either an email address or my Facebook account to set it up.  Easy peasy! After answering a few questions about my height and weight, my Pod was ready to sync up and use.  The first thing that appealed to me about this device was the fact that it didn't need to be charged every day and could hold 20 hours of data.  It also connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth so I thought that meant it didn't need internet connection to get the data. Unfortunately, the phone does need some sort of internet connection for the device to sync to your phone so that's a strike for me.  I work out in the woods and 20 hours of data is only about 1.5 days' worth for me.  The good news was that it doesn't need to be charged (the battery can last as long as six months depending on your usage) and it can stand up to harsh conditions due to the pod being waterproof. 

Setting it up is simple! 

How Did it Work for Hiking?

The Milestone Pod does work for walkers, but you need to be walking at a decent pace for it to register that you're actually doing a longer walk.  The Milestone Pod actually doesn't register you're walking unless you're taking 100 steps per minute for six minutes or longer.  If you do keep your gait above 100 steps per minute, it will stop recording the data when you fall below that range for six minutes or longer.  I used the pod a few times walking my dog around the neighborhood and at the Greenway in our town and it worked well in measuring my distance.  It was also pretty close to accurate for mileage despite not using GPS.  I usually walk at a 3 mph pace with my dog, or pretty close to that, with few stops.  Leading hikes as a guide, however, is a different story.  Since I am walking at closer to a 1 mph pace on guided hikes with lots of stopping for interpretation and storytelling it didn't really register much of my hike.  In fact, I lead a 6-mile hike and the pod only registered two short segments, both under 1 mile.  I repeated the experiment several times on shorter hikes to see it didn't register any of my activity at all.  In the defense of the pod, I was moving INCREDIBLY slowly.  So, it didn't quite pick up all the data I was hoping for but it did perform well otherwise.  I wore it out on a day when it was pouring rain and the pod didn't short out.  It also went through some mud that day as well and cleaned up very nicely.  

How Does it Work for Running?

So, in true data nerd fashion I tested the pod out on a run recently and I was much, MUCH more impressed.  I ran a 5.1 mile route I run quite frequently to see how much information I could get from the device.  Even though it was laced up on my shoe, it stayed in place just fine and was light enough to not change my gait.  I didn't even notice the pod after the first quarter mile.  When I got home I was excited to sync it up and see what the pod could tell me about my running.  Since my pace was faster now that it was with a hike, it could give me more accurate information about how well I did.  It turns out I was toe striking 100% of the time leading to a 100% low-impact run.  It let me know my cadence was approximately 171 steps per minute, which I know to be true because I've actually done manual cadence work before and I this is close to what I've gotten when I counted myself.  The pod also let me know I've got a 40-inch stride and that my leg swing is always low, which is apparently the opposite of what I want to be doing!  Now that I have the feedback I can work on this. 

NoKey is now training for the Millinocket Half Marathon and since he hasn't been running in a while I thought it would be fun to let him try the pod.  Since he's in the beginning stages of running now he's doing a walk/run method to build up a base.  Since his speed isn't consistent enough for specific analytics yet we can't get much info about his form, but we can get info about his speed, cadence, and even his "efficiency" score.  With this information, as well as using feedback from me during our training, he's finding that running is much more comfortable for him than it was in the past.  I know he has a history of severe foot pain when running and making a few microadjustments during his runs has really helped him a lot!

So, while Milestone Pod didn't work out as well as I had hoped for guided hiking, I'm super impressed with the stats it gave me for running and I'm sure it would work well for trail/ultra running as well!  I think for a beginner runner or someone who is ready to up their mileage and aim for a bigger goal this device could help you learn from your form and improve your running.  

Have you ever tried a device that can give you stats about your running form?  Would you be interested in trying one out?  Do you love data and competing with your friends on social media?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I was provided the Milestone Pod for free in exchange for some feedback about how well this device performed out on the trails.  I was not compensated any other way.  

My Five Favorite Trail Lunches

Recently I started growing tired of my usual PB&J on flatbread or a ProBar for a trail lunch and began looking for something more creative.  When I was online looking for ideas something simple came to me and I couldn't believe I hadn't thought about it before - dehydrating something simple and savory for lunch!  While so much of the food backpackers can find in the stores for lunch is sweet, like a trail mix, granola bar, or Poptarts, I realized that if I did my own dehydrator meals for lunches I could get some more savory foods into my backpacking diet.  Here is a rundown of some of my favorite food to eat for lunch. 

1) Hummus and crackers with veggies - Dehydrating hummus was such a simple idea I couldn't believe why I hadn't thought of it before.  Simply spread your hummus on a fruit leather tray (or piece of parchment paper in an oven or on a regular dehydrator tray) and dry overnight.  On my Excalibur dehydrator I went to the 125-degree setting for 12 hours.  In the morning the hummus should be very powdery and easily crumble.  One container of hummus (10 ounces) should make four servings for those of us who backpack on shorter easier trips.  If you're doing mega miles one container should get you two servings.  Rehydrating is simple and quick - use cold water to cover the hummus powder by 1 inch and squish the bag around for 5-10 minutes.  I usually eat mine with Good Thins crackers and whatever fresh veggies I want to pack out.  I've packed out carrots, celery, and radishes with good results even in the summer.  

2) Dehydrator burritos - Mixing a can of refried beans with a can of enchilada sauce in a large bowl and then spreading thin on dehydrator fruit leather sheets (or parchment paper for those without the sheets) can create a delicious burrito filling for the trail.  Simple dehydrate overnight at 125 degrees and in the morning you'll have a crumbly, powdery bean burrito filling! Rehydrate in a freezer bag for 10-30 minutes with cold or hot water.  Spoon into your tortilla and put salsa on top and you'll have a filling lunch!

3) Pepperoni and Laughing Cow Cheese sandwich - Carrying pepperoni and Laughing Cow cheese are usually a staple on a long trip.  Laughing Cow comes in several flavor varieties and you can use a bagel thin or a sandwich thin for the bread.  Switching up the flavors of cheese and bread every so often turns this trail staple into something different!  Laughing Cow cheese is generally like shelf-stable cream cheese.  I've had some in my pack for up to 5 days in the summer and it's still holding it's shape.  

4) Flavored Couscous - Near East brand makes some wonderful couscous flavors.  While I normally eat the entire box for a hiking dinner, a half portion works great for lunch for me!  Before hitting the trail, split the box evenly between two freezer bags.  Make sure to shake the box well before splitting if the spices are already mixed in with the couscous.  If you are making your own flavored blend at home, I find the 1/4 cup serving of dry couscous works well for lunch.  If it's a cooler backpacking trip you can heat up some water, but most of the time I just add cold water and let it soak for at least 15 minutes before I eat it.  Cold hydrating works very well for couscous!

5) Flavored Tuna and Flatbread - There are now several flavors of tuna on the market, including a few in olive oil instead of water.  Right now I'm loving the Mediterranean Style Sunkist tuna on a sandwich thin, but with all the flavors of tuna and salmon on the market right now it makes it easy to have a different flavor every day of the trip!

These are just a few of my favorite savory backpacking lunches.  Do you prefer savory or sweet foods on trail?  What is your favorite lunch?

I'm linking up with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar and some of the other folks who link up with us – and please don’t forget to link to your hosts if you are participating!

Tick Prevention for Summer Hiking

During the summer of 2015 NoKey and I set out with a goal to hike across New York state on the Finger Lakes Trail.  Since we knew most of rural New York along this trail would be consisting of farmland and grassy fields tick prevention was in the forefront of our mind.  With more and more cases of Lyme Disease being reported every year and tick myths being as prevalent as tick facts we chose to pretreat some of our gear with permethrin for prevention of ticks.  As far as we know the permethrin worked like a charm for us!  During the course of the summer walking through many different states in the eastern US we never once found a single tick on us.  

Going back to my thru hike of the AT in 2012 I never found a single tick on me, despite the fact that everyone was so nervous about Lyme and ticks being so prevalent.  It was a hot summer and once we hit the mid Atlantic region hikers were constantly speaking of their fears of finding ticks or the fact they had pulled some off before heading to bed the night before.  I considered myself to be lucky as I didn't usually apply any sprays to myself and never had to worry.  This summer, however, is a different story.  Starting back in April of this year I began finding ticks on my legs.  About two weeks ago I pulled a large tick off my dog after a walk through our neighborhood.  Most recently, I took an off-trail hike with clients and removed four ticks from my legs throughout the course of the 6-hour hike.  Now that tick fears are in the forefront of my brain I'm choosing to pretreat some gear again.  

Before talking about tick prevention methods, let's first take some tick myths and debunk them.  From prevention.com, I've found a couple of common misconceptions about ticks: 

Myth #1: Once you've been bitten, you'll get sick. 
Fact: For most tick-borne diseases, the tick needs to be attached for longer than 24 hours to transmit disease, says Mather, because of the biology of the way ticks feed. Bacterial diseases live in ticks' stomachs, he says, but in order to be transmitted, they need to get to the saliva, a process that takes at least 24 hours—which means that checking yourself for ticks as soon as you get indoors can help you find ticks before they've had the chance to make you sick.

Myth #2: You'll know if you've been bitten by a tick.
Fact: Tick bites are painless, so you certainly won't feel one. What’s more: fewer than half of people who've been infected with Lyme show the "bull's-eye rash" that was once thought to be a telltale sign of the disease. If you start showing flulike symptoms in the middle of summer (fever, chills, aches, and pains are common symptoms of a variety of tick-borne diseases), go to the doctor and ask to be tested for the illnesses associated with ticks. July and August are peak times for Lyme disease infections, says Mather, because deer tick populations surge toward the end of June, and it can take between two and three weeks to get sick.

Myth #3: You can remove a tick with perfume, alcohol, Vaseline…
Fact: Those old tricks you learned from your relatives about removing ticks—spraying them with perfume or alcohol, lighting a match next to the tick, painting it with nail polish—are unnecessary and possibly dangerous, says the CDC. The only tool you need is a pair of needle-nosed tweezers. Grab the tick as close to the skin as possible and gently pull it out without twisting or jerking. Then wash your hands and the spot where you found it with good soap and disinfect the skin with rubbing alcohol.  ((Note from Sprinkles - when I worked in a vet clinic, we would place the tick we removed in vial rubbing alcohol as well, to kill it, before disposing of it)).  

So now that we've debunked a few common myths and learned how to remove a tick (in myth #3 above) let's talk about some things you can do to keep ticks away from you and your pets during the summer time.  

-Avoid brushy or grassy areas. 
-Stay on the main hiking trails and stay in sunny spots if possible.
-Buy clothing already pretreated with permethrin; many clothing items commercially treated can withstand up to 100 washings!
-Always hike in long pants and a long-sleeved shirt.
-Wear DEET as an insect repellant on your skin anything from 25-35% will work well and you don't have to go 100% if you're not comfortable with that strong of a formula!

Since I personally am not a fan of wearing long-sleeved shirts or long pants, especially in the heat, I opt for treating my clothing with permethrin myself.  Permethrin comes from many different companies, but the brand I use comes from Sawyer (not an affiliate link).  It is REALLY IMPORTANT TO NOTE that permethrin in it's liquid form is HIGHLY TOXIC TO CATS.  If you are going to pretreat your clothes or shoes yourself, please do this away from your feline friends. Once your item is dry it is no longer in the toxic state and can be brought back in your house.  Since permethrin, when applied yourself, is good for up to six washings with soap and water, I also make sure to treat my shoes and socks.  It's very easy to do yourself and only takes a few hours to dry.  

As someone who likes to keep my health and food options as healthy and natural as possible, Lyme Disease is just not something I'm willing to take my chances with.  As a person who works outdoors and practically lives in the woods during prime tick season, using a more natural option to repel ticks and insects is not something I'm willing to chance.  Sure, using DEET or permethrin does come with some risk, but it's one I'm going to take season after season to ensure I don't end up with Lyme.  

What are some of your tick prevention tips or tricks?  I'd love to hear what you do to keep yourself protected.  Please leave me a comment!

Five Things I Learned from Backpacking

Recently I realized that my life has changed so, SO much from becoming a distance hiker.  For those of you who knew me back before my 2012 Thru Hike you know that I was the kind of person who needed to be in control of a situation and liked to organize and plan out things.  Once I really gave that idea up, which took a LOOOOOONG time, and began to learn how to take things as they came to me I've noticed something strange - I'm usually at ease when plan A doesn't work.  I no longer freak out (at least, not on the outside) and I stop to think about what plan B could be.  Then, I go from there.  It turns out the more and more I thought about it I've learned quite a bit from becoming a distance backpacker, but many people learn these simple concepts from the first time they strap on a pack and hit the trail.  Here are five simple things I learned from backpacking. 

1) Simple is better.  The easier a piece of gear is to use the less stress I'll feel when assembling it in less than ideal conditions.  If it somehow gets dark when I get into camp, I'm 100% positive I could set up my tent, hang my bear bag, and climb into bed in less than 10 minutes.  My gear is always packed in the exact same way and I bet I could do all of my camp chores blindfolded!

2) Clutter = Chaos.  Remember the old adage "a place for everything and everything in it's place"?  Well, that couldn't be more true than it is for my backpack.  The stuff sacks are brightly colored and packed exactly the same every single time I put them back.  When I put gear in my tent it all goes in the same order.  With order comes calm.  It's very rare you'll ever find me digging for a piece of gear I've misplaced.  

3) Go with the flow. Sometime Plan A doesn't work out.  In fact, Plan A is usually ditched for me pretty early on.  As someone who used to preplan A-Z, it turns out that if you just wing it things will still turn out alright.  Learning to be flexible with things that come up as been such a valuable lesson for me and has even helped me with my anxiety issues.  It took me a long time to get here, but it's working out pretty well!

4) Everything happens for a reason.  This one is still tough for me sometimes.  It's hard to realize that even things that seem like they're terrible can turn out alright in the end.  This couldn't have been more true for us than it was on our Finger Lakes Trail thru hike attempt in the summer of 2015.  We walked through a section of New York with a long no camping zone.  The trail conservancy was rude to us and offered no help, but with a little help from some trail angels and some tips from people in the area we were able to find a restaurant off trail with people who lived right on the property we were aiming to stealth camp on that night.  Instead of us having to stealth camp on private property in the rain, they offered up a guest house with a shower and a freezer full of candy.  We slept out the thunderstorm that night in the glow of a satellite television.  

5) It always works out in the end.  It turns out the old saying is true - it truly isn't about the destination, but about the journey.  When I set out to do  my thru hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2012 I had a much different idea of how my journey would pan out.  It turns out that the journey I thought I wanted wasn't the one I needed.  It turns out the journey I took changed my life forever and in the best possible way.  Funny how the universe works, isn't it?

These are just a few of the life-changing, simple things I learned from backpacking.  Is there anything you agree with here?  What would you add to the list?  

I'm linking up with Courtney, Cynthia and Mar and some of the other folks who link up with us – and please don’t forget to link to your hosts if you are participating!

The SLS3 Foot Sleeve - Try Out Thursday Linkup Post!

Disclaimer: I was provided the SLS3 Plantar Fasciitis Compression Sleeves for free in exchange for an honest review.  I was not compensated any other way.  As always, all opinions are my own.  

I was recently given the opportunity to test out the new Plantar Fasciitis Compression Sleeves from SLS3 and, while I don't have plantar fasciitis,  I have been having some ankle pain since my marathon back in April.  It's been unseasonably warm for the most part here in East Tennessee, so when I saw these were ankle-length compression sleeves I jumped at the chance to try them out.  Here's my honest opinion about these socks: 

The first chance I had to test these sleeves out was going to be during an Appalachian Trail day hike with a client out to Charlie's Bunion.  This hike out and back is 8 miles and when I hike it with my clients it can be between 7 and 8 hours of trail time.  Since I hike slower with clients and I've been having the ankle pain lately, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get in a good test!  I put on the sleeves directly underneath my Smartwool hiking socks before putting on my shoes.  They felt like traditional compression socks, but were much easier to get on and get adjusted due to the fact they had an open toe.  I was worried this would be bothersome, but it really didn't require too much extra work to slide on another pair of socks over them.  During the hike I had no ankle pain at all, despite the slower pace and cooler temperatures (it actually snowed up there in MAY!)  The only problem I did have was that my toes started to feel like they were swelling up after wearing these socks for about 7 hours.  Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be running that long, so if you aren't planning on wearing them for that long, I'd say this wouldn't be an issue.  

My favorite hiking shoes - Altra Lone Peak 2.5, with the Smartwool/SLS3 compression combo. Ready to hit the trail!

After washing and drying these compression sleeves, I also tested them out on a 4.2 mile run a few days later.  I haven't been running much since my marathon back in April, partly due to foot pain and partly due to having a physical job where my hours are erratic!  I'm getting better about running though and have since replaced my shoes since I've determined that is what was causing my ankle pain. Anyway, the run I tested these sleeves on was a route I was familiar with as I had run it many times during training.  It goes through an older neighborhood where I live and the sidewalks have lots of cutouts for driveways and walking from the street.  Since I was also running streets this meant I had lots of turns to take.  This was another reason I had avoided the neighborhood since my ankles have been sore - lots of extra movement for my ankles.  While I did have some minimal ankle pain in these socks still, for the duration of my 40ish minute run and cool down the pain in my ankles was significantly reduced - which I had totally expected due to the compression.  Even with the sidewalk irregularities and taking the turns on the streets my ankles still held up fairly well.  

SLS3 has provided me a link to share with my blog readers to get these compression sleeves on Amazon for the discounted price of $17.90!  They're also Prime Eligible for shipping if you're a Prime Member!  You can get the deal on Amazon by clicking here.  (not an affiliate link!)  If you prefer shopping on the SLS3 website, you can use the code BLOG40 to save 40% off your purchase SITEWIDE.  Lastly, you can find SLS3 on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as well.  

Have you ever tried compression socks or sleeves for running or hiking?  Did you think they helped with soreness or pain?  I'd love to know what you thought!  Leave me a comment below or find me on Facebook or Twitter to get the conversation started!

I'm linking up with Running With SD for Try Out Thursday!

Taking Your Dog on a Long Hike - Things to Consider Before Packing Up

Lots of us have four-legged companions who love to spend time with us.  For hikers, it's only natural to want to bring your pup out onto the trails with you.  In fact, more and more people are taking their dogs on long hikes every year.  Dogs, however, are just like humans when it comes to taking long hikes in the woods - it's not for everyone!  Not all dogs are equipped to handle the rigors of distance hiking or long, extended weekends in the woods.  If you've considered taking your dog out for their first long hike, here is a list of things to consider before buying the gear and taking the leap. 

Regulations

First of all, make sure where you are going is DOG FRIENDLY!  Not all places will allow dogs on trails - most US National Parks are not dog friendly!  And also, don't be that guy who gets fake permits to say your dog is a service dog just to bring them hiking with you.  We all know someone who does it and it's not only illegal, it also gives hikers a bad name.  Plan a trip someplace where dogs are welcome. 

Gear

People need backpacks that fit properly and this is no different for your pup!  While there are several commercial brands out there - Ruffwear, Mountain Smith, there are also some customizable dog packs available as well.  Groundbird Gear makes many types of customizable packs for dogs as well.  Knowing the proper sizing is key to making sure your dog stays happy and doesn't carry to much weight for his or her body on trail.  Not only should you consider a backpack for your dog, you should also consider sleeping conditions.  Will your dog be more comfortable on a sleeping pad or wrapped up in a sleeping bag for cooler nights?  Does your dog have sensitive feet and will he need to wear boots?  Where you're going may also have leash requirements.  Even if your dog is well-trained off leash you may be required to keep him or her on a leash of a certain length the whole time you're hiking.  Again, requirements are in place for a REASON!  Don't be that guy and claim your dog is well-trained and the rules don't apply to you.  

Mileage and Training

Just like people, dogs need to build up their mileage gradually as well!  While dogs are commonly thought of to be strong runners and able to carry on for long distances, that doesn't always tend to be the case.  If you're taking your first backpacking trip with your furry friend, it's a great idea to treat it like you're taking out a complete beginner.  Try to limit hikes to the 5-8 mile range per day for your first trip out.  If you're a super awesome pet parent, you should train your dog for hiking much like the way you began training to do longer hikes - and if you need some ideas for training, see my post about training for a long-distance hike here!  Since my dog, Gracie, is getting older and can't quite do the mileage she used to anymore, we spend a week or so leading up to the hike by practicing with her backpack and gradually add a little weight to it to reintroduce her to backpacking.  

The Happiness Factor

Does your dog actually like hiking? Sure, most dogs love taking walks and might even enjoy an hour or two out on the trails during the day, but how does your dog sleep at night in the woods?  If you're planning to keep your dog in your tent with you at night do you know how he or she sleeps in one?  Is your dog hypersensitive to sounds at night?  Is he a natural guardian and feel the need to protect you all night?  If your dog is suffering from lack of sleep at night it can hinder their performance during the day, just like a person!  This is why I recommend short mileage days and limited nights in the woods when training with your dog.  Chances are you're an amazing pet parent and your dog loves you and would do anything to make you happy - including packing up and taking a hike of any distance for you.  If your dog isn't cut out for longer mileage days they may not eat well or sleep well in the woods but will hike as many miles as you ask of him.  Watching for change in mood or normal behavior is incredibly important for backpacking with a dog!  Dogs cannot speak to us.  They can't tell us when they're hurting or when they don't feel well and it is up to us to determine if they're suffering.  

The decision to take a long hiking trip with a dog is an incredibly personal one.  While I love my dog and know she loves to go hiking, I know that backpacking long distances day after day is definitely not for her and that is okay.  I was broken hearted missing her during all my thru hikes, but in the end I know leaving her at home was for the best - best for her health and well-being!  While I have seen many people backpacking or even thru hiking with dogs, at some point your dog's body will begin to break down just like yours will.  It is so critically important to be in tune with how your pup is feeling to ensure they're still happy and having fun. 

Do you take your dog backpacking or trail running?  Are you someone who once backpacked with a dog but maybe can no longer take your four-legged friend with you?  I'd love to hear how you feel about it!  Leave me a comment below or find me on Facebook or Twitter to get the conversation started!