PCT

Thru Hiking Announcement!

Well, 2017 is going to be the year of yet another thru hike for NoKey and me!  It was great being able to get out and go hiking in 2015 and, due to the fact that money is pretty much required to have a decent living where we are, we had to jump right back in and get to work after our hike.  I was fortunate enough to fall right into life as a backpacking guide almost immediately and now NoKey is joining the fun for 2017!  However, even though backpacking for a living is a pretty great way to stay connected to the trail, it can be difficult to feel like you're getting the experience YOU want while out there.  On guided backpacking trips I'm often teaching beginners the basics of backpacking, meaning we start out doing beginner miles.  While I love teaching others the ways to safely begin backpacking and avoiding injuries, I often crave hiking long and hard days.  This is why getting away to take a thru hike is so important for me every few years.

With both NoKey and myself working as guides now, we needed to set up a trip we could take during the not so busy weeks between July 4th and Labor Day weekend.  This year, we have decided to tackle the Tahoe Rim Trail!  This 167-mile loop can be done in approximately 10 days, which means we could take two weeks off to travel, thru hike, take a zero or two, and fly back home.  For us, it was a no-brainer!

The Tahoe Rim Trail is fairly new as far as trail systems are concerned - only officially designated in 2001.  This multiuse trail can be used year-round for biking, snowshoeing, and hiking.  Part of the trail also shares the Pacific Crest Trail, so we'll get a taste of the PCT while we're out hiking in California and Nevada.  We are super excited to hit this trail, especially since neither of us have done any hiking at elevations like this before.  In the next few months, I'll be posting updates about recipe planning and thru hike planning/gear trade-offs we'll be doing in order to get ready for our adventure.  I can't wait to share these things with you guys!

Have you ever been to the Tahoe Region for hiking or recreation?  Are there any "must stop" places you'd recommend?

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? 

The Packing it Out Crew Hits the PCT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Train for a Long-Distance Hike: Advice from an AT Thru Hiker

You’ve planned to do a long-distance hike.  You’ve done your research and bought your gear.  Now all you need to do is get out on the trail, right?  What you may not have thought about is the fact that you might need to do a little more than just put all your gear on your back and start walking!  While some people actually do their first hike ever with all their gear on their backs and walk 2000+ miles, chances are many others who never hiked before quit before their first week is even over.  Having confidence in your abilities will greatly help your chance at success on a long-distance trip.

Start Walking-
While most people consider a long hike a vacation, it’s actually one of the hardest jobs you’ll have.  You will be walking most of your waking hours, covering upwards of 20 miles a day sometimes!  The first step to getting into shape for a hike is to walk.  Start slow and build up your miles gradually.  Once you can do a few miles, try to get out and hike on actual trails, as walking on pavement and walking on a trail are two totally different experiences for your body.  When I first started hiking I knew I could walk easily 2-3 miles, but get out on the trails and you’ll find that you might be hurting in places you didn’t know you had!

Add Some Weight-
Once you start getting in the miles, add some weight to your walk.  Put on a backpack and fill it with water bottles to give it some heft.  Try to take 5-10 pounds in the beginning, gradually getting to your full overnight backpack.  Then, start taking it on trails this way.  Again, you might find that the easy 8-10 mile day hike is totally different when you have 25 pounds on your back!

Don’t Forget to Stretch-
I encourage hikers to try and incorporate a few gentle stretches into their evening routines and post hike rituals.  While you may feel like a total weirdo doing stretches in camp at night or in the parking lot after a long hiker, an important part of keeping your muscles strengthened is helping them recover.  Try to learn a YouTube beginner’s yoga video and try to do it after each time you walk.  Yoga stretches can also help you build your core strength, which is a lot more important during hiking than most people realize.

Remember to Take it Easy-
You’ve learned how to hike with all the weight on your back and now it’s time to test out your skills.  Go out on a practice trip, called a “shakedown” by hikers.  Pack up your gear and do a backpacking trip for a night or two.  Testing out your gear and your trail legs is a great way to build up confidence for your long-distance trip.  Give yourself plenty of daylight hours to get to your destination and take as many breaks as you feel you need.  A steady pace will help you build your endurance for the longer days ahead.

Now that you're in hiking shape, make sure you're trail ready!  Check out my posts on how to pack your backpack, gear you should leave at home, and even how to avoid and treat common hiking injuries.  Of course, after you do all that, make sure you thank your support crew in advance for all the work they'll be doing for you while you're away!

Do you have a long hike coming up in the near future? I’d love to talk with you about it!  Find me on Facebook or Twitter and we can talk about it.