Virginia is for Lovers

At least that is what the bumper stickers say. Not that I see bumper stickers much.... As for hikers we may not all be lovers but we all tend to love Virginia. It seems the minute you officially cross the border into Virginia things get better. The trail does not seem to climb pointless mountains, you hike on old logging roads from time to time, the weather improves, and you can do big mile days without feeling nauseated.You see wild ponies, great vistas without nasty climbing, and some of the most well known landmarks on the trail. It's been a good week for me: it snowed only one day, rained two days, hit 87 degrees (at least) yesterday and on top of a mountain it rained, snowed, hailed, fogged, clouded and became sunny all at once. I often wonder how my body handles such weather changes. The toughest part of the week continues to be hiking on the rocks. I am so thankful everytime I think about "Rocksylvania" and the fact that I don't have to hike there. The rocks here are tearing my feet up but I try to keep a perspective compared to the feet of fellow hikers. Their feet are much worse off.

A few more "tips" for you:
1. As a lady hiker you grow leg muscles. As a male hiker you get scrawny.
I currently have the legs of a figure skater. I look down at them and think: "Sure, we can do a triple toe loop no problem. I mean look at those thighs!"
The more male legs I see on the trail the smaller they get. Sorry boys but men loose lean muscle on the trail.

2. The only part of your hair thats NOT greasy at the end of the week are your split ends.
I can brush through my hair at night (trying to prevent dandruff) and still my split ends are grease free. Yet I could style my hair into any position I want with the grease in the rest of my hair.

3. Hiker hunger can strike at anytime, but that doesn't mean you should always respond.
I was at the one shelter on the trail where you can order pizza delivered. A group of us did. A medium pizza. For each of us. Plus an order of cinnamon sticks (about the size of the medium pizza) to go with them. Well they forgot the cinnamon sticks so the delivery guy went back down the mountain and got us two orders. Needless to say, we all ate our medium pizzas and each ate half a pizza worth of cinnamon sticks. No big deal, I was really full but no big deal, right? Wrong. I then had to hike 7 miles to the next shelter with some pretty nasty climbs. What could be worse after that much pizza but having to put a tight hip belt on? To make things worse it made me super thirsty so I downed about two liters of water on the way. There was a whole lot of sloshing going on in my stomach and plenty of "vurping" all the way to the shelter. Went to bed without cooking.

4. When in town, fresh produce is the way to go.
Tented near a convenience store a bit ago. They sold tomatoes, green peppers and heads of lettuce. Went in with two other hikers and we made a salad using my pot and lid as bowl and cutting board, swiss army knives to cut and it worked out real well. I brought out my salt and my parmesean cheese while they shared their extra virgin olive oil for our dressing. Never has fresh veggies tasted soooo good. So you see, hikers don't always go for the fattiest thing they can find in town. Although we do calorie load quite a lot........

5. You can eat a lot and not feel guilty.
I did a big mile day a week ago. When I got to camp I got my water and cooked. I made a whole box of Kraft Mac and Cheese and ate it. I took two PACKAGES of nutty bars and ate them. I pulled out a fun size pack of skittles and ate them. I could have kept eating. I stopped because some weekenders were looking at me like I was nuts.

6. No, most thru hikers do not like Bill Bryson
This man left a rather bitter taste in the mouth of many a hiker. You write a book, the first half being funny, and complain that there weren't enought towns and hostels to stay at. You hgike 800 miles. You then go to the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy) and apply for 2,000 miler credit. Tsk Tsk. The ATC does not ask for proof of the 2,000 miles walked, but they know he didn't. It really put them in a funny spot.

God is so Good

Let me start out by saying that my previous post was supposed to have a bit of dry sarcastic humor. I have received this huge email with concern for my state of mind. I admit I was struggling and considered ditching the trail. I took the sage advice of Bojangles instead which was; "If you ever consider quiting wait two days. I've met so many people who have returned to the trail and regretted quiting earlier. " So I waited and stayed.

I now want to thank all of you who have been praying for me. God's blessings have been raining down upon me this week in abundance. I had three days of straight sunshine, four wonderful companions to see throughout the days and nights and a sense of contentment I had not experienced before. As I thank you for your prayers I now ask you to continue praying for me. God calls us to be the salt and light of the world and this task is not always so easy. I find myself to be continually defending Christianity in this small travelling community of hikers. I have, in moments of cowardice, missed the opportunity to share more about the gospel.

In the absence of a weekly fellowship on Sunday or any Christian hiking companions my devotional and Gideon Bible are all I have to strengthen and encourage me. I dearly miss the fellowship and fell the lack of Christian companionship heavily. Please pray for boldness in sharing my faith with others. People here mostly know I am a Christian but they frequently make disparaging remarks at times. I am often correcting their misconceptions, or at least I am trying to.

Aside from a heavy growth of blisters, numb toes, and a worrisome sore on my ear, things are looking good. I have three days of rain ahead and I found bruises today that my friends say I've had for a week and a half, but I feel okay. Ever northward!

A day in the life of....

Some people have been asking me what a typical day is like on the trail so I thought I would run through a typical itinerary for you, starting with midnight of that day.

12-4am sleep restless awakening to heavy wind, rain on the tin roof, animal sounds, snoring and people shuffling in their sleeping bags. huddle down further in an attempt to stay warm and pull your fleece cap back on your greasy head

4-6am Awaken at multiple intervals knowing you have to pee, you double check to make sure your headlamp is close at hand in case the urge gets too strong. wondering if you can hold out till 7 am or so. You play the number game of how cold it is out compared to the interior of your sleeping bag with how many people will you awaken in the shelter related to how bad you have to go.

6-7am The urge to pee is quite strong and you wish you were a boy so it wasn't such a big deal

7am-8am You get up to pee but try to be nonchallant about how bad you have to go now that other people are up and moving around. You get dressed (meaning you may add a layer, you are already wearing the clothes you hiked in the day before they were your jammies). It's cold out and you hop around while you cook breakfast (oatmeal) or eat cold (pop tarts) depending on the mileage you plan to do and if you feel like lighting up your stove or not. Eventually you build up oatmeal in your food bag and end up cooking frequently near town. You pack up your stuff. Sleeping bag, pad and everything gets repacked everyday so it becomes a quick system. You check your water level and how soon the next source is on the trail....do you have enough to get you there? You also look at the elevation changes in the book and figure there will be twice as many ascents as descents that you see stated there. (pack put on)

8-9am You get the trail rhythm on the trail, fresh calories in the system and you move at a decent clip. You have a snack

9-11am You wonder why you decided to do 18 miles today seeing as you have only covered 2-6 miles at this point. You think about the fellow hikers before you and after you....you wonder if you can safely pee before someone comes over the crest and sees you (pack taken off). You have a snack.

11am-1pm You stop for lunch (pack taken off). You hate the trail and how long it is. You figure out for the umpteenth time how long until the shelter you stop at for the night. You may ascend to a clear vista on a mountain but it is (fill in the blank with one of the following: foggy, rainy, snowy, windy, freezing) and there is no 360 vista anywhere to be seen. A lot of climbing for nothing. You have a snack along with your lunch of big snacks.

1-4pm Your mind really starts to wander. You've sang all the songs you know in your head (or out loud). You've prayed about the pain in your (fill in the blank here: foot, ankle, toe, knee, shoulder, neck, hip, back, muscle, bone, leg) and the amount of miles you have to cover. You imagine being at Battle Lake or what it was like to be (fill in the blank here: warm, cool, comfortable, without a pack, in flipflops, working, clean, fresh smelling, normal, around people). You find a water source .3 miles down a very tough blue blaze trail that barely trickles anything you wish you filtered instead of purified.You pee (pack off). You have a snack.

4-5pm You start to look for the shelter even though you KNOW that it is at least another 1-2 hours out. Every large downed tree over a horizon is a possible roof and every squeaking tree (there are a lot of them) are people talking at the shelter. (you think about taking off your pack). You have a snack.

5-6pm You arrive at the shelter and claim your spot by rolling out your therma rest and laying out your sleeping bag. Hopefully by a wall where there is more wind/rain/snow protection and more privacy for the one woman in the shelter. Your pack explodes out everything in it. You get water from the nearby source. You have a snack and then you eat your dinner of (fill in the blank here: ramen noodles and instant potato concoction, noodles and sauce, rice and sauce) with spices added in. You clean up your pot and stove with camp soap and hang it from a mouse hanger. You hang your pack as well. If the shelter has a known bear problem or everyone else is you either bear cable (provided by the USFS) or you bear bag (which is a whole other blog subject).

6-7pm You do your devotions, read, greet people coming in late, feel good about the day and plan the next one. You chat. You have a snack (just kidding you brush your teeth).

7-8pm You climb into bed and hope to be warm enough. If it's a really cold night you have your nalgene bottle filled with water heated from your stove preheating your bag. You put it everywhere your body is cold. You pee.

8-9pm You start to fall asleep.

9-12am You try and sleep, getting some good rest before being soundly awoken and laying there for awhile. You are still chilly and moving your water bottle around to stay warm. You wish you could have a snack (you're feeling hungry again)

In all honesty, some days are great, some are battles of wanting to quit and being lonely. The days end in the shelter with friends has kept me going the past week. The weather has been brutal and I can only hope for better weather days and less mental battles!

The Groan on Roan

Well, I went out on the trail for the purpose of an adventure. On day 9 I started to question this idea. What's so adventerous about hiking and sleeping outside? I mean is it really exciting? Or monotonous in some ways? Do I mind the monotony of it all? This was, of corse, hiking on my first completely sunny day of the hike
Day 10 I awake to a cold front having come through. The wind was biting and cold and the best thing to do was to hike and get warm. I knew I only wanted to go 10 miles because the forecast was for snow that night and I didn't want to be at the shelter 20 miles away at 6,225 feet. 1 mile into my hike it began to rain. I put my pack cover on. About 1 mile later it started to sleet and really started to blow. Soon it was snowing. By the time I reached the 10 mile shelter the snow had started to really cover the ground. Few plants were sticking up through the layer of white and the temperature was dropping. It was only 1:30 in the afternoon. The idea of sitting in that shelter with 70% of the inside snowed on, awaiting night time and trying to stay warm was a horrifying prospect for me. When I found out that most people were moving on to the Roan Mountain shelter I didn't care about the 6,225 feet. I wanted to get moving and get warm. I put my extra pair of hiking socks on my hands to keep them warm while I hiked. I started out and the snow got heavier I left the shelter with the temperature at 32 degrees and I still had to go up another 2,000 feet. After 5 miles of heavy struggling in the snow I found a water source that I knew I had to get water from. I hated the idea. I was getting cold, I would have to stop hiking, everything away from my body heat was frozen including clothing, pack straps, shoelaces, water bottle....all of it. The couple I was hiking in front of followed me down the trail and we found a little trickle of water. Barely anything. It was pure torture standing there in the cold without a pack to keep your back warm. It took us half an hour to collect water. Way to long. We had 1,000 feet to go and 1.5 miles. It was gettng late, the storm was getting more vicious and there was about 4 inches of snow on the ground.
When we reached the sheler (one with a door!!!!!!) the door wouldn't open. It was locked. A man called from the inside to wait a moment. He opened the door and there he sat with his 6 year old son in a tent. The tent was smack dab in the middle of the room. We eventually told him we all wanted to set up our tents. We barely fit. At this point I was shivering severely, things were freezing, nd I wanted my sleeping bag and that was it. The temp in the cabin was a thankful 24 degrees. I did the chilling job of going out and peeing in the driving wind and snow and flew back to the cabin into my sleeping bag. I couldn't cook, my fuel pump was full of snow and I really didn't want to cook. I ate a frozen clif bar and frozen granola and tried to get warm. It was the coldest night in my memory. I shivered non stop the whole night, my feet burned they were so cold and I was miserable.
We awoke the next morning to 16 degree weather, 8 inches of snow and heavy wind continuing. I knew right then and there that I had to hike out. It was going to be colder yet that night and I didn't want to be out in that weather anymore. I told the people in the sheter I would like to leave, but tha I would not vnture in that weather alone if anyone else wanted to leave. I needed to be wise, but I wanted to be warm and hiking was my only source of warmth at that point. The couple agreed, we decided to walk out to Carvers Gap and hitch in to Roan Mountain City. We donned frozen socks, boots, laces, packs, frozen tents and poles packed, frozen water.... On the walk the snow had heavy drifts and it was a bit of post holing...but what an adventure! I only had to laugh at myself and my idea of hikig being boring. Dumb me. We hitched a ride into town, I stayed at a hostel and it took me 24 hours to stop shivering. No lie.
The man with his child? Asked us to call search and rescue to get him out when we got reception. He ended up staying at the hostel I was staying at, and he ruined my hiking pole.
I am now sitting in a laundromat, coffeebar, internet cafe in TN. Warm but sick of the rain that followed all that snow.

Bring me your tired....

On the trail for over a week! I have now done over 100 miles of the AT and feeling not too bad about it. Had some tough days since my last post, but working though the kinks. I keep telling myself this: "If you like it this much in cold, nasty, rainy/snowy weather, think how much you'll like it when it's nice!!" I am holding out in hopes that the weather will get better eventually. I don't think weather will take me off the trail but I sure would like to see some nice stuff. (By the way forecast for snow and below freezing temps in my hiking sections on Tuesday)

Now that I have been on the trail for a week I have learned a few things. Let me share them with you:

1. Your mother always told you never trust a stranger. As a hiker I say: Never trust a map.
I had hiked about 8.7 miles to a shelter just as the sun was peeking out for a bit. I met a day hiker there with a map. I wanted to hike in the nice weather, and he had a topographic map. He showed it to me and said "The next six miles aren't too bad a tough climb to start with but then ridge walking and a bit of decent to the shelter." I see and agree and decide to proceed. After the big climb, a spring for water boost and 4 miles I pass a sign: Blue blaze-bad weather white blaze- ridge top. The sun is out I have no excuse so I go up. I go up and scrabble up rocks and down rocks and over rocks and trip and slip. The views are majestic but the rocks are killing me. Two days later I read a fellow hikers guide: Most technical rock climbing until New Hampshire. Great.
2. Hiker appetites are not voracious across the board.
I cannot eat. When I eat I gag. The food tastes fine but I can hardly get it down. I sit next to men who can down three to four times the food I eat in a sitting and do it in a fourth the time it takes me. I don't think I have EVER seen people eat so much. I look on in jealousy. I miss food. I need the calories. I think my metabolism is down to zero.

3. When there is no mirror, you assess yourself different in the morning.
I have heard of women going 6 months without a mirror in an attempt to learn something about themselves. These are women showering everyday of course and walking on streets and working in the normal population. I like this idea. I wake up without showering for 5 days, horribly greasy hair and smelly armpits and decide my esteem based on something other than the mirror. Its liberating.

4. You can hike 20.8 miles and not die of exhaustion.
I did it yesterday. It felt good to go so far in one day, but I would not do it every day. After all, the trail is supposed to be enjoyed somewhat.

5. You can go days without seeing another woman and thats okay.
The last time I saw a woman (besides at lunch at the pizza place today) was 6 days ago. I sleep in shelters with men every night and I trust all of them. I also trust they would protect me. I do not trust men who I have never met or have not been introduced to by another thru hiker. Safety is key.

6. Hiking poles are a must.
Not for everyone but always for me. They have saved me from many a rolled ankle, spill on a mountain, and have helped my knees a lot.

All other things aside I feel pretty good. I have some days ahead of me that I am sure I will struggle with but I feel like it is all part of the experience. No muscle pain yet (thanks Linda and Suzan!) but a heck of a lot of knee pain. Sometimes I fairly gallop across certain areas with my gimpy right knee trailing behind.

In the past few days: I fell flat on my back in the mud. I yelled at the mountain after a day of severe wind which blew my pack cover off, and blew me off the trail 4 or 5 times and froze my hands. I have laughed. I have pooped in the woods. I have smiled. I have had fun.