Meditations on Appalachia

Remember those monster blister? Well, they won. I did not get nearly as far as I wanted this run on the AT, just made it to the mid-atlantic regional office, about 100 miles. Combined with the dirt, sweat, and mosquitoes made for a pretty miserable time, and I got off the trail early. It is a wonderfully easy and historic (civil war) part of the trail, though.

I think it will be a long time before I consider making another attempt. Better motivation is key, and I think I’d want to do the remaining 1100 miles in one go. I’m all for camping, but hiking multiple days without bathing isn’t so appealing anymore.

So now I’m heading back to DC to see my sister again. Still a rainy summer on the east coast.

With a mighty thanks to my mom for the warm up slack packing, and a renewed appreciation for showers, adieu.

Reached the official halfway marker today for 2011 at 1090.5 miles. At Pine Grove Furnace State Park I attempted the half way half gallon of ice-cream challenge, but it seems my non starved stomach is not up to putting away as many calories as it used to on these events and I was only able to get through a quart. I always seem to overestimate how much distance I am going to be able to cover over a given time long term. After slackpacking a few days I was ready to cut my goal from getting to CT to just finishing PA. Now after fullpacking for two days my feet may have other plans as I have developed some of the grossest caked blisters I have ever seen. Maybe there was more to liner socks than I thought.

Still slacking, and just steps south of the Mason Dixon line. The trail through MD was mostly flat, but my legs still hate me. I find myself reevaluating both my trail goals for this round and my life goals. What would you do if Ira Flatow gave you a blank check?

Bit of a late start, but I’m getting on the trail today. Going to slack pack for a bit till my legs get going again. After my last snafu in Harpers Ferry I finally got my photo taken and registered with the ATC. Not sure how I feel about the blue section hiker categorization but oh well. It sure is hot out, but they said it’s been raining a lot too (ugh) so the water is running goof in PA. I must say I am a bit apprehensive about all this, I wonder what my headspace will be like.

Here she is, my life partner for the month of June. Weighing in at 21 pounds without food or water.

We head to New Haven CT today to see my sister’s digs, then to NYC over the weekend to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, and finally to WV.

Well, after two years being off the trail and getting voted out of the Nathan Cummings I thought it was high time to do some hiking again. I got off the Appalatian Trail 6 June 2009 and will start walking where I left off 1 June 2011. I hope to do a ~450 mile section from Harpers Ferry, WV to the Amtrak Station in NY.

Well, I’m now embarking on the adventure that brought me off the trail: Grad School.  I will be studying Intermedia through the Herberger College of Art at Arizona State University.  I hope to resume hiking the AT as early as next May, but that may be more of a financial issue.  Until then, my blogging will return to my personal art blog at http://www.matthewmosher.us/blog/.  Good luck to everyone still on the trail!

The first thing I noticed when I got to DC was that, amazingly, there were as many women in the train station as there were men.  Might not seem that weird to you, but after living for three months with a 4 to one men to women ratio, I was somewhat dumbfounded.  So yeah, Ladies, if you’re looking for athletic guys in their 20’3 or 60’s, try hiking the trail.

Another thing that’s been weird is just being around people who don’t have the exact same goal as you.  Like, there are all these people living their own lives in the world.  It’s kind of nuts.  I got quite used to everyone doing the same thing and having the same good times and having same problems.

My ability to multi task is at an abominable low, but using the computer is helping it come back.  Decisions are still daunting; there’s so many more options off trail!

And I totally miss fast food.

Another great piece of gear is the Sea to Summit Kitchen sink.  It’s like a water bag, but shallower and with a wider opening at the top, but still carries 10L of water.  It’s not the lightest thing in the world, but I would use it practically every other night to either rinse myself off after sweating all day, or to wash my shirt and underwear.  Because of the kitchen sink I smelt and looked a lot better than I did going through the smokies.  I also felt less like I had to rush into town to bathe and do laundry because I could do a little of both on the trail.  I never actually used it to clean my cookware in.

This is by far the best piece of gear I had on the trail; thank you dad!  Though I would never hike with it on, it kept me super warm when I would get into camp on those cold days in North Carolina.  It’s so light that I kept it with me through Harper’s Ferry just in case, and a good thing too because I slept with it on on several occasions for the extra warmth.  It’s also good to wear when you’re doing laundry.  A word of caution, though, it is an INNER jacket, so while it is slightly water resistant, the material is very thin and can easily snag on branches / sharp objects, but as long as you’re careful this should never be a problem.