I just noticed today that the original version of this blog post was deleted! This is what I think happened: We bought a Smartphone last week to have for the Trail and I tested it out for blogging Sunday afternoon before we went to a coffee shop. I wrote a paragraph on the phone and finished off the LONG post at the coffee shop on our computer. Today when I checked back at the website, I found only that first paragraph I wrote on my phone. I think I forgot to close the app so after I finished the post on the computer, the Blogger app that was still open on my phone thought its one paragraph was the updated version and automatically saved over the post I had written at the coffee shop. Oh well! I'll just have to write it again.
We purchased a used Samsung Galaxy Glide to function primarily as camera, music player, and blog writing device, as well as for a phone on the Appalachian Trail. We don't know much about Smartphones, but chose this one for the 8 MP camera and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The only negative thing about it so far is that the battery doesn't last too long while using most apps that require looking at the screen. We will keep it in airplane mode while on the Trail and use it there solely for the camera and music player. Blogging will be done in towns where I can find an outlet. Still, I will always choose a computer over the phone if a computer is available because it takes extreme patience to write on a phone, as I learned in the time it took to write that one paragraph. We plan on using StraightTalk with our phone on the AT since we have no need for expensive service with long contracts. We won't get this plan until we leave for the AT, but for now we can use the phone for a camera and in our home where we have wifi.
Now to our second multi-day hike together! The government shutdown forced us to change our plans for our multi-day hike. The island we wanted to go to was on national park land so it was closed. There will be no more ferries traveling over there until next year so we might just have to go after the Appalachian Trail. It seems strange that in a year from now we will have already completed the AT. At least we better have, since Baxter State Park, where Mt. Katahdin is, closes on October 15th. It seems weird that after almost six years of service in the Marine Corps Reserve, I only have two months left. I can finally leave the Midwest and explore more of America. And after that, I can explore the world! And grow a great beard and ponytail!
In any case, we decided to hike the only multi-day hiking trail in southern Michigan: the Waterloo-Pinckney Trail. It is 36 miles long. The first night of our trip we slept at a campground before beginning our hike. We brought along my wife's sixteen-year-old brother for the adventure as a late birthday present. The last time we went for a multi-day hike we had a problem with our sleeping pads splitting apart from each other during the night, which is problematic since we share a large sleeping quilt. My wife came up with the idea of bringing along a fitted sheet to keep them together which worked well. As we tried to fall asleep, I noticed my pad was sinking more and more to the ground and I was getting colder and colder. Finally, I took it out of the tent to examine it and we found a small hole. The pads came with repair kits, but we didn't bring them and we didn't have anything else with us that could fix it. So we just made do with one fully functional pad for the rest of the hike.
In the morning the outside of both the inner and outer portions of our tent were soaked even though it hadn't rained. The dew pint must have been quite high. Our inner tent hasn't ever been that wet even after severe thunderstorms all night long. Thankfully, we stayed mostly dry, except my brother-in-law who was shoved to the one side of our two-person tent and was touching the wall. We brought along our new rain ponchos, but sadly never got to try them out. We will have to test them later, perhaps just take a hike through the town next time it rains hard.
I'd say we hiked pretty well. We put in 14 miles the first day, 15 the next and 7 miles in half a day to finish it off. We were really pumped to get to a restaurant at the end. That is one thing I am really excited about the AT: the food we get in towns will taste SO good after a few days of hiking. We'll get to experience that over and over again. In my normal life I indulge in what I love and it becomes dull-tasting. It is hard to appreciate that which I can have whenever I want.
The Waterloo-Pinckney Trail itself was not as beautiful as the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Trail, but it probably looks more like much of the AT will be like. We encountered a lot of horseback riders, mountain bikers, and snakes. I found that I didn't pay much attention to the scenery over the three days of hiking through the woods. I get lost in my own head a lot. Toward the end of the hike my wife and brother-in-law were talking about the dozens of chipmunks they had seen, when I had only noticed one the entire time.
One of the things I was really excited about on this trip was to try out our new pot with my homemade alcohol stove. On all the hikes I have ever gone on I have simply brought leftover MREs from training. They come with individual one-time-use heaters, which are basically some chemicals in a bag that activate with water. I had no need for a stove. But MREs are heavy and what I have wouldn't last us very long on the AT. I will write up a full report on my DIY stove in my next blog post. And now I can post photos with our new phone!
Lessons for the Trail:
Bring all repair kits.
Bring ductape (this would have been useful for repairing the sleeping pad and I've read that it comes in handy a lot for a myriad of reasons from too many thru-hikers not to bring it now).
Take time out to intentionally spend significant amounts of time focusing on small parts of nature, like a view from a cliff or a single leaf, letting the beauty and complexity of this world enrapture me.
Figure out an easy way to clean our pot.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Just a Few Notes
My wife and I have been quite busy for the past few weeks which is why I have not posted anything recently. We both are working more hours now which is great for saving money for the Trail. We have also been slowly accumulating some more gear.
We both bought shoes to hike in that are expensive and light. There are so many options available out there. We just went with what the experts at outdoorgearlab.com recommended. I am not worried about my feet. I usually don't have any problems with my feet. I wear my shoes out, refusing to purchase a new pair until the shoes get so many holes they start looking more like sandals. I have walked around barefoot a lot, especially in my college days. I went everywhere shoeless, even to a job interview. That was probably a mistake. I didn't get that job. Anyway, my feet are tough. Whenever I go on long treks with the Marines, I end them blister-free while many others are licking their sore, blister-covered feet. Once a friend donned my shoes to make a quick run across the street to get something he needed, and when he returned a few minutes later his heels were worn through, red and hurting. I wore those shoes all the time and never had a problem. After reading about how much thruhikers have problems with their feet and about how no one makes it in one pair of shoes (some burning through several pairs before the end), I want to try making it in one pair of shoes. This isn't really a serious challenge and I know there is slim to no chance of making it, but we'll see how it goes. I read about how we should buy shoes half a size bigger since our feet will swell up with all the walking. I am just worried that won't be enough when wearing thicker socks as well.
We also bought a titanium cooking pot that can hold 1.3 L. Titanium is super light and it really was a no brainer to go this route. It is just more expensive. I have tested out building my own alcohol stove which went pretty well. It is super easy, but I am not the most crafty person. I am also not a perfectionist and have a hard time being patient enough to make something as perfect as I could. So I am going to build at least two more, until I can perfect it. I am also going to cook meals in two different sizes of stove to determine which is more efficient. Once I run though this gamut I'll post about the whole experience.
I was going to write a post reviewing the books I've read about long-distance hiking and the Appalachian Trail, but discovered I haven't read that many. So I am currently scouring my library for every book about the Appalachian Trail. I have read eight so far and will read a few more before I write about them.
We have been planning on taking another multi-day hike on an island for quite some time, but logistically we couldn't make it work until now. We will be going in a week and a half, just in time, as the ferry to the island closes for the season right after we finish. We will be going north to Sleeping Bear Dunes and spend one night in a backcountry campsite near the shore before taking the ferry to North Manitou Island, which is completely uninhabited. It is nearly eight miles long and over four miles wide. The shoreline goes 20 miles around. It will probably be quite cold up there so it will be good to test out our gear in those kinds of conditions similar to the first couple of months of our Appalachian Trail journey.
At long last we decided to buy ponchos instead of the combination of rain jackets and a rain cover for the packs. This decision is the one I am most hesitant about so far, but we will just have to test them out. I read forum after forum of hikers arguing about whether ponchos or rain jackets are better. Both have very obvious pros and cons. The main thing to keep in mind is that when we are on the Trail we will get wet a lot. Nothing can stop that. The ponchos are about keeping us warm enough not to get hypothermia when it is both rainy and cold. Hopefully, it will rain on the island so we can see how well they work. If we stick with the ponchos we will also probably add some rain pants. We didn't buy cheap ponchos at Walmart, but stronger ponchos designed for backpacking.
We both bought shoes to hike in that are expensive and light. There are so many options available out there. We just went with what the experts at outdoorgearlab.com recommended. I am not worried about my feet. I usually don't have any problems with my feet. I wear my shoes out, refusing to purchase a new pair until the shoes get so many holes they start looking more like sandals. I have walked around barefoot a lot, especially in my college days. I went everywhere shoeless, even to a job interview. That was probably a mistake. I didn't get that job. Anyway, my feet are tough. Whenever I go on long treks with the Marines, I end them blister-free while many others are licking their sore, blister-covered feet. Once a friend donned my shoes to make a quick run across the street to get something he needed, and when he returned a few minutes later his heels were worn through, red and hurting. I wore those shoes all the time and never had a problem. After reading about how much thruhikers have problems with their feet and about how no one makes it in one pair of shoes (some burning through several pairs before the end), I want to try making it in one pair of shoes. This isn't really a serious challenge and I know there is slim to no chance of making it, but we'll see how it goes. I read about how we should buy shoes half a size bigger since our feet will swell up with all the walking. I am just worried that won't be enough when wearing thicker socks as well.
We also bought a titanium cooking pot that can hold 1.3 L. Titanium is super light and it really was a no brainer to go this route. It is just more expensive. I have tested out building my own alcohol stove which went pretty well. It is super easy, but I am not the most crafty person. I am also not a perfectionist and have a hard time being patient enough to make something as perfect as I could. So I am going to build at least two more, until I can perfect it. I am also going to cook meals in two different sizes of stove to determine which is more efficient. Once I run though this gamut I'll post about the whole experience.
I was going to write a post reviewing the books I've read about long-distance hiking and the Appalachian Trail, but discovered I haven't read that many. So I am currently scouring my library for every book about the Appalachian Trail. I have read eight so far and will read a few more before I write about them.
We have been planning on taking another multi-day hike on an island for quite some time, but logistically we couldn't make it work until now. We will be going in a week and a half, just in time, as the ferry to the island closes for the season right after we finish. We will be going north to Sleeping Bear Dunes and spend one night in a backcountry campsite near the shore before taking the ferry to North Manitou Island, which is completely uninhabited. It is nearly eight miles long and over four miles wide. The shoreline goes 20 miles around. It will probably be quite cold up there so it will be good to test out our gear in those kinds of conditions similar to the first couple of months of our Appalachian Trail journey.
At long last we decided to buy ponchos instead of the combination of rain jackets and a rain cover for the packs. This decision is the one I am most hesitant about so far, but we will just have to test them out. I read forum after forum of hikers arguing about whether ponchos or rain jackets are better. Both have very obvious pros and cons. The main thing to keep in mind is that when we are on the Trail we will get wet a lot. Nothing can stop that. The ponchos are about keeping us warm enough not to get hypothermia when it is both rainy and cold. Hopefully, it will rain on the island so we can see how well they work. If we stick with the ponchos we will also probably add some rain pants. We didn't buy cheap ponchos at Walmart, but stronger ponchos designed for backpacking.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Half A Year Til' Zero Hour
At this point I don't think a day passes that I don't think about the Appalachian Trail. I read books about it. I read other people's blogs about it. I watch YouTube clips about it. I am a part of the official 2014 Thru-hiker's Facebook page and a fan of the A.T. Guide's Facebook page. It is easy for me to get excited while reading stories from the Trail or watching endless videos of thru-hikers' gear or of the scenery. My wife and I have also watched the National Geographic video on the Appalachian Trail. A lot of these stories and video may not be very interesting to most people, but for all thru-hikers-to-be they are fascinating! Some days I spend hours perusing blogs and videos. I noticed some bloggers have included a countdown meter on a sidebar which, I can imagine, must be very exciting to see as the numbers dwindle away. My wife and I have decided to leave in March, preferably earlier rather than later, but not the 1st or a weekend so things won't be TOO crowded. Since thousands attempt a thru-hike, and most are hiking from Georgia to Maine, the Trail is extremely crowded at the beginning. Everyone has a small window of time to begin hiking in order to make it in time before Baxter State Park, where the northern terminus of the AT is, closes. Most hikers begin in March or April. We don't have a date set in stone yet though, so we can't have a fancy countdown!
Anyway, in case you've thought I've become too philosophical and serious with my recent posts, I'm posting a video made by a young couple who thru-hiked in 2012. The video is very inspirational and my wife and I have watched it at least twice together. It really excites us for our time on the Trail! Enjoy!
Anyway, in case you've thought I've become too philosophical and serious with my recent posts, I'm posting a video made by a young couple who thru-hiked in 2012. The video is very inspirational and my wife and I have watched it at least twice together. It really excites us for our time on the Trail! Enjoy!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Are You Not Entertained?
A few days ago I told a coworker about my thru-hking plans and he replied in disgust. He said he had a friend who hiked the Trail and after one week the friend had an alright time, but after two weeks he was completely bored. Still, he hiked the entire Trail. I have read about this boredom from other thru-hikers before. After all, each day consists of the same thing: walking from sun-up to sun-down. The natural scenes around thru-hikers might seem wonderful and exciting to see at first, but as it seems to go with all humans, a lot of anything can make us complacent and long for anything at all that appears new. Maybe this isn't natural. Maybe we are taught to easily lose interest with the now because we are taught to want the new toy for Christmas, we want to hear the new music, and see the new television shows and movies.
This brings me to our entertainment culture. We don't have any excuse to be bored in our lives. We have so much we can fill our time with. If we aren't working, eating, or spending time with friends, there are plenty of options for entertainment all around us. In reality, for a lot of us entertainment is a big, if not the biggest sphere of our lives. Perhaps we can see this in the television watching habits of some American families. Recently, a few friends admitted that it seems strange to eat dinner at a table because when they were kids, the entire family would gather around the television set for dinner every night. Perhaps the growing number of young men and women who still play video games well into their thirties is also an indication.
I do think entertainment has value. First of all, entertainment can be art. I don't think all entertainment can be classified as art however. A lot may have some kind of aesthetic quality, but a lot of producers of entertainment are simply trying to make money and entertainment is more easily consumed than art. Therefore, humans are more apt to consume television, film, music etc. that is more purely entertaining than artistic. However, if people are willing to put some work into what they view, read, listen to, etc, a lot can be gleaned. Properly engaging art requires work, otherwise a lot that art can give is lost. Surely people can enjoy art viscerally and it well should be. However, in my experience, when I have taken the time to go deeper in engagement with a particular piece, I enjoy it considerably more. Sometimes all it takes is a closer look at the painting, a second look at the film scene, a rereading of the paragraph in the novel a few times. This can trigger the mind to go places it wouldn't at first exposure. Sometimes it takes a little more work. Sometimes it requires asking yourself questions that seem meaningless or easy to answer at first to get somewhere. A good place to start is with your own visceral reactions. Perhaps after watching a scene in a movie you feel sad or angry or happy. Ask yourself why you feel this way? How did the creator of the work make you feel that way? These can lead to greater question and more understanding. Art is, after all, supposed to be saying something. It is revealing a particular point of view about life, love, a certain culture, etc. I have missed a lot if I walk away having only been entertained. But this happens to me often! I want to be lazy and just enjoy it. I want to be entertained. I don't want to work. Sometimes I make myself feel better by throwing on an "artistic" film, and yet do not engage it all in my mind. But this might not be any better than watching a popcorn flick full of the same-old car chases and shoot-outs or the complication in the relationship that ends up working out in the end for the two main characters as they kiss passionately until the credits roll. I think it is pretty easy to steer away from the big-budget, pure-entertainment blockbusters, pop music, and fake reality television shows. It just takes good judgment and the willingness to find ones that have artistic value. After that, it only takes some thoughtful analysis to truly allow the art to have a voice. The hardest part to overcome is the desire to take the easy way out, to be lazy and just be entertained.
That being said, I also think there is a time and place to allow yourself a complete rest. This is time when it is quite right to enjoy entertainment for nothing else, but to be entertained. I just think that people, in general, go to extremes. Some really indulge in entertainment too much. They just consume it and allow themselves to become passive receptors to all the latest movies and television shows. I think I fall into this extreme because I am a lover of film and literature in particular. But I also watch a lot of silly television shows. There can be a lot of psychological reasons why someone would be inclined to allow themselves to sink into entertainment too much. On the other extreme, there are a lot of people who let work consume them. Our culture can put a lot of pressure on people to work a lot and to work hard for the kind of salary that will provide a nice car, a nice house, and all the safety nets available for their families. I know some people who just have a drive to let their work run their lives, even when it is something they don't REALLY enjoy doing. The general desire for or appearance of SUCCESS can be haunting. I see some of these people work themselves so hard that when they do rest, they look like zombies. They may not immerse themselves in entertainment regularly, but when they do, they go deep. I think this is also unhealthy.
Ideally, I think people need to find a nice medium where work is enjoyable, but doesn't consume too much of our lives. Then we can rest in pure entertainment for a tiny bit. Mostly though, we should find ways to rest that are actually beneficial such as a proper engagement with art. Or a walk in nature for silence and solitude. The most important thing that I think entertainment has destroyed is the space and time we need to be with ourselves with no distractions so we can listen to that still, small voice inside us that is trying to tell us the hows and whys of life. How can I live meaningfully? How can I forgive? How can I be truly humble?
We quiet it by turning the knob of our television sets. We become little gods when we sit on our couches with a tub of popcorn. We are immortal as that flickering light dances before us. We do not fear during that time. We do not want. We are not haunted. We have no past and no future. We don't hear a voice asking more of us. We are complete and satisfied.
So I welcome the boredom! I long for it! We run from ourselves too much! We must come back. Come back and discover who we truly are.
This brings me to our entertainment culture. We don't have any excuse to be bored in our lives. We have so much we can fill our time with. If we aren't working, eating, or spending time with friends, there are plenty of options for entertainment all around us. In reality, for a lot of us entertainment is a big, if not the biggest sphere of our lives. Perhaps we can see this in the television watching habits of some American families. Recently, a few friends admitted that it seems strange to eat dinner at a table because when they were kids, the entire family would gather around the television set for dinner every night. Perhaps the growing number of young men and women who still play video games well into their thirties is also an indication.
I do think entertainment has value. First of all, entertainment can be art. I don't think all entertainment can be classified as art however. A lot may have some kind of aesthetic quality, but a lot of producers of entertainment are simply trying to make money and entertainment is more easily consumed than art. Therefore, humans are more apt to consume television, film, music etc. that is more purely entertaining than artistic. However, if people are willing to put some work into what they view, read, listen to, etc, a lot can be gleaned. Properly engaging art requires work, otherwise a lot that art can give is lost. Surely people can enjoy art viscerally and it well should be. However, in my experience, when I have taken the time to go deeper in engagement with a particular piece, I enjoy it considerably more. Sometimes all it takes is a closer look at the painting, a second look at the film scene, a rereading of the paragraph in the novel a few times. This can trigger the mind to go places it wouldn't at first exposure. Sometimes it takes a little more work. Sometimes it requires asking yourself questions that seem meaningless or easy to answer at first to get somewhere. A good place to start is with your own visceral reactions. Perhaps after watching a scene in a movie you feel sad or angry or happy. Ask yourself why you feel this way? How did the creator of the work make you feel that way? These can lead to greater question and more understanding. Art is, after all, supposed to be saying something. It is revealing a particular point of view about life, love, a certain culture, etc. I have missed a lot if I walk away having only been entertained. But this happens to me often! I want to be lazy and just enjoy it. I want to be entertained. I don't want to work. Sometimes I make myself feel better by throwing on an "artistic" film, and yet do not engage it all in my mind. But this might not be any better than watching a popcorn flick full of the same-old car chases and shoot-outs or the complication in the relationship that ends up working out in the end for the two main characters as they kiss passionately until the credits roll. I think it is pretty easy to steer away from the big-budget, pure-entertainment blockbusters, pop music, and fake reality television shows. It just takes good judgment and the willingness to find ones that have artistic value. After that, it only takes some thoughtful analysis to truly allow the art to have a voice. The hardest part to overcome is the desire to take the easy way out, to be lazy and just be entertained.
That being said, I also think there is a time and place to allow yourself a complete rest. This is time when it is quite right to enjoy entertainment for nothing else, but to be entertained. I just think that people, in general, go to extremes. Some really indulge in entertainment too much. They just consume it and allow themselves to become passive receptors to all the latest movies and television shows. I think I fall into this extreme because I am a lover of film and literature in particular. But I also watch a lot of silly television shows. There can be a lot of psychological reasons why someone would be inclined to allow themselves to sink into entertainment too much. On the other extreme, there are a lot of people who let work consume them. Our culture can put a lot of pressure on people to work a lot and to work hard for the kind of salary that will provide a nice car, a nice house, and all the safety nets available for their families. I know some people who just have a drive to let their work run their lives, even when it is something they don't REALLY enjoy doing. The general desire for or appearance of SUCCESS can be haunting. I see some of these people work themselves so hard that when they do rest, they look like zombies. They may not immerse themselves in entertainment regularly, but when they do, they go deep. I think this is also unhealthy.
Ideally, I think people need to find a nice medium where work is enjoyable, but doesn't consume too much of our lives. Then we can rest in pure entertainment for a tiny bit. Mostly though, we should find ways to rest that are actually beneficial such as a proper engagement with art. Or a walk in nature for silence and solitude. The most important thing that I think entertainment has destroyed is the space and time we need to be with ourselves with no distractions so we can listen to that still, small voice inside us that is trying to tell us the hows and whys of life. How can I live meaningfully? How can I forgive? How can I be truly humble?
We quiet it by turning the knob of our television sets. We become little gods when we sit on our couches with a tub of popcorn. We are immortal as that flickering light dances before us. We do not fear during that time. We do not want. We are not haunted. We have no past and no future. We don't hear a voice asking more of us. We are complete and satisfied.
So I welcome the boredom! I long for it! We run from ourselves too much! We must come back. Come back and discover who we truly are.
Friday, August 9, 2013
A Personal History of Technology
Today I had a day off from work after many days and hours of tiresome retail drudgery. Yesterday, I planned to spend most of my time out of the house. I was going to ride my bike for a few hours, spend some time in the cool summer air, and rest in a coffee house, reading, writing, and sipping a latte. It sounded so glorious. But I didn't get to do any of that. Why not?
First, I wanted to finish the dishes. But as I did the dishes, I decided to watch a couple of videos. So then I had to finish the video I was watching after I was done with the dishes. That reminded me of another quick video I thought would be nice to be able to watch while I had free time. Then I checked Facebook and e-mail. Then I looked something up that I had on my mind and read about it for a little while. By then, the day out would be shorter than planned, but still good. But then I felt tired and thought it would be nice to just relax a little on my day off and watch a full-length film. After that, I realized I didn't really want to bike all the way to a coffee shop, but I still thought I would go for at least an hour long bike ride. But I didn't. I was hungry and decided I would eat first, and watch a couple of funny videos. After eating, I watched a few more. By the time I ended up actually stepping outside, it was 7 p.m. I just went for a twenty minute walk, wondering how I could waste an entire day on pretty useless entertainment and nothing else.
Honestly, I'm mad. Not at the allure of the Internet. Not at the carnival of sights and sounds and information that boasts every conceivable attraction to CAPTURE my mind. I'm mad at myself. Because I could have walked away from it.
As I walked around my neighborhood, I wondered if I even could walk away from it. Do I have that kind of will-power or am I some kind of addict?
I remember when I was young, I saved a bunch of money to purchase a top-of-the-line camera for $800. Five years later, I watched as a photographer tried to capture beauty with his camera, spending more time looking through his lens than anything else. Later he would look at the mountain tops on his laptop in his small bedroom in apparent awe. But how much less was this than if he had sat in the grass, looking with his own eyes at that mountain, the breeze flowing over him and the smell of earth all around him as he dug his fingernails into the ground. I took my camera and threw it against the wall over and over, smashing it into unusable fragments.
I remember when I lived alone in a small room in a city where I hardly had any friends and few ideas of how to make them. I occupied myself with the Internet to unhealthy extremes and I knew it had to be stopped. So I left it at a place I thought for sure it would be stolen and when I came back it was gone.
I remember when I found out that many of the metals used in electronics were mined in African countries where warlords forced women and children to slave away deep in the mines in order to fund their endless feuds. I gave away my iPod. I reduced my cell phone to its simplest form without any bells or whistles. This cell phone was the only electronic I owned at the time.
I am not saying technology is evil. And electronic devices hardly compose an exhaustive list of technology. Windmills and penicillin are technology. However, a lot of technology does create a lot of alienation: alienation between humans and God, alienation between humans and creation, alienation between humans and other humans, and alienation between the human and himself or herself.
How can I truly confront the deep parts of myself when I can simply distract myself with more online articles to read and videos to watch? I am not giving myself time or space to discover how I delude myself, how I can grow, how I can help others, how I can better love, how I can forgive. I can hide in the never-ending hole of web browsing. I can immerse myself in videos and books. I can work long hours and clean up the house. I can do so much to cover up that small, still voice that is waiting to give me direction. That is waiting to show me how I can be used for full potential in this world. I am ignoring that which would give me peace, hope, and love. I am ignoring something that would give me an incredible story to live. I am giving it up it to be on the sidelines, a spectator of stale tricks and cheap thrills.
I cannot wait until the Appalachian Trail to put things in their rightful place. I must begin now. I must make the time to be still. To be silent and alone. To pray. To listen. To figure out who I am and how I can be more consistent and faithful to the person I want to and am designed to be.
First, I wanted to finish the dishes. But as I did the dishes, I decided to watch a couple of videos. So then I had to finish the video I was watching after I was done with the dishes. That reminded me of another quick video I thought would be nice to be able to watch while I had free time. Then I checked Facebook and e-mail. Then I looked something up that I had on my mind and read about it for a little while. By then, the day out would be shorter than planned, but still good. But then I felt tired and thought it would be nice to just relax a little on my day off and watch a full-length film. After that, I realized I didn't really want to bike all the way to a coffee shop, but I still thought I would go for at least an hour long bike ride. But I didn't. I was hungry and decided I would eat first, and watch a couple of funny videos. After eating, I watched a few more. By the time I ended up actually stepping outside, it was 7 p.m. I just went for a twenty minute walk, wondering how I could waste an entire day on pretty useless entertainment and nothing else.
Honestly, I'm mad. Not at the allure of the Internet. Not at the carnival of sights and sounds and information that boasts every conceivable attraction to CAPTURE my mind. I'm mad at myself. Because I could have walked away from it.
As I walked around my neighborhood, I wondered if I even could walk away from it. Do I have that kind of will-power or am I some kind of addict?
I remember when I was young, I saved a bunch of money to purchase a top-of-the-line camera for $800. Five years later, I watched as a photographer tried to capture beauty with his camera, spending more time looking through his lens than anything else. Later he would look at the mountain tops on his laptop in his small bedroom in apparent awe. But how much less was this than if he had sat in the grass, looking with his own eyes at that mountain, the breeze flowing over him and the smell of earth all around him as he dug his fingernails into the ground. I took my camera and threw it against the wall over and over, smashing it into unusable fragments.
I remember when I lived alone in a small room in a city where I hardly had any friends and few ideas of how to make them. I occupied myself with the Internet to unhealthy extremes and I knew it had to be stopped. So I left it at a place I thought for sure it would be stolen and when I came back it was gone.
I remember when I found out that many of the metals used in electronics were mined in African countries where warlords forced women and children to slave away deep in the mines in order to fund their endless feuds. I gave away my iPod. I reduced my cell phone to its simplest form without any bells or whistles. This cell phone was the only electronic I owned at the time.
I am not saying technology is evil. And electronic devices hardly compose an exhaustive list of technology. Windmills and penicillin are technology. However, a lot of technology does create a lot of alienation: alienation between humans and God, alienation between humans and creation, alienation between humans and other humans, and alienation between the human and himself or herself.
How can I truly confront the deep parts of myself when I can simply distract myself with more online articles to read and videos to watch? I am not giving myself time or space to discover how I delude myself, how I can grow, how I can help others, how I can better love, how I can forgive. I can hide in the never-ending hole of web browsing. I can immerse myself in videos and books. I can work long hours and clean up the house. I can do so much to cover up that small, still voice that is waiting to give me direction. That is waiting to show me how I can be used for full potential in this world. I am ignoring that which would give me peace, hope, and love. I am ignoring something that would give me an incredible story to live. I am giving it up it to be on the sidelines, a spectator of stale tricks and cheap thrills.
I cannot wait until the Appalachian Trail to put things in their rightful place. I must begin now. I must make the time to be still. To be silent and alone. To pray. To listen. To figure out who I am and how I can be more consistent and faithful to the person I want to and am designed to be.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Reviews: Hilleberg Anjan 2 Tent, Thermarest Neoair Xlite Sleeping Pad, and ZPacks 20 Degree 900 Power Down Twin Size Quilt
As promised I will now present brief reviews of the three pieces of gear that will make up the shelter portion of our Appalachian Trail Thru-hike. Really, these are not comprehensive reviews, but a few thoughts and observations we made while trying them out for a short three-night hike. I will let you know how they hold up over the course of the six-month trek across America. That will be the true test, but as for now, I am quite happy with our selections. Really, if this were any kind of review I would take all kinds of photos to show you what I am talking about, but right now we are camera-less so I'll just add some photos I found online.
Hilleberg Anjan 2 Tent
First of all, this tent is quite easy to set up. Previously in my life, I had only set up super easy tents and hadn't ever even bothered to stake them down. I always figured since I would always be inside of my tent, I would be heavy enough to hold it down. From now on, however, I will always stake down my tent as this is very important when the weather turns bad. This tent is staked at each corner and twice in front and back. Additionally, guy lines are provided at each corner. These offer extra stability for strong winds and I will always stake them in, just in case. At 3 lb 12 oz, this tent is quite lightweight. Although there are several lighter options, it is certainly lighter than the more cheap and mainstream options out there at your local outdoor store. Most of the structures that are ulta-light are really just tarps and you have to buy an additional floor if you want one and use sticks or hiking poles as poles. This tent has everything you would need for a three-season tent. It easily fits in its stuff sack and slides neatly in even the smaller of backpacking packs. The tent also has two storage pockets and a clothesline inside. We really got to test out the weather resistance of our tent during our trip because during our last night out it had to endure a powerful thunderstorm. This tent is actually two tents, one inside the other, but you still set it up as if it was one because they are connected. This helps break up the wind better, keep out the cold, and also provides a buffer for condensation buildup. Morning dew will always build up in temperate climates and coat the inside of the tent. But with this tent, the outer layer takes the hit and the inside tent stays warm and dry. This is important in ensuring our down sleeping quilt does not get wet since it takes very long to dry. During the storm the rain pounded on our tent, but we stayed dry inside as the storm ran its course. We did get some splash-back along the edges, but I have read no tent is completely free of this. It was no significant amount and the downpour was fierce. It was so fierce that it quickly flooded the ground our tent was resting on so that the water was actually rushing beneath the tent floor and it felt like a waterbed. Still, no water leaked through the floor. The winds were also extreme, but the tent withstood it all. I am quite confident that we will have no problems with the weather while we are in the tent. There in enough space inside the tent to fit two people fairly comfortably. We can sit up and stretch out alright, but we wouldn't want to spend too much time inside when not actually sleeping. We did have to spend many hours inside during the evenings to escape the bugs and we read books without feeling claustrophobic. I think this tent will serve nicely for the duration of our trip because it was rated highly for being durable, weather resistant, and it is a nice plus that it is easy to set up and take down since we will be using it most nights for privacy in lieu of spending nights in the shelters.
Thermarest Neoair Xlite Sleeping Pad
I never liked to use sleeping pads. In fact, we have to bring a sleeping pad with us for every field exercise we do in the military, and yet only once or twice have I actually unrolled it and used it. I always just go without. For several years of my life, I chose not to sleep in a bed, but on the ground to practice living without that luxury so sleeping on the ground without a sleeping pad wasn't difficult. I thought the only use of the sleeping pad was to cushion you. After researching for the AT, I realized a sleeping pad has another important function. It keeps you warm. The ground gets very cold and no matter how thick the tent floor of the sleeping bag is, cold penetrates a lot better to your body from the ground than the air. A sleeping pad creates that distance from the ground so the cold has to first go through the pad. A lot of pads are bulky and roll up so you have to attach them to the outside of the pack. This pad is really light at 12 oz and rolls up as small as a water bottle so you can stick it in your pack. It does not lose its effectiveness though. It was really warm and is fashioned in some kind of way that the air chilled from the ground circulates at the bottom of the pad and back down to the ground while the air warmed by the body lying on top of it circulates at the top, staying warm. The pad is easy to blow up does not reqire any device besides your own lungs. It only take a minute or two. We both are using the woman's pad because they are lighter and I am short enough to use it. The pads fit us just right, so if I were to purchase them again I might upgrade a size just for some extra wiggle room, but it isn't really necessary, especially since we are trying to shave off every ounce of weight we can. When I read reviews of these pads everyone talked about how loud the pads were when you tossed and turned on them. Any movement and the pad makes a crinkly noise like aluminum foil. I was expecting far worse. The noise didn't really bother me. It really wasn't all that loud and on the AT we should be pretty tired by the end of each hiking day and drop right to sleep. I really think this pad does a great job while being both light and packable. I couldn't ask for anything else in a sleeping pad.
ZPacks 20 Degree 900 Power Down Twin Size Quilt
I already explained in an earlier post about how down sleeping bags are really light and warm and advantageous if you are backpacking with a tent because it doesn't work very well if it gets wet. The true test of this bag was to see how warm it was. It is extremely warm! In fact, we could barely use it. We sweated in it and used it merely as a cover for our legs most of the time. It is really going to work well on cold nights, especially at the beginning of our thru-hike. It is light, compresses down pretty far, and will keep us nice and toasty. However, since it is built to fit both of us, it is quite snug in there, which might be fine for someone like my wife, but I sleep very hot and need space to feel cool when I go to sleep. But all that might change on the Trail! I might be so dog-tired by the end of each day that I might very well become the snuggler my wife wishes me to be. We will see. Now, this isn't so much of a sleeping bag, as it is a quilt. It fits over you like a blanket and you tuck the sides under you to keep the air out. So it doesn't wrap completely around you like a mummy. This makes owning a sleeping pad essential, but we found out that having two separate sleeping pads under our single quilt made the sleeping pads split apart. We are going to try using a fitted sheet to connect them, but if that doesn't work the company that made this sleeping quilt also makes some velcro straps specifically created to attach the sleeping pads together. I might find myself wishing we had two separate quilts on the trail if it gets too hot for me, but for now the lower weight and cost of purchasing one sleeping quilt instead of two makes this the right choice for us.
Hilleberg Anjan 2 Tent
Thermarest Neoair Xlite Sleeping Pad
ZPacks 20 Degree 900 Power Down Twin Size Quilt
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Hike
After attending a wedding up north, my wife and I decided to spend a few days hiking in the Upper Peninsula. This was my wife's first multi-day backpacking trip and of course our first long hike together in preparation for the Appalachian Trail. We hiked the 42-mile long Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore which turned into more like a 50 mile hike since we took a few detours, some on purpose. Since this was my wife's first backpacking trip I thought this hike would be a big indicator of whether or not she can make it on the Appalachian Trail. I never told her, but I saw it as kind of a trial hike and I wanted to see how she would react to certain aspects of trail life such as walking many miles in one day, carrying a weighted pack, lack of comforts, and severe weather. Once I found out it might rain while we were out there, I must confess, I kind of hoped it would just so we would get soaked and uncomfortable. I wanted to see if those kinds of things would make her feel miserable. Often times we can choose how we are going to let external forces in our life affect us. Breaking a leg is not one of these times, but when you have no dry clothes and you are dirty and sweaty and thirsty and hungry and tired and mosquitos will not give you a break and you still have five more miles to walk, you can either break or not. One can practice to build up the ability to not let these external factors affect one's will to carry on with what must be done.
I was also excited for this backpacking trip since it was the first time we got to try out our three new lightweight pieces of gear: our tent, our sleeping bag, and our sleeping pads. And it was supposed to be a beautiful place, right along the southern shore of Lake Superior with pictured rocks, dunes, cliffs, waterfalls, and a lighthouse along the way.
I was a bit concerned with how the hike would turn out once I discovered we had to pay a fee for each overnight stay and reservations for campsites were recommended. I had to fill out a form and list my three top choices of where we would camp each night. It was difficult to make three congruent lists that did not overlap. It all seemed a little too bureaucratic to me. Being in nature is supposed to be an escape of this kind of thing and it seems odd to have to pay to spend some time outside. On top of that we had to schedule a shuttle to pick us up that left only at certain times. So now we also had a time schedule to adhere to. I am glad the Appalachian Trail is free and requires no reservations and does not have so strict of time limits. When our reservations were confirmed I saw they gave us our third choice which was all kinds of messed up. We were now required to walk 4 miles the first day, fourteen miles the second, three miles the third, ten miles the fourth, and ten miles on the last day before our shuttle would leave at 10 in the morning. This schedule seemed absurd and unnecessary and honestly made me quite angry. I just hoped my wife would be willing to break these crazy rules if it came to that. So I started out on the journey a little sad that we wouldn't be totally free.
The first few miles I could not focus on nature or the hike itself. I was not fully present even after my wife pointed out a swimming beaver in a lake and I almost stepped on a bright green snake. In all we saw many chipmunks, deer, and birds, a couple of rabbits, three snakes, and that beaver. At the end of that short hiking day my wife wanted to climb up a large sand dune right behind our camp site. When we slowly reached the top I felt a sting on my legs. I looked down and about twenty biting flies covered my bare legs. I danced a little, but they still attacked so I ran ahead toward Lake Superior to shake them. That is when the beauty struck me. That feeling of sublime you might have read about in books when someone reaches the top of the mountain. In front of me were hills rolling to the east and the west at the edge of the vast expanse of water. Not a single manmade thing in sight. Pure nature. Behind me were the tops of the trees from which we came. From above they looked like a sea of green during a storm. The green crested randomly like choppy waters as the wind blew through them. And the beauty calmed my mind like a-- OUCH! Another fly bite! Nature is unrelenting in beauty and power, even the small parts of it.
Every time we were on or very near the beach, which was most of the time, the flies would not stop pestering me. Hiking, usually a leg workout, also became an arm workout as I had to constantly swing my arms up to my face and down to my legs as I walked with my wife hiked behind me snapping them away from me with a rolled up shirt. For some reason the flies liked me a ton better than my wife, at least one reason being because she wore pants while I wore shorts. Every time I have hiked anywhere I have read warnings about how bad the bugs are and to be prepared, but they have never been that bad so I decided a long time ago to ignore these warnings whenever I came across them. BIG MISTAKE! My wife knew. She had been up to the Upper Peninsula before and just as I had no idea what pasties were (when I first encountered a huge sign that read PASTIES, I confess, I thought they had made the unfortunate mistake of misspelling PASTRIES and didn't have the money or sign space to fix the error) I did not know how big of a problem the stable flies were. So I wore shorts and paid the price. And if we were further away from the shore the mosquitos were just as bad. Our DEEP WOODS DEET bug spray was useless against them all.
On our third day, we experienced another side of the awesome power of nature. Since we were alone at both of the campsites we had reserved we decided to hike further than our reserved camp site on that third day so we didn't have to hike so far the next two days. Earlier, we decided to walk all the way to the end of the trail on the fourth day so we wouldn't have to hike ten miles before ten in the morning. Instead, we would hike to the nearby town and get a nice meal, and a nice hot shower, and a nice bed at a motel. After hiking those few miles on the third day and arriving at what would have been our campsite for the night, my wife said we should move on, for which I was extremely grateful. So we walked on and came upon a large rock that jutted out so we could see into the vast expanse of Lake Superior, which has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. Distant booms floated by us as we saw one large storm off to the far east and one large storm off to the far west. We seemed to be aligned with the middle where no storms were and I casually remarked that we might be spared the storm. Ha ha ha. Within minutes the sprinkling began, and then the heavy downpour and the incredible BOOMS. It felt good to be wet . . . at first, especially because the bugs went away. But it rained and rained for hours and the trail quickly became one large muddy puddle after another. We were soaked through and through in no time before the storm passed. We arrived at another campsite with one space left for us and set up our tent, everything damp and mud-smeared, still hearing the distant booms. Just as we finished setting up our small living quarters, moments after we both crawled safely inside and on our pads a BOOM as loud as any I've heard and a light fierce enough to be seen through two layers of tent cracked simultaneously. My wife whimpered something about wishing she was home and I kept imaging a giant tree blasted by lighting above us and crushing our tent. The rain struck our tent like it was hail and I sat up to peer out the one mesh side of our tent where our shoes and backpacks lay on the ground under the outer tent fly. Rainwater flooded around them. I've never seen water accumulate so fast and they were almost covered. Everything not already in the tent would be wet and remain wet for the rest of the hike including all of our clothes, our shoes, and our camera and my cell phone that I forgot to put back in the waterproof bags I so thoughtfully brought along. In fact both of these items are currently resting in a bag of rice, but I have little hope they can be rescued. This is why none of the beautiful photos we took along the way are included in this blog post. But this isn't too disconcerting because the phone was a cheap pay-as-you-go phone which can be replaced for ten dollars and the camera was already broken as it could not read memory cards and so could only store about thirty photos at a time. When I set my hand down on the floor of the tent it squished and I realized that water was amassing beneath us, under the tent. Even though we were on the top of a hill, the water quickly formed beneath the entire length and width of our tent so the entire bottom felt like a water bed. Despite this, the inside of the tent remained dry, except for the inevitable splash-back along the edge, a testament to the quality of the tent. In my next post I will review the tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping bags. After a couple of scary hours the storm finally subsided and we fell asleep.
The next morning we put back on our wet clothes and walked the rest of the way to the end of the trail. My wife decided to walk in some non-hiking shoes that weren't as wet and tied her cheap hiking boots to her pack, dangling. At some point when we had a break from hiking she noticed only one was dangling there and we laughed knowing someone would come across one hiking boot on the path and wonder what had happened. We hiked around fifty miles in seventy-two hours.
My wife did great. She did better than I expected her to. I shouldn't have been surprised because she also did well on our first two-day bike ride together. All in all, we did walk faster and longer than we should have and in the very end she did have a difficult time with each step, and I was hurting as well, but I am not very concerned about this because on the Appalachian Trail we will not walk as far or as fast for the first several weeks, until we are in shape and used to the ups and downs of the 270 mountains we will encounter along the way. We will have few time restraints since we have decided to give ourselves about seven months to complete the hike. She never let the weather or discomfort or lack of bed and shower get to her, except for that one moment when the huge storm suddenly burst on top of us. I am confident that we will both do well on the Trail and make it to the end at Mt. Katahdin.
Lessons for the Trail:
Ensure all gear is waterproofed at the very first sign that it might begin to rain.
Figure out a way to attach the two sleeping pads together so they do not slip apart (we already have an idea).
If setting up the tent on a slope, place pads so that our heads will be closest to the top so we don't keep slipping down and crash our heads into the back wall of the tent.
Keep up with reducing weight in our packs since all of the other long-distance hikers we came across had packs that looked a ton heavier than ours were and hiked slower and probably were in a great deal more pain.
I was also excited for this backpacking trip since it was the first time we got to try out our three new lightweight pieces of gear: our tent, our sleeping bag, and our sleeping pads. And it was supposed to be a beautiful place, right along the southern shore of Lake Superior with pictured rocks, dunes, cliffs, waterfalls, and a lighthouse along the way.
I was a bit concerned with how the hike would turn out once I discovered we had to pay a fee for each overnight stay and reservations for campsites were recommended. I had to fill out a form and list my three top choices of where we would camp each night. It was difficult to make three congruent lists that did not overlap. It all seemed a little too bureaucratic to me. Being in nature is supposed to be an escape of this kind of thing and it seems odd to have to pay to spend some time outside. On top of that we had to schedule a shuttle to pick us up that left only at certain times. So now we also had a time schedule to adhere to. I am glad the Appalachian Trail is free and requires no reservations and does not have so strict of time limits. When our reservations were confirmed I saw they gave us our third choice which was all kinds of messed up. We were now required to walk 4 miles the first day, fourteen miles the second, three miles the third, ten miles the fourth, and ten miles on the last day before our shuttle would leave at 10 in the morning. This schedule seemed absurd and unnecessary and honestly made me quite angry. I just hoped my wife would be willing to break these crazy rules if it came to that. So I started out on the journey a little sad that we wouldn't be totally free.
The first few miles I could not focus on nature or the hike itself. I was not fully present even after my wife pointed out a swimming beaver in a lake and I almost stepped on a bright green snake. In all we saw many chipmunks, deer, and birds, a couple of rabbits, three snakes, and that beaver. At the end of that short hiking day my wife wanted to climb up a large sand dune right behind our camp site. When we slowly reached the top I felt a sting on my legs. I looked down and about twenty biting flies covered my bare legs. I danced a little, but they still attacked so I ran ahead toward Lake Superior to shake them. That is when the beauty struck me. That feeling of sublime you might have read about in books when someone reaches the top of the mountain. In front of me were hills rolling to the east and the west at the edge of the vast expanse of water. Not a single manmade thing in sight. Pure nature. Behind me were the tops of the trees from which we came. From above they looked like a sea of green during a storm. The green crested randomly like choppy waters as the wind blew through them. And the beauty calmed my mind like a-- OUCH! Another fly bite! Nature is unrelenting in beauty and power, even the small parts of it.
Every time we were on or very near the beach, which was most of the time, the flies would not stop pestering me. Hiking, usually a leg workout, also became an arm workout as I had to constantly swing my arms up to my face and down to my legs as I walked with my wife hiked behind me snapping them away from me with a rolled up shirt. For some reason the flies liked me a ton better than my wife, at least one reason being because she wore pants while I wore shorts. Every time I have hiked anywhere I have read warnings about how bad the bugs are and to be prepared, but they have never been that bad so I decided a long time ago to ignore these warnings whenever I came across them. BIG MISTAKE! My wife knew. She had been up to the Upper Peninsula before and just as I had no idea what pasties were (when I first encountered a huge sign that read PASTIES, I confess, I thought they had made the unfortunate mistake of misspelling PASTRIES and didn't have the money or sign space to fix the error) I did not know how big of a problem the stable flies were. So I wore shorts and paid the price. And if we were further away from the shore the mosquitos were just as bad. Our DEEP WOODS DEET bug spray was useless against them all.
On our third day, we experienced another side of the awesome power of nature. Since we were alone at both of the campsites we had reserved we decided to hike further than our reserved camp site on that third day so we didn't have to hike so far the next two days. Earlier, we decided to walk all the way to the end of the trail on the fourth day so we wouldn't have to hike ten miles before ten in the morning. Instead, we would hike to the nearby town and get a nice meal, and a nice hot shower, and a nice bed at a motel. After hiking those few miles on the third day and arriving at what would have been our campsite for the night, my wife said we should move on, for which I was extremely grateful. So we walked on and came upon a large rock that jutted out so we could see into the vast expanse of Lake Superior, which has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. Distant booms floated by us as we saw one large storm off to the far east and one large storm off to the far west. We seemed to be aligned with the middle where no storms were and I casually remarked that we might be spared the storm. Ha ha ha. Within minutes the sprinkling began, and then the heavy downpour and the incredible BOOMS. It felt good to be wet . . . at first, especially because the bugs went away. But it rained and rained for hours and the trail quickly became one large muddy puddle after another. We were soaked through and through in no time before the storm passed. We arrived at another campsite with one space left for us and set up our tent, everything damp and mud-smeared, still hearing the distant booms. Just as we finished setting up our small living quarters, moments after we both crawled safely inside and on our pads a BOOM as loud as any I've heard and a light fierce enough to be seen through two layers of tent cracked simultaneously. My wife whimpered something about wishing she was home and I kept imaging a giant tree blasted by lighting above us and crushing our tent. The rain struck our tent like it was hail and I sat up to peer out the one mesh side of our tent where our shoes and backpacks lay on the ground under the outer tent fly. Rainwater flooded around them. I've never seen water accumulate so fast and they were almost covered. Everything not already in the tent would be wet and remain wet for the rest of the hike including all of our clothes, our shoes, and our camera and my cell phone that I forgot to put back in the waterproof bags I so thoughtfully brought along. In fact both of these items are currently resting in a bag of rice, but I have little hope they can be rescued. This is why none of the beautiful photos we took along the way are included in this blog post. But this isn't too disconcerting because the phone was a cheap pay-as-you-go phone which can be replaced for ten dollars and the camera was already broken as it could not read memory cards and so could only store about thirty photos at a time. When I set my hand down on the floor of the tent it squished and I realized that water was amassing beneath us, under the tent. Even though we were on the top of a hill, the water quickly formed beneath the entire length and width of our tent so the entire bottom felt like a water bed. Despite this, the inside of the tent remained dry, except for the inevitable splash-back along the edge, a testament to the quality of the tent. In my next post I will review the tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping bags. After a couple of scary hours the storm finally subsided and we fell asleep.
The next morning we put back on our wet clothes and walked the rest of the way to the end of the trail. My wife decided to walk in some non-hiking shoes that weren't as wet and tied her cheap hiking boots to her pack, dangling. At some point when we had a break from hiking she noticed only one was dangling there and we laughed knowing someone would come across one hiking boot on the path and wonder what had happened. We hiked around fifty miles in seventy-two hours.
My wife did great. She did better than I expected her to. I shouldn't have been surprised because she also did well on our first two-day bike ride together. All in all, we did walk faster and longer than we should have and in the very end she did have a difficult time with each step, and I was hurting as well, but I am not very concerned about this because on the Appalachian Trail we will not walk as far or as fast for the first several weeks, until we are in shape and used to the ups and downs of the 270 mountains we will encounter along the way. We will have few time restraints since we have decided to give ourselves about seven months to complete the hike. She never let the weather or discomfort or lack of bed and shower get to her, except for that one moment when the huge storm suddenly burst on top of us. I am confident that we will both do well on the Trail and make it to the end at Mt. Katahdin.
Lessons for the Trail:
Ensure all gear is waterproofed at the very first sign that it might begin to rain.
Figure out a way to attach the two sleeping pads together so they do not slip apart (we already have an idea).
If setting up the tent on a slope, place pads so that our heads will be closest to the top so we don't keep slipping down and crash our heads into the back wall of the tent.
Keep up with reducing weight in our packs since all of the other long-distance hikers we came across had packs that looked a ton heavier than ours were and hiked slower and probably were in a great deal more pain.
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