When I started my first thru-hike, I was dying to crank big miles from day one. I’d spent years planning for my hike. So when I got to the trail, the heady emotions of finally doing it were nearly overwhelming. I was rarin’ to go—partly to let off steam, partly to chip away at the…
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Day 8 Aqua Caliente Creek (Mile 112.6 -> Concrete Cistern (Mile 139.5) Woke up to the sound of the creek running beside me. The creek kept the temperature a little cooler overnight so sleep came that much easier. Above 5000ft again after a long gradual climb all morning. West facing slope most of the walk…
Pocosin Road to Thornton GapShenandoah Grinder Camp to Drenched Lawn CampAT miles: 28.1Total miles: 952.5Elevation change: 5581ft gain, 6247ft loss On a day that featured no sustained climbs or particularly strenuous sections of trail, I sure made things difficult for myself. Totally avoidable dehydration clouded the first hours in an unpleasant haze, and indulgent lollygagging…
This is a guest post by Amber and Josha Niven. amber and Joshua are the authors of Discovering the Appalachian Trail, A Guide to the Trail’s Greatest Hikes. They live in Madison County, North Carolina with their two children and can often be spotted in Hot Springs, having a beer at Big Pillow Brewing, or…
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Surreal—the full gravity of hiking from sunrise to sunset every day has not fully sunk in. My mind compartmentalized all the experiences into micro events as I tried to grasp my new reality. morning Preparing coffee on my stove from my tent. It currently takes me 30-45 minutes to get out of my sleeping bag….
Why can’t I just be ‘normal’ The Patagonia commercials never show someone like me conquering a mountain, yet still, I hike. I am a plus-sized athlete. While plus-sized athletes may be a minority right now, the majority of American women wear a size 14 or larger. Its high time gear was made for plus-sized athletes!…
Rockfish Gap to Browns GapWaynesboro To The Rescue Camp to Shenandoah Cruiser CampAT miles: 24.5Total miles: 897.0Elevation change: 6194ft gain, 5341ft loss Ever since Springer Mountain in Georgia, hikers have been saying that Virginia is flat. I think that I may have heard that rumor even before starting the AT. In fact, hikers have probably…
Do you want perfect photos? If so, then maybe you are barking up the wrong tree. In your quest for perfection, you are losing an essential element from your images. Strict rules were put in place by the earliest experimenters right from the start of photography. When Nicéphore Niépce, the French inventor of photography, said…
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Chimney Rock to Rockfish GapDeep Vee Camp to Waynesboro To The Rescue CampAT miles: 25.6Total miles: 872.5Elevation change: 5515ft gain, 6119ft loss The trails of this world offer so much to the people and animals who use them, easing navigation across rough terrain, providing essential pathways for moving stuff, capturing a collective memory woven through…
day 36 I woke up and left the hostel at around the normal time and immediately entered the Pond Mountain Wilderness, which showed itself to be a beautiful section of trail almost immediately. There were towering cliffs, the large Laurel Falls, a sparkling river, and plenty of flat trail. Laurel falls! I meandered through this…
