Hey Yall we were having a problem posting all the pictures on this blog, but Andrew spent many hours (because he is a wonderful super fantastic person who I love to peices) putting all the pictures on Flickr! So from here on out, we will probably be posting pictures on this site. So check out our adventures so far :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgiaorbust/
Sunday, September 23, 2012
One step forward and then you trip
Well dear friends, family and random people who may be reading this, I am happy to report we are out of the woods! And by that, I mean we have finally completed the "hardest parts of the trail"; we are of course still spending the majority of our times in a wooded area. I'm writing to you from Lebanon, NH which is a town outside Hanover, NH. Andrew has flown home because his grandfather passed away and he of course wanted to be with his family. He will be coming home Sunday so we can set off on the trail Monday morning. We were incredibly lucky that we were in Hanover when trying to make arrangements for him to fly home for several reasons. One we were close to several airports which made flying out easier and Andrew's sister Torie has some good friends in Lebanon who have kindly let me stay at their house for a few days while Andrew is in Memphis, which is great for our budgets.
It feels good to finally have Maine and New Hampshire behind us, though as always our journey is far from over. We have hiked 440 miles with some 1742 miles to go, a number which still seems too big to fathom. It might as well be a humpty billion more miles to hike. At least that's how I feel when I look ahead. When I look behind me I feel pretty darn proud of the miles we have already hiked, given I was sure at least once a day that I was never hiking another step. Many NOBO's have warned us that the miles ahead are much more of a mental challenge than a physical one. Now that we don't have such difficult terrain, we have to focus less on the trail itself and make sure not to "get bored". Currently we are so freakin grateful for the more mild terrain we cannot imagine being bored by it, but like all things in life any good always comes with a little bit of challenge. Keeps us on our toes I suppose. Our last 50 miles of hiking were so wonderful we are still basking in the glow of this much easier trail. There are still roots and rocks of course, but we instantly see a massive difference in the trails. You can actually walk and get a good stride going, which hasn't been the case for the first 400 miles. We have also noticed the difference in the mountains, the last three we climbed were verging on easy (Easy for climbing mountains, of course eating ice cream while watching The West Wing will always be easier than this crazy shit). You still have uphill and downhill, and are still breathing heavy as you climb, but you get to the top in a reasonable amount of time. These last few mountains you climb for a bit and then you are at the top, no crying or reaching into the depths of your soul for strength you never knew you had required. It's pretty darn nice. The only flip side are the views are nothing compared to the ones we have seen, but for the moment we are fine with that. Plus fall is coming, so no matter where we are the world is about to be painted with color.
I've gotten a new pair of shoes (Patagonia Mens Trail shoes) and inserts (SOLE modable inserts) that seem to be doing my feet a world of good. That's not to say they don't still hurt in the morning and after mile 11-12ish, but for the most part the pain is tolerable. The smoother terrain also helps with that, I can take nice flat steps instead of crunching my foot in-between whatever rock and/or roots looks the least dangerous. But, as I mentioned, with this new terrain comes different challenges. We have finally increased our mileage, doing 15, 16 even 17 miles days! Oh yeah! Go us! Which means we are walking faster, and somehow for me means I'm falling down like it's my new job. Our last 5 days of hiking (By far our easiest days on the trail terrain wise) I took two fairly hard falls a day, every day. And of course I seem to always injure the same two joints. I keep rolling my right ankle and landing on my left knee. I believe because we are walking faster and I'm not paying attention to every step it's easier for me to miss a small stick or rock which causes me to lose my balance. Also the leaves have started to fall here, so some parts of the trail are covered with dead leaves which makes it harder to see the debris underneath. My first big fall was literally about a mile after our last big climb (Mt Moosilake, super cool mountain) and I remember thinking "Wooohooo, the trail is finally getting easier!" and then rolling my ankle catching myself on both my knees on hard rock, causing both my knees to bleed. Ouch. Every time I fall, tears seem to burst out of me, regardless of the pain, but I do my best to stop the tears quickly. I will say rolling an ankle hurts like a bitch, but I have to keep walking so I try not to focus on the pain, just the idea that if I keep moving forward I will eventually get to rest.
Anyway besides my new trend to bite it hard twice a day I really am enjoying this new terrain and excited to hike with fall. The 15 mile days are exhausting in a completely different way than the 10 mile days in Maine and New Hampshire. It is more a cardio workout, instead of the slow arduous climbing we are accustom to. Usually around mile 12, I severely crave to be done and have to really push myself to keep going those final few miles, no matter how easy. And since we have taken so long in our first two states, we really have to push ourselves to get at least 15 miles a day and hopefully getting to 20. I've promised Andrew I will attempt a 30 mile day, but we will be waiting until a flat as a pancake state like Pennsylvania before I actually attempt that many miles in a day.
Before I forget I must tell a story in which Andrew was my knight in shining calmness. The day before we hiked into Hanover I was feeling pretty good. Despite all the falling, I was keeping a fairly optimistic attitude and really trying to appreciate the easier terrain and lovely fall weather. Then about 10 miles into our day I fell. Dammit. Ouch. But I got up and kept going. But the fall had crushed my spirits and it began what I refer to as the "Avalanche of Negative Thinking" (this seems to happen to me, and many women I know. It is when you start thinking one negative thought which then snow balls into a billion negative thoughts all within a 5 minute period) My first thought was I haven't actually gotten any stronger. This quickly turned into a snowstorm of crazy where my thought pattern went something like:" I've actually gotten weaker and fatter and I'm stupid and I'm the worst hiker ever and my I will never get better and I should probably die because all I do is hike badly and fall and also I'm stupid." Then came many uncontrollable tears. At this point Andrew was hiking ahead of me and didn't know that I had fallen or was having a little mental breakdown. Finally I took some deep breathes and tried to focus on good thoughts, which were mostly I have to keep hiking so suck it up Sykes! Then the trail got tricky very quickly (tall grass covering big rocks) and I fell again, minutes after I'd finally composed myself. Andrew happened to be on a bridge nearby and heard me fall and yelled to inform me he was coming. I had picked myself up by the time he got there, though emotionally I was entering the period after the Avalanche of negative thinking, where logic and reason are completely lost on me and I can turn any positive thought into a negative self deprecating one in under a minute. Andrew has seen this before and did his best to say sweet wonderful things, while also understanding that I may not be able to be cheered up. We did, as always, have to reach our destination if we wanted a good flat place to sleep. So we walked on and at the first hill we reached I became a 3 year old.
Me: "I can't do this! Why is there a fucking hill? Its suppose to be FUCKING FLAT! I'm too fat to get up this hill and I hate this fucking trail and..... I cant.....I cant.......UGH!!!" This was all said while sobbing.
Andrew: "Ok, lets take a break". And he took his pack off and sat down. I just stared at him.
Me: "But we have to keep going. What if we never make it and we never sleep and we just die here!?"
Andrew: "Well then at least we will be together, now set down your pack and let me hold you."
Me:"Ok."
And then I sat between his legs while he said logical calming things to me and reminded me that this much falling is as damaging to the spirit as it is to the body. All while getting me to focus on calming my breathe down. After a few minutes we got up, and continued to the shelter. I still stopped a few times for totally irrational crying freak out moments, and Andrew handled every one with the patience of a saint. The next day I was able to laugh at my behavior but at the time I really had gone off the deep end, and I am so thankful he was there to pull me back to reality. We have not had a perfect relationship on this trail, in fact this trail has already put our relationship through the ringer several times, but he is a steady rock for me, and I wouldn't still be on this trail without him.
Also we forgot to mention he has a trail name! I dubbed him Funguy (or Fungi) because of his love of all things fungus. (You will see this when you look at our photos!) Seriously the guy stops every 10 minutes to take a picture of all these freakin awesome mushrooms we have seen. Plus he is a fun....guy. Yeah, double meaning, you know you like it. I have yet to have a trail name......would love any suggestions.
We are still in awe by the kindness of strangers and the generosity we've experienced along this trail. Hanover is known as a magical land of Oz type place to AT hikers, and now we know why. There is a list of names on a board when you walk into town, and you call them up and they let you stay at their hose for free! Basically there are 10 adults who open their homes to you, in large part because Hanover is expensive and they want hikers to feel welcome and have a nice place to rest their bodies. We were SUPER lucky to stay with Lizanne, a women in her 40's who is a consultant for non-profits. She picked us up from downtown, drove us to her house, and said "Eat anything you want, there is beer in the fridge, I have to run, but Ill be back soon to cook you dinner" I mean really, besides having a unicorn, her house was pretty much heaven. She cooked us smocked salmon for dinner, had a huge comfy bed for us to sleep in and added bonus was a interesting, smart, wonderful person to be around.
Plus the outfitter gives you a free snickers, the pizza place gives you a free slice, you get a free bagel at the bagel basement and the local dinner gives you a free donut. Plus the town has a FREE bus that runs M-F and takes you pretty much anywhere. I mean this place loves hikers, which is good because we love people who love us. This is a rarity to have this much love in one town, usually we aren't pimpin so hard when we roll into towns, but it feels pretty incredible when it happens.
Alright yall, I've rambled enough, we will try to post more before we leave, there are so many wonderful stories to tell, but for now hope this will do.
Go do something you think you can't do today. Even if you cry, you tried. That's saying something. Love to all!
It feels good to finally have Maine and New Hampshire behind us, though as always our journey is far from over. We have hiked 440 miles with some 1742 miles to go, a number which still seems too big to fathom. It might as well be a humpty billion more miles to hike. At least that's how I feel when I look ahead. When I look behind me I feel pretty darn proud of the miles we have already hiked, given I was sure at least once a day that I was never hiking another step. Many NOBO's have warned us that the miles ahead are much more of a mental challenge than a physical one. Now that we don't have such difficult terrain, we have to focus less on the trail itself and make sure not to "get bored". Currently we are so freakin grateful for the more mild terrain we cannot imagine being bored by it, but like all things in life any good always comes with a little bit of challenge. Keeps us on our toes I suppose. Our last 50 miles of hiking were so wonderful we are still basking in the glow of this much easier trail. There are still roots and rocks of course, but we instantly see a massive difference in the trails. You can actually walk and get a good stride going, which hasn't been the case for the first 400 miles. We have also noticed the difference in the mountains, the last three we climbed were verging on easy (Easy for climbing mountains, of course eating ice cream while watching The West Wing will always be easier than this crazy shit). You still have uphill and downhill, and are still breathing heavy as you climb, but you get to the top in a reasonable amount of time. These last few mountains you climb for a bit and then you are at the top, no crying or reaching into the depths of your soul for strength you never knew you had required. It's pretty darn nice. The only flip side are the views are nothing compared to the ones we have seen, but for the moment we are fine with that. Plus fall is coming, so no matter where we are the world is about to be painted with color.
I've gotten a new pair of shoes (Patagonia Mens Trail shoes) and inserts (SOLE modable inserts) that seem to be doing my feet a world of good. That's not to say they don't still hurt in the morning and after mile 11-12ish, but for the most part the pain is tolerable. The smoother terrain also helps with that, I can take nice flat steps instead of crunching my foot in-between whatever rock and/or roots looks the least dangerous. But, as I mentioned, with this new terrain comes different challenges. We have finally increased our mileage, doing 15, 16 even 17 miles days! Oh yeah! Go us! Which means we are walking faster, and somehow for me means I'm falling down like it's my new job. Our last 5 days of hiking (By far our easiest days on the trail terrain wise) I took two fairly hard falls a day, every day. And of course I seem to always injure the same two joints. I keep rolling my right ankle and landing on my left knee. I believe because we are walking faster and I'm not paying attention to every step it's easier for me to miss a small stick or rock which causes me to lose my balance. Also the leaves have started to fall here, so some parts of the trail are covered with dead leaves which makes it harder to see the debris underneath. My first big fall was literally about a mile after our last big climb (Mt Moosilake, super cool mountain) and I remember thinking "Wooohooo, the trail is finally getting easier!" and then rolling my ankle catching myself on both my knees on hard rock, causing both my knees to bleed. Ouch. Every time I fall, tears seem to burst out of me, regardless of the pain, but I do my best to stop the tears quickly. I will say rolling an ankle hurts like a bitch, but I have to keep walking so I try not to focus on the pain, just the idea that if I keep moving forward I will eventually get to rest.
Anyway besides my new trend to bite it hard twice a day I really am enjoying this new terrain and excited to hike with fall. The 15 mile days are exhausting in a completely different way than the 10 mile days in Maine and New Hampshire. It is more a cardio workout, instead of the slow arduous climbing we are accustom to. Usually around mile 12, I severely crave to be done and have to really push myself to keep going those final few miles, no matter how easy. And since we have taken so long in our first two states, we really have to push ourselves to get at least 15 miles a day and hopefully getting to 20. I've promised Andrew I will attempt a 30 mile day, but we will be waiting until a flat as a pancake state like Pennsylvania before I actually attempt that many miles in a day.
Before I forget I must tell a story in which Andrew was my knight in shining calmness. The day before we hiked into Hanover I was feeling pretty good. Despite all the falling, I was keeping a fairly optimistic attitude and really trying to appreciate the easier terrain and lovely fall weather. Then about 10 miles into our day I fell. Dammit. Ouch. But I got up and kept going. But the fall had crushed my spirits and it began what I refer to as the "Avalanche of Negative Thinking" (this seems to happen to me, and many women I know. It is when you start thinking one negative thought which then snow balls into a billion negative thoughts all within a 5 minute period) My first thought was I haven't actually gotten any stronger. This quickly turned into a snowstorm of crazy where my thought pattern went something like:" I've actually gotten weaker and fatter and I'm stupid and I'm the worst hiker ever and my I will never get better and I should probably die because all I do is hike badly and fall and also I'm stupid." Then came many uncontrollable tears. At this point Andrew was hiking ahead of me and didn't know that I had fallen or was having a little mental breakdown. Finally I took some deep breathes and tried to focus on good thoughts, which were mostly I have to keep hiking so suck it up Sykes! Then the trail got tricky very quickly (tall grass covering big rocks) and I fell again, minutes after I'd finally composed myself. Andrew happened to be on a bridge nearby and heard me fall and yelled to inform me he was coming. I had picked myself up by the time he got there, though emotionally I was entering the period after the Avalanche of negative thinking, where logic and reason are completely lost on me and I can turn any positive thought into a negative self deprecating one in under a minute. Andrew has seen this before and did his best to say sweet wonderful things, while also understanding that I may not be able to be cheered up. We did, as always, have to reach our destination if we wanted a good flat place to sleep. So we walked on and at the first hill we reached I became a 3 year old.
Me: "I can't do this! Why is there a fucking hill? Its suppose to be FUCKING FLAT! I'm too fat to get up this hill and I hate this fucking trail and..... I cant.....I cant.......UGH!!!" This was all said while sobbing.
Andrew: "Ok, lets take a break". And he took his pack off and sat down. I just stared at him.
Me: "But we have to keep going. What if we never make it and we never sleep and we just die here!?"
Andrew: "Well then at least we will be together, now set down your pack and let me hold you."
Me:"Ok."
And then I sat between his legs while he said logical calming things to me and reminded me that this much falling is as damaging to the spirit as it is to the body. All while getting me to focus on calming my breathe down. After a few minutes we got up, and continued to the shelter. I still stopped a few times for totally irrational crying freak out moments, and Andrew handled every one with the patience of a saint. The next day I was able to laugh at my behavior but at the time I really had gone off the deep end, and I am so thankful he was there to pull me back to reality. We have not had a perfect relationship on this trail, in fact this trail has already put our relationship through the ringer several times, but he is a steady rock for me, and I wouldn't still be on this trail without him.
Also we forgot to mention he has a trail name! I dubbed him Funguy (or Fungi) because of his love of all things fungus. (You will see this when you look at our photos!) Seriously the guy stops every 10 minutes to take a picture of all these freakin awesome mushrooms we have seen. Plus he is a fun....guy. Yeah, double meaning, you know you like it. I have yet to have a trail name......would love any suggestions.
We are still in awe by the kindness of strangers and the generosity we've experienced along this trail. Hanover is known as a magical land of Oz type place to AT hikers, and now we know why. There is a list of names on a board when you walk into town, and you call them up and they let you stay at their hose for free! Basically there are 10 adults who open their homes to you, in large part because Hanover is expensive and they want hikers to feel welcome and have a nice place to rest their bodies. We were SUPER lucky to stay with Lizanne, a women in her 40's who is a consultant for non-profits. She picked us up from downtown, drove us to her house, and said "Eat anything you want, there is beer in the fridge, I have to run, but Ill be back soon to cook you dinner" I mean really, besides having a unicorn, her house was pretty much heaven. She cooked us smocked salmon for dinner, had a huge comfy bed for us to sleep in and added bonus was a interesting, smart, wonderful person to be around.
Plus the outfitter gives you a free snickers, the pizza place gives you a free slice, you get a free bagel at the bagel basement and the local dinner gives you a free donut. Plus the town has a FREE bus that runs M-F and takes you pretty much anywhere. I mean this place loves hikers, which is good because we love people who love us. This is a rarity to have this much love in one town, usually we aren't pimpin so hard when we roll into towns, but it feels pretty incredible when it happens.
Alright yall, I've rambled enough, we will try to post more before we leave, there are so many wonderful stories to tell, but for now hope this will do.
Go do something you think you can't do today. Even if you cry, you tried. That's saying something. Love to all!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Woah. I just found a Blogger app for my phone!
Last night we stayed in the home of a woman named Lizanne, who cooked us smoked salmon and gave us the run of the kitchen for breakfast!! French toast and Canadian Bacon... yum. Well fed and ready for a zero l, we hopped on Hanover's free bus system to check out different shoe options for lysandra's feet. Crossing our fingers that we won't have to spend our zero running errands!
Monday, September 17, 2012
Photos!
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| Check it, my point & shoot has kickass panoramic feature!! |
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| These are the signs above Greenleaf Hut, before I hiked a mile downhill to sleep indoors for the night. |
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| Glad I slept inside last night. Ate like a king at the hut, and woke up to 32 degrees and THIS back up on the A.T. |
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| Perfect timing for a tiny-head silhouette between these rocks! High FIVE, Sun! |
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| On top of the last mountain in the Whites: Mt. Moosilauke! |
There are ups... and there are downs...
WOW! So much has happened over the past couple of weeks!! Though that which is first and foremost on my mind right now has nothing to do with the trail at all. Sadly, we were stumbling into Lincoln, NH after our biggest mileage day so far (17 miles!!!) when I flipped on my phone to get some bad news about my Grandad, who passed away in the middle of the day while napping. Initially it felt like a no-brainer. I'd try my best to get back to Memphis for a memorial service being held in his memory in about a week (Sat. the 22nd).
In the mean time we've walked 52 miles in 4 days, continuing our successful mileage increase on the amazing terrain south of the White Mountains (Dirt, REAL DIRT!!) and bringing us into Hanover, NH (a town desperately in need of a hiker-hostel). I've done the math and if I were still shooting for finishing by X-mas (miles left / days left = miles/day ; 1,742.1 / 105 = 16.59) it's almost 17 mpd if there are NO ZEROES. So basically I should just re-evaluate and plan on hiking NC and GA in January. I can walk in the cold. I've done it before, I can do it again. And Lysandra is badass, clearly, so no worries there. She's shown an amazing level of resilience and desire to continue in the face of the new and overwhelming challenges that this trek has thrown at her. Cost is still the main factor in finishing, and buying a ticket to Memphis will probably cut into that cost, but I can eat cheaper than I have been... I think. As my mom pointed out: these things are for the living. If I feel like I should be there: I should be there.
So I'm sitting in the Dartmouth College library surrounded by dapper college students and professors alike. I'm wearing increasingly-sketchy-looking hair on my face, and smelling like someone who doesn't have access to running water... I'm going to go find a shower.
More later on why Hanover is amazing despite it's lack of a hiker-hostel.
RIP Grandad
<3
Andrew
Sunday, September 2, 2012
The Kindness the Strangers
Hey darlins. The good news is that we are FINALLY through Maine! I am writing this post in New Hampshire!! Can't you feel the difference? It took a lot longer than we would have liked, but 6 weeks later we have the first state crossed off our list and 300 miles under our hip belts. There isn't any bad news persay, but we do now have to conquer The White Mountains, which most agree are 100 miles of rough terrain, drastic ups and downs (aka lots of 1000+ foot climbs and descents), and large stretches of hiking above treeline, which means bad weather is a lot worse.
First I want to give major shout outs of gratitude. The last few days of Maine were a REAL struggle for me. I didn't know if I could do it, but I DID! I hiked the "hardest part of Maine" with my funny feet and bruised legs and if that is all I ever did, I would be incredibly proud of myself. Again this is said after spending two nights in a bed, on the trail I was convinced I was quitting after I finished Maine. Not quitting the whole trail, but I did not feel ready to proceed from Maine to the equally difficult New Hampshire without a really long break. I crave the parts of the trail that I haven't seen yet, the trail with some mountains, not many massive mountains every day, the ones with an actual trail you actually walk, as opposed to the ones we deal with which are essentially bouldering while climbing up or down 1000 feet within a mile. Anyway my feet are still killing me (the boots we bought me were a disaster, and we had to return them the next day and spend an afternoon hitching to town) my body is bruised ( I have an epic bruise on my butt that Andrew took a picture of and then just accidentally showed the whole hostel) and I felt like I had really reached my edge. Again I really want to hike more of this trail, but starting is Maine is so brutal, you get all the hardest stuff first, it's freakin discouraging. Then I got to town and picked up a package from three girlfriends filled with an MP3 player, food goodies and words of encouragement, which instantly lifted my heart. Big thanks to Amy, Christine, and Melinda, they packed this box full of lara bars, via coffee, soft socks, wonderful music, and enough snacks to possibly get us through The Whites. They also wrote notes that I really needed to read, notes reminding me to push on even as times get tough. Also just remembering that people love and support us, how quickly I forget this on the trail.
Though the package made my day I still was not convinced to try the White Mountains. Andrew and I discussed him doing The White Mountains without me, while I tried to do work for stay in a town and wait for him to finish. I also REALLY wanted more than one day off. We hiked 7 miles to get into Gorham, and were planning on only taking one "zero" which in no way felt like enough. In this world if you only take one zero, you spend your day running errands for resupply, catching up on emails, figuring out gear and planning the next days of hiking ahead. A "real zero" should entail naps, movies, soaking your feet and general R and R. Anyway our first night in town we went out to dinner with two other southbounders, and spent hours talking about the trail, my reasons for not desiring to conquer The Whites at the moment, and the constant compromises that come with hiking as a couple with drastically different skill levels. The two hikers, Melodee, a darling woman in her sixties we met our first day and Sharkey, a guy we met in Monson who had been hiking North with his girlfriend, and is now yo-yoing (which means he completed the trail going north and has now turned around and is going to hike the trail southbound) were great sounding boards. We all laughed, joked and shared stories about the ups and downs, literally, of trail life. We also talked at length about finding the right balance of Andrew and I both getting our needs met. How my 'edge,' physically and mentally out here is so much shorter than Andrew's and how that is neither bad or good, but it can be hard to figure out a way for everyone to feel good. Sharkie very much related to our dilemmas and understood why I may not want to do The Whites right now. He was surprised that after 6 weeks of doing this, we had only taken two real zeros, and reminded me that he had done the whole trail several times and Maine and New Hampshire really are the hardest states. He suggested we take a few zeros, not just one and I agreed though financially we knew we could not afford such a luxury. So he offered to pay for one night for us to stay at the hostel, just so I would get an extra day of rest. In. fucking. credible. That generosity was enough to push me over the edge and I've decided to try The Whites. I'm still not sure I'll finish them, but I've had too many hikers encourage me to try them, and there are many options if I end up needing to get off the trail early.
The hiker community is absolutely one of the main reasons I'm still on the trail. One real blessing of this trail is the constant, daily interaction with strangers we experience and how most hikers really want to help when they can. How often do you interact with strangers on a daily basis, much less bond over shared experience? Out here no matter who you are and where you are coming from, we are all hiking the same mountains. If not for the support and repeated generosity of the people we have met, I would not still be on this trail. In my regular life, I get constantly annoyed and disheartened by people, I question whether most people are just selfish pricks. But here on the trail I believe people are good, kind, and capable of miraculous things. That, I would say, is a wonderful gift this trail has given me.
So tomorrow we head out for The Whites, though rain is predicted from Tuesday to Thursday. I am not sure I will finish them, but goshdarnit I will at least start them.
Also we've been informed that Internet in New Hampshire on the trail is hard to find and expensive when you do. So we will do our best to post pics and updates, though it may take us a while to get through the next 100 miles and may not post until we are done. But just like Arnold, WE'LL BE BACK.
Thanks again for all the support. The struggles of life are not easy, which is exactly why we learn so much from them. Trying to keep that in my heart in the miles ahead.
First I want to give major shout outs of gratitude. The last few days of Maine were a REAL struggle for me. I didn't know if I could do it, but I DID! I hiked the "hardest part of Maine" with my funny feet and bruised legs and if that is all I ever did, I would be incredibly proud of myself. Again this is said after spending two nights in a bed, on the trail I was convinced I was quitting after I finished Maine. Not quitting the whole trail, but I did not feel ready to proceed from Maine to the equally difficult New Hampshire without a really long break. I crave the parts of the trail that I haven't seen yet, the trail with some mountains, not many massive mountains every day, the ones with an actual trail you actually walk, as opposed to the ones we deal with which are essentially bouldering while climbing up or down 1000 feet within a mile. Anyway my feet are still killing me (the boots we bought me were a disaster, and we had to return them the next day and spend an afternoon hitching to town) my body is bruised ( I have an epic bruise on my butt that Andrew took a picture of and then just accidentally showed the whole hostel) and I felt like I had really reached my edge. Again I really want to hike more of this trail, but starting is Maine is so brutal, you get all the hardest stuff first, it's freakin discouraging. Then I got to town and picked up a package from three girlfriends filled with an MP3 player, food goodies and words of encouragement, which instantly lifted my heart. Big thanks to Amy, Christine, and Melinda, they packed this box full of lara bars, via coffee, soft socks, wonderful music, and enough snacks to possibly get us through The Whites. They also wrote notes that I really needed to read, notes reminding me to push on even as times get tough. Also just remembering that people love and support us, how quickly I forget this on the trail.
Though the package made my day I still was not convinced to try the White Mountains. Andrew and I discussed him doing The White Mountains without me, while I tried to do work for stay in a town and wait for him to finish. I also REALLY wanted more than one day off. We hiked 7 miles to get into Gorham, and were planning on only taking one "zero" which in no way felt like enough. In this world if you only take one zero, you spend your day running errands for resupply, catching up on emails, figuring out gear and planning the next days of hiking ahead. A "real zero" should entail naps, movies, soaking your feet and general R and R. Anyway our first night in town we went out to dinner with two other southbounders, and spent hours talking about the trail, my reasons for not desiring to conquer The Whites at the moment, and the constant compromises that come with hiking as a couple with drastically different skill levels. The two hikers, Melodee, a darling woman in her sixties we met our first day and Sharkey, a guy we met in Monson who had been hiking North with his girlfriend, and is now yo-yoing (which means he completed the trail going north and has now turned around and is going to hike the trail southbound) were great sounding boards. We all laughed, joked and shared stories about the ups and downs, literally, of trail life. We also talked at length about finding the right balance of Andrew and I both getting our needs met. How my 'edge,' physically and mentally out here is so much shorter than Andrew's and how that is neither bad or good, but it can be hard to figure out a way for everyone to feel good. Sharkie very much related to our dilemmas and understood why I may not want to do The Whites right now. He was surprised that after 6 weeks of doing this, we had only taken two real zeros, and reminded me that he had done the whole trail several times and Maine and New Hampshire really are the hardest states. He suggested we take a few zeros, not just one and I agreed though financially we knew we could not afford such a luxury. So he offered to pay for one night for us to stay at the hostel, just so I would get an extra day of rest. In. fucking. credible. That generosity was enough to push me over the edge and I've decided to try The Whites. I'm still not sure I'll finish them, but I've had too many hikers encourage me to try them, and there are many options if I end up needing to get off the trail early.
The hiker community is absolutely one of the main reasons I'm still on the trail. One real blessing of this trail is the constant, daily interaction with strangers we experience and how most hikers really want to help when they can. How often do you interact with strangers on a daily basis, much less bond over shared experience? Out here no matter who you are and where you are coming from, we are all hiking the same mountains. If not for the support and repeated generosity of the people we have met, I would not still be on this trail. In my regular life, I get constantly annoyed and disheartened by people, I question whether most people are just selfish pricks. But here on the trail I believe people are good, kind, and capable of miraculous things. That, I would say, is a wonderful gift this trail has given me.
So tomorrow we head out for The Whites, though rain is predicted from Tuesday to Thursday. I am not sure I will finish them, but goshdarnit I will at least start them.
Also we've been informed that Internet in New Hampshire on the trail is hard to find and expensive when you do. So we will do our best to post pics and updates, though it may take us a while to get through the next 100 miles and may not post until we are done. But just like Arnold, WE'LL BE BACK.
Thanks again for all the support. The struggles of life are not easy, which is exactly why we learn so much from them. Trying to keep that in my heart in the miles ahead.
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