On Thursday and Friday I hiked the AT for 18 miles. I had almost forgotten how hard it is to walk uphill all day with a full pack. When I hiked with Daryl, Donna, and Dick, we could share some of the gear, combine uses for items like a water filter, stove, first-aid kit, GPS, and tent. Hiking alone requires you carry it all.<\/p>\n
Hikers passed me all day. By the time they get to Damascus, thru-hikers have walked almost 500 miles; they are becoming hiking machines. If they make it to the end, most men will be in the best condition of their lives and typically lose 30-40 pounds.<\/p>\n
I spent the night in my tent, near a clearing at a place called Saunders Shelter. There were nine of us there: three guys about my age, two young men, two girls and a dog. We sat around the campfire that night and I listened to them talk about their hikes. Some of their names were Rainbow, Raisin, Swamp Dog, Guinness, and the older group that called themselves Team Indecision.<\/p>\n
One of the young men was up early the next morning, packed up quickly, and on the trail before I had my tent down. I learned later that he was doing 30 mile days, trying to catch a girl he was smitten with, some two days up ahead on the trail. I hiked out before the rest of the crowd, and only saw a couple of hikers the rest of the day. You tend to meet up with people at shelters, but a lot of the time will be spent walking alone.<\/p>\n
The trail crosses Rt. 58 near an entry point for the Virginia Creeper Bike Trail. Two days before, I had strategically hidden my bike behind some Rhododendron bushes, about a half-mile from my exit point. I was a little apprehensive that someone had found it and taken it away, or even worse, that one of the tires would be flat, but everything was ok.<\/p>\n
Although the ride down the bike trail only took two hours, I was sore and tired from the weight of my pack, constantly pressing my arms into the handlebars, and jarring my back at every rut. It was quite a relief when I arrived at my van.<\/p>\n
I had a good time. I wish it would have been a little warmer – I got cold in the night. There was a light rain on the second day, but nothing that spoiled the hike. I didn’t take enough food. I always have trouble figuring out what kind of an appetite I will have. When I pack, I’m reluctant \u00a0to pad my food supply on the grounds that I will have to carry more weight, and it wouldn’t hurt me to drop a couple of pounds anyway. Did I just say I was cold, wet, and hungry? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Thursday and Friday I hiked the AT for 18 miles. I had almost forgotten how hard it is to walk uphill all day with a full pack. When I hiked with Daryl, Donna, and Dick, we could share some of the gear, combine uses for items like a water filter, stove, first-aid kit, GPS, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}