another country heard from

Its been a long time, internet!

Well, not really. But shortly after our last post, my magic phone stopped being magical. It took more battery to connect to the internet and type a blog post than the phone got while charging. So a two hour break was no longer conducive to blogging. Add to that the fact that my phone was already an old, crappy thing that didn't have the right (insert tech phrase) to write to the blog offline and just upload when we had a connection, and that writing in the memo app wasn't able to copy and paste to blogger (I lost a good 10 days worth of blog posts that way), and that was it. Since I had followed so many blogs in the months before my hike, I felt really badly. I remember how much fun I had virtually following people - coming home from a long day of grad school and hopping onto my favorite blogger's pages to see why I was working so hard - I wanted to pay it forward with this blog.

Then you ask, so why didn't you upload when you got back? Did you quit the trail?

Good questions.

About the time I realized there was no hope for my old phone and blogging (see lost blog posts note above), I got some amazing trail magic and some terrible news. We were in New Jersey, sitting at a bar (the name escapes me now, and my ATbook is stored with my gear), and met an amazing couple. They invited us over for dinner, showers, and a comfy couch, and we were more than happy to comply. They also taught us an amazing way to drink whiskey...with a chocolate milk chaser. Honest to goodness, don't knock it till you try it. We hadn't made our miles for the day, but their company was so pleasant, we decided to indulge in their kindness.

And thankful I am we did. The next morning my father called. My grandmother had passed away. The couple lent us their GPS unit, got us to a car rental place, and helped me get back to say goodbye to my beloved gram.

Needless to say, when we got back from the funeral, the trail had lost a lot of its carefree happiness. I sat down to blog a few times, and I just couldn't. I knew I wanted to finish the trail, knew my gram would want that for me, but I no longer had the emotional energy to write it all down for the world to read. I kept a hand-written journal the whole trail (highly recommended weight - a mini composition book goes a long way), and I continued to write in it. But down time was for me. I had to recharge my batteries. There was a lot of crying while walking, a lot of intense contemplation. When we made camp for the night, or found ourselves in a town, I got loud, friendly(ier than usual) with the locals, and drunk.

So, you ask, why are you writing now?

Firstly, I don't know who 'you' might be, or if 'you' exist. But I'm writing now because 1) NASCAR sent me an email, I responded, and never heard from him. If for no one other than Nascar, Bullwinkle, and the few people we grew to love on the trail, I wanted to let them know we finished. There is some grey area there. We skipped a section to hit the Whites when Jesse's brothers came out. They wanted to hike with us in the Whites, not in the foothills. Our plans would have put us there if not for the time off for the funeral.

And we skipped some of Maine. Jesse got hurt, quite a substantial back injury that had him on muscle relaxers for 2 weeks. Sleeping in the woods and not going anywhere was out of the question: anything but a bed hurt his back. So we spent a lot of money on a crappy hotel in the middle of nowhere. Eventually we decided we wanted family and our money more than we wanted to pass every white blaze on the trail. But we both really wanted to hike Katahdin. It had been such a goal for so long, we needed it.

We did hike Katahdin. And at the top, Jesse proposed! It was a beautiful ending to what had been the experience of a lifetime. Though bittersweet with the loss of my gram and the injury, we felt gloriously accomplished. And I hope we go back someday to hike the 100mile wilderness and catch the section we missed. Maybe we'll make up for missing the Shennys - but I doubt it. I loved aquablazing with every fiber of my being, and truly believe we saw those mountains the way they should be seen. From heron hatcheries to the friends we found in Farmer and Chovinard, it was my second favorite part of the trip. Besides, there's too much beautiful land to see in the world to travel the same patch twice. I've got my eyes on the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan, bagging all 46 peaks in the Adirondacks, and maybe the John Muir trail...and that's all in addition to the Carmino del Santiago. Yes please, wine hike! (BTWs, hope you're well, Ironman!)

In the lack of Christmas spirit brought on by the loss of the aforementioned matriarch, we haven't made holiday cards to send in thanks of those who helped us on our way. We will, we promise. But expect them later in the year. Perhaps as a SAD (seasonal affective disorder) pick-me-up in February, on the cusp of another year of promising thru hikers!

I'm also writing because I want to have a record of all of the awesome hikes Jesse and I do. We're starting an adventure together now. One even bigger than the AT. Also because lots of trails in our home state of Michigan have very little information floating around about them on the interwebs. We've been hiking the North Country Trail here in Michigan, and have hiked a section of the Michigan Shore-to-Shore trail. Someone has to encourage people around here to get out of doors!

If you (whoever you are) find yourself in Michigan and want to hike - or grab a beer and talk trail - shoot me an email. Make sure you include your email in the note (as per my sad lack of correspondence with Nascar, I think this thing might randomize your email when you send the note).

And look forward to hearing more adventures from Margarita and the now-less-aptly named TreeBeard. Happy trails!

Day 20 - 24

So, we have given the Appalachian trail a personality. Rather, I think we have discovered it. In Georgia, the trail takes you up and over every single mountain. Its like, "oh look, here's another mountain, the view is almost exactly the same as from the last mountain, but let's take you up there just to confirm." Then, north Carolina does its best to take you up near the top and then walk you ALL the way around it. It goes out of its way to make a mile as the crow flies more like a ten mile hike. The smoky mountains are their own beast. Apart from the shelters, which are equipped with their own fireplaces, the smoky mountains are way over-rated. The trail follows the ridgeline through a number of pointless ups and downs. And you can't tent, you must make it to an awkwardly spaced shelter location.
Anyway, we are in Hot Springs now. We had to do a 17 mile day and two 13 mile days to get here, probably our best stretch of mileage. I'm pretty proud of us. We spent the night at elmers, and I would recommend that place to everyone. What a cool guy, and what an amazing old Victorian house! It was an honor to stay there.

Day 21: mile 230.1, 12.9 miles
Day 22: mile 247.7, 17.6 miles
Day 23: mile 260.8, 13.1 miles
Day 24: mile 273.9, 13.1 miles

Days 13 - 19

We are in Gatlinburg today spending our first zero day. I would have liked to wait a bit longer, but the last few days have done a number on the tendons of our feet, and we pushed longer miles yesterday so we could spend a day in town. We got a maildrop from Tom and Brenda with our first resupply. It saves us some cash and time so ee can explore the town. So that's what we're doing today, day 19.

Day 13: 144.0 miles, 8.3 today. Today was a great and terrible day. We hiked an easy mile into the NOC, ate breakfast and ordered pizza to go there, and spent a few hours uploading thee last blog post your read. That was great. But hiking uphill for 7.5 miles in cold, while in a less than sober state was less good. And Jesse hates ups. Oh man, it was bad. Nite hiking into the shelter, cold...ugh.

Day 14: 155.2, 11.2 today. The cold clouds and wind formed gorgeous, what the Brits call whore ice, I think cuz it grows sideways on the branches. The ice grew like stalactite crystals on either side of the branch or leaf it grew on. I've got pics on my camera, sometimes using them makes posting these blog posts difficult, so well see if I can share them today. Anyway, we camped in a bunch of this ice, which fell through the course of the day.

Day 15: 165.8, 10.6 today
We hiked into Fontana today. You have to stay in a shelter once you enter the smoky mountains, so we had to do shorter than our preferred 12 to 13 mile days the last few days. The shelter at the entrance has showers, and they were amazing! Firts shower since day ten. We supplied in the one open store in Fontana, which had beer on tap and made to order personal pizzas and hot dogs. Yep, you guessed it, we ate lunch there and had a couple beers. We even bought Busch light for the shelter. We bought our permits for the national park and proceeded to the shelter.

Day 16: 179.6 miles,13.8 today. The shelters in the smoky mtns have fireplaces in them. We stayed with the British couple from timeoutadventures.co.UK, and a few others. It was fun to meet the brits since I'd read their blog before we left and they had been just ahead of us for days.

Day 17: I had bad dreams and so had trouble getting motivated the first few hours. It was downright yucky. But we stopped for lunch, the sun came out, and my full belly helped turn the day around. We hiked 1.7 miles short of our planned day, but it was because we knew the next shelter was full. As it ended up, we had a shelter, complete with jesse-made fire, all to ourselves (okay, and the mice).

Day 18: we hiked 12.5 miles, the last 7 or so with a German named Heiko. We got trail magic in the form of stickers from a couple doing a section hike, it was 65 degrees and sunny, and when we arrived at newfound gap, a couple - Godspeed and Mountain Mama- greeted us with sandwiches, fruit, pop, and a free ride into Gatlinburg!

That who knows what today will bring, but we are looking forward to a day without walking (too much).

Days 6 thru 12, mile 136.3

I will apologize for the brevity of this post. I'd written a lovely one in Franklin, nc, on day 10, but my phone won't let me post it. Now I'm hurriedly typing at a restaurant near Byron Center, nc.

I'll ramble a bit about all of the days together at the end, but give a brief overview of each day first.

Day 6: we hiked 12.3 miles to end at deep gap shelter, just 3 miles from haiawassee, ga, our first town resupply. We met 2 guys there, animal planet from cincinnati, and city slicka from Boston. We had good chats and forgot the pains of Kelly knob, a bitch of a mountain.

Day 7: pulled 12.6 miles with a 2 hour in and out resupply in town. After 3 miles hiking to a road, we were picked up by the 2nd car that passed. We rode in the back of their pick up and they went slow so we wouldn't freeze. Boy did we move fast! They dropped us off about 5 ft from the front door of the grocery store. Then we got in line for coffee at the Starbucks and a gentleman asked if he could buy us coffee. We were so grateful. A deli sandwich and food later, we hitched back to the gap and hiked another 9 miles with full bellies and packs.

Day 8: pulled 12.1 miles.it was really really cold, like in the teens. We were nice and warm in our bags though.

Day 9:we hiked up Albert mountain!  It was a big fifteen hundred feet up in a third of a mile. It was cold in today too, but less so than the day before.

Day 10: hiked 7.2 miles before eleven am. Then we spent the day in Franklin, nc, showering, doing laundry, eating pizza, and drinking beer at the sapphire inn. Was great to feel clean.

Day11: watched 3 hours of dogs and cats 101. Left the hotel at eleven and hit the trail by noon. We hike another eleven miles and stayed at wayah bald shelter with red beard and Matt. Nice guys, I hope we run into them again. A nice family came upon me peeing in the woods, but were cool about it. They told us they left trail magic in the form of honey buns by a streAm at the top of the mountain, which motivated us. 

Day 12: spent the night after a huge 15.5 mile trail day with some people from Michigan out here for spring break. They had bourbon, and so became my absolute best friends.

Were in the NOC now, eating and supplying to head into Fontana. The smokeys are next! Were nervous, but if the weather is alright for us, we will do alright.

Breakfast is here! Cheers!

A Request

HI!

I say hi, but I have no idea who's reading my blog. Thank you, though! Writing this is helping me chronicle the journey I've already taken in preparation for the AT, and will document my future. And I hope it will keep me connected to my family, friends, and other people who want to travel (or are traveling) the AT.

That said, I've got a request. If you'd like me to send you a post card, email me (trish.smrecak at gmail dot com) your address! I look forward to sending notes to people, and who doesn't like getting real mail??

I'd love to hear from you, too! I won't be checking facebook much, nor will I likely find your email in a crazy full inbox. So please, leave me and Jesse a comment on the blog, let us know what you've got going on!

Finally, if you'd like to send a care package, here are a few helpful tips on what to pack from a blogger hiking another trail. If you want to send a package, let us know via the comments section of the blog about when you'd like to send it, and we'll give you a post office or hostel/business you can send it to. Care packages should be labeled with our names, a note that says "hold for AT thru-hiker" and can have your phone number in the return address (in case they have any questions).

I will also mention that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Wasabi peas! And couscous. And veggies! And Wasabi Peas! Did I say wasabi peas?

Okay, so, leave me your addresses if you want postcards!!!

Here are some pics of friends and I snowshoeing in the Adirondacks to get me in the spirit!
Also, 16 days. Ho.Ly.Shit.

:) Cheers!

Mail drops

Jesse and I dont plan on using mail drops too frequently, since we don't want to stick to a schedule. We don't want too push too far or stop short to make it to a post office in a specific town on a specific day all the time. However, we know we'll need gear mailed to us a few different times as it warms and as we hit cool mountainous air to the north. So we thought we'd combine gear drops with mail drops and save a bit of cash by buying some food in bulk for the endeavor. We purchased and packed up  5 mail drops, plus some food to get us started.  For breakfasts we have instant oatmeal or poptarts when we don't feel like cooking. We know we'll find this on the trail, but we wanted to save some cash here. We've included dried fruit to supplement our oatmeal, and also included some chia seeds mixed with dehydrated milk, sugar, and a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg for instant chia pudding. This can be mixed with a packet of oatmeal or eaten as a breakfast or snack on its own. 

Lunches in the mail drops are going to be snack bars, trail mix with greek yogurt balls and pistachios, dried Michigan cherries, and other tasty surprises. It was really important to us to send things that are less common in small grocery stores (like chia seeds, Greek yogurt balls, dried blueberries) that will keep us from getting too bored with food and provide some real nutrients. 

Dinners are going to be a mix of gross, dehydrated mashed potatoes (thankfully mixed with dehydrated veggies from home) and stuffing. These are, again, more of a cost-saving move. The tasty dinners will be quinoa with chicken bullion cubes and dried veggies, or mixed with almonds and dried fruit.

I've also insisted on packing instant coffee and extra bullion cubes for warm drinks when it's cold. I usually keep the heat at my house around 60, even when it's below zero. Sipping on chicken broth or coffee helps me stay warm, or at least give some illusion to that end.

Here is a picture of our food collection sitting in jesse's basement. A big shout out to his parents, Tom and Brenda, for being our mail droppers. 

We're still contemplating the location of the drops, and there are some knowledgeable past thru hikers out there whose advice we're taking in. And if anyone at home wants to send us something, you're more than welcome (and we'd love to get a care package!!!). We'll share information about how to do that later. For now, more dehydrating!

Why hike the Appalachian Trail?

In the past few months, I've told a lot of people about our impending journey. Some people know all about the Appalachian Trail and respond with smiles and pats on the back. Others have no clue what I'm talking about. This post is for people who fall into the latter category.

What's the Appalachian Trail? And why do you need to take a semester off of your PhD to go hiking?

The Appalachian Trail is an approximately 2,200 mile trail (2,185.3 in 2014 according to the 2014 Data Book, a yearly issued trail guide that is a bible of sorts for thru hikers* and section hikers* (*=definitions below).  It starts at the top of Springer Mountain in Georgia and travels through 14 states up to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. It was dreamed up back in the 1920s. Completing this distance in 4 months requires hikers to travel 18 miles each day, taking no zeros* and providing the weather doesn't force you off the trail. Since my longest mileage in a single day is about 14 miles, and since I seem to have misplaced my magical ability to control the weather, its gonna take us longer than 4 months. Which is why I needed to take this spring semester off this year.

Thru Hiker - someone who hikes the entire distance of the Appalachian Trail in a single season. 

Section Hiker - someone who hikes long portions of the Appalachian Trail.

Zeros - A zero day is a day when no hiking mileage is accomplished. A day off, a side trip, what have you. "Neros" is also a term used on the trail. Its a day with very low mileage.

Here's a taste of the Appalachian Trail by a past thru hiker. Its a great video, and will give you a sense of what it is to be a thru hiker.





How do you get food?

While the Appalachian Trail is extensive, it travels through a lot of towns. Most thru hikers stop in towns and replenish their supplies or collect boxes from the post office or a hostel or other hiker-friendly locale to fill their packs again. 

 Where do you sleep?

In a shelter you carry in your backpack or in a lean-to on the trail. Lean-tos are typically three-sided wooden shelters that hikers use to stay off the ground and out of the elements. 

Do lots of people do this?

Yes! At least, a lot of people start out. The internet is a sketchy place, so a 30 second query yielded a wide variety of numbers of people that attempt and successfully complete a thru hike each year. That number, poorly averaged, is around 2000 people. Most people start in the south and follow the spring northward (Northbounders, or NOBOs), but some start late and travel south (Southbounders, or SOBOs). Somewhere between 1/4 and 1/10 of people who start actually complete a thru hike. 

So, while it is a trail full of natural beauty, its not one of solitude. So I hear, its quite social, many people making friends for life in those woods.

The million dollar question....Why?

Everyone has their own reasons for hiking the Appalachian Trail. Anyone who knows me knows I'm partial to older people. So, while I'll share my own reasons for hiking the trail in a later post, I'd like to share the story that I found most inspirational. That of the legendary 'Grandma Gatewood.' She hiked the entirety of the Appalachian Trail THREE SEPARATE TIMES. The first time she hiked it was in 1955 and she was 67. Think about the societal implications of a woman hiking across the continent solo at that time. What a bad ass! And she did it with a home-made backpack and Keds tennis shoes. I wish I had the chance to meet this woman before she passed. Can you imagine the kind of spitfire she must have been?

I have my own reasons for wanting to hike the Appalachian Trail, and no doubt Jesse has his. We actually haven't shared our reasons with each other. One night we were reminiscing our trip to Isle Royale in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, another night we watched a documentary on the Appalachian Trail, and a week or two later he said "I want to hike the Appalachian Trail." My dream has always been a trail. An outdoor adventure, or more appropriately, a series of them, leading into perpetuity. Shortly after I heard about the North Country Trail's Michigan leg, I told my mom I'd do something like that someday. I was 10 or 12. Of course I'd naturally gravitate to a trail on the east coast. I love the Northeast fiercely. And so many people I hold dear live there. But like so many things in this relationship, when he said "I want to hike the trail," I said "so do I," and it just came to be. 

 


  

Ringing in the New Year

Its been a while since we've posted, but with moving, the holidays, and Jesse's defense, its been busy. This is an exciting post for me because when I publish this one, I'll be officially sharing the blog with my family and friends via all those snazzy social media outlets. I actually had written a blog post between Christmas and New Years on my magic phone, but numerous attempts to share it yielded an angry "couldn't publish post" message.

Jesse and I have moved out of Lansing in preparation for our big hike. We're staying with family tying up loose ends and prepping for the big adventure. I've moved my fossils into my parents' family room and am working furiously to meet deadlines I've set for myself before we depart. The kitties are currently residing in my parents' unrented apartment so as to not upset the balance with their kitties here (yep, crazy cat people!). Jazzie will be staying with Jesse's sister and brother-in-law (thanks, guys!), and while I've got a few options for Darwin, he's not officially homed yet. So, if you've ever thought being a temporary cat owner was for you, friends, now's the perfect time to try it out. Darwin is THE BEST living cat on the planet - our old family cat was probably a little better - and very low maintenance. He doesn't cuddle, but will follow you around and guard you while you sleep like a champ. Free litter and food, you just bring the lovin'.

Look at that face!!

...anyway. 

I have to share a bit about my favorite Christmas presents this year. The blog post that will live forever in the ether of my cell phone was all about what Jesse got me. A Nikon Coolpix S9500. It's got GPS and WIFI. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't even know cameras could have GPS. How. Freaking. Brilliant. As a geologist, this will come in handy forever, so I'm stoked. That's right, geo-types, you'll be able to shamelessly steal any good pics I snag on the trail AND be able to know exactly where they came from!

There are all sorts of tools I'm trying to get familiar with, but the best part is that this camera has a dedicated video button. So if something amazing is happening, I don't have to switch settings or anything. Just push a button and BAM, video. And it wirelessly communicates with my phone, so I can easily post images and video on this blog while we're hiking the trail.

Here's the very first pic we took with it while hiking in the snow in northern Michigan.

Since this is the first blog post I'm sharing on facebook, etc., I promise to follow up with some information on what the Appalachian Trail is, what our travel plans are, and other sundries. Until now, this blog has been a record for me, for the local hikes we've done and want to share with other Michigan hikers, for the other people potentially hiking the Appalachian Trail, and those who randomly stumble upon it. We've both spent tons of time following (read: stalking) bloggers planning their 2012 and 2013 thru hikes (if you care about this sort of think, Jordana's My Meandering Trail 2013 thru hike blog was my FAVORITE) and are SOO excited to share our story on the trail with anyone who might want to follow along vicarously.

More soon!

Odd conversations

So Jesse provides us with a lesson about what kinds of conversations need to be had when planning to hike the Appalachian trail. It follows:

Buying 6 months of expensive cat food for your cat sitter costs over 300 dollars. Explaining that your cats will be living with your mother to the check out lady makes you 1) awkward as all get out, and 2) makes you less of a man.

He has a list of modifications for this blog post. If he wants to edit it, maybe he should post his own blog posts.

More soon!

A long overdue announcement

Okay, so, last week I watched one of those local Ted X things a friend of mine posted on Facebook. Now, I'm not hip to this Ted x jive, nor do I seek a lot of external inspiration. I mean, nature and family rejuvenate me, but as far as listening to other people's insight, I don't venture too far from my best friend Josh's council.

Anyway, perhaps because I had a shitty month or so, or because my boyfriend is finishing up his dissertation and I've got to have inspiration enough for two, or because I really respect the life choices of my friend who first posted the video, or because I just couldn't convince myself to write my dissertation anymore, I put in my earbuds and gave a listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSR4xuU07sc

And it struck a chord.

I've got my own closet to come out of. And for me, it's hard.

Imtakingnextsemesteroffandhikingtheappalachiantrailwithjesse. 

Okay. Again. I'm going to take a semester off of my phd program and hike the Appalachian trail. A nearly 2200 mile journey across 14 states from Georgia to Maine.

This post isn't my first admission. I've told my advisor, and she's supportive. I've told committee members, they are down. I've shared it with other grad students in the department, huzzah. Jesse has told his family, and they are stoked (even if we will miss the birth if his twin nieces). 

I wasn't surprised by this next fact. I've been dreading telling my parents. I told them. They are not supportive. That was my closet. My cousin doesn't get it, but she wants me to be happy. The guys in my family, they love me but don't really think its a good idea. My mother shhhhed me, and when I bring it up the tension is palpable. She told dad (cuz that's how it works in the family), and he's flat out told me no. 

I'm a 29 year old woman who has made all the grown up, right decisions for pretty much ever. I've always wanted to do a hike like his, and I am finally in a supportive relationship with a person who wants this adventure as much as I do. The opportunity has knocked. I see that it's selfish to put aside my phd for 6 months and do something that won't directly further me as a person professionally or personally in the traditional sense. But this adventure will further me personally, in my own offbeat way

And I don't think I've ever done something directly against my parents wishes. i knew I wouldnt find support for this endeavor from them, but I guess I wish they had surprised me, because they always do support me. And in the end, I know they still love me regardless. But man, at least half of the stress I've had for the last 2 months has been wrapped up in coming out of my Appalachian trail closet. Not because I didn't know how they were going to react, but because I did. I knew I would get told 'no' and for once, I wasn't going to do as I was told. I knew this, but it doesn't change how much it hurts. (and yes, I also know I'm 1/3 of the way thru my life and still seeking approval, but I was raised to respect, so to me, this is a byproduct of that)

And I'm nervous and excited and scared and a whole bundle of things, and I'd like to share that with them. Hell, they are the reason I moved back to Michigan. But for right now, I'm planning, packing, and prepping for the trail.