The Best Day Off Ever

On Day 121 of my Appalachian Trail hike, from Georgia to Maine, I woke up at first light, well before 5 a.m. It was still raining.

I blogged my hike on Trail Journals.Com and this is was I wrote about that day: 

“Yesterday’s introduction [16.8 miles] to the Whites had taken a lot out of me. The Vikings too. All three of us were accustomed to knocking out 17 to 19 miles a day, sometimes 20–plus, but I had never seen so much bad trail in one day, and so little good.”

That's me with the Hiking Vikings on June 11, 2019
That’s me with the Hiking Vikings, on June 11, 2015.

“It was Sharon’s (also known now as”Hiking”– Nate is”Viking”) suggestion, but I loved it. Let’s knock off early today. A few hours of up-and-down in this weather and we’ll be wet, cold and tired. Let’s hitch, or get a shuttle, into North Woodstock, NH, get a motel room, and get warm and dry. So that’s what we did.”

“We waited till 8:10 a.m., until the rain slacked off, before beginning what would become an 8.8 eight mile hike. It took us three hours to hike the first four miles – that’s 1.3 mile per hour.”  

[Take a look at the video and you’ll see why.]

“New Hampshire started us off today with a 1950-foot climb and followed that with a 1910-foot descent, all in the rain. And high winds on top of the mountains, 50 mph plus.”

“Except for the 6×6 inch “steps” attached to long, steep boulders and the foot holes chiseled in the side of others, I haven’t seen anything new in New Hampshire. The mud, and there’s lots of it, reminds me of Vermont. The steep climbs, North Carolina; the rock hops, Pennsylvania; and the rock climbs and scrambles, New York. The difference is New Hampshire has it all – and very little good trail, so far, to go with it.”

That me, coming down mountain into F notch, near Woodstock, N.H.,
That’s me, coming down North Kinsman Mountain into Franconia Notch, near North Woodstock, N.H., on June 15, 2015.

“I’ve just got to learn patience. Slow down. Be satisfied with 12, 13 miles a day. And in a week or so, I’ll be in Maine.”

“Getting off the trail today was the best idea I’ve agreed to in months, since I bailed out of a winter storm at Newfound Gap in North Carolina.”

“Sharon found us an excellent motel, Autumn Breeze. The owner, Ann Albert, came to the trail head to get us, and then washed our clothes. We ate in our room. And ate and ate.”

“Ice cream, too?”

“Oh, yes!”

“Tomorrow’s forecast is for more rain, and a thunderstorm while we are ridge walking above the tree line.”

“We decided to stay put, take a zero. I am at peace with that. You can teach an old dog new tricks.”

Postscript:

Day 122 – Tuesday, June 16, 2015

“What a lazy day.”

“Wonderful!”

“And did it, in fact, rain? Oh, yes. Hard, in the afternoon. And the tops of mountains, where we would have been hiking, were shrouded in mist. Or clouds. Soup of some kind.”

“I doctored my feet – I’ve lost a second toenail.”

“Repaired my boots the best I could with Super Glue.”

“Resupplied.”

“Figured out where I need my wife to send me a supply box – and another pair of boots. My third.”

The view from the top of Mt. Katahdin, the end of the trail in Maine.
The view from the top of Mt. Katahdin, the end of the trail in Maine.

“And ate. Oh, my – sandwiches, fruit, including watermelon, ice cream, soft drinks and chips, pop corn, orange juice – all the things we can’t get on the trail.”

“Tomorrow, we go back to the trail – 91.3 miles to Maine, 373.1 miles to the top of Mt. Katahdin.

Coming Monday: The Court of Last Resort

 

Everything Weighs Something

I am, finally, an ultra-light backpacker. On my next warm weather hike my base weight, that’s everything but food and water, will be less than 10 pounds.

Total weight is base weight plus food and water. How much your food and water weighs depends, of course, on how long you going to be out, figure 1.5 pounds of food per day on a section hike,  and the availability of water.  I generally start the day with one to two liters, 2.2 to 4.4 pounds.

When Ms. Viking found this bag of pennies at a shelter, she didn't take them with her. Why? Pack weight.
When Ms. Viking found this bag of pennies at a shelter, she didn’t take them with her. Why? Pack weight.

As any seasoned backpacker can tell you, the three most important things about backpacking are pack weight, pack weight, and pack weight.  I used to not know that.

On my first hike, on the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota ten years ago, I carried 43 pounds, total, equipment plus water for the day and food for a six-day hike.  I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s a lot of weight, about double what I should have been carrying.

When I first started backpacking I took things I might need.  That’s a mistake.  You only take stuff you have to have. And if you get out there and discover you packed too light, you’ve left something important at home, just remember: If you need it and don’t have it you don’t need it.

I’ve heard plenty of people say about something they’re carrying, like a paperback book: It’s real light, it doesn’t weigh anything.  They’re wrong about that.  Everything weighs.

The stove I carry weighs less than an ounce.
The stove I carry weighs less than an ounce.

I’ve backpacked a good bit, over 3,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail and 300 miles or so on  trails out West, and I’ve finally learned — I weigh all of my equipment on a postal scale and I  trim every ounce I can. Three ounces here, an ounce there, it adds up.

The reasons for going light are obvious: the lighter your pack the more miles you can hike and the more comfortable you are no matter how far you want to hike each day.

Here’s my warm weather pack list:

NOTE: If I’m so concerned about pack weight why don’t I lose some belly weight?  That’s a very good question, mean, but good.

Summer Pack List

Base Weight: 9 lb, 14.8 oz

SLEEPING – 2 lb, 4 oz

  • GoLite down quilt and bag, comfortable to about 40 degrees. 1 lb, 6 oz
  • Pad, Therm-A-Rest Neoair Xlite, and bag – 12.2 oz.
  • Pee bottle, with duck tape — 1.8 oz.

BACKPACK – 1 lb., 10 oz

  • Zpack Arc Haul, 62L, with accessory, 1 lb, 10 oz

CLOTHES – 1 lb., 9.6 oz

.…Carried in the compression sack, 4.8 oz, with my down quilt.

  • One long sleeve shirt – 9.9 oz
  • One pair of medium wool socks 3.2 oz
  • One pair of underwear, 3.3 oz
  • Black bag wind, rain deflector, 3.9 oz
  • Head bug net 0.5 oz

TENT – 1 lb, 4 oz

  • Zpacks Solplex Tent, 15.5 oz
  • 8 stakes, 4.5 oz

KITCHEN 1 lb, 3.9 oz

  • Pack bag with cooking pot, lid, cup; stove in its bag; trash bag; cigarette lighter and matches stored in a water-tight medicine bottle – 8.2 oz
  • Fuel – 7.5oz
  • Bear rope, 46 feet, with reflectors weaved into the rope, and carabineer – 4.2 oz

WATER 9.4 oz

  • Sawyer Squeeze [includes two squeeze bags, backflow filter, hang bag for gravity filtering] — 5.9 oz
  • One peanut jar size water bottle – 1.5 oz
  • One Smart Water water bottle – 1.3 oz
  • One Coke bottle – 0.7 oz

TOOLS 9.0 oz

Zip lock bag for tools containing…

  • Cap light
  • Needle, thread, tie-ties
  • Pad repair tape
  • Tweezers [for ticks, or ear plugs stuck in my ear.]
  • Fingernail clips
  • Ear plugs
  • Razor
  • Extra spoon [I’ve been without a spoon. Bummer. Now I carry two.]
  • Three rubber bands
  • Exterior phone battery, and one wire, gives me 2 phone recharges

HYGIENE7.6 oz

Stored in yellow bag

  • Large zip lock for toilet and tooth items
  • Small zip lock bag for:
  • Toilet paper stored in its own alone in a small bag
  • Purel or equivalent
  • Vaseline
  • Small zip lock bag for:
  • Toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss
  • Soap, bagged separately
  • Pills
  • MEDICAL KIT 5.3 oz

Medical kit and Tools stored in blue bag

  • Zip lock bag for medical kit containing:
  • Band-Aid Friction Block –this is really good stuff. It stops blisters before they get going.
  • Band-aids
  • Triple antibiotic ointment. Don’t leave home without it – I have used it many, many times and have never had an infection.
  • Moleskin, 2 sheets
  • Medical tape
  • Stretch-tape to keep moleskin in place; sprained ankle
  • Ibuprofen; insect bite treatment; Diphen for runny nose; antiseptic for cuts; and Pennsaid, to reduce pain from knee injuries
  • Bug spray

SLEEPING –2 lb 4.0 oz

BACKPACK –1 lb 10.0 oz

CLOTHES –1 lb 9.6 oz

TENT –1 lb 4.0 oz

KITCHEN –1 lb. 3.9 oz

WATER –0 lb. 9.4 oz

TOOLS –0 lb 9.0 oz

HYGIENE –0 lb. 7.6 oz

MEDICAL KIT –0 lb. 5.3 oz

TOTAL 9 lb. 14.8 oz

Coming Monday: My Favorite Newspaper Story