Life on the AT

Hi all! Thanks so much for all your support while we are on the trail. We absolutely love all the comments and offers to send packages. We may just take you up on it :)

We are currently in Marion, VA with our mom, Aunt Kristen, and our baby sis (Kiara)! Yipee! It is awesome that they took the time to drive out and visit us. Plus, it feels wonderful to be babied - they did our laundry (talk about brave especially since they could barely stand our stench after they picked us up from the trail) and fed us an awesome dinner.

We'll be off the trail for a 4 days and are enjoying the (1) company (2) being clean for longer then 12 hours (3) food (4) being in "civilization" and a break from the wilderness (5) being able to relax for a bit (6) internet (7) cell service...Sprint is finally working for us (8) okay...you get the point.

Prepare yourself...this is a long post. Grab your cup of coffee, beer, or whatever you like. But, who knows when we'll be able to update you next. We will be posting pics in the next day or two. Until then...

We'll give you some perspective on what life has been like for us for the 6 weeks, and hopefully, next 4 or so months...read below.

OVERALL:
Despite the difficulty of hiking the AT and living life out here, we are truly appreciative to be having this experience. It's giving us perspective on life, challenging us in a multitude of ways, allowing us to live a differently, and giving us an opportunity to see part of our beautiful country. In our opinion, we think the below things are needed to attempt a thru-hike:

-Flexibility: It is nearly impossible to plan for anything out here. We rarely know how far we’ll hike in a day (due to weather, difficulty of terrain/elevation, emotional status, and soreness); where we will sleep; what we’ll be eating; who we’ll encounter and hike with; when we’ll be stopping in town; what we can get done it town; etc.

-Ability to be constantly and consistently uncomfortable: Life out here is not easy. If it isn’t one thing that is bothersome, it’s another. There are a ton of elements that affect us. Some days/weeks can be quite miserable. As a fellow thru-hiker stated in referring to the weather, “it sucked so bad and there is nothing I could do about it. So, I just started smiling.” We at times extremely dirty, smelly, sore, thirsty, hungry, tired, itchy, hot/cold, wet, etc. It is almost as if you start to go a bit crazy out here.

-Perseverance: There are times within a week, day, or even hour that we wonder “what in the world we are doing…we must be completely nuts.” Of course we don’t want to hike every day, climb all these mountains, be uncomfortable, etc. It is easy to understand why a small percentage of people successfully complete a thru-hike.

-Attitude: Like we mentioned above, we have our ups and downs every day. As the experienced hiker say, “never quit on a bad day.” We have hope that the uphill will end soon, the soreness/pain will feel better shortly, and we’ll dry out at some point. Having hope that things will get better, feeling accomplished at the end of the day, enjoying at least one vista each day, and laughing with our buddies keeps us going.

Things we love about the trail:
-People: We have met some awesome people...fellow hikers and hostel owners mainly. There is an instant bond and friendship is easily formed. Some of the funniest and neatest people are out here. We know we have made some life-long friends.

-The simplicity of life: For the most part, everything we need is on our back. We quickly realized how many things back in Chicago that we own and don't need. Additionally, all we have to worry about really is hiking and surviving (or meeting our basic needs...food, water, shelter, clothing, etc.).

-The appreciation we have for everything (of course, friends/family, our jobs, our home back in Chi City). But also, the little things, like pop, food, etc. We enjoy things so much more on trail.

-Challenging our bodies and minds every day. It is absolutely amazing what we can do when our mind is in the right place. It is also amazing what our bodies are able to do. Our muscles are tired, our joints are sore, and we constantly accumulate new bruises, bites, and scrapes. But, our bodies heal.

A typical day on the AT:

-Wake up between 7-8am (by sunrise not alarm)

-Take 1 hour to:
• Change into hiking clothes that have been stuffed into our sleeping bag. This helps dry them out SLIGHTLY via our body temp, or at the very least, keep them warm. Unfortunately, our sleeping bags smell dirty socks...literally. We often change in our bags which takes some talent that we have yet to master. Typically, we just tell the guys to look away for a moment.
• Pack up (deflate pad, stuff sleeping bag, repack entire pack...once we take a few things out, we have to make sure everything fits back in). This can be difficult as the mornings have been extremely cold, and our fingers often feel like ice cubes which limits ours dexterity.
• Eat (we typically grab something easy so we can get back on the trail quickly-P&B and tortilla, a breakfast bar, etc. If we need a bit more of break, we'll make oatmeal and coffee..oooh...gourmet :)

-Hit the trail by 8-9am

-Break every 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours. This ensures we get some calories in our body because we'll eat a snack (granola bars, candy, beef sticks...read bad-for-you-food), take off the pack, and give our feet/legs/shoulders a much needed rest. It also allows us to complain about the 5+ mountains we just climbed and the pointless ups and downs (aka PUDS), our soreness, laugh with our hiking buddies, etc.

-Reach the shelter/campsite by 6:30-8pm. Set up camp, eat dinner (ramen noodles, mashed potatoes, and most recently, our mom's dehydrated food...not only good for us...but delish!), hang our food bag (to keep the bears away from our food), hang out packs unzipped (to try and keep the mice out-fyi...keeping the bags unzipped allows the mice to go into our bag and not chew through our bags), and hit the sack. Hiker's midnight is 9pm! While we are in bed early and for a good 9-11 hours, we toss and turn quite a bit. Why? (1) Cold...switching positions allows us to warm different sides of our bodies (2) soreness (3) animals-like mice running across us (4) people's snoring (5) random noises.

A typical day in-town:
-Laundry: By this point, our clothes can basically walk off by themselves. Our socks keep the same shape as when they are on our feet. Talk about a funk. It is a similar smell to dead fish. What else could we expect from hiking in wet socks and shoes for 4-6 days.

-Shower: After 4-6 days of hiking all day long, we don't smell the prettiest. The deodarant helps us on the trail. Most hikers don't wear to avoid the extra weight in their pack, but wearing deodarant prevents many meltdowns on Kirstin's part. Hikers tease us about this luxury item we are willing to carry.

-Resupply: Unfortunately, we are too far from a decent grocery store. So, we often buy the next leg's supply from the Dollar General. They are well stocked on packaged, preservative-filled food such as granola bars, peanut butter, candy, chips, crackers, tortilla, etc. They are not well stocked on veggies, fruit, and protein.

-Internet: We try to hit up the world-wide-web in these small (okay, podunk) towns. For instance, one town had 680 people. Not only did I graduate from high school with that amount of folks, but we were able to hit up the entire town in 2 hours...literally. If the hostel does not have this amenity (which is typical), we go to the library. Speed is slow and time is limited. We have 1/2-1 hour to check email, respond to messages, figure out finances, look for gear changes, etc. Having such little time is CRAZY annoying. Librarians will kick us off even if there is no one else there...grrrh. No offense to any librarians reading, but they must take a course on "how to be a difficult to patrons for no good reason."

-Phone: Oh Sprint...not much good to say about the service. Therefore, we are reliant on good 'ole payphones. Yep, they still exist. If we do have cell service, we can usually only call at odd hours when friends and family aren't available. Just know, we want to talk to you all. It is just not as easy as you think.

Typical things we worry about:
-Weather. Rain is the worst (so far, that is). Everything gets soaked even gortex or gear that is meant to withstand wetness. Things don't dry out overnight either, which means we are putting on wet, cold gear in the morning. We would not wish this upon anyone. Hands and feet are beyond a prune-like state after 4-5 days of rain, and our gear smells horrific. But since we have been on th trail, we have been experiencing the trifecta...rain, wind, and cold...awesome. The next complaint is going to be heat, so check back shortly for those complaints.

-People. There are some bizarre folks out here (including people running from the law...no kidding). We spent the 2 days on the look out for a certain fellow wanted by the Polk County Sheriff. Don't worry, we took a picture of the "Wanted" poster for reference. FREAKY! While the majority of hikers are very nice, there are still quite a few weirdos. Britt has been solicited to "cuddle" for $100. Then, there are the mountain/hill folks which we have been warned to have big guns. As long as we stay on trail, we should be able to avoid most issues. They will fire warning shots to let us know they're out there. Luckily, we have been hiking for the most part with some great guys who watch are backs both in-town and on the trail.

-Animals & Bugs. They crawl on us at night, bite us, and come too close to our campsite/shelter.

-Water sources. Running low on H2O is worrisome. While springs can be plentiful, there are times when we'll go over a day without a good water source. We often have to dip into what many people would consider mud puddles. No worries...drinking dirt and leaves is beginning not to phase us. When we do get water, it is often right before we hit the sack. Of course, we have to then pee during the night. Britt is good about getting up in the middle of the night to use the ladies' room (read...the woods behind the shelter) while Kirstin rather stay warm and end up in diapers in a few years.

-Food resupply. Hunger is a huge issue out here since calorie burn is quite high. In one town we had to resupply for the Smokies (5 days) at a gas station. Let's just say peanut butter, pop tarts, and candy for every meal isn't the most nutritious. Plus, it was super expensive. We don't want to over-buy food because that equates to too much weight on our backs. No, we have not gotten our estimations down yet.

-Elevation & terrain. The steepness is tough on our shoulders and knees. The terrain (roots, rocks, etc.) is hard on our feet/ankles/knees/shoes. Mud slides cause us to slip.

Typical things we don't have to worry about:
-What to wear. We only have 1 hiking outfit, 1 sleeping outfit, and 1 set of rain gear. Can you tell by the pictures?

-What day is it. No one on the trail ever knows. There isn't much that separates one day from the next except when we're it town, and we need to know business hours.

-Manners. As we sit around to eat a snack/meal as a group, we'll find any given person (1) farting (2) burping (3) doing a farmer's blow (4) eating peanut butter with their fingers (5) using a sleeve as a napkin (6) spitting (7) using their dirty pants as a plate. No worries...these things haven't ruined our appetite.

-What we are going to do the next day…uhh…hike :)