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  1. #201

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    Speaklng of coupon codes, at the Anza water cache on the PCT I'd met up with a woman who I'd met briefly on my AT thru-hike. An overnight 80*F change in temps was common on the PCT so at 7:00pm that night it was already getting cold. She said, "I guess t's time for my Victoria's Secret"' and proceeded into her Victoria's Secret tights.

    Pretty much made hiking hundreds of miles through the $^%^& desert worthwhile to me.

    For you women who enjoy Victoria's Secret, here's a 40% couon code for swimwear (Zow!) -- SAVE40SWIM -- and a stackable code FREE2DAY.


    Datto

  2. #202

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    On another thread here on Whiteblaze is the idea that one would take a Spot device or a Sat Phone when going into the woods -- this, for the current thread, because a hiker named Inchworm got herself lost in Maine on a bathroom break from the AT and eventually died from starvation and dehydration because she couldn't find her way back to the AT from her bathroom break.

    What a crazy stupid idea. Just because ONE person got lost that doesn't mean you will get lost. There are thousands of people like Inchworm who work in big companies who can't find their way to the bathrooms and can barely get out of bed without injuring themselves. Those people don't go into the woods and they don't leave the safety of Society ever. They know they're clueless so they adjust and keep close to whatever makes them feel safe.

    To take Inchworm's situation as a recommendation to get a Spot device or a Sat Phone is ridiculous -- that will just mess up your AT thru-hike with no value added back. Besides, it's just a bunch of extra weight and you can't eat a Spot device. A Sat Phone -- geez, just take another fistful of cash laying on the front seat of your car, drive down the highway, throw the fistfuls of cash out the window and go back to work on Monday. Forget about the Appalachian Trail -- just go back to work on Monday and do whatever the pointy-haired manager tells you to do every day of your life so you don't ever take any possible risk that you might get a mark.

    The Appalachian Trail is one of the most well-marked trails in the world. The chances of YOU getting lost for days because you went off trail to do your bathroom business is so infinitesimally small as to be non-existent. There is much more likelyhood you will be struck by lightning while wading in a lake holding a steel bar to the sky blasfeming God while hiking the Appalachian Trail than there will ever be that you got lost for days on-end after taking a dump.

    Don't bring Society with you via a Spot or (most laughable) a Sat Phone on your AT thru-hike. It is a Trojan Horse that will mess you up in the head.


    Datto

  3. #203

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    Speaking of spots and the 50th anniversary...

    Tonight I'm at the Fontana Dam shelter, commonly referred to as the 'Fontana Hilton' because of the generous shelter accommodations on the shores of beautiful Fontana Lake. A dozen or so thru-hikers were gathered around the campfire when I walked up. One was talking about digging a hole in the steeply sloped ground near the Trail, squatting down and losing his balance.


    With one of his hands first behind him to keep from falling backward down the hillside and then the other hand placed in front to keep from falling on his face, he told the other thru-hikers, "You hear what I'm saying? It was like I was in the woods playing Twister!"


    We all roared. We'd been there too.



    Datto

  4. #204

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    Time will elapse so quickly. Much faster than you can imagine.

    Somewhere along in the early days you will begin to feel the glide. It is remarkable.

    Everything just starts to fit. Time is but a wisp.

    Then, when it is coming to an end and you're looking for Katahdin in the great distance from Saddleback, you have to wall it away. The sadness that is. It may be your first glimpse of Katahdin but it is more a view to the end, to the beginning again. This one will soon be closing and another one of unknown beauty will open once more.


    Datto

  5. #205

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    Here is something to know.

    If you carry your full backpack past every blaze of the Appalachian Trail during 2017 it is not likely to be the greatest accomplishment of your life.

    There are reasons for this -- you will have shown your tenacity, your ability to work through obstacles, your willingness to push through to complete what you have set out to do. You will have great confidence in yourself.

    Those are the qualities most people in the world are lacking.

    You will succeed and exceed. It will become natural for you. That will become your expectation.

    But still...

    Keep this in mind.

    Your purpose for being on this planet is to be happy. You certainly don't want to deviate from that purpose for very long. It's just not worth it.

    That is where most fail.

    They think their purpose is to make other people happy. Their boss, their spouse, their kids, their parents, their girlfriend/boyfriend, their Pastor for goodness sakes.

    Wrong again.

    You are the only person responsible for you.

    This may become self-evident for you on your AT thru-hike.

    Hopefully so.

    Then it's a question of what you are going to do about it afterward. After you've experienced life on the Trail.

    There's your quandary. The Societal quandary.


    Datto

  6. #206

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    When I had completed my AT thru-hike, on the ride back down to New Hampshire to fly home I had come to the conclusion my AT experience was important. That the world of long-distance hiking would become a major part of my life.

    It is an itch. Once you get it, that becomes a delight you just can't avoid doing something about.

    In fact, it would drive direction.

    Quite a bit of time would expire before I would figure out the ramifications and the means to make it all happen and work well.

    What a life I have had since starting my AT thru-hike. Geez, it just couldn't have ended up much better. Things always seem to have worked out, even with my doubts at times -- just like on the Trail.

    I hadn't realized, until my AT thru-hike, how much I'd enjoyed living in the woods. Most of my adult working life to that point in time had been spent under fluorescent lights -- that is a stark contrast to what I have intrinsically desired. I hate fluorescent lights -- in the places where I have lived I have even gone to the point of taping over light switches used to power on a fluorescent light. I think of fluorescent lights as the identity of what it is I am wanting to avoid.

    But fluorescent lights and the associated work-life requirements are unavoidable in the modern world -- in the modern Society.

    Beauty too became very important to me over time. Visual, audible, tactile beauty. I'd had my dose of ugly and I didn't really want much ugly anymore. I knew what ugly was and had had enough of it and wanted it eliminated -- well, as much as possible in modern Society that I could get away with anyhow.

    So, after considerable thought I'd put a plan together to make it all happen.

    Plans, of course, are a dime a dozen. Great glorious plans. Minutely detailed plans.

    it's the execution that really is the substance. And knowing where compromise is fitting and where holding the line is required.


    Datto

  7. #207

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    Upon my return to Society after completing my AT thru-hike -- the real questions were three-fold:

    1) Where am I going to live after my AT thru-hike?
    2) Where am I going to get a job after my AT thru-hike?
    3) How can I take another adventure every three years?

    As far as answering Question 1 above -- you should already have this answered prior to starting your AT thru-hike. If you don't, you may be in for some major stress after returning from your AT thru-hike. It'll probably haunt you in your head while you're hiking too. A much better approach is to get this answered ahead of time before you start your AT thru-hike.

    If you're thinking, "Well, I'll just get an apartment someplace after my AT thru-hike" you should know most apartment complexes require you have a current employer listed (as well as many other pieces of credit-related information that will be confirmed by the apartment complex) in order for your apartment application to be approved. Since you may not have a job right after you return from your AT thru-hike, there's a good chance no one will lease you an apartment.

    So you could find yourself in a Catch-22 situation rather quickly if you don't address Question 1 prior to starting your AT thru-hike.

    Instead, if you're currently living in an apartment complex prior to starting your AT thru-hike and you've always paid your rent on-time (you've never been late with your rent in the mind of the property manager, not necessarily your mind), then go and talk to the property manager in person (not a leasing agent -- they're clueless and just do what they're told and are paid to look pretty). Discuss with the apartment property manager, ahead of time (not at the last minute), that you'll want to return to this apartment complex after you complete your AT thru-hike. Ask them what the process would be to get back into the apartment complex smoothly while doing your job search following your AT thru-hike. There may be a chance the property manager will allow you back into an apartment without all the hoopla of going through a complete application/credit review/employer review process. If the apartment manager tells you there's no way you can return to the apartment complex without having a job first, then you know ahead of time this option won't likely work and you'll need to find another solution to address Question 1.

    if you're thinking you'll just have someone sub-lease your apartment while you're on your AT thru-hike, you should know sub-leasing of an apartment in an apartment complex is prohibited by almost all apartment complex leases. Reason -- they don't want you bringing in riff-raff to their apartment complex without their approval (also, sometimes people will bring in tons of others to live in a single apartment in order to reduce costs per person). If you go ahead anyhow and secretly sub-lease your existing apartment to someone else while you're on your AT thru-hike, you could create a major problem needing addressing back home if the apartment complex finds out. You may discover later that it will be difficult to ever lease an apartment again since the next future apartment complex will require you to list your past residences and they'll surely call your most recent place where you previously had a lease.

    That all assumes whomever you sub-lease to actually pays their agreed upon rent on-time to you. If they don't and just keep residing in your apartment while not paying you the rent they owe, then you have another major problem back home that you'll have to address remotely from the Trail (or more likely, have to leave the Trail to take care of the problem).

    You'll also have to address the lease term of your existing apartment too -- regardless of whether you come back to this apartment complex or not. If you walk out on your apartment lease where your lease term has not come to an end, then you may have serious problems leasing an apartment again in the future. Your future apartment complex will likely call your past apartment complex and they'll know you walked out on a past lease and may reject your future apartment application. Instead, if you know you're going to start your AT thru-hike in April 2017 then get your lease arranged so the term of the lease completes at the end of March 2017. One way to do this is to switch to a month-to-month lease ahead of time (and pay a monthly additional cost for the month-to-month lease) so you only have to give thirty days notice in order to vacate your apartment. Don't wait to get this situation known and solved ahead of time.

    By the way, don't expect to receive your full apartment deposit money back from the apartment complex where you're currently living. For one, your idea of a spotless apartment is probably not the same as what the apartment complex considers a spotless apartment. In addition, some apartment complexes will keep your apartment deposit money regardless of whether you leave the apartment spotless or not. It's their way of doing business and they know you really have no way to get your deposit money back anyhow (without resorting to expensive legal means of pursuit which very few tenants undertake)-- so they just keep the money. Certainly don't count on getting that money back in order to utilize that money for funding some of your AT thru-hike.

    In any case -- deposit money back or not -- you must leave your apartment spotless when you leave. If you don't, the next place in the future where you're trying to get an apartment lined up will likely find out your a slob and may reject your apartment application simply on that basis alone.

    Of course, if you already own a house and you're making mortgage payments while you're on your AT thru-hike, then your Question 1 problem is solved.

    if you're married and have a mortgage, your spouse may be making the required house payments in your absence while you're on your AT thru-hike -- so you've answered Question 1 above. That assumes your spouse doesn't file divorce papers while you're on your AT thru-hike (which happens more frequently than you might imagine).

    As for me, I usually either made arrangement ahead of time with my college roommate back in Indiana to rent a room from him at his house or I kept my existing apartment (remaining vacant) while I was on a long-distance hike/adventure. There were two times where I made arrangements with the property manager of an apartment complex where I was living to allow me to return smoothly back to that apartment complex after my long-distance hike. The apartment manager at one place was a sweetheart of a person and it was no problem at all to return there following my long-distance hike (apartment property managers are not normally sweethearts). At the other place I had to show "sufficient personal assets (Va Voom)" to allow me to come back to that apartment complex without having a current employer. The whole business of sufficient personal assets is in the judgment of the property manager, not you. They're trying to determine if you're a deadbeat or not before they let you into an apartment complex as a tenant. You may not realize this but property managers see lots of apartment complex applications from deadbeats. You're assumed to be a deadbeat until proven otherwise (by review of your personality and appearance in-person and review with confirmation of the truth of the information you've provided in your apartment application that makes you a good risk to have as a tenant).

    You have almost a year to figure out where you are going to live after returning from your AT thru-hike. Don't let time elapse without addressing this question sufficiently that it's not a bother while on your hike.

    On to Questions 2 and 3.


    Datto

  8. #208

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    Stepping away from the usual process question and answer activities...

    There is a very strong bond developed between AT thru-hikers.

    It is unmistakable and deep.

    There is none of that chest-bumping you see on TV between people of the same team avocation.

    It's not like that.

    At all.

    It is a full-on hug with a tight grip of affection.

    It's the appreciation, the respect, the admiration of others.

    If you've carried your full backpack past every blaze you know who are the people who deserve your greatest respect.

    Well no, they may not be like you. In the least.

    At all.

    But in retrospect you think they are like you. But not in the same way as you would expect to be expected by Society.

    They are Great. With a capital G.

    I was in a major city (to me) looking for a gift. A woman had asked me out on a date -- said her parents had season tickets to a performing arts theater and had wondered if I would like to come and join them for the play.

    Well of course I said yes.

    I'd met that woman on my AT thru-hike. She and I had an affection toward each other and each of us wanted, at that time, to see what would develop.

    On my way to that date (about five hours away via car driving) I'd stopped in a big city to get her a gift. A gift only a thru-hiker would appreciate.

    In the store where I was shopping for a "thru-hiker gift" I'd heard my name out loud. My trail name. At first I'd thought it was my imagination. My imagination of someone saying my Trailname aloud in that store.

    It hadn't been my imagination. It was another AT thru-hiker. A southbounder to boot.

    He'd finished his AT thru-hike about three months before I'd started my northbound AT thru-hike. His "summit photo" to complete his southbound AT thru-hike on Springer Mountain had him with thick ice all over his face and beard.

    During January.

    I had remembered seeing his summit photo and thinking, "is that going to happen to me going northbound?"'

    Geez that had looked awful cold to me.

    We would greet each other in that store with fantastic grips of affection. The complete hug, no chest bumps need apply.

    His southbound AT thru-hike was one of the major reasons I would do a northbound AT thru-hike. He probably doesn't know that today.

    At the time I had considered southbounders to be crazy people.

    Why would people take on such a difficult challenge as an AT thru-hike and in addition, oh by the way, take on extra challenges to go south from Katahdin? Have your ass kicked right away rather than just blending into it? Thank you very much. May I have another?

    These were aggressive people who didn't think carrying a backpack for more than 2,000 miles was enough of a challenge. I had thought these are the people who are such over-achievers they need to have even more challenge than just the usual 2,000 miles.

    That usual 2,000 miles being so Bourgeoisie. Heh.

    I have an affection for southbounders. Sometimes they don't take my humor, as a northbounder, kidding them like I do, as being serious.

    But it is affection just the same. An admiration.

    If I had chosen to go southbound, I'm not sure I would have finished. It is so much more difficult.

    The new girls have progressed to the point they are now in their own intermediary coop next to the Chicken Bastion. The other chickens can see the new ones. Hear their chirps and coos so they know each other.

    So when they combine together, in a month or so, there is less of an argument and a knowing of who's in-charge.

    Not much different than a Wall Street merger don't cha know.


    Datto

  9. #209

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    An interesting encounter of me and a southbounder on my northbound AT thru-hike.

    She was an attractive women who was a foot shorter than me. A hundred pounds lighter than me at that time (even with significant weight loss by me at that time during my AT thru-hike).

    Her backpack was nine pound heavier than mine when we'd weighed them someplace in New England.

    I remember, to this day, thinking "How does that happen?"

    Well yes, you can attribute it to lower center of gravity and all the physics attributed to things you can't possibly understand about AT thru-hiking.

    To make reason behind southbounders.

    Geez I was so impressed by her.


    Datto

  10. #210
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    I've been reading this whole thread start to finish today, and it's been really inspirational. Definitely makes me want 2017 to be the year I finally quit reading about hiking long trails and actually start doing it. Thanks for the time you put into writing your posts!

  11. #211

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    Blisters.

    You'll likely get them and possibly lots of them -- more than you can imagine right now if you're reading this at home or at work.

    Compeed (a quite expensive blister care product of stick-on patches) has been the best blister care product for me -- *IF* -- I can get the blister patches to stick to my foot skin. That is a really big IF. Compeed has moisture absorbing capabilities built into the patch (to absorb all the goo excreted by the wound) and over time, the patch becomes a little more porous to allow air through to help heal and dry the wound. The patch, in theory, stays attached to your foot and protects the wound from more abrasion and spot heat.

    That's the real problem for a thru-hiker -- getting any type of blister care product to stick for more than an hour.

    Reason: On an AT thru-hike your feet are going to be soaking wet much of the time, particularly on a northbound AT thru-hike. Your current socks are likely to be wet and your "backup" pair of socks are likely to be wet. Your shoes will be soaked much of the time too, regardless of whether your socks are newly washed -- your newly washed and dried socks that you just pulled out of your backpack will be wet again within an hour because your shoes are likely to be already soaked and undryable.

    With all that moisture surrounding your feet, the skin on your feet becomes very soft and much more susceptible to damage from chafing and heat.

    In addition, there is likely to be a layer of slime on your feet from days and days of crud and beasties build-up until you get to town and, eventually, get your feet washed and dried. Trying to get that slime off your feet so your blister care product can stick -- that's the problem as well as the usual excessive moisture everywhere.

    What I do to try to overcome the hurdle of all that slime making it too slippery for the blister care product to stick -- I clean and dry my hands as best as I can and then use some of my hand sanitizer (that I always carry in my shorts pocket) to try and clear off the invisible slime and dirt AROUND the wound (not on the wound -- that would certainly hurt). I try to clear off enough space in a large enough area on my foot where the blister care treatment is intended to stick to your skin.

    Then, and here's the key part, I let my foot dry for at least fifteen minutes (after the hand sanitizer has been used) before I even think about the blister care product. Then I re-assess whether the area around the wound is dry. If so, I take out the Compeed patch, take off the paper protecting the stickup part and then apply the patch with the center of the patch centered on the wound. I press the Compeed patch in place thoroughly all around the perimeter of the patch at least twice and then wait at least another fifteen minutes or more (with zero movement of my foot) for the patch stickum to setup. All that effort gives the blister care product time (hopefully) to get stuck to my foot. The Compeed patch, assuming it sticks to my foot, is on there forever (until the patch decides to come off on its own).

    I can tell you the reason why Compeed (and similar patches) don't seem to work for AT thru-hikers is the thru-hiker doesn't want to take that much time and make that much of an effort to treat a blister in the middle of the hiking day. An AT thru-hiker is usually focused on making miles for the day and taking that much time out to treat a blister just seems to be wasteful. So the necessary time to get the blister patch stickum setup properly never happens and the patch comes off easily within the first hour of use. Also, the people who design and manufacture the blister patch really don't have an AT thru-hiker (and associated slime and dirt out in the woods) in mind as their primary customer.

    One of the real dangers of using Duct Tape or even some types of Moleskin is the stickum on those products is so great there's a chance it will move on your foot (from continued abrasion and pounding from your hiking shoe) and take off the first layer of skin with it during that movement. You could end up with a really big patch of soft skin that gets ripped off, exposing an even bigger wound. Then you could get yourself in a really big mess and have to take days off sitting in a motel to get your blisters healed up before you can come back to the Trail and start making northbound progress again. That's also a sizeable gash in your wallet too. I saw some big blister problems on hikers during my AT thru-hike -- raw 2nd layer skin the size of a golf ball or even larger -- on both feet.

    Make sure, as I've talked about above, that your feet don't swell inside your hiking shoe and have nowhere to go in order to expand. That will likely cause lots of blisters all over your foot (back heel, top of your foot, between your toes, bottom of your foot).

    This is another reason why you carry your backpack deliberately in the rain/snow on your pre-hike prep hikes. It gives you some hands-on (foots-on) experience dealing with blisters if you're going to get them. Then, you can deal with methods of blister treatment and decide what works best for you.

    Compeed patches come in different sizes (the larger patches even more outrageously priced than the smaller patches). I usually bought a selection of sizes -- the smaller patches I used on the blisters I would get between my toes from the pounding my toes would take on the downhills. I tried to reserve the larger, more expense patches for heel-type injuries or top-of-my-foot injuries. I also bought extras to occasionally give to other hikers who had never heard of Compeed, then give them the instruction on the time necessary to get the patch to stick. Most of the time the other hiker's feet were so growdy with stank and colonies of something that I'd be amazed if anything would stick to their foot.


    Datto

  12. #212

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    So why don't AT thru-hikers stop and dress a blister before that blister gets to be any kind of a problem?

    The pain from a newly formed blister, in the beginning of an AT thru-hike, is but a whisper among the shouting coming from other parts of your body (knees, shoulders, hips, mind). Exhaustion also has you not thinking sequentially (cause/effect) as you might do back home sitting in your cubicle.


    Datto

  13. #213
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    Quote Originally Posted by Datto View Post
    On another thread here on Whiteblaze is the idea that one would take a Spot device or a Sat Phone when going into the woods -- this, for the current thread, because a hiker named Inchworm got herself lost in Maine on a bathroom break from the AT and eventually died from starvation and dehydration because she couldn't find her way back to the AT from her bathroom break.

    What a crazy stupid idea. Just because ONE person got lost that doesn't mean you will get lost. There are thousands of people like Inchworm who work in big companies who can't find their way to the bathrooms and can barely get out of bed without injuring themselves. Those people don't go into the woods and they don't leave the safety of Society ever. They know they're clueless so they adjust and keep close to whatever makes them feel safe.
    You probably misread me as being one of THOSE people...

    I carry a PLB - not a SPOT or InReach, a real PLB - on about half my trips, because I carry it when I'm solo, or intending to go off-trail, or there are snowshoes and crampons about.

    None of the above applies to an A-T thru hike, with the possible exception of a "nontraditional" pattern that would put the hiker in Maine in the shoulder season.
    I always know where I am. I'm right here.

  14. #214
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    There is something about sliding off an icy trail that makes one want to be found fairly quickly in the Winter, up North. As someone who regularly hikes in the Winter, I do take exception to some poor advice, Datto, gave for cold weather hiking attire. Fleece gloves are awesome for winter hiking. Pair them with mittens or mitten shells and they are bombproof. If it is cold and you are hiking and sweating, you are moving too fast or wearing too many insulating layers. A long sleeve wool t-shirt, fleece jacket and a windshell takes me down to sub-zero temps. That down jacket in my pack stays there until I stop for a break. The secret is to have lightweight layers that you can take on and off as needed.

  15. #215
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    Quote Originally Posted by Datto View Post
    On an AT thru-hike your feet are going to be soaking wet much of the time, particularly on a northbound AT thru-hike. Your current socks are likely to be wet and your "backup" pair of socks are likely to be wet. Your shoes will be soaked much of the time too, regardless of whether your socks are newly washed -- your newly washed and dried socks that you just pulled out of your backpack will be wet again within an hour because your shoes are likely to be already soaked and undryable.

    With all that moisture surrounding your feet, the skin on your feet becomes very soft and much more susceptible to damage from chafing and heat.
    If you're going to be hiking on wet trail, wax your feet. BodyGlide works for some people but doesn't quite do it for me. Hydropel was great, but they went out of business.

    Skurka recommends Bonnie's Balms Climbing Salve, and I've also heard that Burt's Bees Res-Q-Ointment works. I use a product called Gurney Goo. It has beeswax, silicone and tea tree oil, so it's both water-repellent and antifungal. It made a huge difference when I started using it nightly when hiking in wet areas. (Maybe touch it up in the morning.

    The other thing that's important is to keep stuff as clean as you can. If I'm slogging through serious mud, I'll likely wash my socks twice a day. They'll be wet, can't help that, but at least they won't have gritty mud abrading my feet. And I wash my feet - with soap and water -- just as often. I carry a Sea-to-Summit bucket as one of my luxuries, so as to keep stuff (and me) as clean as I can under the circumstances.

    And always, if I'm bandaging anything, I wash it first. Soap is your friend on the trail.
    I always know where I am. I'm right here.

  16. #216
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    Quote Originally Posted by egilbe View Post
    There is something about sliding off an icy trail that makes one want to be found fairly quickly in the Winter, up North. As someone who regularly hikes in the Winter, I do take exception to some poor advice, Datto, gave for cold weather hiking attire. Fleece gloves are awesome for winter hiking. Pair them with mittens or mitten shells and they are bombproof. If it is cold and you are hiking and sweating, you are moving too fast or wearing too many insulating layers. A long sleeve wool t-shirt, fleece jacket and a windshell takes me down to sub-zero temps. That down jacket in my pack stays there until I stop for a break. The secret is to have lightweight layers that you can take on and off as needed.
    The prospect of sliding off an icy trail in a Northeast winter is terrifying, which is why I always have some sort of traction in winter. On a lot of trips, I bring microspikes, ascent snowshoes, ski poles, crampons and ice axe, switching off among them as conditions warrant. I think my winter traction gear outweighs my summer pack, but when you need it, you really need it.

    Your description of your clothing system matches exactly what I do, but I, too, live Up North. Winter hiking is all about moisture management. If you get wet, from the inside or the outside, your trip is ruined. There are lots of times you'll see me hiking in the winter wearing just my rain suit (for wind protection) and long johns underneath. Fleece gloves and a fleece or acrylic beanie, that I can take off to cool down fast. The other thing about winter hiking is how rapidly your body heats up when you get moving. If you don't start cold, you'll finish wet.

    But to be fair, Datto is giving advice for a traditional thru-hike, which means that deep winter conditions Up North aren't in the range of what he's considering. Georgia in the shoulder season, hot weather for most of the trip, shoulder season again in northern New England.
    I always know where I am. I'm right here.

  17. #217

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    I'm heading toward answering the two remaining post-hike questions from above. 2) Getting a job after the AT and 3) How do I take an adventure every three years.

    So let me tell you about just one of the ways my AT thru-hike changed me.

    It made me aware of how much I had changed from growing up in small-town Indiana.

    My parents had made life idyllic for me. I had grown up in a cocoon. Sheltered really. Growing up in small-town Indiana was fantastic. It was the best of everything. It allowed me to eventually excel.

    It had also allowed me to be around brilliance. I hadn't known it at the time.

    Corporate America chipped away at all of that. It was a deterioration of what I was about. What I'd had for expectations.

    My AT thru-hike changed all of that.

    It made me quietly selfish. That is a very good thing.

    Today, Pearson was in the Wal-Mart looking for toys for the New Baby.

    Just happened to meet a nice woman in the toy department of Wal-Mart who was an AT section hiker.

    I don't know -- I guess AT people are recognizable? Are we so easily seen and recognized? Is it our smell or castaway look or something else?

    The woman talking to Pearson had owned a Doberman in the past at the same time she had rescued a baby raccoon. The baby raccoon would become housebroken, would join the family as a full-member and then would ride around on the back of the Doberman in the house for fun. The Doberman loved it.

    So she and Pearson would talk a bit about the AT and long-distance hiking and the Pacific Crest Trail at times. This before Pearson would select what was expected to be the bullet-proof toy for the New Baby.

    The lady had such a closet desire and fondness for the AT as well as finishing the AT and then moving on to the really high mountains of the PCT. She was from upstate New York, had relocated to Florida and then had realized her desire to live in the mountains. That's some of how she'd ended up in Murphy, NC.

    She, of course, was not the first nor the second person here in Murphy who'd had such an interest in the AT.

    Heck, the AT is just down the road. I go down there and watch the AT thru-hikers. Offer rides (mostly too late as they've already come back from a resupply in Franklin, NC and are heading out).

    It reminds me so much of small town Indiana.

    Murphy, NC that is.

    Of course, with mountains and mountain folk.


    Datto

  18. #218

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    Just wanted to mention to 2017 prospective AT thru-hikers why Whiteblaze is so important to you.

    You get varied opinions -- that's what you want. Digest opinions from many people who have previously taken on the challenge of an AT thru-hike.

    Then you sort it out in your own head. Figure out what works for you.

    I think if you knew, as a prospective 2017 AT thru-hiker, how many past AT thru-hikers are likely reading your questions and your fears and concerns (or mine) here on Whiteblaze. You'd probably be amazed at all the opinions.

    That's what you want -- varied opinions from people who have done it.


    Datto

  19. #219

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Datto View Post
    Just wanted to mention to 2017 prospective AT thru-hikers why Whiteblaze is so important to you. Digest opinions from many people who have previously taken on the challenge of an AT thru-hike.
    I'm not talking about the people who are live on the AT and announcing via social media they've just ate a pudding.

    Next!

    Forget about social media on the AT. Just do the AT. Just thru-hike the AT as your goal. Forget about announcing to the world that you've just at a pudding.

    Instead, think about how you can be nice to the people you meet on your AT thru-hike. It will pay you back in spades.


    Datto

  20. #220

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    Determination.

    Let me talk briefly about the determination of a hiker on a long-distance hike.

    Just so you know.

    I saw some really bad injuries of people who were thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. Enough so I might have gone off-trail to get medical attention.

    Even with that whole business of taking off all the skin from wrist to elbow at shelter in the Smoky's.

    One day on another trail I had decided to take a nap on that trail and had stretched across the trail with my body.

    I had heard through the hiker grapevines that a thru-hiker I had met ahead of me had fallen and had broken her arm.

    So unfortunate she had to leave that trail.

    As I was sleeping with my body across that trail, I was kicked in the side of my thigh.

    It was that hiker who had broken her arm.

    She was giving me an earful about blocking the trail.

    Cast and all.

    I remember thinking, "She's hiking this trail with her arm in a cast."

    Well yes, after all, it's not like it's a leg or something.

    You should be looking at this being that kind of determination to make it to Katahdin.


    Datto

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