Yesterday, my friend Joe graduated from Dartmouth. To celebrate, he wants me to come visit and hike some of the Appalachian Trail with him.Now, some people might remember that I've already done this before. Two summers ago, I was able to go visit and hike for a day. That's when the picture to the left was taken. We hiked a total of 25 miles that day, and my legs felt like Jello for days afterward.
This year, Joe wants to do a couple of multi-day hikes, spending the nights in the shelters along the trail. To be honest, this kind of scares the crap out of me. Not only will these hikes be significantly longer, but they will also require carrying a lot more gear. I'm not really in shape at all, so I will count it a success if I can walk at all when we are finished.
Oh yes, I also fail at following Jamie's advice because right now neither of us know any of the details for the hikes. I'm basically just throwing all my camping equipment in my car and hoping we come up with some semblance of a plan when I get there.
I leave tomorrow. If I survive, I'll be back in a week, hopefully with some great pictures like this:
That should be great fun. Backpacking is awesome especially if you have the right gear. So long as you aren't trying to carry more than say 60-80 lbs each it should be just fine.
ReplyDeleteMy sole suggestion is to be sure to pack food in water tight bags. As I've made the mistake before of not doing that and subsequently falling off a log bridge into a river...
Moldy food sucks.
Dear Brian, please don't die.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should have paid attention to Jamie's life lesson. Right as I'm about to leave, I just got word that for our first hike tomorrow, we are going up Mt. Washington: The highest mountain in the Northeast. Shit.
ReplyDeleteWow, your trip is way more extreme than mine...kinda makes me look like a wuss (but lets be honest, I am). And see, this is why you don't agree to stuff like this without knowing the details. Why do people feel like its okay to leave out details like sleeping in tents, no electricity, or climbing the highest mountain in the northeast? It's not okay. Its just not
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