I've been on a journey. Let's start with the basics: Over the past two weeks, I solo backpacked a 220 mile section of North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail. The whole trail (pictured above) is over 1,000 miles long and includes trail hiking, road walking, and even a paddling section. To read more about the trail click here. The section that I did was just from the start, in the Great Smoky Mountains, back to the NCOBS base camp at Table Rock. You'll notice the small black section in the beginning of the trail on the map above. The black represents a road walk. This particular road walk was along the Blue Ridge Parkway, so I was happy to hitchhike that section. With the hitchhike, I was able to average 10 miles per day until I resupplied in Asheville with a friend. The main storyline of this hike was that my pot set & stove was stolen by an animal during my second night. And I had brought all hot dinners. So until my first resupply, I had no dinner, I just pushed my snacks to dinner. I was very hungry, but since my milage had decreased from 15 to 10 per day (because of the skipped road walk) I was totally fine. After my resupply I picked up a sleeve of bagels in Asheville and was able to crush either 15 or 20 mile days until I finished the hike. More on my milage below. The nitty gritty: Gear & MilageBackpack: Osprey women's Sirrus 50 Liter Shoes: HOKA One One Speedgoat 3 Sleeping bag: The North Face women's Cat's Meow 20 degree Sleeping pad: Therm-a-Rest women's NeoAir XLite Rain jacket: Marmot women's Minimalist Rain pants: Marmot women's PreCip Trekking poles: Leki women's Legacy Light Water purification: Potable Aqua My original plan with this hike was to kick it on the trail doing about 15 miles per day, purely for the fun of backpacking efficiently alone and being outside during fall. Of course many other challenges popped up, such as the disappearance of my stove, as well as particularly low temperatures at night. This hike was a good lesson in humility and grit (as is tradition). By that I mean: despite being an outdoor professional at this point, backpacking will still humble the heck out of me. Below are some photos with descriptions to help tell the story of this hike. The MST (at least the mountains section) is well blazed and documented. I followed a guidebook found in the NCOBS library that had very specific notes on mileage, water sources, camps, and view points. For navigational ease, the trail was blazed with white circles, often looking like the two images above. The best view while walking on trail is seeing a blaze after a few minutes and knowing you're still on the right path. Another challenge I faced on the trail was a lot of dried up springs because of a very dry fall. I was quite water stressed at times, the worst of it being almost 3 hours with empty bottles while hiking up Mt. Mitchell. As in the photos above, I sometimes had to get a little creative to get my water. The above two photos are a typical sunny afternoon scene. Drying out my clothes, getting camp set up, and hanging around. Stretching, journaling, eating, and reading are all typical camp activities for me. I was camped alone every night, so it was really just me hanging out with myself. I do enjoy the company I keep in the empty moments. I was in the forest under the trees for 85% of this hike. But when I wasn't, the views were pretty spectacular. The southern Appalachian mountains are some of the oldest on the planet, and they were once the tallest in the world. They have eroded down over time. That in combination with the temperate rainforest climate makes them very different from mountains in New Hampshire for example. Less rock staircases and more winding forest paths with switchbacks. I never hiked above tree line, rather I would stumble across great view points. I got a lot of practice throwing bear hangs. Pictured here is one of the most perfect bear hangs I have ever thrown. I'm just proud of it that's why it's included in this post. Also worth mentioning here that I saw my first bear ever while backpacking on this trip! It was like 20 yards away from me down a little hill, and I yelled and waved my arms and it ran off. It was quite reaffirming to see a black bear afraid of me like I've been taught. Now when students on course ask me "hAve YOu eVeR sEEn A bEaR??" I can be like "yeah, it was no big deal." For honesty's sake, it's also worth mentioning that after the bear ran off I took my pulse and it was 120, even though I had been standing still. A huge thank you goes out to my friend Rachel who met up with me for resupply. I gave her two bags in advance, and we met one evening at a Blue Ridge Parkway overlook near Asheville. In this photo, I'm mighty happy to see seven new packets of tuna. Also big thanks to my friend Carolyn who dropped me off in the Smokies at the start of the hike. These two good friends were my support crew for the hike, and I couldn't have done it without their help! This photo does not do it justice, but I also saw some pretty breathtaking sunsets. This photo was snagged from inside my tent after hiking through Craggy Gardens. At last! On the final day of my hike, catching my first view of Table Rock Mountain was a welcome sight. This photo was taken from the top of Shortoff Mountain. Don't be fooled by the bluebird skies. On the morning of this photo, I forded the Linville River, knee deep, in all my rain gear and the whole 9 yards because I was already so soaked from the pouring rain. With pouring rain and wind so hard I could barely see, I slogged down into the Linville gorge, across the river, and up the other side. Being in the river was one of those moments where I looked up and really took in the moment and thought to myself "woah, I'm really out there right now". Fortunately after lunch the weather blew away and I finished my hike in sunny blue skies. And finally, the only photo of me from the whole trip. I swallowed my pride and asked a tourist to take this photo of me on the summit of Mitchell. This was a huge hiking day, looking back, perhaps the hardest one of the whole trip. I hiked 15 miles up to the summit of the tallest peak in the east then down another 5 miles losing over 2,000ft of elevation to camp where it would be warmer for sleeping. The weather that day was rainy and in the 40s. "No man (woman!) should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself, and thereby learning his true and hidden strength." -Jack Kerouac, The Lonesome Traveler What's Next?
At the end of October I leave for the Service Bus with a great group of NCOBS ladies. We will travel down the east coast visiting NCOBS bases along the way doing community & base camp service as well as professional development and fun activities. To read more about the NCOBS 2019 Service Bus mission and itinerary, click here. Additionally, while out on the Service Bus, I will be posting blog updates here. Comments are closed.
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