My friend Evan Kelly came to hike with me last weekend, and it was so much fun! Evan was a total trooper. He dealt with me changing plans at least 5 times, drove a bunch of my smelly friends and me around town, and didn't complain at all. Here's his take on hiking with me!
“Plans are nothing;
Planning is everything”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
As my window of time to catch Kylie (Sugar Magnolia) and Sullivan (Booze Hound) on the trail was dwindling, I made an executive decision to leave the nation’s capital for 4th of July weekend and head up to the Green Mountains of Vermont to live (or try to live) the trail life for the long weekend. As soon as I met my first thru-hiker (Wookie), I realized that this weekend would essentially be a sociological study of the creature known as the thru-hiker.
I’ve spent a bit of time on the AT, but never much more than a week and definitely never with thru hikers. I was pumped to find out what the life of a thru-hiker was like. Andrea wasn’t lying when she said that food was a primary motivator for thru-hikers. I showed up in camp the first night with a dozen Country Style donuts that Kellie had me bring up from Richmond and I could see their watering mouths. Fortunately I placated the mob that was forming with oreos and other snacks I brought in order to save the donuts for Kylie.
I wasn’t really surprised by the love for food and booze, but I kind of expected thru-hikers to be a little better at certain things… I’m a self-hating alarm snoozer and I figured that wasn’t going to fly on the trail, but there wasn’t a morning that went by that I didn’t hear alarms going off and quickly being silenced. I assume each snoozing hiker was rationalizing to themselves how they could hike a little faster with more sleep or that they’d take less breaks during the day. I was also surprised that most thru-hikers didn’t seem particularly fond of hiking itself. They weighed every side trail in their minds before deciding whether the view was worth the exertion.
Now to explain the quote at the top. One of the most daunting parts of the AT to me is the logistics. I talked to Kylie prior to her trip and the planning seemed above and beyond anything I’d ever want to undertake. No matter how much planning you do though, it never works out that way. Of the 3 nights I spent on the trail, we spent the night at exactly zero of the places we planned to when we woke up that morning. Whether plans are derailed due to weather, views, or mischief, you can’t reliably predict where you’ll be outside a 48 hour window. This makes packages for resupply very precarious. Kylie’s replacement shoes have been bounced around by about four post offices and I’m hoping she’ll have them by the time she posts this blog!
One of our unexpected pit stops was at the top of Bromley Mountain on the 4th of July. We reached the top via a ski slope and found two ski lifts and a nice hut at the top. After relaxing in the hut and some shoes being taken off, the executive decision was made to spend the night at the top of the mountain. Our decision was only solidified when a local came through and said that we could probably get a great view of the fireworks from the top. From our view on Bromley I saw the smallest fireworks I’ve ever seen off in the distance, but at least there were a lot of them!
Despite waking up sick the next morning, we were able to adjust our plans and make it into Rutland, VT. In Rutland I was able to observe the native thru-hikers in a Wal-mart and a grocery store. Both of which involved intense studying of package weights to calorie density and the quickest consumption of a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that I’d ever seen. I was also happy to find out that most of Kylie’s trail family were as pumped for the Women’s World Cup final as I was and we were able to rally a group to the one bar in Rutland that was playing it. Since the game was a blow-out I got to chat with Wookie, Uphill, Crafty, Walking Man, Bladje, Sampson the Bear, Forrest (with the biggest beard I’ve ever seen) and many more about the trail and why they were there. People aren’t lying when they tell you that thru-hikers are some of the kindest folks around and nearly all of them have incredible stories to tell.
I’m extremely grateful to Kylie and her trail family for letting me crash with them for a few days and deal with my unending curiosity about life on the trail. I’m also really excited to watch what happens to Sugar Magnolia and Boozehound when they come back to Richmond and realize that they have to act like civilized human beings again (Booze Hound, I’m looking at you. You know what you did).
I wish trail magic existed in the real world.
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