Practice Hikes

If we were doing this the "traditional" way, this is the time when we would be posting about our weekend or week-long "shakedown" hikes. The purpose of these hikes is to put our gear and our bodies through small samples of what we expect the AT will put us through. During these hikes we would basically load up our packs with everything we will be using out on the trail, and head out on hikes of varying length, from single night to week-long treks with the purpose of testing gear to make sure everything works and hopefully identify any problem gear in time to get it either fixed or replaced before we hit the long trail.

With Carolyn's work schedule and My school schedule however, taking enough time to do even one full on shakedown hike isn't seeming real likely (unfortunately).  So, we are doing our best with the few scattered days off we have. Once per week we have been trying to clear our schedules to do a hike of at least a few miles with our packs loaded as if we were doing a long hike. That means all gear packed, water bladders loaded, and extra water added to packs to simulate a week or two worth of food. We are hoping that these short hikes will at least get us used to hiking fully loaded, and identify any problems with the gear that can create the most problems if it doesn't work perfectly (packs, clothes, footwear).

Our first hike was up Mount Marquette, which is the backside of the local ski hill.  It is a 5 mile loop which is primarily intended as a mountain bike trail. Being a bike trail, it was probably rougher than most of what we'll encounter on the AT, but had plenty of hills and rock fields to keep us on our toes.  We passed a few people who raised their eyebrows at us for carrying all of our camping gear on a 5 mile hike, but we just smiled and waved.  The top was gorgeous, and may be one of the best overlooks in all of Marquette as you can see all of town, most of the shoreline, and both of the harbor brakewalls and lighthouses.

Beautiful hiking through the woods

View from the top included all of Marquette

Our next hike was to the top of Hogsback Mountain, the tallest peak in Marquette County. To those of you from out west, don't get too excited; the peak elevation is only 1,220 feet, but in michigan it qualifies as a good "summit" hike. It is still a fair climb, with 600 feet of elevation gain from the trailhead.  For this hike we brought along one friend who doesn't carry around heavy packs for fun but still enjoys the outdoors, and 4 legged friend whom Carolyn had attached to her backpack by a leash for a fair share of the hike.  The temperature is cooling down significantly as fall comes rolling in so we took advantage of a relatively clear, low wind day, even if the temperature wasn't expected to peak much past 50º. I think both of us may have decided that nice hiking gloves or mittens may be something to seriously consider.  This hike also involved fording a small river, since the bridge is now mostly under water thanks to a heavy rain that blew through a few days ago... Carolyn found out the hard way that when water comes over the top of your boot, no amount of waterproofing will keep your feet dry, but the SmartWool & Injinji sock combination did keep them warm.

A very wet trail -- there was 6 inches of water in some parts of the trail, not including the small river under the bridge which was partially running over the bridge.  The four legged did originally try to avoid the bridge...it didn't last long.

On the summit, enjoying lunch

So, after these two short excursions, here are a few of the things we have discovered about our gear choices. First, both of us are happy with our choice of boots, which was one of our biggest concerns because there is no shortage of horror stories involving footwear problems on the trail. Second, Carolyn's little experiment of wearing a thin sock liner as well as smartwool socks seems to be a winner. And last, but not least, both of us are convinced that we have made the right choice in backpacks. After the boots, packs are the next biggest factor making the difference between a good hike and a miserable hike, and they are also difficult to test short of actually filling them up and hitting the trail, so it is nice to know that we both made good choices, even if they were slightly unconventional for various reasons.

That is the end of this chapter for now, though we are hoping for at least a few more day hikes before the weather completely turns against us, so we may post on those as they come up. Until then it is back to the real world of work and school.

What doesn't kill us will make us stronger...

....but, let's at least be smart about it.

We are in New Hampshire with Evan's family having a blast!  We have done boat rides in Portland, ME and hiking in Franconia Notch and White Mountains NF.  The hiking has been quite the eye-opener for us.  I have read in books about how the White Mountains and the 100 mile Wilderness were some of the hardest terrain along the AT, but I wasn't sure how you could only average 5 miles per day.  After a couple of day hikes in this area however, I am beginning to understand it.  It is hard work!

Up until now, we had been planning on starting in June and hiking SOBO (southbound).  This timing would allow us to go to my best friend's wedding (which has yet to be officially scheduled, but has been penciled into the "April/May/June" time frame) and kick off soon after.  However, after hiking around the White Mountains, we have decided this might actually kill us since we have no way to truly prepare for this kind of intense hiking. After actually experiencing a small portion of what the northern section has in store, we have decided that our chances of starting off strong and keeping going are better if we don't start there. Our re-revised plan now is to begin in the south in Mid-February/Early March and head north. We will hike as far as possible before the previously mentioned wedding, take two weeks off to clean up and attend, then with mother nature sending cold seasons our way, return to the trail at the north end to head south until we hit the point of our previous stop.  We are hoping this choice brings us the best of all worlds in that we will avoid starting off on the hardest portion of the trail, we will be able to start early in the year, and not be pressed for time as much at the end if the seasons don't cooperate or any particular event takes more time than expected.

Island hopping in Portland, ME

Evan and I took a sneak peak of the AT (hiked about 100 yards worth)

AT 2015!

Evan and I have been wanting to do something exciting since before we got married, but first I was in school, and now Evan is in school.  So, big & exciting hasn't happened...until now, well next year.

We are planning to hike the Appalachian Trail - it is 2,180 miles long & takes about 5-6 months to finish.   As you can imagine, this type of trip takes a lot of preparation and planning.   Our latest purchase was 2 pairs of boots.  

Carolyn:

A few months ago, I told my mom that this year for my birthday, I wanted a new pair of hiking boots for the AT.  She complied, so I went home for a visit in late July and she and I went shopping -- did I mention that neither one of us are big shoppers?  After about 8+ hours of trying on boots, I thought I found a good pair, but they weren't in stock.   I ordered pair of Vasque Breezes from Red Wing boots in Rochester because they came in a narrow (and my foot is obscenely narrow).  I got them in the mail a few days later... they didn't quite fit, damn.  So, the hunt began again, luckily I had figured out my second choice during our 8 hour search.  I picked out a pair of Asolo Styngers (A big thank you to Midwest Mountaineering, in Minneapolis for all your help with my boot search and other helpful gear advice!  And of course thank you to my mom for a wonderful pair of hiking boots!)

Evan:

After trying several outdoor stores that just didn't have the selection I was hoping for I was almost sold on a pair of Keens, until I walked next door into a Red Wings shoe store. There I found to my surprise that the company I used to turn to for work boots also has their own line of hiking boots. After having my feet measured for the first time and realizing that not only do I have two different sized feet (not uncommon I'm told) but one foot is nearly a full size shorter in length but significantly wider, and the other is longer but narrower. I have always felt when trying on shoes that one foot fits differently, but never made the correlation to think that the size difference might be that drastic. So after spending some time trying on shoes in Red Wing, I finally decided on a pair of Vasque Summits.

The Maiden Voyage:

The last few days, Evan and I have been traveling through Canada - yesterday, we spent the day in Algonquin Provincial Park, driving and hiking.  This was the "maiden hike" for both of our new boots, and I think we both really like them!

(aren't we so stylish!)

The hikes were only about 4.5 km total, but it was a good first hike.   The views were spectacular, and although it was raining most of the day, we had a great time!