MA day 1

Finally started hiking again, starting yesterday at the MA-CT border. It was a very interesting day as I had my first (and second) falls on the trail (ironically near some water falls). 

My initial plan had been to hike 7.1 miles to the shelter, but I got there around 1:00 & couldn’t justify doing nothing from 1:00-sundown. So I ended up hiking an extra 7 miles to the Shay’s Rebellion monument & camping in an old corn field a little past that point. It was really cool because the stars were super bright, but it also kind of sucked, because I got little to no sleep.

Apparently where I had chosen to sleep was home to coyotes, weird birds, deer, and freight trains/busy roads. Oops. Also, because of the lack of coverage, my tent got drenched in dew, which was not too fun to wake up to/hard to fix due to the lack of wind/draping tree/ zero sunlight where I was. So I ended up hauling my tent 0.5 to a sunny spot & rigging a drying line using my poles and bear rope.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE.

Last night I was super excited to sit down & try the freeze-dried pad Thai that I had purchased. Well, come to find out, I had left my stove/spork at home. I was also camped in a no-fire zone, so it was a cold dinner last night. Nothing says backpacking like tuna on a tortilla & some cold oatmeal. It kind of put a damper on the success of my day, if I’m being honest,  but oh well. 

Thankfully I have amazing parents and family friends who are willing to help out. I am currently sitting in the Mason Library in Great Barrington, waiting to be picked up by a trail angel, Sue Merritt, who will be bringing a stove that my mum ordered with her.

Great Barrington has been a really fun place to explore & is totally the closest thing to a hiker town that I’ve seen so far. Now I just need to try to find a spoon (meant to get one at Dunkies, forgot), and also try to not fall asleep in this chair. That’s going to be a struggle because I’m currently nodding off. 

Anyways, I should be done still in a few days. My legs/hip are not feeling great, but hopefully they will soon, because the rest of my out here is essentially one long mile day after the last 

A Pack Has no Name.

…until now! 

So for those of you who don’t know, I am an avid fan of the Game of Thrones series (I even tried to download audiobooks onto my phone for the trail, but had no available storage). While I hope my fellow GOT fans read the blog title in the voice of Jaqen H’ghar, I hope that one day those of you who don’t watch the show, realize you’ve been missing out and get hip to the thrones.

ACTUALLY, if you have zero knowledge of GOT I recommend you skip this blog post, as it focuses solely on my pack’s name origin, which is from the show.

My absolute favorite character is Brienne of Tarth. She’s basically awesome because she’s super tall (yay, representation!), a totally magnificent knight/skilled fighter, honest, determined, loyal, and kind. Essentially she’s a whole lot of things that I either can identify with or hope to be. 

I wish I could get behind renaming myself “Brienne” but I love “Trinket” as my trail name, and also don’t want a common sounding name. 

What I DO like, is her sword’s name, Oathkeeper. Now that I can get behind. But alas, I am not a Knight & she is not a backpacker. But let’s flip the tables, shall we? As a knight, she would probably not get very far without her sword, as I would not get far as a backpacker without my pack. Essentially these two items are tools as well as necessities, and without them, neither of us would accomplish what we set out to accomplish. 

Now, I didn’t swear oaths to kings, or fight on the behalf of another’s family, but I did swear an oath to myself that I would finish this trail, and persevere. It’s kind of perfect actually, because Brienne has gone on frustrating and seemingly endless lengths to fulfil her oath, which is something that resonates with you when the hiking gets tough. 

So, my pack will be known as Oathkeeper from here on out. I even nerded-out and made a small House of Tarth Sigil to hang from my pack. 

So there you have it. On Wednesday I will be hitting the trail to hike the MA section (plans were delayed due to cortisone shots) and christening my pack with its new name. 

It is going to be amazing. 

The Pl(and)

In the time that I’ve been home, I’d been struggling to come up with a clear plan of when to return to the trail. That struggle was made worse by a job offer from my boss once he realized I was back in town. But after many many pro/con lists (and boy were these some extensive lists) as well as conversations with a number of people whose opinions I value, I have come up with somewhat of an inspired (if I do say so myself) plan.

Essentially the question in the last week seemed to turn to “okay do I return to the trail right now? Or do I work a month of Connects?” But you know what’s boring? “or” is boring. I’m more of an “and” kind of person, and why not? Why choose between two things you love when you don’t have to? (Woah, I just admitted to loving the trail, that’s a breakthrough).

So ANYWAYS, the plan.

The plan, or pland (because it’s an and not or plan) is that I will work for a month and save the money I earn to replenish my trail bank. But anyways I’ll be driven out to the Massachusetts-Connecticut border, so that I can hike the 90.5 mile MA section of the trail, to the MA-VT border. 

Why? Well I’m still trying to gauge how my legs and hip are actually doing. I feel better now that I’ve been icing and being lazy (per doctor’s orders) but have also been incredibly stir crazy because of this. Additionally, doing this hike will take my number of miles left to hike from 1,100 to 1,009 (or even less than that, if I hike a little ways into Vermont), so that when I rejoin the trail in June, I’ll have plenty of time to finish before Katahdin closes (which is typically the first or second week of October).

So when it’s time to pickup the trail again for the long term, I’ll be driven down to close to Harper’s Ferry, hike from there thru Connecticut to the CT-MA border, get picked up at said border, and driven to wherever I end this “shorter” hike, somewhere either at the MA-VT border, or Bennington Vermont. From there, I’ll hike from Vermont to Maine and bask in the glory of my accomplishments.

I’m finally getting back to the point of wanting to get back on the trail (and wanting a sweet picture at the summit of Katahdin to use on a Christmas card…let’s be honest, it’s all about the über cool card), and this decision has been one of the best I’ve made since deciding to start the trail.

And who knows, maybe I can persuade one of my fellow instructors to come down to West Virginia and hike with me. We shall see! 🙂