Insistent on not being completely skin and bones after finishing my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, I regularly carried (and ate) a lot of food on the Appalachian Trail. Often, this resulted in having two completely full 13 L food bags after resupplying in town.
Before starting, I had a pretty good sense of what my food plan would be on the Trail, and with only a few exceptions, it didn’t change very much as I made progress up the Trail.
Read on, to see what a typical day of food for me looked like.
read more (2123 words)
The backbone of my communication, internet, and mapping needs on the Appalachian Trail was, not surprisingly, my iPhone 6s.
read more (2520 words)
Slightly restless (and having already gained back all eight pounds I lost on the Appalachian Trail), I decided I needed to get out hiking more often, especially now that my knees and feet seem to have recovered, and I can walk down the stairs in my house without feeling like I’m about to fall over.
While there’s still a few trails vaguely near my house I haven’t hiked yet, I’ve long exhausted most of the hiking trails within a half hour drive. Since I’d much prefer to hike something new than retread old ground, I decided the solution was to join a hiking group, With other people in the mix (and someone else doing the planning), it’s a lot easier to consider hikes further afield, especially point-to-point hikes (as opposed to loops or out-and-back).
read more (1134 words, 1 photo)
My Apple Watch Sport was one of the few electronic devices I brought on my Appalachian Trail thru-hike. I brought it mostly for the novelty and for the (expected to be inaccurate) activity tracking, but it actually turned out to be far more useful than I anticipated.
read more (1958 words)
When I decided to hike the Appalachian Trail, one of the choices I was faced with was what electronic devices I should take with me. The more I took, the more weight I would have to carry, and the more dependent I’d be on power outlets. As much “fun” as it might have been to have my laptop — which would have made writing blog posts way faster — it would have been entirely impractical weight-wise. After not really much deliberation, decided on five pieces of tech: my phone, my watch, a headlamp, a battery (and power adaptor), and a solar charger (and the necessary cables to connect everything).
read more (1294 words)