“I Like Boring.”

We’ve had quite an adventure in the last several days of hiking! We have officially made it past our one hundred mile mark. As of this time of writing, Dad and I have hit around one hundred thirty-five hiking miles. After a certain point, I will continue for another two hundred miles or so, depending on the weather and elevations that I hit. If last week’s theme was getting our trail legs, this one has been something like taking what’s thrown at us. For instance, during one storm that we thought was supposed to pass over us in an hour, we decided to hunker down under our tent tarp. It kept our pants and shoes dry—until the weather app updated to more than three hours of continued storms. What did we do? We hiked another five miles in the rain. Nothing on our person or in the top of our packs was dry until the following afternoon.

Realities.

We’ve been hiking in one area of the Appalachian Trail for six days now, quite a change from the rockiness on the previous parts of the trail. For more details on the beginning of our trip, find my first blog post or the writing about our first week. We’ve been warned that this area is a “boring” part of the AT. After hiking a few days on the fairly level terrain without the small, sharp rocks, Dad decided, “I like boring.” There have been quite a few ups and downs, steep inclines, and soggy campgrounds, but along with the harder parts of the trail, I’m hearing hikers’ stories, finding friendly animals, capturing beautiful views, and enjoying softer trails. Our feet are so grateful. A couple of days now we’ve had thunderstorms and heavy mist, but also lots of beautiful mornings and some delicious meals at nearby restaurants. On day nine of our adventure, we got a “real” shower. This has been an eye-opener because it reminds me of the little things I enjoy that I don’t necessarily get on the trail, such as daily showers, hairspray, and real food. We get several snacks a day and stop every couple hours for a water or food break. It also might be a little thing, but I’m beginning to appreciate the idea of a mouldering privy, which is an outhouse with a bucket or two of sawdust mulch, which is thrown into the toilet hole after doing your business. My favorite mouldering privy also smelled like lavender and had a large hand sanitizer on the side. As Dad mentioned one day, some of the trail looks the same, so I am trying to find good sketching ideas and different angles to capture things we see every day. I know several people are following my summer escapades because they don’t yet have a chance to do this. I hope to inspire as well as enlighten everyone to some of the realities of the AT.

Favorites.

We were able to hike the longest day yet, a twenty-miler, because of the gentle sloping trail, despite rain attempting to slow us down. One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most is the variety of animals. We’ve seen everything from red-headed woodpeckers and robins to deer and newts. While these sightings might be commonplace to those living in this area, I’m excited to experience something new and learn more about nature in another state. I’ve claimed the Wild Columbine as one of my favorite flowers that I’ve seen, which is four bell-like flowers with yellow tips, connected together on the top end. Also, deer in this area seem to be so used to humans! We’ve seen many deer meandering on the path in front of us and one morning when Dad was putting up his tent, one deer walked toward him within about six feet! She kept inching closer and he was wondering if she wanted him to feed her.

Great experiences and memories these first couple weeks and I look forward to many more!

P.S. - nothing beats REAL coffee (and ice cream)!