Back to the Grind

So, there's only about 2 1/2 months until the next attempt at the big backpacking trip.  Crap. Really, I thought I had, like, 3 or more months left.  And I literally did the math just now so, really, CRAP!
At least I did get back to the gym today.  As I've mentioned, I've gained 20 pounds.  That is on top of the 20-25 I needed to lose, so now I need to get rid of 40-45 pounds.  That seems impossible, though I know it isn't if I stay on track.
Tonight's workout wasn't more than 45 minutes or so.  I did 15 minutes on the elliptical, which is an improvement over the typical 5 minutes and I'm done.  Plus I walked and jogged, so overall it was a better 15 minutes in general.  Afterwards, I headed in to use the weight equipment.  I worked my abs, and I worked my legs.  Tomorrow I'll switch and work on my arms and back.  My husband wasn't in the mood to exercise tonight, which is unusual.  He's usually the one ready to camp out for hours and I'm whining to go home after 30 minutes. I guess I'm just really not happy with the weight gain, or the limited time to get ready.
So, rather than rush home, we sat in the sauna.  The husband isn't a huge fan of the sauna.  I have discovered I really enjoy it.  The heat feels good on my muscles, and I use the time in there to try to meditate somewhat.  I've also read that saunas have several benefits: stress relief, cleansing the skin, relaxes muscles and relieves joint pain, flushes toxins, improves cardiovascular performance, induces a deeper sleep, burns calories and helps fight illness.  Since I can use all that stuff, I sit in the sauna (though tomorrow I'm sitting in the whirlpool).
I've also changed my diet.  I've been eating unhealthy for weeks now.  So today I made sure I had a lot of salad makings on hand.  I'll be cutting out bad carbs like bread and sweets (God, how will I survive??!).  So, wish me luck!  After this week of working out, I'll be bringing my pack to the gym with weights in it to start getting ready for that reality.
Only 2 1/2 months??!

Reworking Mileage

I pulled out my data book and maps and began working on a game plan for the redo trip this spring.  Basing everything on our first attempt, I kept the mileage no more than 10 miles per day, most days are below that.  It's possible that we can do more, but I thought it was safe to stick with something close to what we were managing before. 
I think all of us will be making sure we really keep an eye on the weight we're packing this time, and that might help us out a lot. Food weight was an issue for me, that and clothing.  I'm hoping for a warm weekend so I can wear shorts.
The biggest thing I need to do to prepare is hit the gym.  Stress has been at an all time high for me lately, and that makes me eat a lot of things I shouldn't.  A lot of things.  So I gained nearly 20 pounds on top of what I wanted to lose a year ago.  So tomorrow, I hit the YMCA to start building stamina, strength and getting rid of fat.  Wish me luck!

Things I Learned

While our big adventure turned out to not be so big (we made it one night and about 7 miles), we did learn quite a lot about what not to do next time.  Or, more specifically, how to pack better.

1. You aren't going to starve.  While making up our food, we went a little overboard with the quantity.  We had more than enough ingredients to make up our meal bags so we packed extra.  "Having extra meals isn't a bad idea" my husband said.  He's wrong.  It is a bad idea. Extra food means extra weight.  Pack what you need.

2. Trail mix is really heavy.  Everything you read tells you to have snacks to eat to keep your energy up.  Hiking with 25+ pounds on your back uses a lot of calories.  And while trail mix might seem like a brilliant idea, it's really heavy (especially when you're worried about starving as I mentioned).  Scrap the trail mix, bring some mini snickers or beef jerky and call it a day.

3. Having wine to drink and cheese and crackers for a celebration the first night is awesome-and heavy.  It's true.  My mom took the bag of wine out of it's box and used the water bladder area of her pack to carry it.  I had the cheese and crackers.  While awesome to have a glass of wine, a plastic flask with some whiskey works too, and is much lighter.

4. You don't need a lot of clothing.  I packed a couple of pants, a few shirts, several pairs of socks and a coat and who knows what else.  I was worried I'd be cold or get wet, I guess.  Next time, I'll be packing my clothes sparingly.  I do think having extra hiking socks is important, but maybe not packing every pair of hiking socks you own.  After all, you can dry them out on the outside of your pack. 

5. You probably don't need 3 tarps.  I purchased 3 small tarps right before leaving mostly because of the impending weather.  Instead of splitting them up, I just packed them all in my pack.  Two were purchased with the intent of using them as footprints and the third was a just in case tarp in the event we needed to rig a tarp roof over the tents.  I think they're important, but next time I'll either split them up or only carry the ones I personally need.

6. You won't be bored, so you can leave the Mad Libs at home. I can see taking something to read or something if you're traveling alone, but in our group, our down time was spent talking to each other, eating and sleeping.  I don't think extras are needed.  Maybe just a small knot tying instruction card so you can practice your knots with your paracord.

7. A backpacking sleeping bag is important.  I borrowed my son's sleeping bag so it would fit into my compression sack and be slightly lighter than my usual sleeping bag.  It was still big and bulky and for my next trip, I'll be seeking out something lighter.

So, that's some of the things I learned on the first attempt at backpacking.  Getting pack weight down is a must.  Mine was around 26 pounds and my husband's was over 30 pounds (because he was gracious enough to carry all of the food).  Hopefully we can get the pack weight down below 25 pounds.

I'm Baaack

Well, we've finally picked a date to try our backpacking trip again.  This time we'll be going towards the end of  April around Earth Day, which I thought was a fitting time to go.  What better way to celebrate the Earth than to be out in nature.  Hopefully we won't have any Nor'Easters or Hurricanes or, heaven forbid, Blizzards to deal with.  We'll definitely need to be more careful about hanging our food as the bears will be out and hungry.
So now it's time to stop pretending this blog doesn't exist and get back to posting progress while getting into shape.  After we had to end out trip in October early without even kind of finishing, I just didn't want to think about it.  I was seriously disappointed at not finishing, a feeling that was magnified by others who drove home the sense of failure by their comments.  So I stopped working out and gained 20 pounds.  Did this make me feel better? Of course not.  And now I need to work harder to get into shape enough to make the trip.  I'm determined, and after experiencing the AT overnight, I know I really need to work on certain muscle groups. So stay tuned for Take 2 and read along while I whip myself into shape and talk about the things I learned on that one night trip and changes that will be made.

The Trip

Here is the photo of our group just before heading south towards Harper's Ferry.  I know, I look like I'm pooping, but I was really just making sure you could see my mother's face.
Anyway, we never made it to our destination.  For those of you considering starting out at Pen Mar Park and heading south, that stretch is the worst part of the MD Appalachian Trail.  It's rocky and up.  Really, there is no other way to describe it except up and rocky.  We got through it, but not without some injury and pain.  So when we reached the Raven Rock Shelter, we stopped for the day. 6.4 miles from the start.  That night, the Nor'easter blew in and no one really got much sleep.  Branches banged the tin roof, the temperature dropped and the wind blew in under the eaves.  It was a long miserable night.  In the early morning, we decided we needed to call the "extraction team" and call it a day.  We needed to hike a 14 mile day to make it far enough to stay on track to be in Harper's Ferry on time.  Injury prevented some from being able to do that distance in a day.  The wind was also pretty wild.  There was a large tree that had been uprooted in the night and would have landed on a campsite if it hadn't caught in the crook of a nearby tree.  So, between safety and injury, we ended our journey.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't massively disappointed.  You can't plan something for over a year and not be disappointed when something prevents you from fulfilling your journey.  But it's not the end, merely a delay until the weather is better.
Live to hike another day as they say

Lookin' For Adventure

Or whatever comes my way....

 These two mean trouble-
with a capital T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  Really. As adults, they began taking road trips, road trips that seemed to include crazy circumstances.  The first- a trip to the WV State Penitentiary for a ghost hunt.  When they arrived at the hotel they would be calling their home base, they discovered it was scarier than any haunted prison.  Between creepy leering men in the parking lot late at night to a blood stained mattress.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, the mattress was stained with blood and the hotel decided to just flip over the mattress rather than replace it.  So creepy and nasty was the room, that the two opted to leave in the early morning even though they had been up until 3:30 am.  And at the prison, the two were given a private tour and locked in a cell.  This creeped them out because they were being shown and unauthorized area of the prison and NO ONE KNEW THEY WERE THERE.  They luckily made it home safely.
During another trip where they were headed to the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, WV, they encountered 4 tornadoes, torrential rain that had them seeking a hotel (that they never found before the rain let up) and fog so thick you couldn't see more than about 5-10 feet in front of the car on a highway with people driving 55+MPH.  The next morning as they continued to their destination, they were met with gorgeous blue skies- and Biblical flooding of the Ohio River.  At one flooded town they pulled out the map and figured out a detour around a flooded road.  It was later discovered that only minutes after driving through, their alternate route was taken out by a mudslide.  Once at their destination, they went to check out a reputedly haunted abandoned asylum and ended up being shot at by an unknown individual.  They eventually made it home safe.  But of course their next trip included another weather anomaly where they drove through storms so bad they nearly had to pull over.  The storm system ended up spawning tornadoes further East in New York.

During a camping trip to Washington State to the UFO Ranch, they came upon an individual who looked a lot like Santa Claus but who was dressed in overalls, a straw hat, a black alien t-shirt and a long sleeved unbuttoned flannel shirt.  At his camping area he was talking to something named "Thor" that they assumed was a small dog.  It ended up being a plastic alien head sitting in a dog bed.  Santa conversed with Thor often.  The two girls decided not to stay around long and left at 6am, well before they needed to in order to make the flight home.

The two girls above are in fact myself and my cousin.  And all the above stories are completely factual.  Needless to say, we're wondering what adventure may happen while we hike the trail: Bigfoot? Aliens? Bear Attack?  Stay tuned...

What Do You Do WIth a Drunken Sailor?

I received my Frogg Toggs yesterday and was anxious to try them on.  I got the Ultralight 2 and they are very light weight.  And they're very bright yellow.  My cousin has the same ones.  She mentioned we'd look like a couple of fishermen hiking the trail.  So I said we'd just sing some sea shanties.

Everything is coming along good.  I have my Frogg Toggs packed in an easy to get to spot along with my jacket.  The stove, cookset and sleeping pad should arrive by the end of the week.  I'm purchasing the rest of the clothing I need this week/weekend.  Food has been tested out a little and I just need to make a specific list to have it completely organized.  I do need to order another sleeping pad since mine has that leak.  I'm hoping I still have time to order it, otherwise I'll have to pay more to get it from the store. 

Only 10 days!