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Day 2 Saturday May 24, 2014 Darlington Shelter to Duncannon, PA (Staying at the Stardust Motel) I fell today. Yes, a sacrifice to the trail gods was necessary before the descent into Duncannon. As usual for me it was on the least rocky section of trail…I loosen my focus for 2 seconds…skinned my right knee […]
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Day 1 Friday May 23, 2014 Trindle Road to Darlington Shelter (Staying in shelter) This day! Wow! Easiest hiking I have ever done on the AT if you exclude the part just before Darlington Shelter. Google and I left Trindle Road at about 10 am this morning and got to Darlington about 4:30 pm. The […]
Tomorrow is a training hike. Not even remotely prepared for this! I have been taking care of a litter of feral kittens…from bottle feeding to socializing. As I write I hear the patter of little kitten feet in the room above me. They are about seven weeks old now and will be ready for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Frederick in a few weeks…but I digress. 🙂
Back to the training hike. I ran around tonight just gathering my back packing gear. Where did I put the pack again? Oh Little Caesar moved it into the storage room. I have all my gear stored in the pack for easy access. Carried it downstairs to organize. Sleeping pad…check, tent…check, first aid kit…check, new pillow (in my best happy squeeky voice 😀 )…check, sleeping bag…uh…sleeping bag…WHERE IS MY SLEEPING BAG??? My stuff sack is here, but where is the bag? Crap! Okay…calm…maintain…Little Caesar in her gestapo cleaning mode probably put it up in the storage room… Went back to the storage room. God, it’s hot in here tonight…oh there it is…whew! relief…exhale!
Okay so in the pack so far is:
Sleeping Bag
Sleeping pad/pillow
tent, first aid, hygeine, compass, pocket knife, bandana (1), fuel, water filter, stove, cookware/bowl, headlamp, pack cover, rain poncho, and bear vault w/o food
Tomorrow I will add water and some clothes for weight.
Doing a 5.5 mile loop up and down a mountain. Should be humbling! 🙂 🙂 🙂
In a few weeks I will take to the AT through Maryland. Now, I will tell you straight up that I need to hike Maryland again like I need a hole in the head! 😀 But…This time I am backpacking it from PenMar to Harper’s Ferry. Mainly, my impetus for hiking it is to accompany one of the women I hiked with in Georgia. In addition, Boomerang and another woman from Trail Dames are coming along.
We will do this hike in 4 days stopping at the Ensign Cowall Shelter, Pine Knob Shelter (on a weekend night…yikes!), and Crampton Gap Shelter before hiking into Harper’s Ferry on the 4th day.
Planning thus far has resulted in a new backpacking pillow, my travel pillow bit the dust in Georgia 🙂 , exchanging my sleeping pad at REI and investing in new long underwear. I need to get some orange bandanas or a vest as we will be hiking during hunting season.
I am excited to be going on a backpack! The colors should be at about peak. Maryland is truly beautiful in the fall!
I also need this backpack. My mom is in the hospital right now after suffering a double stroke, one on either side of the brain. I think the worst of it (and maybe the best of it too) is that I live so far away that all I can do is talk on the phone with her. I have eight brothers and sisters, two who live near to my parents and are shouldering this responsibility with what seems to be super hero powers. Getting out into the woods will allow me to work through life with my mom and how life might be without my mom. We haven’t really been that close…I was the one who caused problems. Always too independent, always a little too much just like her!! She is an amazing woman and did much incredible trail blazing in the field of computer programming during the 1960s through the 1990s when she retired. So smart. So pretty. So everything! So this hike is in honor of Thelma!
Girl Gone Hiking 