Keeping Things Light (ECT Day 165)

• Hiked Today: 19.8 miles
  • Appalachian Trail (1,378.1 – 1,397.9)
• Total Hiked: 3,331.4 miles
• Total Paddled: 99.5 miles

Weather: 60 – 75°F, overcast, few very light rain showers, light breeze at times.

Elevation: 499 – 1,378 feet

Wildcat Shelter to William Brien Memorial Shelter

Before starting the Appalachian Trail, my ECT route had me hiking south on the Benton Mackaye Trail for a bit. As the terrain increased it’s toughness with more steep ups and downs, I wrote a blurb in a post about how one rule for surviving the Appalachians was to keep things light…

In the movie Zombieland, the main protagonist, “Columbus” has a whole list of rules to survive the zombies. Rule #1 is cardio, rule #4 is fasten your seatbelts, rule #18 is limber up, etc… it’s quite extensive. In similar fashion, I feel I need to come up with a list of rules to survive the Appalachians and up near the top would be, pack light!

I was thinking weight at the time having just dealt with a majorly over sized resupply. 1,400 miles later, I’m now realizing there’s more wisdom to that rule. Lightness in another sense, such as one’s mindset… maybe that’s just as important too? I had been getting so serious lately about goals and mileage and this or that and irritated when things weren’t going according to my schemes. Silly, right? Now I am feeling a pull to be more present and have all that move to the background.

In the above frame of mind, I slept in a little since it was lightly raining and had poured overnight at least at one point. I slept good though and Donna (and the repairs) kept me fully dry. There were no drips like my old tent…. marvelously, perfectly, dry!

After breakfast and a strategic pack up in the rain (this style of tent is awesome because I can pack up everything underneath the fly and then jump out all protected to get the last piece of the puzzle. Success. It appeared I was last out of camp at 7:15 am.

The rain fizzled out and not long into the hike I removed my poncho and rain pants. Unlike my old way of doing it, I wasn’t looking at the app much to see how many miles I’d covered by certain times. I just moseyed. Here’s filtering water at Fitzgerald Falls. That’s Ace hiking up the trail to the right of the cascading water…

Later, I bumped into a hiker called Step by Step who I hadn’t met yet. I had met her husband though, who is supporting her as she hikes. A while back, maybe in Pennsylvania, he had kindly brought me into town via their awesome van. And here he was again today, when I came to a road crossing and spotted him peering down the green tunnel waiting for his wife to join. Instead, it was me haha, but she was close behind. I was offered coffee And again, trying to go with the flow more, I thought, yeah, I’d love a cup of coffee! So, I hung out there for a few minutes with them while they planned their next meet up spot.

The extra cup of coffee had my going. I would need the energy for all the steep bouldery climbs and descents. I made my way into Harriman State Park at some point and it was quite serenely beautiful…

That was all pre-lunch. I had a hummus and green pepper wrap today which was a fun change. Ace joined for lunch and I met Chef too as she walked by. Unfortunately, it was kind of drizzly during the break so at times I tried to cover myself with the poncho…

Today’s highlight, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea, was the “Lemon Squeezer.” Here’s what the Far Out app says about it…

Pass through the Lemon Squeezer, a sort of crevasse through broken boulders that may require removing your pack and a little bit of hand over hand climbing. Be careful, and have fun.

Today was a good day, but I was certainly tired at the end of it. There were lots of ups and downs; New York is sneaky under the radar tough!

Albums of the Day 

“Indigo Girls” (1988) – Indigo Girls”

“Stick Season” (2023) – Noah Kahan

Started Audiobook:

“Gathering Moss: A Natural & Cultural History of Mosses” (2018) – Robin Wall Kimmerer