Mad Dogs and Englishmen / Final Preparations

“I carry the landscape with me” could be the title for the picture, heading up this post. Read on to find out what the picture is.

Hounded by hounds

Although plenty of dogs happily ignore the man with the massive rucksack and red coat draped over the top, many see the monster as a threat. Some cower, while others seek to protect their owners with an onslaught of barking and baring of teeth. This has happened several times recently in my final preparation hikes, especially in the dog walking paradise of the wooded park near where I live. Some owners have been very embarrassed by their inability to call the dogs off. I have not been bitten, and luckily I am not scared of dogs, but have been conscious that my trekking poles would be a useful defence if necessary. I do get it though, AT hikers or large backpack carriers are not an everyday sight in the suburbs of London. Not that there is anything strange about us…

Oh good (yes really), rain and mud.

It has been a very wet February where I live. Which is good for testing out equipment and resilience in conditions which are sure to be encountered on the AT. On one very very muddy 17-mile hike on the north Downs, I discovered that my new pack liner which was more resistant to tears than the bin liners I have previously been using, really could not cope in the face of all day rain. So it is back to bin liners. Ultralighters dispense with separate waterproof bags, and shove everything into one sack. For me this is too risky for keeping things dry in perpetual rain which can go on for days on the AT, and additional waterproofing is worth the marginal extra weight.

That extra weight and two ultralight hacks from a non ultralight backpacker.

I am now carrying 20 pounds extra weight that I was not on my training hikes a few weeks ago. Ten pounds of that is five days worth of food and so is on my back. A further ten pounds is easier to carry and is on my waist, as I have managed to put weight on from a concerted campaign of eating orchestrated by my lovely wife.

In the poll of 2023 thru-hikers conducted by The Trek, two of the top four luxury items are being carried by me. These are sketchbook and art materials (equivalent to a journal as listed in the poll) and a chair. I am also carrying an umbrella, which some people consider a luxury. This adds up to nearly 3 lb extra weight that other people will not be carrying. I did have three of the top four luxury items at one point, but dispensed with the pillow! The fourth in case you were wondering, was a Kindle which was carried by 21 people. And for context, there were 409 respondents. Just 13 took a chair.

I deliberated for a long time about the chair and whether it would be comfortable enough to draw in. But now having tested it out on hikes (for example the picture below), I am extremely happy that I decided to get my Helinox chair. I love it. I love my umbrella too.

Another occasional luxury will be filter coffee at camp when I can get hold of it. I am pretty sure that my coffee maker will be the lightest on trail, and so light, really the only additional weight is the coffee. It is made from cutting off the bottom of what we in the UK call tights. The American term, pantyhose, makes it sound worse somehow.

My other ultralight hack is to keep my spare pair of glasses in my water bottle. This protects them really well without the need for a  glasses case.

Mud bath

Back to the mud. Oh, the mud! The lugs on my trail runners are not super deep as I prefer a compromise shoe for mixed surfaces (although perhaps not for Vermont!), so balance in very muddy conditions is important. I have not slipped over yet, but it has been challenging in the recent weather, and it is bound to happen at some point, and that is all part of the journey.

Oh, and the picture at the beginning? That is the landscape I carried with me after I completed that 17 miles on the north Downs. Not exactly replicating what will be available to me on the AT, but a bath was very welcome after that cold wet muddy day. And what you see in the picture, is what was left after the water drained out.

Goodbye for now.

Not long to go now, so my next post will most likely be from the trail. Time to say goodbye for now to family and friends, and a special thank you to my friends and colleagues at work who gave me a lovely farewell, as well as some things that will be going with me on the Appalachian Trail.