Countdown to my SOBO Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike

I have been meaning to write a post for the past few weeks and should have done so sooner. You’ll quickly understand, though, that a major theme for me these days has been procrastination. It’s not that I haven’t been writing, but I have found it overwhelming to write about our preparation when we still had a lot to prepare. Instead, I have been writing a lot of poetry that has found a home in the garbage cans on the city sidewalks and subway stations. Full days were spent at the ceramics studio, taking advantage of a creative resource that connects me to the earth, but plays a big role in my city life. Henri and I threw ourselves an epic birthday/goodbye party, and I traveled home to spend a few days with my mom and brother. This all seemed like a beautiful way to spend my pre-thru-hike time, until a whole month turned into only a week… which has now become two days!

This past week, I have been overwhelmed with excitement, stress and anticipation. The anxiety has manifested itself in sleeplessness. It seemed the more that got crossed off the necessary to-do list, there more there was to do. During normal waking hours, thanks to Henri’s amazing cooking and organization skills, we have made and dehydrated multiple batches of delicious dinners (beef curry, chili, chicken mole, etc.) and finished packing our mail drops. Then there were the doctors’ appointments, visits to the DMV, and back and forth communication with the bank. Between all of that, there were other plans.

These plans are the plans that may not have been as necessary for our survival on the trail, but are important nonetheless. We attended the dance recital for the girl I used to babysit. Our friends Jen and Kirk brought us out on an epic food tour around all of Manhattan to carboload… and alcohol-load, cheese-load, protein-load, dessert-load, and soup-dumpling-load. Our friends Grant and Nikki had us over for homemade pizza. Yesterday afternoon was spent drinking Prosecco in the backyard with our friends Kelly before Adam and Henri joined us for dinner. Kelly and Adam slept over and just left a few short hours ago, taking our mail drops with them.

It’s crazy to think about all that we were able to cram in– especially for Henri, who worked 3 full days this past week! He takes into account every detail of what we need, and his affection has a way of turning the stressful anxiety into the excited kind. We have been extremely productive, but it’s difficult to acknowledge such accomplishments when there is no time at the end of the day to reflect. Finally, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s giving me that time and urging me to write. Ironically, the light at the end of the tunnel will lead us to the 2,189 mile long “Green Tunnel”– a place where waiting rooms don’t exist and to-do lists are to be burned… A place where, while we must keep moving forward, we will have all of the time in the world to reflect.

The next time you hear from me, it’ll be from the trail!