When your entire life is walking, things start to shift in your brain and the longer you walk the more things change. For me, there’s been a pretty significant shift about how I think about trail things from the time I was 3 weeks into trail vs now, over 3 months into trail.

Food

Protein Bars

• After 3 weeks: I can’t believe how many types of protein bars there are! MetRx and Gatorade ones are my favorite since they’re crunchy but even Cliff Builder bars are pretty good.
• After 3 months: Do not bring a protein bar within a 5 foot radius of me. I could have had nothing to eat for 10 miles and you’d still have to pay me to eat one. All protein bars are dead to me and the only acceptable bar is the Nature’s Bakery fig bars.

Hiker Hunger

• After 3 weeks: I swear I am constantly hungry and I’m eating so much food. I can’t seem to get enough calories.
• After 3 months: Eating is kind of a pain, but at least I’m less hungry now? It doesn’t seem like I need to eat as much as I used to.

Diet

• After 3 weeks: I’ve been a pescatarian for years, why would the trail change that?
• After 3 months: Salami is currently one of my favorite foods. I started eating meat again because I was craving it and am trying to listen to my body. Without meat, I think I was struggling to get enough protein because I’d lost my appetite for protein bars and tuna.

Cold Soaking

• After 3 weeks: I don’t understand how people go stove less and cold soak their food. Cold food would be so disappointing after a long day.
• After 3 months: It’s too hot to eat hot food. My fuel can used to last 5-7 days, but I’ve had my current one  for almost 6 weeks. Cold soaking just makes more sense. It takes less work and it’s so hot the food gets warm enough.

Town Cravings

• After 3 weeks: I know I should try and eat a fruit/vegetable while I’m in town, but what I really want is fries and soda.
• After 3 months: Fries sound okay…I guess, but what I really want is something fresh and crunchy. Those pre made salads are the perfect thing to eat with a spoon and I’ll even carry an apple out to have on trail.

Trail Life

Hiking Style

• After 3 weeks: I set my destination the night before and I’ll hike steadily  with only a lunch break until I get there. I’m almost always at camp before 5pm and on a long day I’ll get in at 6pm. I can’t wait until I can start hiking 20 miles on a regular basis.
• After 3 months: When I start for the day, I typically have a target destination in mind (~20-23 miles away) but who knows where I’ll actually end up. I probably won’t stop walking before 6 pm and typically get to camp by 8:30pm. Some days the miles come and I can go further than planned, while other days the miles are a slog so I don’t get as far. On harder days, I’m taking frequent breaks while easier days might just have a quick lunch break.

Shelters

• After 3 weeks: I love shelters. They let me be lazy since I don’t  have to set up/break down my tent every day. There was one point where I hadn’t used my tent for over a week because I was shelter hopping.
• After 3 months: Unless it’s raining, I’d rather be in my tent. It is a bug free space when everything wants my blood. Also, I sleep a lot better because I’m not being woken up by other people’s snores and movement.

Headphones

• After 3 weeks: I’m using headphones as little as possible and never before lunch. I don’t want to distract myself from nature.
• After 3 months: I’ll do whatever it takes to keep moving forward with and some days that means headphones for all 12 hours of my hike. Music, podcasts, and audiobooks all have different impacts. Music is the best when I’m trying to move fast and crank out miles, podcasts are a nice distraction, and audiobooks are key when I need my mind to stay out of my body’s way.

Views

• After 3 weeks: The green tunnel of the AT makes every view even more special. I’m regularly lingering at views and even going off trail for them.
• After 3 months: I never thought that views would lose their appeal. I still appreciate a good view but they are starting to blur together and get repetitive. Even though they aren’t common, it’s rarely worth lingering and almost never worth extra steps off trail. Views aren’t what’s motivating me.

Weather

• After 3 weeks: I can’t wait for it to warm up so I can sent home my cold weather gear. My pack is going to be so light!
• After 3 months: Please, please, pease let there be an unseasonable night below freezing. I’m tired of waking up sweating and I need the bugs to die.

Other Stuff

Planning

• After 3 weeks: Every time I leave town, I know how many days it will be before I resupply, shower, and do laundry again. I can plan “clean sock day” (day I switched to my unworn pair of socks) so it’s half way between laundry days.
• After 3 months: I’ve stopped planning showers/laundry stops and sometimes this means I lose track of how long it’s been since I last showered. Clean sock day is now whenever my socks feel dirty (which apparently can be almost a week). I’m enjoying having the flexibility to say “yes” to whatever opportunities the trail provides.

Feet Pain

• After 3 weeks: My feet seem to be doing okay! They ache and get swollen after longer days but most of the time they don’t bug me.
• After 3 months: My feet double in size every single night. They get so swollen when I’m not moving that I have to retire my shoes about 2 miles in every morning once the swelling has gone down. When I’m moving, they are either aching or I can’t feel them and the numbness is worst.

Journaling/Blogging

• After 3 weeks: Journaling is really important to me. I make time to do it daily and if I miss a day I make sure to write the next day. As for blogging, I’m doing that less frequently but it never takes more than a day or 2 to write and post a blog.
• After 3 months: Something is better than nothing and my ability to focus and write has faded. I want the memories a journal could spark in the future and I’m not prioritizing it. When I do journal, it’s typically bullets that are trying to capture days/weeks. My blogging has slowed down too. I first had the idea for this blog in NY in early July and it’s taken me weeks to complete and post it.

Even though a lot has changed, some things haven’t. I’m still just as excited to see a bear now as I was early on and everyday there are moments that make me so glad to be on trail.