On the trail, hikers lose more than just weight, they also lose their Christian names and are bestowed with trail names. Tarah and I have already given each other trail names while logging our many miles in Acadia and Baxter, but we are open to additional names while on the A.T.
My trail name is Steward, short for Trail Steward. Since I hike a little quicker than Tarah, I often clear fallen branches from the trail while she catches up, and by day's end my pack is almost always loaded with litter and discarded clothes and gear left by other hikers.
Tarah's trail name is a little more fun. I call her Tunnel Vision because when she gets in her hiking zone she is so focused that she either keeps marching forward regardless of whether there are blazes or not, or she follows the blazes so literally that she tackles difficult terrain when there is a simple route a step or two to the side.
While these names fit well and we enjoy them, I'm sure that we'll pick up some new names on the trail. I have an inkling that my hot pick socks and camp shoes or my bright red trail runners will lead to a name or two, at least amongst other hikers.
With our start date for the AT now six weeks away, I thought I'd share about our preparations. We have been trying to get to the gym 9 or 10 times a week. We've been lifting weights for our legs, arms and core; we've been using the stair climbers and treadmills with weighted packs; we've been in the climbing gym, and gone for the occasional runs and swims.
We have finalized our gear, we bought pack covers and dry-bags (one to purify water in and one to store our electronics).
Last weekend we made our first aid kit with an empty peanut butter jar, a few adhesive bandages, some moleskin, antihistamine, alcohol wipes and Tums. The jar is light, relatively crush proof and water proof.
Probably the most important preparation though, is my beard. I decided that I didn't want bother with shaving, or the itch and pesky neck hairs of growing a beard, on the trail. So, I decided to get a jump the whiskers and have the beard in place by the time we hit the trail. Of course, I'll still have to deal with trimming the 'stache, but I have a handy scissors on our mini multi-tool and a loving wife, so that won't be too bad.
Today we received our official nomination for the Peace Corps. It is exactly 3 months after our interview and it seems like it has been a long wait.
Of course, as we have learned though our service with AmeriCorps, service work with the government always requires some wait. This time the wait will be a little longer than 3 months as our nomination is for March 2010 in Central or South America. We will be doing youth development work and some community development work. One of the cool things about service in Latin America is that you live with a host family for your first year of service. I am really looking forward to the first-hand knowledge of the culture and customs of whichever country we go to instead of just figuring it out as we go!
Now it is a matter of those physical and dental exams that were mentioned in an earlier post. Thankfully mom works with the hospital system in Asheville/Hendersonville and they have a free clinic. Hopefully things will work out for us to have these exams after we move down there in April when we will no longer be employed or insured.
More updates as more information becomes available...but like us, you'll have to wait!
As we roll into the month of March I am getting more and more excited about the journey that lies ahead. I am reading about individuals who have already begun their trek on the Appalachian Trail, about those who have successfully finished, and about those who are trying to put it all together so that they can make the great journey. I look forward to the day when I move beyond the "putting it all together" stage.
This weekend we received a well-timed message at church, "Packing and Unpacking." We explored what is really needed when you are out in the wilderness, and thankfully we have a little more time to put together the elements that we "need" to survive. It was this message that gave me the motivational shove to see what it is that we have been talking about taking on our backs and to see if indeed, everything would fit in our packs (without making us bend over in pain!)
I feel like the list of things to take is long, but at the same time I realize that in order to be comfortable (to a modest backpackers extent) at the end of (and during) the day I will need to take some gear. Chris and I have our tent, sleeping bags, sleeping bag liners (to try and minimize the damage to our actual bags), sleeping pads, backpacks, food storage system, cooking system, water purification system, LNT garbage system, first aid / personal hygiene system, trekking poles, clothes, shoes, gaiters, camp shoes, camera and tripod, an iPod (for desperate moments,) a compass (for more desperate moments!,) a leatherman, SPOT, and headlamps - and of course clothes (layering systems and raingear) - and it all needs to go on our backs. For more detailed information about what these items are, check out our AT Gear List. The short of the long of it though, is that it looks a little haphazard (and maybe a little scary) when it first comes together. Now it is just a matter of actually getting it to be transportable in a way that won't require pack mules.
As I was pulling stuff out of our gear room (formerly an extra bedroom until we realized we had that much gear) I was really wondering if I could make it all work. Sleeping bags seem to grow as they hang and air out and even after the list is surveyed and cut back upon, you just can't keep clothes from taking up space. Then I realize that yes, I have a compression sack for my sleeping back, that I will be wearing some of these clothes all of the time and some of them most of the time, and some of them some of the time, and occasionally I may be wearing all of them at the same time. I realize that all of the little things can fit into little spaces such as the hood on my pack or the stretchy stow pockets or the nifty zippered section on the stow pocket. I realized that between Chris and I, I only need to carry half of our tent. I know that I can shove my "camp clothes" and bag liner into my sleeping bag's compression sack. After a little time, and not too much effort I made it work - even better, I have room to spare!
To prepare for our hike we have been "climbing" the stair stepper at the YMCA with weighted packs. At last weigh in I was training with a 30 pound bag, and my loaded pack weighs less than that (based on the oh so scientific method of picking up a "weighted" pack (Chris's which weighs in at 33 pounds for training) and then my "loaded" pack). Granted, I do not have the weight of 4 - 5 days of food or a full water bladder, but I think I will still weigh in under 30 pounds. To the left you can see Chris's compact "weighted" pack from training and my "loaded" pack for this summer.
In then end (or you may still call it the beginning), I have realized that yes, I can comfortably (I say from the comfort of my home) put it all on my back and that I have everything that I need. So now I can sit back (when I am not on the dreaded stair stepper) and wait for May 1 to arrive.
Last Saturday, we finally had good snow, good weather and free time to enjoy the outdoors again. Short of a New Year's/birthday stroll through the beautiful DuPont State Forest in North Carolina, we hadn't gotten out since our Cadillac sunrise summit.
On this outing we headed to Camden Hills State Park. We avoided the trail and used the Televator feature on our snowshoes and headed straight up the side of Mount Megunticook. We had spectacular views of Megunticook Lake, Camden Snow Bowl and the Atlantic.
Never shying away from an adventure, our route down was the steepest area we could descend without rappelling or down climbing with crampons and ice axes. Our descent was a mixture of shoeing, skiing and sledding.
"The only locations that fit the skill sets of you and Christopher require level 2 Spanish speaking abilities."
And so our wait began... or at least the next phase of it.
After interviewing for Peace Corps in December we received word at the beginning of the month (February) that if we would agree to enhance our Spanish abilities we could be nominated for service starting in March 2010. So, while this narrows our options for service countries, it also gives us a smaller area to ponder as opposed to the whole world!
After surveying the options for learning Spanish and checking out prices for these options, we decided that this was a feasible plan. After roughly 10 years of not using Spanish we will take the plunge and eventually invest in Rosetta Stone. Based on information from those who have used it before we figure it will give us the abilities to pass the CLEP test for the required college credits at a small fraction of the price to attend a semester of college. Now we wait for the next round of information, which our recruiter is trying to pin down. Between conferring with those at the placement office and his recruitment campaigns we are bound to have some more information in the future (how distant that future is I am not completely certain, but I hope that it is soon!)
Once we pass this hurdle and sign whatever required documentation is needed to bind us to this agreement to learn Spanish we will enter the waiting phase that is broken up only by physicals and dental exams - and more waiting while the results of those appointments are reviewed to see if we are healthy enough to live outside of the great United States for a period of 27 months.
And so we wait for our next service experience to come to fruition.
Now that we are well into 2009, I thought that it would be fitting to do a recap of our 2008 activities. iPhoto makes it quite convenient to remember when different adventures took place, so here it goes.
New Year's Day: We enjoyed our new outdoor equipment and went snowshoeing in Camden Hills State Park. We climbed up to the top of Bald Rock where we could look at at the islands of Penobscott Bay. We also enjoyed a delicious meal of Ramen and played with the panorama feature of our new waterproof/freezeproof camera.
February 2: Camden WinterFest - We carved ice sculptures in support of the nonprofit organizations that we each work for. Unfortunately, all of our cameras lacked batteries with any power so there are no photos, but Tarah's organization (S.T.A.R./5 Town CTC) carved an adult holding hands with a child and Chris's organization (The Teen Center) carved a tree on a base of a heart, because everything that the Teen Cener does is "rooted in love".
February 3: We watched the Super Bowl at our friends Dave and Eri's house and ate tons of delicious sushi and other Japanese food.
February8: Attended the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour
February 9: More snowshoeing
February 16: First longish (10 miles) run in preparation for North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler
February 23/24: Winter camping trip in Acadia National Park
We don't have any photos or notes from March, but I'm guessing we probably snowshoed and Chris ran miles and miles and miles (mostly inside).
April 5/6: Shoulder season camping and Cadillac Mountain summit sunrise hike
April 12: North Face Endurance Challenge in Bear Mountain New York
Tarah runs/hikes the 10K, Chris runs/hikes over half of the 50M Chris makes it into the ad for the the 2009 series
April 20: Explored new (to us) trails in Acadia National Park
April 26: Chris went solo in Grafton State Park hoping to knock out the Grafton Loop Trail in a weekend. Little did he know there was still a ton of snow so his attempt was thwarted, but he got to use his orientating skills and get home early to spend his b-day with Tarah.
May 3: We are introduced to the world of rock climbing and the joys of a Dan Deacon Concert
May 11: Shopping for outdoor gear, including climbing gear, in Freeport and Portland
May 24/25: Back to Grafton. We knocked out the 40ish mile loop in two days
June 7/8: Participated in National Trails Day in Baxter State Park by being eaten alive by black flies and clearing a trail with other volunteers
June 14/15: Worked on "defining the corridor" that is the Wadleigh Brook Trail in Baxter State Park, our assignment for the Trail Stewards program
June 21/22: Back to Acadia National Park, this was the trip that we decided that we needed to hike all of the trails in Acadia before we left the area.
June 28/29: Back to Baxter, this time purely for pleasure. We poked around the south end of the park on Saturday and then got up early Sunday and climbed Katahdin in the rain and fog.
July 4/5/6: A long weekend in Acadia National Park. We avoided the holiday masses, except to watch Bar Harbor's fireworks from atop Cadillac Mountain, and hiked everything that we could on the "quiet side" of Mount Desert Island.
July 12/13: More trail work in Baxter and the Traveler Loop, in under 7 hours
July 26 - August 2: Vacation in Iowa (and Nebraska) Our "tax credit" went to plane tickets to the plains. We enjoyed a wonderful at week with the family, chilling at home, hanging at the Iowa Great Lakes, and seeing the sights at Henry Doorly Zoo. A few highlights were the water park at the condo, the wooden roller coaster at Arnold's Park, winning plush roses playing "Ice Ball", cruisin' on the Queen Mary, the Grotto at West Bend and the butterfly garden at the zoo.
August 9: Bouldering in Acadia
August 11: We celebrated our first anniversary with a lobster dinner and came home to carrot cake from Sweet Sensations.
August 15/16/17: Camping and hiking in Acadia once again
August 23/24: Final trip to Baxter. Corridor definition, canoeing and swimming.
August 30 - September 1: Wrapping up Acadia's final trails on Mount Desert Island.
September 14: We knocked out Acadia's only miles on the mainland, Schoodic Point
September 20 (&21): We got up before the sun and hopped a ferry to Isle Au Haute to hike the final 18 miles of Acadia's trail. Unfortunately we missed the ferry back to the mainland and had to spend the night in the ranger station. The bright side is that we got to take in a few more sights on Sunday morning.
September 28: Pancake 5K in Belfast. Chris won his age group and Tarah set a PR
October 4: We volunteered at Camp Sunshine's Maine Pumpkin Festival were we got to hang out with one of Tarah's corps members. We even found the jack-o-lanterns that Tarah carved and a Huskers one too.
October 11/12: Grafton Loop Trail, again, this time in reverse and in record time.
October 19: MDI Marathon. Chris and Tarah both set PRs.
November 8: A rainy, quiet day in Acadia. We also practiced our leaps in case we ever needed to jump over a raging river or a babbling brook.
December 5: Peace Corps interview.
December 13: Cadillac Mountain summit sunrise hike.
December 31: Surprise visit to North Carolina to see Tarah's family
