I hike

I hike. 

I hike as many days as I can in a year–which, when you work a full time job, is not nearly enough. 

We are Appalachian Trail section hikers.  We hope to hike it end to end, some day in the not too, too distant future.  But for now, we try to get in 200 to 300 miles in a year’s time, which is generally two to three trips per year.  We’ve completed New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia (its a very small piece), as well as most of Virginia.  We’ve also hiked sections in Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as New York State.  We were wed in August 2005, right off the trail on the steps of a hiker-friendly church in Delaware Water Gap, PA.  The minister is also one of our avid hiking buddies–very convenient.  We started our marriage by jumping on the trail and hiking north.

I have hundreds of AT hiking pictures, which I hope to pair with various journals from each of our trips and begin to post in a separate blog or on additional pages here.  Trying to pair them should be…interesting.  I’m not as organized as I’d like to be.  But I’ll do the best I can.

Over the years, it seems as though we’ve spent a lot of money on our hiking equipment and learned the hard (and expensive) way that less is more.  On our very first overnight AT hike, we had sleeping bags that weighed well over 8 lbs a piece (unbelievable in retrospect–my winter bag is under 2 lbs today) and we never packed them in any waterproofing.  Of course, it poured that day, turning our 8lbs of dry bag into about 15 lbs of wet bag.  Live and learn.

All the photos I’ve taken on the trail are taken with a point and shoot.  We carry as light as possible and, since we are out a week at a time, I couldn’t risk taking expensive camera equipment.  Its too heavy.  Hiking–actually, backpacking–involves a lot of climbing, at least on the AT, and the lighter and more compact you are, the better…at least for me.

This is a picture of my husband, enjoy a brief respite.  Since he’s at an overlook, its safe to assume that we just climbed a ways to get there. He is not only enjoying the scenery, but resting his weary feet as well.

Heidi ho!