Lessons learned from my (sort of) agitation walk

In most blogs and vlogs I’ve read, people actually adjust their gear before using the AT. The big preparation is to go on one or several test hikes and test all the equipment in real-life conditions. I have a slightly different approach, for two reasons:

1) Availability

I am a bigger woman. And being an outdoor woman in Norway usually means you’re not, at least according to outdoor clothing brands. Which means it’s hard to get high-quality lightweight gear in my size. Therefore, I will be pre-ordering some of my clothes that I plan to wear on the AT and receiving them from my shuttle driver (shoutout to the kindness of Bandit AT Shuttles!). The big downside to this solution: I won’t have a chance to test it before I leave. And I have no guarantees that it is what the images show. Or it suits me well. But it is the best solution I have found given the circumstances. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

2) Uncertainties of the road and my preferences

I had never done such a long hike before. My longest ride in miles was 96. My longest ride in number of days was 10 days of riding. I don’t know what I’d like on a longer hike than that. And 2200 miles is much more. Also, I don’t really know the conditions of the AT, since I’ve never been there. Blogs and vlogs can only inform so much. So, I’ve decided not to buy too many new things before I go and instead spend that money once I’m on the road (and hopefully more sure what to buy). I have more than enough good quality gear to get me going, but my pack will probably shrink as I learn what I need and don’t need on the AT.

Lessons learned from my blackmail

So when I say I did a test hike, it feels a bit like a scam. Lihat juga qaz2. But I learned some valuable lessons:

frozen ground

Although there was no snow, a prolonged period of cold meant that everything was frozen.

When the ground is frozen, it is (literally) difficult to place tent plugs in the ground. A rock was needed and it was wonderful to bring out my inner cavewoman. What I didn’t think about was that I would need to get them out of the ground in the morning. No matter how hard I tried, they were stuck. I used my stone again, trying to loosen them up a bit by hammering on the sides.

The result? They sunk about half an inch into the ground. Worse still: it was impossible for me not to leave a trace. They were low enough that no one could trip over them (or probably even notice them), but I don’t like to think about that. I managed to lift two of the plugs but they were bent and I will replace those as well. I need to learn some alternative ways to secure my tarp to the ground if I encounter similar conditions on the AT.

Safe to say I’ll be getting new tent outlets before I get to the AT…

Headlamp

I think I might be overdoing it on the lumens. As a SAR volunteer, I have the mentality that there is never too much light, and my current headlamp is 2,500 lumens and a disconcerting 250 grams (8.8 ounces). We talked about this during the walk. Or, rather, my hiking partner laughed at me for it. He said a 300 to 400 lumen fixture would probably be more than enough, even with an early spring start. You may be right. Well, a quick chat with some hikers let me know I was definitely right. The next day I got the Nitecore NU21 lamp.

It feels a bit like a downgrade, but the smaller headlamp with fewer lumens (360) will probably be much better suited for hiking than my 2500 lumen Silva that he used when volunteering at SAR. And it’s 1/5 the weight!

Water is hard to get

Most of my winter camping has been easy hikes. Leave in the afternoon, spend the night and return in the morning, without having to carry a lot of water. And when I have needed it, the water sources have continued to flow despite the cold. This time it was different. We’ve had a surprisingly long period of sustained cold – below freezing for weeks!

Everything was frozen. Streams, lakes, all water sources. This meant we had to program a lot more. From the beginning we didn’t want to carry all our water for two days. Both because of the weight, and also because it would freeze. Instead, we had to add detours to get to stores not far from the trail to buy room temperature water bottles along the way. This is something I haven’t had to think about before and is a good experience to take with me, especially considering the recent weather in southern Appalachia.

I may not have all my gear figured out yet, but I’m entering the AT with curiosity, flexibility, and growing confidence that I’ll learn what I need to—one frozen stake at a time.

We received a wonderful magical trail in the parking lot before our camp – room temperature water for the night! <3

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