Take a step in southern New England and beyond

Wake up at 5 am pee. Take medications. Brush your teeth. Throw sweat hiking, paste my bag, walk at 5:30. Munch a breakfast and lowers a little caffeine along the way. Walk all day, for 12 to 14, with a few breaks of 20-45 minutes in water sources. Reach the new place of the camp before 7:30 pm, configure my store. Change in sleep clothes. Kitchen. Go to sleep.

Do everything again the next day.

This is life along the way, and how most of my days have been lately. It’s a simple life! Full of routine, yes, but also challenge, the unexpected and continuous changes in the landscape, other hikers and much more.

My routine began to take shape while walking through Vermont. The transition from the rocky and implacable terrain of New Hampshire to the softer and soft vermont hills felt empowerment. I had built a strong muscle base of the leg and finally accelerate at my usual rhythm of 3 mph-more. The stepped paths of Maine and New Hampshire slowed me, more like 2 mph, more additional hours for breaks and all the technical terrain. In Vermont, I was finally hitting my step.

Trim

The fuel has properly been another aspect of feeling energized and developing a good routine. I have never been one to track all my fuel statistics. Some hikers maintain a continuous count of their calories, grams of protein or the exact amount of fiber they eat every day. I have tended to eat when I’m hungry.

Recently, I discovered a secret about the resistance that was not aware. It is how to properly feed the rigor of the strenuous walk throughout the day, more than 30 miles per day. The key is to consume the perfect balance and amounts of food, water, electrolytes and caffeine. When I can reach this ideal balance, I can continue walking all day. The most important part of my discovery was that I just needed more. More snacks, more electrolytes and more caffeine. I am still surprised by the amount of fuel I need to maintain my step.

One of my favorite paths

Connecticut’s challenge

After working with a faster step in Vermont, and taking a couple of shorter days to visit my parents in Massachusetts, I felt a bigger challenge. Just in time for Connecticut’s challenge. This is a challenge through Hiker that implies walking 53.8 miles in one day, all the way through Connecticut, from the last camp designated in Massachusetts (the Sage ravine camp going to the south) to the first camp designated in New York (Wiley refuge). I was ready to assume it.

The day before Connecticut Challenge, I met two fellow southern hikers in the Sage ravine who also wanted to stab. Like me, they planned to start at 4:30 am, they asked me if they would like to start together, and they agreed. I felt lucky to have found two other hikers for the company during the morning hours in the dark. Unfortunately, when 4:30 am rolled, they were still in their sleeping bags. I started the day trip solo. I’m already used to it.

The beginning of Connecticut’s challenge

But walking in the dark has only been a great source of anxiety for me. It scares me for small noises in the forest, and I feel paranoid that someone is behind me, or go out in front of me. The tunnel that creates the light of my lighthouse, without awareness of my dark periphery, disturbs me.

For this through Thu-Hike, I wanted to face that fear and find ways to face. When I put on the dark and peaceful night for my Connecticut challenge, I listened to comforting music and tried to keep my mind out of the spooky. And it worked! I felt totally comfortable and really enjoyed the stillness and beauty of the early morning. It was special to feel as one of the only people awake at that time.

The challenge began with a surprisingly steep climb by Scrable rocks in Bear Mountain, the highest summit of Connecticut. I was rewarded with a surprising dawn at the top, with stars still shining when the first light arose.

The first 15 miles of the day passed quickly. I felt fresh, the weather was fresh and dry, and the biggest motivation through the hiker was to wait for the path: the city’s food! A small charming cafeteria called off the trail caffle sat in the perfect location for a late breakfast sandwich and a coffee with ice cream milk.

However, before getting there, one of the hikers who had met the day before, the name of the Pinky path, reached me. Pinky and I walked most of the rest of the challenge together. We also collected another hiker later in the day, the name of Rabid Walnut rabies, who joined us until the end of the challenge. It was an enormously useful moral impulse that other people also tried the challenge. And later, after sunset, it was pleasant to have people to walk during the long night portion until the end.

After hours of walking, a good conversation and some sleep breaks, the three arrive at the Connecticut/New York border much after midnight, a small drunk blow. After 20 hours walking through Connecticut, he felt like a glorious (and silly) achievement. We all separate the next day, but I am grateful for the experience I have to go casually with other hikers.

Finish Connecticut’s challenge with pink walnut and anger

Flying by

Once through Connecticut, the states began to fly. New York, New Jersey, then Pennsylvania … feels as if he were on a high -speed train, seeing all blurring but crossing beauty along the way.

My spontaneous beyond hamburger 🤤

In the AT, there is a different adventure every day. This is what I love about this path. There is routine, but never monotony. There is a constant flow of different extravagant experiences. Be it a unique refuge, a generous woman who gives cookies to hikers and allows her to camp in her patio, a cabin in a lake that makes you panqueques in the morning, a restaurant right next to the path where you can eat a spontaneous hamburger, an entrance theater in which it allows hikers camping there, or a sparkling rock in the middle of Pennsylvania … could always go. This trail never bores me.

Camping at the Drive-In Theater

In recent days I had an unexpected intense fatigue, but I am adjusting. And fuel. And stay in pace.

For my 27th birthday, I took my first day zero in weeks and spent it in the most random city of the Center for Pennsylvania. I have seen three bears in recent weeks. I have cried more times than I can tell. I have enjoyed several fleeting but important friends on the path that have added a promotion of positivity and motivation to some difficult days. I arrived at the camp in the dark and began to walk in the dark for several days in a row. I have kept my way with my goals and I hope to complete this path within 90 days. I have several more exciting challenges under my sleeve to keep me pressing my step. Unhook me luck!

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