What is a day of hiking like?

Just happy to be here!

After spending four days at what I will fondly remember as the “Animal House” shelter and doing countless stretches and strengthening exercises, I cautiously got back on the trail. To my delight and surprise, all that work paid off and my IT band didn’t hurt! I reduced my miles, averaging 11-15 last week. My knee and I are now talking to each other and I will continue doing the exercises and stretches until I finish this LASH. But what is a typical day of hiking like?

Magpie in the morning

I wake up around 6:15. I sleep with earplugs, but the birds start singing earlier. I start the day in my tent with the same prayer: “Lord, I don’t know what the road holds for me, but let me accept it with humor, openness and gratitude.” Between the time I wake up and the time I leave camp, a little less than an hour usually passes.

The classification

There are so many tasks! I start by putting my sleeping bag, my bag liner, and my sleeping pad into their bags. I make sure all charging cables and electronic devices are in the correct bag. I change from my sleeping clothes into my hiking clothes, which are often cold and stinky, then leave the tent to take down my bear bag. My bear bag not only has all my food, but it also has anything that smells: toothpaste, dental floss, lotion, hand sanitizer, soap, etc. Those items must be returned to their places. It is important to stay hyperactive organized while backpacking. I brush my teeth because that’s how I feel human. I put a breakfast bar and the snacks I will eat during the day in my fanny pack. I close the bear bag and try to make it as small as possible. I carry my backpack, starting with the soft stuff at the bottom, then the bear bag, and then the little songbook bags on top. The last thing I can enter is my store. I’m usually gravity filtering water at the same time I’m doing all of this. Once I have everything loaded, I take a close look at the campsite to make sure I don’t leave anything behind and then I leave the campsite. I LOVE coffee. It’s one of my favorite things about being an adult, but I don’t drink coffee on the road and I don’t make breakfast. When I wake up, I just want to start the day, so I can take a caffeine pill and drink some water and then I start moving.

to the races

For the first hour I will eat the protein bar. At 7:45, an alarm will sound on my phone telling me to apply a nitroglycerin skin patch just below my collarbone. I have a heart condition that started at age 29 and I wear this patch for 12 hours during the day, then take medication at night. I set the alarm for this time because if it goes off earlier while I’m trying to leave camp, I’ll ignore it and not put on the patch at all.

The beauty of birdsong

I start the first mile by leisurely amble, warning my body parts that we are doing this again. I imagine them hanging around a water cooler at night, complaining about me, and then they get the notice that they have to return to their workplaces. The morning is absolutely my favorite time of day on the trail. The air is calm and everything is silent except the birds. The birds sing loudly like they are auditioning for Lollapalooza. so many warblers and vireos, a woodpecker, the scarlet tanager, woodpeckers, eastern phoebe, etc. I stop often to use my Merlin app. Today I bagged a Baltimore Oriole for the first time! I’m terrible at telling bird songs apart, but the hornero is unmistakable: it’s loud, strident, and unapologetic. I feel like she was a bully in high school. I will walk for the next 3-4 hours listening to the birds and getting lost in my own thoughts. It’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to a silent retreat.

humpbacked rock

let’s make lunch

At noon, I will have loudly congratulated the wildflowers: «You are beautiful!» I would have said to certain trees: «Look at you! You are a survivor!» and asked the slowly dying butterflies: «Who did this to you?!» It’s time for lunch. Many times it is the same: a tortilla with a package of tuna, mayonnaise, hot sauce and fried foods or Cheetos to make them crispy. I don’t like mayonnaise or tuna, and I hate flour tortillas, but tuna provides protein and weighs very little, the tortilla is a vehicle for the tuna and the mayonnaise is for fat. Sometimes I lie down and raise my legs above the backpack just to give them a break. Taking half an hour or more for lunch can be very stimulating!

Tuna/mayo/tortilla extravaganza

The crisis

Things get a little more challenging towards the end of the day when my legs get tired and I start thinking about where I’m going to camp. If there’s a long climb in the last three hours of the day, I’ll reward myself with a Jolly Rancher or two and listening to a podcast or audiobook. I recently had a long conversation with two hikers older than me about Jolly Ranchers. We all agreed that the company is flooding the bags with cherry/watermelon and skimping on the apple flavor, which made us angry. At this point I have already made a long prayer with many details. Depending on how you vote, you will either love it or hate it. It’s not my problem.

View from my tent near Humpback Rock

At the end of the day, I will think about how I feel and decide whether to continue a few more kilometers or stop. Lately I’ve decided to stop and I think it’s been good for my knee. I dry camp a lot, meaning I choose a campsite that is not near a water source. I find a water source towards the end of the day and drink as much water as I can, then filter water into my bottles and then maybe add a little more in my CNoc bag to take to camp. Once at camp, I force myself to do exercises and stretches before eating something or setting up my tent, so it’s fair game. I reverse the order of what I did in the morning, then I write down what I did that day, then maybe I listen to some music, and then I go to bed at 8:30 or nine.

Look at this trillium!

The next morning I wake up and am so excited to take on the day, no matter what yesterday was like. When you’re young, you have a lot of time and no money. When you are old, you have money but you have less time. I’m in the sweet spot where I have the time and energy to do this, and I don’t take it for granted.

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