Dirty Girl Hikes

AT 2022 Day 1 5.7 miles

I arrived at Ian’s NYC apartment around 12:30p.  The short Uber from Laguardia was terrifying, as I realized that New York drivers in mass, are probably the scariest drivers in the world!

Ian, Tater’s brother, prepared a “triple decker” PB&J, with a bulging ziploc full of “train snacks” for her and I.  This is what love in snack form looks like: 

In Ian’s living room I emptied my $10 Goodwill suitcase, and set about the task of loading up my backpack.  Tater did the same and we were fully trail ready within fifteen minutes. 

Gorging on our “triple deckers,” we got a basic plan for the day, aiming to hike about six miles. 

Ian was kind enough to ride the subway with us all the way to Grand Central, where we sat and drank coffee waiting for our 3pm train to Pawling to arrive.  Soon it was time, and we bid our urban field guide farewell.  His presence and direction evaporated all the stress I normally feel in cities.  Like the rest of Tater’s family, I adore Ian’s calm, gentle demeanor. 

Our train ride was pretty uneventful, with a couple of our fellow passengers recognizing us as hikers and asking the typical questions.

“Holy shit we’re actually doing this!”  Made up a fair amount of the banter between Tater and I.  Both of us were still full of nerves as Google maps faithfully guided us along the seventeen stops.

When we made it to Pawling, a taxi pulled up and a hiker named Penguine offered us a ride.  A few minutes later we were standing outside of Native Landscapes, a hiker-friendly nursery.  Penguin went in to source a fuel can.  After seeing our first white blaze, Tater and I were literally bouncing with glee. All pre-hike stress disappeared instantly, as it always does, and we ran for the trail.

Within the first tenth of a mile, small furry forms came into view about twenty yards ahead. Two gorgeous kittens bounded out of the brush and chased each other up trail, before disappearing again.  We tried to coax them out with calls and promises of tuna, but they were gone.  Still, seeing them within the first ten minutes, we took their presence as a good omen.  I’ve never seen baby cats on the trail before. 

After remembering how to read the guidebook, and averting a very real fear that we had actually been walking south for the past hour, we laughed and filled our water at the first large stream we found.

The first mile of the trail was mainly farm fields, and we joyfully baked in the 90 degree heat, though the sun was reclining fast.

We rolled into Wiley Shelter a little after 8pm. Tater and I were probably heard for miles with our boisterous and loud city voices.  We pitched camp (my first time using the GG Two in the field) with practiced efficiency.  The occupants of the other twelve tents were already asleep when we arrived, though one man was finishing dinner. Tater and I communicated in whispers.

We made our way to the glorious luxury that is a picnic table and cooked dinner.  Hers being Spanish rice, mine being some yakisoba instant noodles I bought as emergency COVID stores, long expired. 

Bugs drove us to eat in our respective tents as soon as our stoves were cooled.  I forgot how utterly spacious and civil a tent is compared to tarp and bivy.  I feel like I’m in a dorm room with crap scattered everywhere right now.

It’s one thing to go on a weekend backpacking trip, but living on a trail for months on end requires toiletries, chargers, and other miscellania simply unneeded for a two day jaunt.  Those tiny (often featherweight) items take up space and mental bandwidth.  You need to keep track of everything in your pack, and simply lumping these things into “electronics bag” “nightly bag” and “toiletry bag” helps tremendously. 

It’ll take a few days and maybe a couple weeks to get back into a rhythm.  In 2019 my “nightly bag” consisted of everything I wanted next to me overnight.  Earbuds, contact solution, case, hand sanitizer, along with my external battery with charge cables for my phone and headlamp.

You can tell a hikers experience level by how organized they stay in camp and while cooking.  Like all thru hikers, Tater and I can pitch tents and feed ourselves in well under fifteen minutes. 

It feels so good to be on trail again.  So far we feel great.  Ya know, six miles in and all… Till next time!