Dirty Girl Hikes

Dear readers,

I’ve been experimenting with creating posts to reflect every single day on trail. It’s a remarkably time consuming occupation, which is resulting in a ton of basic grammatical errors and typos.

It’s impossible to edit immediately after writing, but I feel a sense of urgency to share what I’ve written, even if the drafts are appallingly unpolished. Hopefully they will be readable nevertheless. Even though I typically have a backlog of two to three days, I’ve really enjoyed documenting my trail experience with this level of detail.

Days out here are full, and no two are ever the same. The variety of events which present themselves during the simple task of walking are precisely why I enjoy hiking so much.

I’m taking short bulleted notes of each day’s occurrences, and fleshing them into narrative when I have the downtime. In this way I’m actually writing using outlines. Am I an adult now?

I should also note that Tater and I are not doing a full thru hike of the AT. Rather we’re completing a long section hike from Pawling, NY to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

It’s a completely different hike than I’ve attempted on this trail before, in that we have absolutely no other agenda than to hang out and enjoy each other’s company for a couple of months. We’ve walked all the miles, there’s zero pressure, but like me, this is her favorite place.

It’s also the first time I’ve started a hike of this scale with a friend, and she’s the only one I know and trust deeply enough to try this with.

So, we’ll be spending more time in town, and walking shorter days on trail, until we decide not to, or whatever. Maybe we’ll start hiking marathon days, but more likely we’ll pet the dogs we meet and eat diner food. When the hell else will we get this time together?

Thanks for bearing with me and following along. I’ll try to provide the kind of tips two hikers with many thousands of miles under their feet can offer.

Now though, I’m going to bed. I hope you have an adventure today, and get a good laugh in with someone too. In the end, that’s about all that really matters. Be kind to yourselves.