Thru Hiking Announcement!

Well, 2017 is going to be the year of yet another thru hike for NoKey and me!  It was great being able to get out and go hiking in 2015 and, due to the fact that money is pretty much required to have a decent living where we are, we had to jump right back in and get to work after our hike.  I was fortunate enough to fall right into life as a backpacking guide almost immediately and now NoKey is joining the fun for 2017!  However, even though backpacking for a living is a pretty great way to stay connected to the trail, it can be difficult to feel like you're getting the experience YOU want while out there.  On guided backpacking trips I'm often teaching beginners the basics of backpacking, meaning we start out doing beginner miles.  While I love teaching others the ways to safely begin backpacking and avoiding injuries, I often crave hiking long and hard days.  This is why getting away to take a thru hike is so important for me every few years.

With both NoKey and myself working as guides now, we needed to set up a trip we could take during the not so busy weeks between July 4th and Labor Day weekend.  This year, we have decided to tackle the Tahoe Rim Trail!  This 167-mile loop can be done in approximately 10 days, which means we could take two weeks off to travel, thru hike, take a zero or two, and fly back home.  For us, it was a no-brainer!

The Tahoe Rim Trail is fairly new as far as trail systems are concerned - only officially designated in 2001.  This multiuse trail can be used year-round for biking, snowshoeing, and hiking.  Part of the trail also shares the Pacific Crest Trail, so we'll get a taste of the PCT while we're out hiking in California and Nevada.  We are super excited to hit this trail, especially since neither of us have done any hiking at elevations like this before.  In the next few months, I'll be posting updates about recipe planning and thru hike planning/gear trade-offs we'll be doing in order to get ready for our adventure.  I can't wait to share these things with you guys!

Have you ever been to the Tahoe Region for hiking or recreation?  Are there any "must stop" places you'd recommend?

How to Train for a Long-Distance Hike: Advice from an AT Thru Hiker

You’ve planned to do a long-distance hike.  You’ve done your research and bought your gear.  Now all you need to do is get out on the trail, right?  What you may not have thought about is the fact that you might need to do a little more than just put all your gear on your back and start walking!  While some people actually do their first hike ever with all their gear on their backs and walk 2000+ miles, chances are many others who never hiked before quit before their first week is even over.  Having confidence in your abilities will greatly help your chance at success on a long-distance trip.

Start Walking-
While most people consider a long hike a vacation, it’s actually one of the hardest jobs you’ll have.  You will be walking most of your waking hours, covering upwards of 20 miles a day sometimes!  The first step to getting into shape for a hike is to walk.  Start slow and build up your miles gradually.  Once you can do a few miles, try to get out and hike on actual trails, as walking on pavement and walking on a trail are two totally different experiences for your body.  When I first started hiking I knew I could walk easily 2-3 miles, but get out on the trails and you’ll find that you might be hurting in places you didn’t know you had!

Add Some Weight-
Once you start getting in the miles, add some weight to your walk.  Put on a backpack and fill it with water bottles to give it some heft.  Try to take 5-10 pounds in the beginning, gradually getting to your full overnight backpack.  Then, start taking it on trails this way.  Again, you might find that the easy 8-10 mile day hike is totally different when you have 25 pounds on your back!

Don’t Forget to Stretch-
I encourage hikers to try and incorporate a few gentle stretches into their evening routines and post hike rituals.  While you may feel like a total weirdo doing stretches in camp at night or in the parking lot after a long hiker, an important part of keeping your muscles strengthened is helping them recover.  Try to learn a YouTube beginner’s yoga video and try to do it after each time you walk.  Yoga stretches can also help you build your core strength, which is a lot more important during hiking than most people realize.

Remember to Take it Easy-
You’ve learned how to hike with all the weight on your back and now it’s time to test out your skills.  Go out on a practice trip, called a “shakedown” by hikers.  Pack up your gear and do a backpacking trip for a night or two.  Testing out your gear and your trail legs is a great way to build up confidence for your long-distance trip.  Give yourself plenty of daylight hours to get to your destination and take as many breaks as you feel you need.  A steady pace will help you build your endurance for the longer days ahead.

Now that you're in hiking shape, make sure you're trail ready!  Check out my posts on how to pack your backpack, gear you should leave at home, and even how to avoid and treat common hiking injuries.  Of course, after you do all that, make sure you thank your support crew in advance for all the work they'll be doing for you while you're away!

Do you have a long hike coming up in the near future? I’d love to talk with you about it!  Find me on Facebook or Twitter and we can talk about it. 

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed: Part two of my book review

In Part One of my review of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, I got into the things I really despised about the book.  Now, in part two, I’ll let you know the things Cheryl did right on her hike and whether or not I recommend the book.  

The first thing that really impressed me was the fact that Strayed learned how to use and practiced using her water pump at home before leaving for her hike.  Why she didn’t do this with all her gear is baffling, but the fact that she read enough to know that water is a premium on the southern part of the PCT and planned accordingly was impressive to me.   Also when it comes to water, she does another thing right by sleeping with her water bottles at night.  Despite being incredibly hot during the day, it can definitely drop into freezing temperatures at night in the desert!  Sleeping with your bottles will keep them from freezing because of the transfer of your body heat.  

Cheryl also does an incredibly smart thing by bringing not only a compass, but a book that tells her how to actually use the thing.  Not everyone thinks of that when attempting to use one.  Yes, it will show you which way north is, but there is a lot more to reading the compass with a map than just looking towards north!  She taught herself how to do this while hiking on the trail and then puts her skills to use in the book when doing a bypass due to high snowpack.  She does so successfully.  

Another great thing the author mentions in her book is the fact that she leaves her backpack outside when going into a business.  This is a really great thing to mention in a book which may trigger hundreds of hopefuls out to the trails.  By leaving your pack outside a business you are being respectful of not only the business owners, but also the other patrons inside the business.  You smell bad enough, but the pack adds to that smell tenfold!  Leave it outside and help keep hikers in a positive light!

Despite her heavy pack weight and her gross lack of experience hiking, she is actually trying to hike.  She mentions one day criticizing herself for only hiking 8.5 miles, yet also mentions how thankful she is to be out and on the Pacific Crest Trail.  The mentality it takes to get yourself through a day as a long-distance hiker is often more powerful that your physical strength and Cheryl really has the mental toughness to get herself through the 1100 miles with her own toughness.  This tone is seen very few times throughout the book, but when it is seen, it’s refreshing.

In closing, I would not recommend this book at all.  On a scale of 1 to 5 I’d rate it 1.5 stars.  The major gripe I had about the book is the subtitle “From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” mostly because I don’t feel like this book even began to delve into Strayed finding herself at all.  The book read more like a story to me and not like a memoir.  I feel like she barely even began to say how she was healing from the loss of her mother, finding herself as a young adult, and coming into her own after her divorce.  While all these things were mentioned throughout the book, only in the closing pages does she even really mention her hike being over and her feeling like a stronger or healthier person from her hike.  The title alone is misleading.  

If you’re looking for a story about hiking on the PCT and enjoyed Bill Bryson’s book “A Walk in the Woods” this book is probably for you.  I’m very glad that the book is getting attention to the PCT and hopefully will help people become more active in trail maintenance clubs and fundraising.  I, however, will not be seeing the film or recommending it to anyone looking for a good memoir of hiking.  

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed: A 2-part book review

After being asked countless times how I feel about the book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed, I took the time to finally read it in hopes of doing a review for my readers.  I’ve got so much to say about this book that I’ve decided to do a two part review on my blog in hopes to finally answer all the questions I’ve been asked about the book.  In part one, I’m going to list all my gripes and complaints of the book.  Part two will be my positive thoughts because, hey, we should end on a good note, right?!  Let’s dive right in: 

During the book I did a lot of eye rolling.  I’m not going to lie that it struck me immediately that Strayed is a writer and I feel that the entire book was written in such a way to dramatize certain events to, well, sell books.  The major eye rolling points for me came every time she meets and mentions a man in her book.  Any man to Cheryl is either incredibly good looking or incredibly creepy.  As a long-distance hiker myself, I can tell you I’ve never felt this was the case.  Every time a man isn’t sexy, the situation turns dramatic with the author having fleeting thoughts of being raped and murdered on the side of a remote highway or at a campsite.  Every time a man is remotely good looking, we have to hear how she thinks of laying next to them or touching them or being close to them in some way, shape or form.  As a woman, reading a book that so many people find empowering this is really disheartening to me.  In a way, it seems to perpetuate a stereotype that women are damsels who are in constant need of help or protection and need a man to hike with them.  

Along the same lines of being a damsel, Strayed is afraid of SO MANY THINGS along her hike.  In the first pages of her books, she describes carrying “the world’s loudest whistle” in lieu of a gun (which really doesn’t need to ever be carried on a trail, so the mention of this is irritating in itself).  She talks of spending her teenage years living “in the north woods of Minnesota” yet is afraid of animals when she encounters them - the most memorable being in her first days on the trail when she is terrified of a creature she continuously calls a “moose”.  She on one page describes being afraid of hearing coyotes calling out and on another mentions it to be a comforting thought of home in those north woods.  

Cheryl, with the exception of her water filter, has done no testing of her gear.  She has no idea how to fit things into her pack and actually breaks her stove due to not even bothering to see what kind of fuel it needs.  Granted, if she would have hydrated her food in water all day while she hiked she wouldn’t have been in such dire straits as she risks running out of food until her stove gets fixed.  Her backpack is lovingly named “Monster” due to the fact that it is half her weight and she carries nearly 25 pounds worth of water every day.  It’s not a wonder she finds herself beating up her feet (losing six toenails during her 1100-mile hike) and getting chafed and calloused due to ill-fitting gear!  Even her resupplies seem ill-planned.  While she does mail herself all the food she plans to need at her resupply points, she severely limits herself by carrying on $20 at a time, most of which she immediately spends at the small store or restaurant she’s in.  At one place, she can barely tip a dime due to this lack of money.  This not only is risky, it gives hikers a bad name in trail towns due to poor tipping, especially when trail towns tend to be incredibly small stops where businesses are small and family-owned.  

Be sure to read part two of my review posting soon.  I’ll go over the positive things I read in the book, as well as give my conclusions and recommendations about reading the book!