Stocking Stuffer Ideas For Your Favorite Hiker - a 2015 Gift Guide

The holidays are here yet again, and I can hardly believe how fast 2015 passed me by!  Last year, I did a list on Appalachian Trials about gifts hikers would love to receive.  I'm updating the list for 2015 and making it a stocking stuffer guide instead.  Why would I change this? Well, because I want to show the good gear, and necessary gear at that, doesn't have to be expensive!  At our house, we love giving lots of small and personal gifts to each other for all holidays. Here are a few of the great things I think any hiker could use!  All the gifts are linked below and are available on Amazon. 

Dr. Bronner's

Dr. Bronner's castile soap is wonderful for so many things.  According to the bottle it has 18 different uses, including toothpaste!  While I definitely wouldn't go that far, I would definitely say Dr. Bronner's is a great multipurpose item to have in a pack.  I've washed socks in a plastic bag with it, I've used it as soap and shampoo, and I've washed my dishes with it.  This tiny 2-ounce bottle is a welcome addition to any holiday gift for a hiker. 

Sawyer Mini

Sawyer water filters have changed the way I hike.  In 2012 on my AT thru hike, I met three people with a Sawyer water filter.  In 2013 when I was working in Millinocket nearly 90% of hikers we met were using it.  These amazing little filters are fast and easy to use.  I actually use mine as an inline system placed directly on the end of my Camelbak.  I drink directly from the filter, using my Camelbak as a dirty bag.  If I'm feeling lazy in camp, this same inline system can easily be a gravity filter.  I went from rarely ever filtering water to using it every time I drink in the woods, which is never a bad thing.  Bonus tip?  The filter can be backflushed on trail without the syringe by using a Smartwater bottle with a flip top cap!

Black Diamond Gizmo Headlamp

While there are many great small and ultralight headlamps on the market these days, I prefer the good old Gizmo.  It's cheap and small - definitely lighter than my old Walmart lamp I used for years.  This headlamp has an adjustable dimmer setting and a strobe light setting for nighttime rescue situations.  The only downside is the lack of red light for night vision, but I don't often find myself wanting that feature anyway.  The price won't break the bank either!

Klymit Inflatable Pillow

An inflatable pillow...? Really...? Yes, really!  So for years I slept on my spare clothing in a stuff sack as my pillow.  Then, this summer, NoKey bought an inflatable pillow as his luxury item and every time he got out of the tent before me I would snatch that pillow up in a matter of seconds and catch some more beauty rest.  At 1.95 ounces packed weight, this little luxury item will be a sure favorite for anyone who loves sleeping in the woods. 

Titanium Spork

Again, what sounds like a ridiculous idea is actually pretty practical!  How many times have you or your favorite hiker busted their spork in a jar of peanut butter or a pot of mashed potatoes?  If you've done it even once, you know this one time too many!  While the plastic sporks are cheap, if you've replaced it more than twice you could have splurged and bought a titanium version.  I bought one a few years ago and haven't had problems since!  Also a bonus, the Vargo brand has a mini carabiner end on the top, so you can attach it right to your food bag or the bag you store your cook pot in.  Never dig in your bag to find the spork again!

Smartwool Socks

Socks for the holidays?!  Well, the gift we all hated to see (and inevitably always got) in our childhood takes on a whole new meaning when you love all things outdoors.  While all hikers have their favorite brands of socks, mine are Smartwool's PhD Micro socks.  I've been an avid lover of these socks since 2008 and have never once had a blowout like others I know.  Find out which brand your hiker likes best and get them a few pairs!

I hope this short list of products I love has been helpful for your holiday shopping.  What would you add to the list?  I'd love to see what you think - leave me a comment below or reply on the Facebook post to get the conversation started!

"I'm a Wilderness First Responder - can I help you?"

For nine days during the month of November I stayed at the Nantahala Outdoor Center doing an intensive program called Wilderness First Responder, WFR (pronounced Woofer) for short.  @@What is a Wilderness First Responder?@@  This means I've been trained to deal with backcountry emergencies ranging from sprained ankles to a heart attack to a sucking chest wound called an open hemopnuemothorax.  What does all this stuff mean to you guys?  This means that I'd be an excellent person to have on a backpacking trip!  My job as a hiking guide requires I have this training to deal with any injury or medical emergency that could possibly arise during a trip.  Being that we are in one of the most remote places on the Appalachian Trail, help could be many, MANY hours from arriving.  Learning the skills that are necessary for not only keeping my patient and group calm, but also how to help them and get more qualified help for them are mandatory.  Here my quick and dirty summary of taking a WFR class at SOLO Southeast - taught at NOC in Wesser, NC. 

Our class was relatively small due to the time of year I took it.  We had a total of 10 people, which is 1/2 to 1/3 of the usual size according to our instructor.  Brooks, our main instructor, is an Advanced Wilderness EMT and teaches at SOLO when he isn't working in his wood shop making custom furniture. He's worked as a rafting guide and survivalist at BOSS in Colorado - the same survival institute Cody Lundeen attended in the 1970s.  Our class was also diverse - ranging from a woman from Alaska looking to gain skills for her long winters to young people looking to be able to help their friends on trips, even a guy from Brazil who had spent a few months working on the Rocky Top AT crew in the Smokies.  We spent the first day mostly in the classroom learning medical terminology and the legalities of helping people in the woods versus helping people in the "real world."  Many of the training techniques I've learned are only applicable to working in the wilderness - meaning at least an hour from the trailhead/qualified help.  

The next several days were a crash course in learning how to deal with sprains and strains (and what the difference is between the two), building a splint for a fractured arm or leg, resetting broken bones in a wilderness setting, and even how to pull traction to get a broken femur back into place.  I also learned how to help someone with a dislocated shoulder, elbow, or knee joint.  We did a lot of practice building things from materials we would normally be carrying on a trip, like water bottles, sleeping pads, and even extra clothes and rain gear.  Later in the week we learned how to deal with everything from minor sunburns to extreme frostbite and everything in between.  The most helpful of all this training, however, was running what we called "scenarios."  Each person in the class chose a partner and one of us would be the patient while the other would be the rescuer.  They would use stage makeup to give us burns, broken bones, frostbite, etc.  We would take turns helping each other and then learning from our mistakes - which they would always have us make the mistake on purpose as to not forget the proper treatment.  We were also certified in CPR and the use of an AED during this period. 

My certification cards and my cool new t-shirt and patches! 

The real fun with this training started when we learned how to work together as a rescue group.  We were always encouraged to try different roles, like lead medic or incident commander, and work with different partners to learn our strengths.  I found this the most enjoyable experience of the entire training, mostly because I was extremely far outside of my comfort zone and working with different people kept me on my toes.  I was very lucky to be part of a group where no one had an ego that got in the way of everyone making decisions as a team.  Our biggest scenario came on the last night of the course, where we went up a trail in the dark to find three hikers who had gone missing in the woods.  The scenario was a thunderstorm was in the area and the home base was concerned about lightening.  The nine of us in the group walked in the dark up the trail until we heard people in pain.  My partner, Derek, and I ended up getting an unresponsive patient who had obviously been struck by lightening.  The other two patients had a case of ruptured ear drums and a dislocated elbow, respectively.  To throw in a curveball, a fourth patient - a guy tripping on mushrooms - happened to walk onto our scene and take the attention of some of our rescuers.  Nine people taking care of four patients is a lot of stressful work.  In the end, it took us 2 hours to get our patients evacuated, and our instructors overall said we did a great job. 

Just another day at WFR training - a badly bruised ankle indicating a sprain.  

On the very last day, we did our written test and our final scenario.  I partnered back up with Liz, whom I'd been working with all week.  She was a great partner who provided a lot of constructive feedback to me.  I seriously feel I wouldn't have passed the course without her!  For her scenario test, I had fallen on a ski slope and broken my arm.  She had to splint me and treat me for mild hypothermia.  For my final scenario, she had fallen while bouldering in cold weather and needed treatment for mild hypothermia and a broken lower leg.  The class ended on Sunday afternoon with sunny skies and nine people all getting certified as Wilderness First Responders.  It was hard to say goodbye to everyone in the class because we had all bonded over the course of the nine days we spend together.  

Our group after "graduating" the WFR course. 

For anyone who is trying to figure out if becoming a WFR is worth the money, I would absolutely recommend the course - especially if you have no prior medical training.  While the course was intensive and I was outside of my comfort zone (even though I have a 10-year history in medical careers), I feel like the information I've learned and retained was extremely helpful.  I wish I would have had this training prior to my thru hike just because so many things happened out there I could have helped with - like when a friend of ours began going into anaphylaxis on the side of a road in Shenandoah National Park or when NoKey fell and broke his fingers on Mt. Lafayette in New Hampshire.  The SOLO Southeast Course was approximately $650 and the lodging at NOC for the nine days was about $130 in a bunkroom. Once you become a certified WFR, you will be qualified to take the Wilderness EMT classes (a 3-week, $1900 course) as well.  If you are looking for a less intensive area of study, SOLO Southeast offers Wilderness First Aid (WFA) classes over the period of a weekend and they are significantly cheaper, although not as thorough as the training I received as a first responder.  They also offer a simple CPR certification.  

Are you interested in becoming a WFA, WFR, or WEMT?  I'd love to talk to you about it or even go into depth about the course with you!  Leave me a comment below or start a conversation over on the Facebook post!

Happy Thanksgiving from Sprinkles & NoKey

Thanksgiving - a rare day off for me!  I'm very thankful to be working for an employer who, thankfully, doesn't believe it working on holidays.  I know this makes me in the minority of many of the people I know these days.  This morning I ran a 10K out in Knoxville before coming home to rest and then stuff my face with delicious food.  

I have so much to be thankful for this year, including making a move back to Tennessee to be near my friends and family and scoring an AMAZING job where I am sharing my passions of backpacking and teaching principles I truly believe in to novice hikers.  To say that I have been extremely lucky this year is an understatement.  

To all of my readers out there, I am most thankful for you.  This year has seen amazing changes to the blog, my writing, my hiking, and even won me an award and some nominations for best outdoor blog on several websites.  I cannot wait to continue onward in 2016 and continue to grown and write quality content for all of you.  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and have a chance to get outside and enjoy some fresh air, even if it's only for a minute!

Part 2 - The Appalachian Trail Conservancy Today

So from part one of my post on the ATC you got the entire abridged history of the trail, lets talk about what the ATC does for us today.  First of all, the headquarters of the ATC are located in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a mere 0.25 miles off the trail.  This office is a major destination for people on a thru hike.  They have a back room dedicated to thru hikers and a volunteer will take a Polaroid for their hiker yearbook.  You can write down all your information on the photo for friends to keep in touch with you after your hike.  They have a hiker box, where hikers can help themselves to take or leave an item they no longer want.  They have electrical outlets to charge your devices.  They also have a mini museum and souvenir shop.  The volunteers are friendly and informative, answering any question you have about the trail. 

The ATC also employs amazing trail stewards called Ridge Runners.  They cover the length of the Appalachian Trail, working in designated areas.  For example, a Ridge Runner in the Smokies would be responsible for covering the entire 73-mile length of the AT in the park and works from March until November, spending approximately 120 nights in the backcountry per season.  The work of a Ridge Runner involves talking to hikers they meet both on trail and in shelters, clearing small blowdowns off the trail, picking up trash, and cleaning the privy, or outhouse, at a campsite or shelter.  For the most part, they are peacekeepers and protectors of the trail in their designated area. 

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy acts as a protector of the trail.  For example, in September 2015, Congress failed to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund.  This legislation from 1964 designates funding from the profits of offshore drilling to be designated to back into our national parks, forests, and wildlife preserves.  The ATC is very active in Washington, D.C. and conservation staff spends time with lawmakers on Capital Hill discussing issues of conservation and their importance to the AT Corridor.  The ATC is also active in different areas along the trail to not only preserve the corridor, but to also conserve the areas near the corridor, most recently fighting development along the Roan Highland region in Tennessee.  A developer wanted to build a large condo complex right in the sightline of the trail from these beautiful and pristine balds.  Now, the conservation issue focuses on natural gas pipelines in Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  

Finally, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a great place to learn of the most important thing we can all do to help protect the trail - Leave No Trace.  The seven principles of Leave No Trace are expanded upon in detail on their website and they have a great video series explaining all the ethics.  These seven things we can all do on each trip we take out on the trail can help preserve the trail for generations to come.  

If you have enjoyed spending any amount of time on the Appalachian Trail, I highly recommend you become a member of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.  You can make a donation of any amount on their website and become a card-carrying member of this wonderful trail "club."  Your donation to them will help preserve the efforts of this hard working organization to make sure the Appalachian Trail can be protected for years to come.  

Golden Boots Blogger Award

I'm proud to announce that I was selected as one of five winners for the September 2015 Golden Boots Blogger Award!  Awarded from hikingthetrail.com, I was recognized as an outdoor adventure blogger providing some great stories with a side of adventure.  Thank you to whoever nominated me!

"But How Can You Afford That?!" - Working Hard to Play Hard

It might look relaxing, but a TON of hard work went on behind the scenes before doing a hike!

The number one question asked to me upon finding out that I enjoy long-distance hiking is "how can you afford to do that?!"  Similarly, "you must be independently wealthy!" is a common followup.  The truth of the matter is if you find your passion, most of the time there is so much behind-the-scenes hard work involved in making your dream a reality that many people often don't see your struggle to reach your goal.  This post is brought to you by hard work, folks!

When I had decided I wanted to attempt a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2012 it was July 2011.  I had a vague notion I'd want to thru hike one day, but I made a firm decision in July and immediately began planning.  When you plan for a long-distance hike there is a lot of research involved and the thing I noticed in many failed thru hike attempts was running out of money. This was back in the days before everyone and their brother ran a GoFundMe.  I knew immediately that if I wanted to up my chances of finishing a 2200-mile hike I would need to prepare financially.  

Saving money has never been hard for me.  I grew up in a family where if we wanted something, we saved up for it.  I bought my own cell phone and plan in the early 2000s from part job after school jobs.  I bought my first laptop computer when I was 17 through the same hard work.  Keep in mind these were the days when laptops were $1500 and cell phone plans were only 200 minutes a month with no text messaging options!  I've always been a saver, so this task wasn't hard for me at all.  Although, as an adult with a home mortgage and a fairly brand new car recently purchased, saving money wasn't as easy as it was in my teenage years! The first thing I would need to do is supplement my income with a second job. 

In 2011 I took a job with a temp agency.  The agency I was with specialized only in medical offices, my area of training.  I worked part time at night from home as my regular job, so that left me free for day shift jobs.  In the medical field I quickly found fairly regular work as a temp from 7:30-5 p.m. and still had time for my regular job.  Some weeks found me working as many as 65 hours, but I was okay with this as all that money from temp work was going into my savings and my trail fund.  By the time I left in 2012 I had expanded my network in the healthcare field and saved some money to thru hike. 

The same methodology applied to my summer 2015 thru hikes.  Although the medical field in Syracuse was much smaller, I had to get more creative.  I worked an early morning shift at FedEx and then worked a normal 8-5 job like any other person.  While doing these shifts I often found myself working 70-hour weeks in the Christmas season, but the result was still the same - I was able to funnel the extra cash into my savings for thru hiking.  For months I was often tired and I wasn't the most social person, but the end result allowed me to take off an entire summer to live my dreams.  I am personally not a fan of the GoFundMe campaigns for people to take the time to do a thru hike.  If you want to take the time off from life to do a hike, you should be willing to work just as hard for it as you would any other dream! Kickstarters, however, are different.  If you're a filmmaker or a writer I find this a viable option for production costs.  I have nothing against people who do use GoFundMe for trips, I have just found it's not something I could see myself doing for a trip I've chosen to do. 

Once again I've found myself back in the real world dreaming of my next adventure.  While my new job as a backpacking guide will help me live out my passion on a smaller scale for the next several months, I know that if I want to get back out and take a season away from my adulting hard work and little free time will be the key.  How did you save for your adventuring?  I'd love to hear some of the methods you use!  Please leave me a comment or connect with me on Facebook!

Strong Women on the Long Trail

In keeping with the theme of REAL strong women in the backcountry, I'd like you to meet Nikki Kimball.  Nikki is a Vermont native who holds the women's speed record (FKT) for ultra running the Long Trail.  For Nikki though, just being the fastest woman to do the entire 273-mile Long Trail isn't enough.  Check out her interview with Vermont Public Radio about her FKT attempt next summer, where she will attempt to run the entire trail in only 4.5 days and find out the reason she's doing this: 

http://digital.vpr.net/post/native-vermonter-sets-sights-breaking-long-trail-running-record#stream/0

Strong Women in the Backcountry - What it REALLY Means

This month Backpacker Magazine had a "women-centric" issue of their publication.  While some great articles came from this, like a story about how a woman was able to tackle Iceland by doing a "pump and dump" for her nursing baby, there has been a lot more buzz about the fluff pieces.  By fluff pieces I mean videos about backcountry beauty tips and ridiculous infographics about how to not pee on your shoes (the horror, amirite ladies?!).  While I've seen several of the bloggers who have contributed to Backpacker submit their backlash (and rightfully so), I wanted to take the time to write a piece about real backcountry women and why I think we need more of them. 

Starting at Springer alone - and knowing I'd be okay for the next five months. 

While I grew up the shadow to the Great Smoky Mountains and took a few trips up to the park with my family as a child, I didn't go on my first hike until the age of 19.  I hiked the Ramsey Cascade Trail with a guy I was dating, as he was really into the Smokies and I wanted to appear like I could do it too.  I wore cotton and tennis shoes.  I carried no pack.  We ate Little Debbie Cakes at the falls.  I couldn't walk for two days afterward.  While I enjoyed the waterfall, I can truly say the experience didn't exactly leave me clamoring for more trips to hike.  Over Labor Day in 2009 I took my first backpacking trip, again for the same reason - the man I was dating really liked the mountains.  I remember saying to him, "I'll go, but I hate the mountains. It's just touristy and ugly up there."  I owned no backpacking gear.  We hiked 2 miles up the Kephart Prong Trail to a backcountry shelter.  I had a borrowed day pack with a sleeping bag liner (with no sleeping pad), a water bottle, and some overpriced prepackaged backpacking food.  We shared the rest of our gear.  I didn't sleep the entire night.  I shivered in my bag liner.  I was sore from the hike and sore from sleeping on the hard shelter floor.  When I woke in the morning I was in love with backpacking and everything it meant to be a backpacker.

I slowly began buying my own backpacking gear.  I started by going to an outfitter and getting fitted for a pack.  I borrowed and shared gear with girlfriends.  I joined a local hiking club and made more backcountry friends who would help me learn.  I slowly was able to go from hiking four miles in a weekend to hiking more substantial trips.  In early 2010 things came to a halt when a knee injury left me unable to stand for more than a few minutes or even able to pedal a bike without weeks of physical therapy.  I gained 50 pounds.  I was depressed.  Despite all of this, when I was slowly learning to walk again without pain, hiking helped me tremendously.  The soft ground of the backcountry trails and greenways provided much less impact than the pavement did.  After nearly 4 months of being depressed, overweight, and miserable I was able to take a backpacking trip with some friends - a female only trip.  This trip really helped me see things clearly.  

My first women-only backpacking trip.  I'm the one on the far left if you can believe it!  

On that trip we were able to not worry about being shown up by the men in our group or feel like we were in competition to keep up.  I actually had dropped out of two trips prior to this because my injury and weight slowed me down and I felt self conscious.  With this group of women, all of whom had good careers and some of them had kids, I felt like we were strong, beautiful, and powerful.  I felt like we were in control of our trip.  I felt confident that night as I had successfully built and kept a campfire going despite the humid conditions next to the Piney River.  This trip changed how I felt in the backcountry. 

I'm excited to be on this trip!  Despite carrying too much gear for a short overnight, I was really excited to be on a trip where I felt like I was doing everything on my own. 

After this trip I started hiking with more women, not on purpose but it just kind of happened this way.  Because of the stronger female presence around me, I learned of a woman named Jennifer Pharr Davis who was doing a speaking tour.  She was visiting a local outfitter in Knoxville about her FKT (fastest known time) on the Appalachian Trail.  At the time, she was the holder of the women's FKT, but announced at the reading of her book she was going for the overall FKT - and she did so successfully less than 3 months later!  While at this reading, she took time to answer questions from the women in the group about footwear, apparel, hygiene - any question we had.  Blissfully absent from this conversation were questions like "aren't you scared out there?" or "shouldn't you carry a gun to protect yourself?" or "don't you think your husband should go with you?"  - all questions many of us female backpackers get in every day conversation.  After meeting her a second time in Asheville and being inspired by her strength, Jennifer Pharr Davis is the reason I decided to hike the Appalachian Trail solo in 2012.   It was because of this antifear Q&A session I finally took my first solo backpacking trip in 2011 - again I didn't sleep all night as I was totally alone at my campsite, but I felt empowered!

A nervous me before my very first solo backpacking trip.  I had no idea what to expect, but I was thrilled to be trying. 

I think it is so important to get past the whole "woman in the woods alone" fear mongering we so often project on women trying to start backpacking.  Having a strong woman to follow and learn from was incredibly helpful for me as a beginner and I hope to be able to give that impression to anyone out there who would like to learn more about what it means to be strong in the wilderness.  I welcome any questions anyone would have and would love to hear about your experiences in the woods - be it scary or empowering.  Who are your favorite backcountry ladies to follow on social media?  Please leave me a comment on the blog or on Facebook to get the discussion started!

Backcountry Ninjas Trucker Hat Giveaway

As many of you know from following our journey this summer, I was selected as a Backcountry Ninjas brand ambassador for the 2015 thru hiking season.  Backcountry Ninjas was started by 30 Pack and Rub a Dub after their 2013 PCT thru hike.  Making cool T-shirts and hats with their artist, Doodles, BN is all about giving back with 7% of their profits going to the ATC, PCTA, and For the Love of Children.  

And for you, my lucky blog readers, I am doing a Backcountry Ninjas Trucker Hat giveaway - the red/white/blue hat is the one you'll be getting.  Use the Rafflecopter link below and enter!  The contest for the hat begins 9-22 and ends 9-29 at midnight EST.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Reflections of Summer - Coping After a Long-Distance Hike

We are quickly approaching our one month anniversary of our finish date of the Long Trail, which signified the end of our summer of hiking.  So many things have happened in the past month and we went from thinking about post-trail employment to buying a house in Tennessee and packing up all our pets and moving nearly 700 miles south.  Now that the dust has settled and the boxes are unpacked, I finally have time to write some of the thoughts that often follow a long trip for me.  

Caution - feelings ahead!

When I finished my AT thru hike in 2012, I wrote a blog post about my post trail feelings  and it helped me to feel a little better.  Here I am again, three years older and still stuck with the same general post trail blues.  In my last post trail depression post, I wrote about the fear that there would always be a white blazed shape hole in my heart and I have to say it unfortunately has turned out to be true in a sense.  It's not the Appalachian Trail I miss, but it is the trail in general.  While I did hike three lesser known trails this year, many times with only NoKey as my company, there is a feeling one gets on a long-distance hike that you just don't get anywhere else.  When long-distance hiking is your passion and the place you feel most at home, to be ripped away from it and know that it will be another 9 months or even two years before you can go home again can be absolutely heartbreaking.  

A big thing that differs this time around is not having a job waiting for me.  When I finished the AT, I foolishly thought I could go back to life the way it was before.  I had no idea the effect a long-distance hike could have on a person.  It felt like life had kept moving on without me - nothing had changed back where I lived but I had come back a different person.  I went back to work doing the same job and living the same life, but that white blaze hole in my heart grew ever more painful.  When I decided to change my life, uproot and move to Maine to work in a hostel in Millinocket I knew then life would never be the same.  While I was doing work in an industry I loved, something was still missing.  After Millinocket, we moved to Syracuse.  The job prospects there were poor and I took two jobs that required little skill, talent, and a general level of "meh."  For nearly two years I worked these two jobs and met some lovely people, but I was working toward my end goal - a summer hiking out on the trails, but getting some time off to come home and see my pets.  While it wouldn't be one of the epic "Big Three" trails of the Triple Crown, smaller hikes would do just fine.  

As luck would have it, all of these trails I hiked this summer were blazed white.  While the Benton MacKaye Trail was a white diamond, it still started at Springer Mountain and that rectangle white blaze adorned it in a few places.  The Finger Lakes Trail was a white blaze mostly.  The Long Trail was the original white blaze.  This summer, on three different trails in five different states, I was back home.  Like the AT many days were not easy.  Some days were hot and miserable. Some days it rained and rained and rained.  Some days saw epic mileage and some saw shockingly low speed.  All of these days lived on the trail were the simple days in the life of any thru hiker.  You don't worry about anything but the present.  

After the summer ended the physical pains of finishing a thru hike were present again.  I have had to go back on glucosamine chondroitin supplements for my knee pain.  The calluses on my feet are hard and sometimes painful.  My cardiovascular endurance is incredibly high.  My tolerance for sitting around and doing nothing is unbearable.  Being back in the "real world" again also brings with it the stresses that one normally has - being unemployed and back in a smaller town has been hard on me.  I spend too many hours on the computer looking for jobs and avoiding writing for some of the other blogs I write for.  I've been shopping on home improvement sites trying to find projects for the new house we're living in.  I've been doing everything but getting back out into the woods.  It's almost as if going back to the place that brings me such joy is like rubbing salt into a very fresh and sore wound - a wound shaped like a white blaze.  

I know this state I am in is only temporary, but the sadness that comes at the end of a long hike is very real and very strong for me.  I'm hoping to be able to find some sort of job to get me back outdoors very soon, especially now that we are living in a place where the low temperatures in the wintertime are so much nicer than where we were living in New York.  As for right now, I'll be taking life one day at a time and looking forward to my next grand adventure.  

Day after day, sights like this were a comfort to me. 

Opinion - In Defense of Baxter State Park

With all the controversy going on surrounding Baxter State Park recently I've really been trying hard to bite my tongue; however, yesterday I saw a hiker friend of mine liked a link a friend of theirs posted to Facebook regarding Scott Jurek taking Baxter State Park to court regarding his three summons issued during his record-breaking hike.  The caption written by the poster was "I hope this puts Baxter Park in their place."  My silence is now going to be broken. 

Baxter State Park isn't your typical state park.  In fact, even though it is considered a Maine State Park, it is an entirely separate entity from all the others.  Baxter State Park is a special place, receiving no tax dollars from Maine residents and is only open through the collection of user fees and the grant given by Governor Percival Baxter - the man who purchased all the individual tracts of land which now make up the park in hopes of preserving the wilderness of the Maine woods in an area where logging was king for much of the late 19th and nearly all of the 20th centuries.  The park is a true wilderness area and is not allowed to expand the roads or facilities - no running water or electricity are in this park at all and this will always be the way.  

The big controversy surrounding the Appalachian Trail began in the fall of 2014, when the park composed an open letter to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy regarding the swelling problems created by thru hikers, mostly the hikers ending their hikes at Katahdin, but also by the sheer numbers of people who are entirely unprepared to hike southbound from the park as well.  This letter can be seen by clicking the link above, but lists the many problems the park has had with thru hikers in recent years.  Contrary to popular belief, the park doesn't mainly cater to thru hikers and their families.  AT hikers only make up between 2-3% of the visitors in this park every year.    

The real issue of this letter came to a boiling point very recently, on Scott Jurek's record-breaking AT thru hike, in which he finished the trail in less than 47 days and beating Jennifer Pharr Davis' record from 2011 by three hours.  Jurek was issued three summons after his summit of Baxter Peak - one for littering, one for drinking alcohol on the summit, and another for hiking with a group larger than 12 people.  Jurek plans to fight the summons in court - and this is the reason for this opinion piece.  

I am 100% on the side of Baxter State Park on this issue.  Having worked very closely with the park during my time in Maine in 2013, I have seen the problems happening in the park and understand their anger regarding this record breaking hike.  This whole issue is not about having a celebratory drink on Katahdin and that seems to be the only thing hikers are complaining about.  This issue is about violating the rules.  If you don't know the rules, that is not a valid excuse for breaking them.  For example, on my 2012 thru hike I didn't know the rules about alcohol and I popped the champagne just like many other hikers before me.  This doesn't excuse my actions and if I were issued a summons, I would plead guilty and pay the fine, as breaking the rules is exactly what I did.  Saying "I'm a good person and I pack out my trash and I didn't know" doesn't make you not guilty of violating the guidelines you are to follow on the summit.  

The thing that is making the park officials the angriest, however, is the corporate sponsorship surrounding the event.  This point is completely glossed over by many in the hiking community.  Jurek wore a Clif Bar headband and had a support vehicle following him with the logo, as well as had a documentary crew following him.  While the company following his journey had obtained a permit to film in the park, they were told filming within 500 feet of the summit for commercial purposes was prohibited.  They chose to do so anyway.  Maine's largest wilderness area was home to corporate advertising on the day of Scott's summit, which isn't allowed.  

With the popularizing of the AT with this week's new film, A Walk in the Woods, Baxter Park has grown more concerned for the future of the impacts that will be made there.  The park has already written in their letter I linked to above that they can and will consider moving the trail completely out of the park, meaning hikers wishing to finish on Katahdin will have to follow the same procedures as everyone else who wishes to climb the mountain.  While I would be saddened to see the trail move, it by no means indicates you can't hike Maine's tallest peak - it only means what most AT hikers seem to forget: You are not special or entitled just because you walked here.  In order for the wilderness of Baxter State Park to be preserved, you might just have to sign up for your Katahdin permit online or register with the park in the future.  I don't see how this would be a bad thing.  

I would love to hear your opinions as to why or why not you agree with Baxter State Park on their stance of this issue.  Please leave me a comment or comment on this post on Facebook! If you would like to read more about the park's creation or learn the history of this very special place, visit their website here. 

Summary of the Detour - what we did on our "vacation"

When we got off the Finger Lakes Trail back in late June we had no idea we would essentially be off trail for an entire month.  It took me more than two weeks to shake the "cold" I developed in Marathon, NY and let me tell you it was a miserable two weeks.  We had been sitting around at home in Central New York, watching it rain every single day, meanwhile I was continuing to fester in my illness.  We had decided enough was enough and started planning a road trip, which I mentioned in a previous blog.  Here is what we did on that trip: 

Narraganset, Rhode Island - 
Since neither of us had ever been to Rhode Island, we decided to drive east.  We picked the first random town that came up when you searched Rhode Island on Google and that town was Narraganset.  When we got to Connecticut is when the sun finally came out for the first time in what felt like weeks.  We made it to the coast in time to eat dinner and watch the moon rise up over the Atlantic Ocean.  We found a state park nearby, Burlingame State Park, and went to set up our tent for the night.  We camped in a vicious thunderstorm here early the next morning - the worst and hardest rain I've ever camped in - and took a trip to Walmart to go grocery shopping.  We renewed our campsite for a second night and spent the day biking near the beach and then on a mountain bike loop at our campground.  We also had a chance to hike on the North-South Trail, a 70-mile trail that runs the length of the state with a high point of a staggering 824 feet!  The next day, however, the campground was going to be pretty full with the site we liked already being reserved and we decided it was time to move on. 

Lily Bay State Park - Greenville, Maine
We decided to head north from Rhode Island since more rain was headed to the east coast and seemed to all be south of Maine.  I was still pretty sick and coughing, but we decided I did sound much better from getting out of the rain.  We picked Lily Bay State Park from a Google search of state parks in Maine with showers.  They had a site for two nights leading into July 4th weekend, so we headed up to camp until July 4th.  In Greenville we spent some time hiking again.  We hiked Big Moose Mountain and Mount Kineo.  The most fun part of all this was that Mount Kineo is only accessible by boat!  We finally got some hiking in and I was a bit slower than usual, but we were able to do it.  Since we couldn't stay the night in the campground July 4th, we decided to head north yet again to our old home - Millinocket.  

Millinocket, Maine - 
When we got to Millinocket it was in the middle of the Independence Day Parade.  It turns out our friend Slim Pilgrim was also in town with a friend from college, so we were able to meet up with him.  We set up a home base at Wilderness Edge Campground just outside of town and ended up staying an entire week.  While we were in Millinocket we did a full slate of outdoor activities - hiking in the 100-mile Wilderness, hiking at Baxter State Park, kayaking on Ambejejus Lake, riding our bikes all over the place, and visiting a Moosehorn Wilderness Preserve in Calais, Maine.  Calais is also the end point of the 2900-mile East Coast Greenway system.  This system runs all the way to Key West, Florida!  After spending a week in Maine, we decided to come home for a few days and head on to our next destination. 

Ohio/Kentucky - 
After a few days at home, we headed south yet again to visit a friend of ours in Kentucky.  We had some business to take care of in Tennessee and Virginia, so we were trying to get down there before the time expired for us to do that.  We camped in a Walmart parking lot near Kings Island in Ohio before heading down to visit our friend Flash in Kentucky.  We spent the entire day with him and had planned on heading to Mammoth Cave National Park, but time didn't really permit that to happen.  We instead headed down to my parents' house in East Tennessee. 

Tennessee/Smoky Mountains - 
We got to Tennessee one day before we had to get to Virginia, so it worked out perfectly.  While we were in East Tennessee we spent a lot of time in the Smokies, hiking Ramsey Cascades, Mt. LeConte, the Gatlinburg Trail (with our dog!), and a waterfall in Tremont.  We also got to bike the loop road in Cades Cove and go tubing on the Little Pigeon River.  We got to spend time with our dog for a while too, which was really nice because we miss her a LOT!  I also finally had a chance to go to a walk-in clinic where we discovered I had gotten sick in the first place from a MRSA infection and that is why the leg rash I had wouldn't go away.  I got some powerful antibiotics and disinfectant for my skin.  We had planned on biking the Creeper Trail and driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the heat and humidity making the "real feel" temperatures well over 100 degrees every day didn't exactly make us want to drive slow in the sun and look at views, so we headed home. 

Now we are getting ready to leave for the Long Trail.  I've mailed our resupplies, planned out our first town stop, packed the backpacks, and even some additional supplies for after the hike.  We will be doing a traditional style thru hike on this trail, so we won't be coming home until the end.  Blog posts for this hike will begin very soon!  I can't wait to share our trip with you guys.  If you want to see more "real time" photos of our trip, please follow either of us on Instagram @SprinklesHikes or @NoKeyRules.  Happy Trails!

Podcast Post!

We were recently featured on the podcast N2backpacking talking everything from the Benton MacKaye Trail to our favorite pieces of gear.  Give it a listen when you have an hour to kill!  

http://n2backpacking.com/episode-28-the-benton-mackaye-trail/

Failure Happens - Reasons Why it isn't a Bad Thing

I recently read a blog post over on Appalachian Trials, a site I regularly write for, where someone has come to the decision to end their thru hike attempt.  The failure of this hike weighs heavy on her and she ponders the question if she is a failure also.  There are comments and support pouring in for this hiker about how the hike isn't a failure, etc.  My opinion is different though, and it might seem rude: Yes, she failed.  No questions about it, she set a goal, tried, and failed.  But let's talk about this because failure isn't a bad thing.  Yeah, I said it - it's NOT bad.  Let's break it down. 

Failure is defined by dictionary.com as "an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success."  By all accounts, when you attempt something and you don't do it, you have failed.  The very definition of the word implies this. However, there are seven definitions of the word "failure" on dictionary.com and not a single one of those definitions makes failure into a bad thing. As a society living in the age of technology and instant gratification though, we see success as being good and failure being bad.  In a time when we are constantly barraged with people's good moments and successes on social media, failures are not often highlighted or even noticed anymore. 

Failure can be a good, if not great, thing!  Failure means you tried and probably that you tried something HUGE.  If history tells us anything, many influential and inspiring people didn't become that way on their first attempt at anything.  Henry Ford attempted several car companies before Ford took off; Colonel Sanders was rejected MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND times by restaurants when trying to sell his chicken recipe; Walt Disney was fired from a job for lacking imagination; Abraham Lincoln ran for public office and lost multiple times before becoming President of the United States; Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime; I could go on and on about people who are considered triumphal now who failed time and time again!

Let's look at an example from my life recently - thru hiking the Finger Lakes Trail.  We wanted to do this trail over the course of five weeks in the middle of the humid New York summertime.  Then it rained.  Then I got sick.  It never stopped raining and all we were doing was walking highways in the rain.  We decided to postpone this hike until after we do the Long Trail, meaning we are no longer considered thru hikers.  While we will still become end-to-enders on this long distance trail, we will not be thru hikers.  We failed at thru hiking.  We didn't fail at anything but the title.  We failed at our goal, but are not failures as people.  We will have a new goal we can achieve and this is okay.  It doesn't make our attempt any less important to anyone but ourselves.  

So, if you're one of the many people out there who have failed at a goal - congratulations! You are doing something not a lot of people do anymore, and that's attempting something big.  There is a quote that is popular in fitness circles: "If your goal doesn't scare you, you aren't dreaming big enough" and that, I believe, is fitting to this blog post.  Failure means you're dreaming big and aiming high.  It means your sense of adventure, in whatever manner you chose, is still active.  It means you can try and try and try, fall down a bunch, and keep getting up.  Failure means you're being resilient.  Failure means you're human.  Now, quit feeling sorry for yourself and give it another shot!

Microadventures - How Even the Busiest People Can Still Explore

A simple infographic about microadventures!

While sitting at a campfire in Maine recently, we were listening to a podcast featuring a guest named Alastair Humphries, a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, talking about his latest project - microadventures.  While Alastair is better known for riding his bike around the world over a few years, he recently was compelled to show naysayers that anyone can have an adventure, not just those of us who are independently wealthy or who work 60 hours a week for two straight years to save their cash.  Adventures don't have to be large or expensive to qualify. In fact, you could have an adventure tonight in your own backyard!  Let me explain a little more. 

Microadventures can be as simple as setting up a tent in your backyard and camping with your kids tonight.  It can be as easy as getting in your car after work, driving to a nearby state park, and taking a hike before heading home for dinner.  They can also be as complex as taking a weekend road trip and not making any plans for the drive.  A microadventure is only as complicated as you make it!  

When we started discussing it, we realized that microadventures are common in our everyday lives.  When I lived in Knoxville, TN, sometimes I would take my dog on spur-of-the-moment trips to Ijams Nature Center in the middle of the day and take her daily walk on nature trails. Something that simple counts as an adventure!  Here in New York, we often make trips to local parks and ride our bikes on the Erie Canal or go hiking in the Camillus Unique Area and these also count.  Under the terms of a microadventure, pretty much any new outdoors experience can qualify.  

Our next microadventure is going to be a trip down south.  We will visit friends in Kentucky, go to Mammoth Cave National Park, bike ride in the Smokies, hike with our dog, and explore the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We have a loose itinerary of where we want to go and now we're going to do it!  This will set us up for our next large adventure, a 3-week thru hike of the Long Trail in Vermont.  I hope this blog has inspired you to get outside and do something new this summer. I know the whole concept of microadventures has really gotten us excited and we definitely will try to incorporate it into our lives when we get back to "the real world" after our summer of fun.  If you're looking for ideas, check out the hastag #microadventures on Instagram or Twitter!

Controversy in Baxter State Park

Check out Baxter State Park's Facebook status this morning about Scott Jurek's record setting thru hike- https://www.facebook.com/baxterstatepark/posts/1682502611969384

I'd love to hear your opinion of how Baxter State Park feels about this - check out the Sprinkles Hikes Facebook page and let's talk about it!

A video blog update from Maine!

Check out this video blog update from Maine - Ambajejus Lake outside Millinocket. 

Detours - When Plans Change

Just a typical day for the past week... 

We left the Finger Lakes Trail in Dryden six days ago.  Since then I'm still not feeling 100% with this chest cold that seems to never end.  Neither of us have health insurance, but despite this I took myself down to the local walk-in clinic to see if anything could be done.  After spending $110 to be seen I was told I had acute sinusitis and that really nothing could be done as I wasn't showing signs of active infection (all my mucus is clear, not discolored).  I was given a prescription for an antibiotic if it got worse, but was told to treat symptomatically until the symptoms went away.  Five days later I'm still not showing signs of infection and I'm still not any better.  Meanwhile, the rain has continued to fall.  We have been following the trail conditions very closely as the area we are about to hike in is full of gorges and waterfalls.  We are seeing updates like this: 

"The timber bridge at mile 1.75 on map M16 (eastern-most of the two large timber trail bridges on the FLT in Cayuta Gulf) has been totally washed away by recent severe weather activity." "Please be aware that some white-blazing on either side of this creek crossing is also missing as some trees have also washed away from the area, however the trail tread itself is clear of debris and readily apparent." "Because of recent heavy rain events, it is currently not advisable to ford Fish Kill on the Finger Lakes Trail (mile 17.1) in upper Treman State Park. Also, the blue-blazed high water detour route is impassable because of severe storm damage to the bridge just east of the Old Mill, making it impossible to cross the lower section of Fish Kill. DO NOT FORD THE CREEK AT THIS TIME, AND DO NOT TAKE THE BLUE-BLAZED HIGH WATER DETOUR ROUTE AT THIS TIME." and finally, my favorite: "The Flash flood that occurred last week has impacted the FLT section that runs from Sweedler Preserve/LickBrook to Treman State Park.  The field section near the RR track was probably under about 2-3 feet of water."

Trail conditions like this and worse for miles and miles are what we're trying to avoid!

These updates for us just mean more detours and more road walking.  Since I'm not getting much better and we've already taken ten days away from the trail, we have decided to give the FLT some time to dry up.  Instead of heading back to the trail, we are going to take a road trip through NY, PA, OH, WV, KY, and TN taking some scenic byways.  On the way back to NY, we will be driving the Blue Ridge Parkway through NC and VA, possibly taking a detour to ride on the C&O Canal Trail through the MD and WV region.  We have some business to take care of in TN and VA anyway so we feel this is really the best option.  We will come back to NY in a few weeks and hop back onto the FLT to complete our end-to-end hike.  Then, northward to Vermont to hike the Long Trail.  We will still finish our hikes, just not the way we planned!

This decision didn't come lightly for NoKey or me.  I feel like I'm letting down all of my blog readers and, more importantly, I feel like I've really let myself down.  I know that getting sick can't be helped, but it's really hard to tell a long-distance hiker that you can't do things until you get 100% better.  This chest cold has a tight grip on me and if I can't breathe then I know I can't hike.  I know all of these things and I'm still disappointed in myself.  We will be posting updates from our road trip with hiking, biking, maybe even some canoeing and cave exploring.  Even though our plans have changed slightly, we are still going to have an adventure!

A summary of the eastern third of the Finger Lakes Trail

Since I was home on a few zero days recovering from a respiratory virus, I took some time to write a summary of the eastern third of the FLT.  You can check out my post over on Appalachian Trials by clicking here. 

Day 3 - Finger Lakes Trail

It poured down rain in buckets for most of the night, so we were incredibly grateful for the shelter!  Another late start waiting for the rain to clear, but it wasn't too bad since we had time and space to dry out our soaked tent in the shelter.  We began our day with a wet hike, both of us wearing gaiters since the trail description warned of stinging nettles and briars.  The trail was incredibly wet and we even ended up fording a stream by accident looking for the trail - this trail is not well-marked for westbound hikers!  After seeing some beautiful small cascades on Beaverkill Creek and walking some old roadbed we came to our first trailhead, which indicated our big climb of the day.

Beaverkill Stream. 

The trail started out fairly gradual but then took a turn straight up the mountain to the highest point on the Finger Lakes Trail - Balsam Lake Mountain, at just over 3500 feet.  We didn't go up to the fire tower because it was heavily overcast and we just wanted to get the next 3.9 miles done and hopefully avoid the rain.  This section of trail had lots of new growth so the small trees were very thick.  Thankfully it was free growth and not a lot of briars like the BMT was.  Just as we were about to reach the high point of the ridge again, the sky turned very dark and a thunderstorm rolled in.  We met a large group of young guys who said the shelter wasn't close, and we all ran down the mountain in the coldest rain I've experienced in a long time!  

About 30 minutes of rain was followed by a short period of sunshine, just in time for us to get to the shelter for our lunch break.  We were freezing cold, but we discovered that it was only 2 pm so we were pretty happy about that as we still had about 4.5 miles left to hike and it felt much later.  We had some fairly flat walking to Alder Lake and then is when it got bad. 

The view from Alder Lake- we saw two Bald Eagles here! 

Remember when I mentioned this trail isn't well-marked for westbound hikers?  Well, we made an epic mistake.  See, our guide is only written eastbound and uses words like right and left, so you always have to read a word and think opposite. We had a short road walk from Alder Lake to our next trailhead and we saw a split in the road with a red disc marker (the trail we were following).  Our trail went up and this red marker went up, so we did too.  HUGE MISTAKE.  I started feeling like something was wrong. I got out the compass and discovered we were going northeast and we are clearly westbound hikers!  The road we were on turned west so we kept going.  Then we started going downhill very steeply.  I stopped.  We were definitely going the wrong way!

After I had a mini meltdown and cried a little we had to backtrack.  We had easily walked 2.5 miles in the wrong direction, but we kept thinking we were okay because the guidebook was pretty vague : see large rocks on your left, see stone wall on the right.  After we backtracked we had lost nearly 3 hours and it was 6 pm.  We decided to just go back and camp at Alder Lake and see if those kids who got caught in the rain with us were still there.

This is when we met Richard and Amy.  They were just out for a drive and killing time.  I told them I'd give them some gas money if they would drive us to the campsite we were supposed to be at and they said no problem.  They saved our day in a huge way since we were going to have to do huge miles to make it to our Dropbox after my mistake.  We got set up at Big Pond campground and the rain moved in AGAIN while I was filling our water.  We ate quickly and jumped in the tent for a late bedtime.  Tomorrow we have some big miles to pull if we are going to make it to our drop in Downsville on Thursday.  We are an entire day behind schedule due to having such a hard time getting to the trail on our first day and the rain.

Thanks again Amy and Richard for getting us to our trailhead!  Always follow your compass, hikers!  If something feels wrong, don't keep hiking!

Remnants of a mansion on Alder Lake.