Ed and I have been planning and prepping for our upcoming hike from Harper’s Ferry SOBO (south bound) to Roanoke for many months.
This is Ed’s first long distance hike since he hiked with his son at Philmont many years ago. I have been a bit lazy this past winter and did not get nearly as much hiking in as I normally do. I blame my lack of motivation on post thru-hiking depression. Yes, that is a real thing.
Assuming this hike goes well, Ed and I are planning to thru-hike the Colorado trail together in August and September of this year. Fingers crossed that we all do well both physically and mentally on the AT and that the Colorado Trail becomes a reality.
Both of us have been doing day hikes with our full packs for the past 2 months to try to get ready for our hike. Ed has been much better about this than me. I think I still have some decent lower body strength from my thru-hike last year, but I have not trained as well for this hike as I did for my thru-hike. Given that we are both old men (some of us are older than others), we are going to take our time and try to keep mileage to around 11 miles for the first 10 days, and then build up to roughly 15 mile days….with a few exceptions.
I am hiking with the exact same gear as I did on my AT thru-hike last year with two changes. First, I am not carrying the iPad mini (11 ounces) that I used to do all my blogging with last year and that I used as a book reader. I am going to try to do all my blogging and book reading on my iPhone. We will see how well that smaller screen works for me. Second, I have switched to an even bigger and heavier backpack than the Osprey Atmos 65 that I carried last year. That pack was pretty beat up after my thru-hike, plus I want to try a backpack that will let me carry a large bear can horizontally in the pack. I have switched to a Deuter Aircontact 65 + 10 backpack (5.16 lbs) for its volume and beefy suspension. This pack is about half a pound heavier than what I used last year. I originally planned to carry my Bear Vault BV500 on this hike since I will have to carry that in Colorado later this year. However, my lack or training got the better of me and I decided to not carry the extra 2.5lbs of weight on this trip. My poor back just was not up for it. Overall, 34.4 lbs including about 1lb of extra snacks. I should leave that extra pound behind, but what the hell.
Ed and I will be hiking through the NOBO AT bubble at some point. I was intentionally hiking behind the bubble last year. Very much so by the time I got to NH and ME in September. Hiking through the crowded bubble will be interesting. The number of thru-hikers is down quite a bit this year, but I still expect to deal with crowded camp sites at some point. We should run into the bubble between Shenandoah and Roanoke.
I am really looking forward to the week that we will be in Shenandoah National Park. Last year when I hiked through Shenandoah, it was over July 4. That meant it was VERY crowded with tourists and it was incredibly hot and humid. Upper 90s and insane humidity! Plus we were in the middle of a bad drought. This time, the high temperatures should be in the mid 70s to low 80s with “normal” humidity. Plus the kids are not out of school yet, so the tourist crowds should be minimal.
My partner Dana has been encouraging me to do this hike as well as the Colorado Trail or other long AT section hikes this year. She understands how un-motivated and generally “blah” I have been for the past several months since I finished my AT thru-hike in October. Thanks for all the encouragement and support sweet heart!
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