Twig Adventures

LT Day 3: Back in the game

Fri Sept 25th, 2020, 0600-1630Spruce Ledge Camp to Waterman Brook, SOBO LT mile 54.724.0 miles, 7200 gain, 6500 loss I slept perfectly overnight, despite some nearby anonymous snoring (earplugs do wonders!). My shirt and skirt were still wet in the morning…recall my pond excursion the afternoon before? I optimistically hung them to dry overnight, but nothing dries at night on the east coast. I hated putting on wet clothes to start the day but at least it wasn’t cold. I woke feeling pretty great, like Tony the Tiger grrrrreat! Perhaps I’d finally found my hiker groove. I hit the trail very early, having to use my headlamp for the first 15 minutes. I already felt productive, despite an in-your-face steep[…]

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LT Day 2: Humbling

Thu Sept 24th, 2020, 0700-1630 Hazen’s Notch Camp to Spruce Ledge Camp, SOBO LT mile 30.6 14.0 miles 4600 gain, 5100 loss I didn’t set my alarm and slept until 6 am. Usually I started packing by 5 or 5:30 am, but clearly I needed the rest. I was very sore when I started moving and almost 30 minutes delayed by the time I hit the trail. I already felt pretty demoralized but shouldn’t have been so hard on myself. This was the problem with having other thru-hikes under my belt: I set too high of expectations. My experiences allowed me to hit the ground running but I couldn’t expect to pick up exactly where I left off. The going[…]

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LT Day 1: Journey’s End

Wed, Sept 23, 2020 , 0645-1800 Journey’s End Trailhead to Hazen’s Notch Camp, SOBO LT mile 17 18.6 miles 7100 gain, 6400 loss We had to be out the door and on our way to the Canadian border by 0530 am. This wasn’t just for our benefit, our hosts had very busy and productive lives and needed to attend a zoom work meeting at 0830 am. Luckily the 1.5 hr drive to the border went well and we were ready to start at the trailhead before 7 am. It was still a bit dark, this being my earliest first day start since 2017 on the Colorado Trail. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep the previous 2 nights and felt[…]

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LT Introduction & Pre-planning

2020 was a bust for many thru-hiking plans, including my own for the Appalachian Trail. By late summer, I reasoned that if I couldn’t hike the whole AT, 100 miles of it was better than nothing. This is the part it shares with the Long Trail (LT). The LT is 273 miles, running the length of the Green Mountains from the Canadian border to Massachusetts. It was the first long distance, continuous footpath that was purposely designed. Built by the Green Mountain Club between 1910 – 1930, it later became the inspiration for the AT. In following, the AT incorporated 100 miles of the LT as it was routed through Vermont (much like how the CDT and CT ‘share’ sections[…]

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2019 CDT & AZT Gear Summary

This is a summary post on my gear and stats from my 2019 thru-hikes, combining both the CDT and AZT, since I didn’t change a thing about my gear in between. In fact, I’ve barely changed a thing from my previous 3 thru-hikes. I carried a bit heavier gear in 2019, mainly because I expected some rain and colder conditions. I wasn’t wrong about this. The CDT is high-elevation and therefore a colder and somewhat wetter thru-hike. The AZT was dry but also quite chilly at times, given that we were above 8000 feet during many parts of the trail and also approaching the end of October / beginning of November. I needed my 22 degree quilt and women’s Thermarest[…]

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2019 Trail Angel Recognition

This is a special post to recognize the many trail angels and trail magic that made my hiking so memorable and cohesive. I’m truly blessed to have had so many positive interactions and made many new friends. I’m amazed and humbled by the kind souls that exist out there. Someday I’ll write a book honoring trail angels and this year gave me so much material to work with. I’ve listed the trail angels and their magic by state. I don’t expect people to read every bit of this post but at least scroll down to the bottom just to realize the sheer magnitude of this kindness. I’m so sorry if I omitted anyone or their contributions, and that I didn’t[…]

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2019 AZT Summary and Stats

For links to each of my daily posts, see here. I thru-hiked the Arizona Trail for several reasons. One, I said I would when I first learned about it while visiting my friend Jon near Phoenix at the end of 2018. And secondly, I wanted to hike from Canada to Mexico again in one season. I finished my thru-hike of the CDT going southbound through Montana/Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and half of New Mexico…long story, see my CDT summary. I finished this journey by hiking all the way south through Arizona. The official CDT is a 3100 mile trail but in reality/practicality, it’s about the same length as the PCT (on account of all the popular alternates). By adding the AZT,[…]

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2019 CDT Summary and Stats

For links to each daily post, see here. What a strange, long trip it’s been. The CDT will go into the record books as the thru-hike that never stopped testing, frustrating, enchanting, and forever changing me. It was the best of times and worst of times, all wrapped into a long and incongruous season of hiking. To further prolong the magic, I went straight onto the Arizona Trail only a week after finishing the CDT in Grants, NM. I wanted to get the full experience of hiking from Canada to Mexico for the second summer/fall in a row but somehow fell a bit short in replicating that magical feeling I got at the end of the PCT. That trail was[…]

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AZT Day 34: The Hiking Season That Finally Ended

November 9th, 2019Bathtub Spring mm 780.5 to USA-Mexican Border mm 788.6Distance in miles: 8.10605-1220 This post is about my last day on the AZT and of a very long 2019 hiking season. Between the CDT and AZT, I calculated that I hiked around 3,500 miles. This is not including all the day hiking and short segments I did in Florida and Colorado, which probably brings my total to around 3,800 miles. I will follow up with summary posts but in the meantime, enjoy this last day, as I did. It was very quiet overnight and I had one of the best night’s sleep, ever. I was right about the condensation, though. My tent hadn’t been so wet inside and out[…]

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AZT Day 33: Feet Dragging

November 8th, 2019Canelo Hills saddle mm 761.8 to Bathtub Spring mm 780.5Distance in miles: 18.70605-1540 What to do with a whole day on the trail when you have less than 20 miles to hike? Go on a side-trip. I found a good one…a lake and marina store were just off the trail 6 miles ahead. I could get some easy water and extra snacks. I traveled down from the saddle and past a few creeks. The temperature was perfect for a leisurely morning stroll. It felt weird to be going so slow, after pushing pushing pushing for months. I guess I earned a break but I really like moving all day and getting somewhere. It just became habit. I took[…]

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