Training!!!

Hellooooo my peoples!!!

I have officially started training for my 2018 AT thru-hike! I had planned on doing a test hike with all gear this weekend. I wanted to make sure everything worked properly and see how well I implemented the lessons I had learned from the classes I had thus far taken. However, due to climate change, we got a ton of snow down here in Georgia. I say a ton but it was a few inches. Anyway, my car is finicky enough, I was not about to take it up icy mountain roads.

Instead, I decided to just walk to the Chattahoochee State park that was close to Adam’s house. It was a 2-mile walk. I was shooting for a total of 8 miles, so I was going to walk another 2 miles on the trail. My round trip would then equal 8 miles! I ended getting 7.27 miles in. I took Adam’s doggo Jada with me and she slowed me down a bit and also we got to a part of the trail that was really rocky and couldn’t go any further. I loaded my pack up with everything except my food. I did pack my bear canister though so all the space was filled with how it would be on the AT. The packed weighed 24lbs with everything. Finally, Jada and I headed out around 3pm and we would get back around 6pm on Saturday, December 10th.

• 

• 

• 

The walk started out good. I had to readjust my straps once I started walking because the load was not quite right. There are a ton of straps on my pack so I just pulled them all to make the pack as stable as possible. I had it pretty good on my hips but the right shoulder strap was rubbing my tendons up by my neck a lot. This would hurt me later. Around mile 3, I started to feel my muscles a little more but I was able to distract myself. Because I had Jada, I really couldn’t use my trekking poles. Also, (not to do with Jada) it was very difficult to get to the pockets on my pack. If Adam had been there it would have been way easier because he could have helped with getting stuff for me. My boots were super awesome as far as keeping my feet dry and warm. However, the boots have pretty thin soles and on the way back I was feeling ever singe pebble I stepped on. My toenails hurt so bad once we finally got back.

All in all, I feel like it was a successful walk. I learned more about my pack. I realized what would be hurting and sore each day lol. If you all want, you can go look at a video from the hike on my YouTube channel, outsidethegarden! https://youtu.be/dTFNnN5abqI