Well, friends, I promised to report back from the trail, and what a report it is! We hiked the entire Canebrake Trail, met up with the Foothills Trail, and stopped there for lunch. The rain that was supposed to start as a drizzle at 3 pm showed up at 1 pm instead and turned into a pretty heavy rain. We…
Category: backpacking
Heavy Hearts, Light Packs
Happy Saturday, friends! I’m sitting in a hotel room with my coffee, my pack is by the door. I made final adjustments to my pack in the room last night. Marty’s is still in the car. I’m itching to hit the trail. Before we head out, I want to look back on the week, because it was a full one.…
Katahdin is No Joke, Y’all
Last week, a man died on Katahdin. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Gut wrenching, especially since he successfully hiked the 2,196 miles of the trail from Springer Mountain to Baxter Peak on Katahdin. He died on the way down, not too far from the summit of Mama K. His name was Bert Goris. He was a…
The Backpacking Chair That Earned Its Keep (and the One That Weighs Almost Nothing)
Somewhere along the 100-Mile Wilderness, my chair broke. Marty wasn’t even sure he wanted to bring a chair when we were doing our final gear shakedowns. He already owned an REI Flexlite that tipped the scales at 1 lb 11 oz. Once I tried it on trail, though, the decision was easy. He ordered a second one so we could…
A 58th Birthday Trek through Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness as Snacky Turtle & Daddy Longlegs
Katahdin got its own story earlier. This is the 100 Mile Wilderness — 100 miles of bog bridges, river fords, wild blueberries, and deer flies that bite through wool socks. We started NOBO on July 5th, my 58th birthday, with 10 days of food on our backs. By the time we were on day 3, Marty had his trail name–…
Summiting Katahdin: A Journey to the Top
We finally made it to the summit of Katahdin on Monday, July 13th around 1:30 pm. It took us 6 hours to summit! It felt really good to make it to the top! I’ll try to write about the 100 Mile Wilderness in another post. It was a beautiful hike. The biting flies were crazy……… hence the neck gaiter over…
Done Prepping for the 100 Mile Wilderness on the AT in Maine
In just fourteen days, we’re heading out on the trail in Maine! The freeze dryer is still humming along! We’re in the final stages of getting everything ready, especially since I’ll be in Chicago for work next week. I was bummed to hear that the cherry orchid didn’t produce any cherries this past year because of the freeze. We ended…
Gear Preview: New Smartwool Intraknit All-Season Leggings for the 100-Mile Wilderness
Hey friends! With our big 100-Mile Wilderness + Katahdin hike starting July 5 (my birthday 🎂), I’ve been fine-tuning my clothing system. I’m a huge fan of Smartwool — I basically live in it every day — so when I saw the new Women’s Intraknit All-Season Base Layer Bottoms in lavender, I hit “buy” pretty quickly. I’ll be honest: the…
Adventures in Hiking: Lessons Learned on the Rock Castle Gorge Trail
Where does the time go? I have been traveling quite a bit for work recently and have not had time to write about our adventures. And boy howdy have we had a few of them. On Memorial Day weekend, we went to carb day at the Indy 500 (Friday) and attended the race that Sunday. It was a great race…
Foothills Trail Journey: Tackling Ticks and Camping Challenges
This past weekend, we backpacked 21 miles on the Foothills Trail and made a loop using the Chattooga trail to make a loop. This area is COVERED in Lone Star ticks. We pilled over 50 ticks off of us and Ghost. After washing our shirts, there was still one alive and kicking, too. You have to use boiling water to…
