Like A Glove!

Tonight I went to REI for my last big purchase. Shoes. Let me tell you, I might be the pickiest person on the planet when it comes to shoes. I’ve spent 2 hours in a store trying on shoes only to walk out empty handed. So I’ve been procrastinating because I knew it probably wasn’t going to go smoothly. And it almost didn’t.

The lucky pair of shoes that get to smell my feet for hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles.

I walked into the shoe section and met Drew, who, after speaking with him for a few minutes, seemed like a pretty knowledgeable guy when it came to shoes! I told him what I was planning to do and he immediately pointed me to the Saloman X-Ultra, a low cut hiking shoe. It was a decent fit but my heel was slipping a bit and I didn’t feel very confident that this would improve, even though I know your feet swell some during long distance hiking.

I proceeded to try on a number of other shoes but none of them fit as well as the Salomans. I still wasn’t sold though, and I started wondering if I’d be crazy to try and hike the Appalachian Trail in a running shoe. I went through this same pain finding a running shoe I loved years and years ago and I frequently hike in them now! Drew brought me back to Earth, reminding me that after 20 miles I’m really going to be feeling it in running shoes, and he’s right. The one thing I had going for me is REI’s 100% satisfaction return policy, for any reason. I could buy the Salomans, take them out for a weekend and, if they weren’t going to work for me, return them with no questions asked. Despite this awesome perk, I considered leaving the store without buying anything so I could do a little more research even thought I knew REI probably had the biggest selection of any store in the area.

I think Drew could tell I wasn’t really happy yet so he handed me a pair of Asolo Agent GVs, another low cut hiking shoe. When I put them on it was like a beam of light coming down from Heaven and a chorus of angels hitting that note when you find “the one.” The soles felt a tad hard but I don’t mind that because I’m a toe striker. I would rather have better feel in a shoe than too much padding. Plus I know the soles of my feet will toughen up as my hike progresses. I starting asking Drew some questions about the shoe and who should be listening in? Two of the Asolo reps for the store! Drew handed me off to Steve, one of the reps, and Steve happened to have a demo piece that showed the different parts of the sole and how they all went together. The Asolos weren’t cheap, but the quality of the shoe was good enough that they can actually be resoled for less than half the cost of a new pair, instead of thrown away. There’s a cobbler for the company in New England that does the work. Pretty fancy!

Hallelujah!

Drew had me put on a pack with some sandbags in it and walk around the store to test the comfort of the shoes. There’s also a fake rock pile in the shoe section you can walk on to see how the soles of different shoes feel. After doing all that, and standing there talking to Steve for 15 minutes in the shoes, they felt as comfortable as my every day Sketchers. I was sold. I shook everyone’s hand and thanked them for their help. Steve gave me his card and told me to let him know how the shoes were working out once I was into my hike a ways. He wished me luck and we said goodbye. Almost two hours later I was leaving REI with my mission accomplished, feeling pretty good since I know what a contrarian I am when it comes to shoes.

This was the last major gear item I needed to purchase. All that’s left is a floppy hat and stuff like baby powder and a disposable razor. I’m looking forward to breaking these shoes in this Saturday!

Estimating my Pace

Today I took my mostly loaded pack (sans the few items I haven’t purchased yet or multiple days of food) out for its first hike. I picked up two Smartwater bottles from Sheetz on the way to Harper’s Ferry, since they’re what I intend to use on my thru-hike. The pack weighed just over 15 pounds, which is basically in line with what I expected. It’s a tad heavy (read: a pound or two) but I haven’t optimized for weight yet, like cutting excess strap material off the pack, etc. No point in carrying unnecessary ounces 2,190 miles!

This pack and I are going to be spending a lot of time together. I hope it likes my sense of humor!

I used the MapMyRun app on my phone to see what my pace was. It’s incredibly accurate and it gives you neat data like mile splits and your pace compared to elevation change. Maryland Heights has some of the steepest trail for the area so it’s the best benchmark I can think of for how it might be like on the trail. My hike today was 7.89 miles over 2 hours, 57 minutes, for a pace of 22:30 min/mile. Basically 8 miles in 3 hours.

When I start hiking, I’ll have 15 hours of daylight. Once I’ve acquired my hiking legs, (conditioning for all that elevation gain take a couple weeks) I figure 25-30 mile days will be no problem. Doing some rough math, and taking into account times when I’ll want to stop at a beautiful view or take a “zero day” in town, I’m speculating that I’ll be able to average 20 miles a day over the length of the hike. At that pace, I would complete the hike in 110 days. If you ask folks familiar with thru-hiking the AT, they’ll tell you that’s fairly fast. However, many thru-hikers find themselves falling in with a group. You get to know people and the group becomes like a family. As the miles add up, people find themselves not wanting to leave the group. I imagine that lengthens the hike, as the group will inevitably make compromises to stay together. An extra day in town, fewer miles, etc. I’m hiking Southbound, which is a much less popular direction. In a given year, Southbound hiker numbers are usually 10% what the Northbound numbers are. That means less people to stop and converse with or potentially become hiking buddies with. I am also hiking alone, so there’s no one to wait for.

A 110-day journey would put me on Springer Mountain in late October. An earlier finish means less chance of winter weather in North Carolina and Georgia, but I don’t want to finish too early or I’ll miss the Fall color change as I move through the Shenendoahs and the Great Smoky Mountains. Of course things could turn out totally different. I’m just tossing this out there as my guess for how long I think the journey might take.

Ode to (Goose) Down

I’ve received two packages in the last two days.  The first was my super lightweight Umbrella.  It’s made out of fiberglass, foam, and nylon.  With no hinges on the arms there are less moving parts to break while the fiberglass maintains strength.  It has a 40″ canopy and it’s just tall enough that it can be tied to my shoulder straps so that I still have my hands free in the rain.  The silver color doubles as a fantastic shade device, being the most reflective option I could buy.  It accomplishes all this while weighing only 8 ounces.  That’s right, half a pound!

I think I might be able to throw this thing into orbit from the highest point on the trail (Clingman’s Dome). I will call this first satellite WADE-1.

The second package, which came today, surprised me by its size.  Here’s what was on my stoop today when I got home.

Guess what is in this box. C’mon, guess!

Would you believe me if I told you this box contains a 55″ x 45″ down quilt, a pair of wool gloves, five aluminum tent stakes, and 50′ of nylon cord?  Well, it does.  And there’s still room for more!

I’m officially impressed.

Thanks to down being so compressible, while having such amazing insulative properties, the quilt packs down (haha, get it?) into a bag smaller than most women’s purses and it’s rated to 15 degrees.  All that awesomeness costs a pretty penny ($195) but it’s the one of the few items I needed worth ponying up big bucks for.

I put all my gear into my pack tonight, with the exception of a couple outstanding items and I now have a decent feel for just how full my pack is going to be.  I dare say that with everything, food included, I might actually have room left in the pack with it cinched down as small as it will go.  The whole shebang should weigh about 25 pounds with 4-5 days of food and a half gallon of water in tow.

I now have all the components of my sleep system so I can make a night of it in cooler temperatures if I wanted.  My first weekend hike is still several weeks away but I’ll definitely be setting it all up before then to make sure there are no surprises.  I’ll be sure to post some pictures!

Gear List Almost Complete!

It’s been an exciting weekend for gear preparation! Friday night I picked up a wool long sleeve shirt. Saturday I ordered my umbrella, underquilt, tarp stakes, and fingerless gloves. I decided I’m using an umbrella instead of rain gear because the rain gear that is water-proof doesn’t breathe very well and you basically end up just as wet from sweat, and that sounds nasty. In a real downpour I’ll have a trash bag to wear over my torso and that’ll keep the rain out just as well as a $150 water-proof jacket. The umbrella also doubles as a shade device. If I catch a nice afternoon on top of one of the balds and want to take a nap, I can get out of the sun with ease. The umbrella will attach to one of my shoulder straps so it doesn’t even require hands to use. Sweet!

I also bought a little more tulle and performed the last of the sewing today. I needed a tulle “snake skin” that will go over my tarp and allow me to pack it up easily and loosely enough that the tarp can hang on the outside of my pack and dry during the day. I finished off the seams on my bug net, and made the stuff sacks for my hammock, bug net, and food as well. I’m not sure that the bag I have for food will be big enough but I’ll have a better idea how that’s going to go when I go on a 6 day hike in mid-May. The stuff sacks were a piece of cake to make so if I need to make another one it’s no big deal.

A stuff sack made out of siliconized nylon. Light as a feather!

I also started experimenting with my alcohol stove, which is nothing more than a 3 oz. cat food can. That can sits inside the soup can that you see in the picture. The coup can acts as a wind screen and a stand for my cup. I burned one ounce of fuel three times. The first two times the height of my soup can was too tall. More experienced people than me on the internet say that having the cup one inch above the heat source is the optimal placement and my cup was 2″+ for both of my burns. I shortened the soup can for the third burn and an ounce of fuel burned for almost 20 minutes and I was able to get a low grade simmer. I suspect that the fire isn’t getting enough air, leading to the extended burn time and no boil. The idea is to get a cup or two of water to boil in 5-8 minutes while only using about an ounce of fuel so I definitely have some more playing to do.

The list of the outstanding items left to buy/find:

• Trailrunners (shoes)
• Wool bottoms
• AWOL’s AT Guide Book
• Trash compactor bag
• One pair of wool hiking socks
• Eating utensil
• Razor/Body Glide/Baby Powder/Sunscreen

 

 

Only 14 more weekends left to go, with 9 of those weekends free for me to have everything in order for my departure.

Made my Reservation!

Yesterday I made my reservation at Baxter State Park in Maine. Baxter Peak, at the top of Mount Katahdin, sits inside the state park and is the official terminus of the northern end of the Appalachian Trail. On July 2nd, my mom, my sister, my wife, and I are driving up to Maine. We’ll camp inside the park that night and summit Katahdin on the 3rd, marking the official start of my trek. I’m so excited! This journey is really starting to come into focus.

Also, I made my tarp for over my hammock this past Sunday. After researching what the materials will cost to make a down underquilt I have decided to buy one instead. I only stood to save about $50 and the sewing would have been hard. There’s baffles, and lots of down, and I understand that working with both of those can be frustrating. With only about ten free weekends left, I’m better off spending my efforts in other areas. So the only sewing I have left to do is putting channels in my bug net.