It has been a tough week. The weather has been nasty, our gear keeps getting soaked, and it feels like everybody we have encountered along the way has been pessimistic about our journey. Even the customer service rep from Tarptent told us that we shouldn’t be hiking the AT in February.
That is when we called them to ask about why their tent wasn’t holding up. Lucky for them they have a “no-return” policy in fine print at the bottom of their website. Needless to say we wouldn’t recommend using their brand, and we ourselves stopped at Mountain Crossings on Blood Mountain to get a larger, two walled tent that has been working great for us so far. Below is a picture of our tent the night after the snowstorm. Thankfully we didn’t freeze that night as everything we owned got soaked.
There is something about people telling us that we can’t or that we shouldn’t that makes us want to push harder and keep going. We just put all their names on a list which has become our mantra when we are facing a grueling hike in poor conditions. Perhaps starting a thru hike in the middle of winter isn’t advisable for all, but how else would we get views like this:
Or how else would we be able to trudge up mountains in the snow and feel like such badasses?
And to be honest with you all, as long as we have each other it feels like we can push through anything.
It’s best to remain foolishly optimistic in times like these. When you have to hunker down and simply laugh about making ‘snow cones’. Acting childish is way more fun than pretending to be an adult anyways.
We have run into some truly kind people. The guys at Mountain Crossings helped us find a tent that works and gave us a ride into town so that we could dry our gear and stuff our faces with zaxbys. There is a couple we met that goes by the HappyHikingCouple (check them out on instagram) who gave us some trail magic and a lot of good advice. It seems like there is a pretty stark divide between those who have hiked the AT before and the day hikers who think we are crazy.
Of course there are moments when our knees feel like they will pop out and hiking another 2100 miles seems impossible. But then we wake up to the sunrise and it all seems worth it.
To end with a thought. When discouraging skepticism feels encouraging there isn’t anything but our own doubt standing in the way between us and Maine.
Til next time,
Daniel and Lizzy.
from the other side 