It has been almost two weeks. So much has happened, It feels like we are starting to get the hang of it. We have been planning our weeks by working with the weather instead of hiking through the weather. That being said, there are still plenty of days (most actually) where we have been hiking through thick clouds of fog; with the rain alternating between spitting on us and pissing on us or ya know heavy snow.
Somehow dealing with all the frozen gear and water is made better with others. We have just been able to laugh about it. So far we have met LongTerm, Voodoo, Gnarly, and Bagbowl.
They have given us a lot of great advice about hiking, life, love, and everything in between. I know that my parents were hoping the trail would help me mature and think about my next move in life, and to be honest, it has. Bagbowl gave us great advice about living in a van down by the river (or as he likes to say it down by the Starbucks.)
Meeting others and laughing together has been some of the best trail magic we have found. Though finding those PBR beers at the end of a day’s hike was pretty nice. Trail magic refers to the generous attitude and actions within the trail community.
So you might have clicked on this post to see how we ended up getting our trail names. Well, here is the story. Longterm was trying to get someone to carry his pack from the shelter we were at to the next one and Lizzy who wanted to be able to tell her family she was a job. (not everyone approves of taking time off from being in the work force to attempt to thru-hike) While Longterm ended up just messing around Lizzy got coined the name Sherpabell. It fits considering her pack weighted 50 pounds at the beginning of the hike.
And for me, while I was wearing my fairly tight long johns and green attire at the wrong time and was given the name of Peter Pan by Longterm and Voodoo. Wasn’t what we thought they were going to be but isn’t that how life works?
Til next time,
Peter Pan & Sherpabell
from the other side 