Disclaimer: This is my first time posting from my phone. Please excuse any grammatical errors or formatting issues. I don’t have access to the editing tools I normally do.
I have always enjoyed being in touch with nature. I grew up close to the White Mountains, spent a few years not far from the Great Smokey Mountains and a brief time exploring the western edge of the Rocky Mountains. After my second trip in Utah, I fell in love with mountains all over again after having spent 5 years with Space Mountain as my nearest mountain.(shoutout to Tomorrowland, once a space ranger, always a space ranger!) I had been planning on getting a mountain tattoo for a number of years but Utah’s, Beautiful, Majestic, and Breathtaking views, helped me decide on my actual tattoo design.
I’m writing this a day after having spent 3 days on the Appalachian Trail. It was such an amazing experience and I know I will remember it for the rest of my life. I spent weeks preparing myself for the physical aspects, preparedness and scheduling times/distances (which overall was pointless because you get where you get, when you get there.) The one thing I didn’t prepare myself for, perhaps the most important thing, hit me before even hitting 1 mile on the trail. I didn’t even think about the mental or emotional factors at all. As I stood there, out of breath, sweat pouring down my entire body, looking ahead to see if I could catch a glimpse of my cousin who was far ahead of me, I check behind to see if anyone is in sight. I’m alone. Just me and the AT. Nirvana. That’s the only way I can describe what state I was in. Now, I was only doing a small section hike, I wasn’t out here for the life changing and excruciatingly challenging thru hike adventure. 20 miles is all I was coming here for, like 1% of the trails length. It’s nothing when you look at the AT in its entirety. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t able to take something meaningful, life changing even, away from this. Oh, and I injured myself and came off the trail about 8-10 hours earlier than expected and only made it 12 miles( the other miles accumulated were gathering wood and water and setting up camp etc). But I still feel accomplished. I still hiked on the AT. I got a taste of what’s in store for years to come. Being alone on the AT just allowed me to have a moment of self reflection, clarity, peacefulness and pure happiness.
I learned so much on the trail and aside from the beauty and the experience of being completely in the wilderness, I enjoyed something that I never thought I would. One of the most rewarding things on the trail was meeting other hikers and talking. Sometimes it was a brief hello/how are you/have a good day, in passing. Other times hikers wanted to talk more, find out where you’re from/ where you’re going/ are you section hiking or thru hiking/ have you been out here before? And the conversations at the shelters were generally recapping the hike for that day and talking about gear and what lay ahead. I learned so much about the “do’s and dont’s on the AT”, even though I did HOURS of research and thought I knew everything I needed to know my trip.
I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked for two reasons. The first reason is because I wanted to limit myself from using unnecessary technology/electronics as much as possible. And the second, more important reason, is because on the AT, you are hyper focused on getting to your destination, as quickly as you can, so you can get your pack off, set camp, find and purify water, and gather fire wood. With that in mind, taking photos seems to be less important. However, I do have a few to share!
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