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Karma on the Trail 
Nice Blog! Thanks for the comment in my guest book. With all the training you are doing, If I leave on the 1st and you leave on the 7th, you will pass me on the 8th. I am out of shape both physically and mentally, I have high hopes that this hike will ‘fix’ me. I like your sense of humor, and look forward to meeting you… on the 8th 🙂 Take care and best of luck! (Don’t tell anyone but I am scared)
I’m scared, too! =D Or maybe ‘nervous as hell’ would be more precise. Can’t wait to get stepping, though!
On the subject of “Pack rassling” Have you thought about hiring a Sherpa? 😉
Right?! The first time I saw somebody mention a Sherpa on WhiteBlaze, I laughed out loud.
“What’s your pack weight?”
“I don’t know. Ask my Sherpa.”
Karma, I am so looking forward to your ‘been there, done that’ book you will write after your thru-hike! Your blog is how I might like to blog…if I had a blog and if I had any experience making one. Reading your blog so far has made me write more comments than I can remember! I suppose they will come back to me in time. Your emerging training philosophy makes a lot of sense. I have had a career involving training. There is a youtube blog by Dave Canterbury that I would recommend. Dave now has his own survival TV show on the Learning Chanel. Specifically, he has a video about making choices and compromises about what to pack. Dave teaches self-reliance and is a walking encyclopedia of trail and bushcraft knowledge. It might be useful to hear his way of thinking and the criteria he uses when deciding what to carry. He is not a backpacker. The items he carries will not be the items you will carry but his method of weighing his choices is good. I will send you the link to the specific video when I find it again.
Essentially, Dave asks himself the questions: “is this what I need or what I want?” “If I don’t need it but still want it, what am I willing to compromise to carry it?” I was taught years ago and in a galaxy far away that we should always fear the creature most. The creature is “creature comfort”. Always seeking to be comfortable can cause us to take shortcuts and to make bad decisions that will come back to bite us in the ass. On the other hand, there is no virtue in being miserable when it is not necessary. Sometimes comfort is essential in preserving our biological and mental fuel.
Keep the faith. In my opinion you are doing very well in your AT preparation. Your blog inspires me and makes me laugh. “And if I laugh at any mortal thing, tis that I may not weep…” Lord Byron.
Prop Blast
Thank you so much for the kind words! And best of luck with your own prep. Your journal is nothing to sneeze at, either. 🙂 Looking forward to meeting you on the Trail.
Re: Dave Canterbury
The planning attitude I was talking about in my previous comment can be seen in Dave’s youtube series on “Building a Discount Bushcraft Kit”. No 3 in the 7-video series deals with food. I think there are some valuable lessons in the whole series even though they are not specifically about long range hiking.
Another of his videos I recommend is his “Basic Camp Knots” video. I needed to brush up on some common knots without becoming an Eagle Scout. This short video clearly explains 3 or 4 knots that anyone who walks in the mountains should know.
Oh, great recommendations. Thank you! I’ll have to check out the knotcraft. Gotta start practicing the bear bagging. 🙂
Karma,
Just read your blog. Nice job, wish I kh=new how to do one. Nervous? A little, but I kknow it will be one day at a time and one foot in front of the other. I’m going into this with the mind set that everyoday will consist of climbing uphill in the pouring rain with 50 mph winds and sleet blowing in my face. And when that doesn’t happen it will be a good day. I start my leave of absence on month from today and start my hike on March 14th. Hope to meet you on the trail. -Tumbleweed
Hey, Tumbleweed! The blog isn’t hard to set up. Not nearly as hard as making the decision to walk from Georgia to Maine. =D
Good luck walking! We’ll be in the same bubble, so hopefully we’ll have a chance to say hi!
What part on PA r u from? I Enjoy your comments and your outlook on your AP trail trek. Keep on truck’en
I’m near Philly—about an hour from the rockynorthern part, which is where I cut my AT teeth. Not literally. 😉
Hey Karma, you have a lot of guts. Keep going, I hope you are able to finish your hike. Watch out for those porcupines, etc.
Thanks!
Those porcupines! =D
Hi there! I just finished reading your blog. I’ve been reading it over the past month around work and motherhood. Sometimes I stayed up way past my bedtime to read on and on. I was enjoying reading about your experience so much that I wanted the never ending hike to ever end. 😉 When you flipped and got through the Whites I kept having a sense that the “story” would end “happy.” I kept reminding myself that this was not a fictional story but a real life diary as it was happening! I’m so glad that you did get to finish the trail. I get the sense that you work as a writer or possibly an editor. I think your blog would be a great book!
You have given me great hope. I remember seeing AT hikers crash out of the woods at a park in Maryland when I was a child. My prim and proper grandmother scoffed and called them “hippies.” That was the moment I knew I wanted to hike the trail. But I grew up and went to college, got married, and had children instead. I’m 45 years old with 9 and 10 year old kids. I cannot image missing half a year of their lives right now. (Maybe this will change when they are teenagers and they don’t want me around!) Your experience has given me hope that if I take care of my body and have a lot of luck that there is still time! Although, right now I’m thinking section hikes. Maybe my kids won’t hate me as teenagers and will walk with me!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I gained a lot of enjoyment from reading it along with learning a lot of useful things. If I’m ever near the AT and see stinky hiker trash in the woods I’ll offer to take their garbage home to my garbage can with me!!
Peace & Blessing to you.
I’m so glad you liked reading it! The trail will always be there for you! 🙂 So many people in their 60s, 70s, even 80s were hiking! When the time’s right, everything will start coming exactly together for you. And I hope you have an EPIC adventure!
I just finished reading this. I know it’s a couple years old. But there was so much great stuff, here! A gal in one of my Facebook groups shared the link. I’m always eager to read a thru-hiker’s blog, and especially the over 40 crowd, since that’s where I am. I’m hoping one day to attempt a thru-hike, and it seems like you had lots of good information for me. Rumor has it there might be a PCT hike soon. I’m hoping to follow you, if you blog that trip! So, I’ll sign up here, and hope you’ll either share it here, or tell me where to find you! Thanks for sharing your story/adventure!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thru-hiking is an epic adventure, that’s for sure. You’re going to have a blast! 🙂
I’ll be on the PCT on April 20, assuming the last few bits and pieces come together. I’m not going to journal every single day (too many miles to do), but I’ll probably be checking in from town once a week or so. It’s at https://karmapct.wordpress.com/, for what it’s worth, lol. As for whether it’s another thru-hike, well… I won’t know until I finish. 🙂 Hope to meet you on the trail someday!