We’re going on Summer Vacation with my high-school buddy, Bradley, and his wife, Erin. The goal is to do some hiking and explore the Green or White mountains just north of us. Of course, this plan may be slightly affected by our desire to get Anna knocked up.
Hiking: Inn to Inn — The Long Trail or Hiking Gourmet options, although expensive, sound cool. One of the inns, Judith’s Garden, was on Erin’s original list of things to do in VT.
Hut to Hut along the AT — The Appalachian Mountain Club, which we joined only the other day, maintains eight huts along the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Each hut is a day’s hike apart — covering a total distance of 56 miles. This sounds incredibly cool. They provide food and lodging leaving us to worry about packing water, clothes and minor other gear. We could easily stash a car at one end of the trail before the trip, and hike all the way across. Reservations are available. We should probably jump on this quickly if we’re interested. Of course, Anna points out that if she’s pregnant, some of the hikes might be too strenuous.
Inns and B&Bs in VT — There are tons of Inns and B&Bs in VT. We could probably plan our own “slackpacking” itinerary. However, the folks at WonderWalks offer lots of cool, if expensive, Inn-to-Inn walks. I doubt if we could actually afford any of these. But they certainly sound cool.
All of this is from a very brief google of `Net resources. I’ll check into back issues of Outside magazine and see what I can dig up.
Last night, Anna and I went down to the Reading REI store so I could attend a clinic on preparing to hike the Appalachian Trail. I haven’t entirely decided whether I really intend to hike the entire 2100 mile (give or take 100 miles depending on the year) trail from Georgia to Maine, but I’ve been kicking around the idea for some time now. This was my opportunity to chat with someone who has hiked the trail and learn a bit about what gear to bring and what not to bring.
I don’t know why it surprised me, but I didn’t really pick up any new information regarding gear. Although, Jerry (the guy giving the clinic) spoke up in enthusiastic support of trekking poles. I’ve never really considered using trekking poles before, well, that’s not entirely true. I’d considered them to be the kind of slightly sissy thing novice hikers and backpackers get talked into purchasing by some weaselly clerk looking to boost his commission. Not the sort of thing an experienced hiker like myself would ever need.
However, Jerry pointed out that trekking poles absorb quite a bit of the impact on your knees and help out tremendously while crossing streams and rocky terrain. I’m still not entirely convinced, but I’m definitely intrigued by anything that will spare my wounded knee even a small part of the stress of hiking 2100 miles.
Every journal I’d read regarding the trip has glossed over the cost of making the journey. This was the first time anyone had put an actual number on the adventure. Although cost is entirely relative to one’s personal preference, Jerry suggested the AT could be hiked for about $2 to $3 per mile. That’s $4,200 to $6,300 (for the arithmetically challenged among us). While that’s a sizeable amount of money, the thing he didn’t mention is loss of income.
Jerry took six months to hike the AT. According to the Appalachian Trail Conference, that’s about the average time to “through hike” the trail. Since that’s the average, that’s what I’ll use in my own planning.
Anna probably has a better sense of this than I do (because she’s Mistress of Finance in the Watkins household), but I suspect our recurring monthly expenses are somewhere in the range of $3,000. This means that in addition to the $6,300 for actually hiking the AT, I’ll need to have saved $18,000 just to maintain a home to come back to after 6 months on the trail.
Grand Total: $24,300.
That’s a lot of money.
This Sunday, Anna and I returned to Stissing Mountain. We’d hiked
around the pond and tried to climb Stissing Mountain earlier in the Summer. But this time we were in much better shape.
Although Anna hasn’t been hiking this summer as often as I have, the
trip to England was definitely good for her stamina and leg strength.
We trudged up the steep slope to the top of Stissing Mountain in twenty
to thirty minutes. I climbed the fire tower and enjoyed the commanding view of Dutchess County, and Anna stayed on the ground to make certain my pack didn’t wander off all by itself.
Unlike our last visit, I wasn’t testing out any really new
gear, but it was the first time I’d been able to actually wear
my REI One
jacket. On previous outings, the jacket was too
warm for me to wear. Yes, too warm. Even with the temperatures down in the low 60s or high 50s, I generate too much body heat to wear the One jacket. But on the walk around Thompson’s Pond, the pace and terrain was easy enough, and the temperature cold enough, that I needed the jacket to be comfortable. Had I kept the jacket on for the climb up Stissing Mountain, I’m certain I would have overheated again; therefore, it stayed in the car.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the jacket. It’s perhaps a bit more
snug than I would have expected — certainly more snug than the
photograph on REI’s Web site led me to believe. But as I continue to lose
weight, it will fit even better. And now that we’ll be moving up to
the border between NH and MA — where there’s an REI store — it will be even better to have a jacket that does such a terrific job keeping me warm.
