AT: Follow the blazes

It was nice that on the first day out I ended up finding the trail (after driving around on a dirt road for quite a while and then getting out of the car without knowing if I would find it). Once finding the trail I headed into the woods and started what I call "the slow ascent".

After 4ish miles I was starting to get pretty tired, but was happy that I was over halfway to the tent site for the night. I was focusing on my steps and on my breath. Strangely,  the trail seemed to change quite a bit. Now there were really muddy ATV treads and the trail was quite a bit wider than it had been the rest of the day.

This didn't feel right. I looked in the mud and saw that there were boot prints, going both ways, lots of them. "This must be the right way, calm down Liane. You're not going to get lost on the AT, that's ridiculous and pretty much impossible."

I continued down the hill for a few more minutes. This time I kept my eyes on the trees, looking for white blazes*. After walking for quite a few more minutes I was starting to get worried because I still hadn't seen a blaze. Earlier in the day I would see blazes frequently. It's really uncommon to go any longer than a couple minutes without seeing a white mark on a tree while hiking on the trail. I checked the mud again. There were still boot prints.

Uuuuugh! How do you decide what to do in this instance? Yes, you're out there to walk around in the woods...but that doesn't mean you signed up to get lost.

I continued down the hill once again. After one or two more minutes I stopped seeing so many boot prints in the mud. Standing in the middle of the path I looked up and down the hill. Back and forth, back and forth. "Alright, that's IT! I'm going back up this hill until I see a blaze or a person."

This situation reminded me of other experiences I've had in life. so many times in this life we tend to get off of the path we're meant to be on. We look around and think, "well, this MUST be the right path for me, look at all the other people who have done this same thing, come down this same path."

I'm going to try to remember to follow the blazes in life and if the trail doesn't feel right to not be afraid to turn around. Other people's boot prints might not mean so much. Just because others have gone down a certain path doesn't mean they meant to. Maybe they took a wrong turn just like I did, or maybe they were going to a different place.

It was really frustrating to have to climb back up a hill I had just climbed down. Ultimately I'm glad I did. It turns out I wasn't on the path anymore. That would have turned out to be a pretty rotten first day on the trail if I hadn't turned around. My first day was meant to be a little over 7 miles but turn into 9 with the extra walking before the trail and the whole....getting lost thing. I'm just glad I made it :).

*Blazes are the marks that indicate you are on a trail. On the Appalachian Trail these blazes are white, located on trees, rocks and posts throughout the trail. They are the same for the whole trail from Georgia to Maine.

AT: New adventures

On July 27 I was dropped off just North of the Massachusetts/Vermont border to start hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). My  first day I was on the trail I was nervous but excited. I knew it was going to be difficult and challenging, but also rewarding and fun. 

My roommate, Steph, drove me 3 hours from home to get on the trail. I had thought it would be easy to find the trail head because the map said there was parking available at the location. That can be put down as assumption number one that was incorrect. 

We drove up a dirt road to where the map indicated, but the road got so rough that we assumed it wasn't the right course. Would the map show that there was parking on such a road? After hemming and hawing about it for a few minutes we turned around and headed back down the hill. 

About 2 miles back there was a nice looking woman in a yard. We decided to stop for directions. She didn't know where the trail head was, but was sure her husband would. He was inside the house, and so began our yelling conversation across the yard about the trail head. It went something like this:

"Do you know where the AT trail head is?"

"Ooooooh yeeees, it's 3 or 4 miles up the road"

"Okay, so about 3 and a half miles up the road?"

"ooooooh, I wouldn't say 3 and a half!"

"Okay, so about 4? 4 miles up the road?"

"Oooooh, nope, nope, I wouldn't say 4 miles!"

There was some mention of a steep road to the left and then a wooden bridge to the right and then the trail head. I asked, "So it sounds like it's pretty easy to find? I couldn't miss it?" His response, "Oooooh no, I wouldn't say that! You could certainly miss it!"

I didn't have a ton of confidence in the directions I was given, but was pretty sure the trail head was up the road...not 3.5 but not 4 miles away. 

Steph had to drop me off 1/2 mile from the trail head because the dirt road was too rough for her sweet little Toyota Corolla to drive down. 

So, we stopped the car and I got out. I felt completely unsure about heading down the dirt road and out of site. There's nothing like not even being able to find the trail head to boost your confidence before heading off into the wilderness. I was so nervous for my upcoming adventure that I could have puked and cried at the same time. I did neither. I just stood there looking like a deer caught in headlights.   

Thankfully the trail was pretty easy to find. I just had to walk a little over 1/2 mile down the dirt road to find it. And so the adventure began.