Moving Day!

Well, I guess you never realize how much stuff you have until you put it into a 10x10 storage unit in Chanilly, Virginia. By the way Kristen's clothes take up the entire right wall. Tomorrow we begin our journey back to Florida with a stop in Murrells Inlet, SC to visit Kristen's brother Brian. But for tonight, we're just glad to be done packing.


Jason + Kristen

Trail Slang...

I know that I always feel out of the loop when people throw out words and acronyms and I have no idea what they mean. I still don’t know what LMAO stands for--I think someone spelled lame-o wrong.

For your reading pleasure, here are a few terms may be unfamiliar to some, that you will see in our future posts!

Blazes: are painted, 2-inch by 6-inch, vertical white rectangles that are placed at eye height on trees and other objects, in both directions, to mark the official route of the Trail.

GAMER: normally I would use this term to refer to my addicting Sim City habit, but out on the trail its meant to describe a person traveling from Georgia (GA) to Maine (ME).

Hicker: is a person who is still trying to figure out the whole hiker/gear thing while on the trail, most definitely Jason and I.

Hostel: An establishment along the trail that has bunks, showers, and sometimes cooking and mail drops, for AT hikers. Hopefully the hostels on the trail have no relation to the 2006 horror film of the same name.

LNT: not the former mecca of sheets and sham wows, Linen N Things - means 'Leave No Trace', a philosophy and skill used to pass as lightly as possible when backpacking.

Maildrop: Anytime we receive a package from home it’s considered a maildrop. It can be anything from maps to extra food. Feel free to send some cookies :)

Mountain Money: Toilet paper. We cool mox.

NoBo: Northbound thru-hiker, unfortunately it doesn’t have anything to do with my favorite sales campaign from payless, BOGO.

PUDS: is thru-hiker shorthand for "pointless ups and downs", referring to the less interesting sections of mountains thru-hikers encounter from time to time; several PUDS in a row are MUDS, which is shorthand for "mindless ups and downs"-- hello Georgia!

Stealth: a manner of camping where there is no indication that you are there, and no trace of your being there is left when you've left. When Jason and I stealth camp we will be using code names.

Thru-hiker: a person who is attempting to hike the entire trial in a single, continuous journey leaving from one terminus of the Trail, and backpacking to the other terminus. Yes we will smell.

Trail Magic: Unexpected, but welcome, help or food. Feel free to show up at a random road crossing anytime! We prefer Miller Light.

Trail Name: A nickname given to a hiker- you don’t receive a trail name until you start the trail---no friends, I will not be making my own as I have been notoriously known to do :)

Zero day: is a day in which no miles are hiked, usually because the hiker is stopping in a town to resupply and/or rest. Or we can refer to these as “Kristen gets a pedicure and massage day”

You are doing what?

After much consideration and thought, my sweet husband and I have decided to hike the Appalachian Trail from start to finish. It’s been a dream of mine for many years and there is no better time to do it than now. We have no children, no mortgage, no dogs and therefore no excuses! We will not have this opportunity to take 6 months to ourselves for who knows how long! Please know that this is not an impulse decision. We have been carefully planning and gearing up for this adventure for the past year.

Most people have never even heard of the Appalachian Trail or AT as we call it. So I am going to tell you about it.

The Appalachian Trail is considered a scenic footpath that covers near 2,175 miles—the mileage varies each year by a few miles because of the trail maintenance. The southern terminus (where we will start) is located at Springer Mountain, Georgia. The northern terminus (where we will finish, God willing) is located at Mt. Katahdin—pronounced Kat-tah-din within Baxter State Park in Maine. The trail covers 14 different states and traverses 6 national parks. It takes about six months to complete depending on how fast you walk.

Here are some fun facts about the trail (because we all know how much I love fun facts):

•Lowest elevation: 124 ft. – Trailside Museum and Zoo at Bear Mountain, NY
•Highest elevation: 6,625 ft. – Clingmans Dome in TN (Mom & Dad you’ve been there)
•There are 165,000 blazes along the length of the Trail-but who’s counting?
•More than 10,000 people have reported hiking the length of the Trail
•It takes approximately 5 million footsteps to walk the entire length of the Trail

So on March 26, 2010 we will begin our walk in the woods. The purpose of this blog is to keep our friends and family up to date as to where we are and what we are doing. Through our pictures and stories hopefully you will see a glimpse of what life is like on the trail!