All Journal Entries

I had to mail my pack and sleeping bag home and the post office didn’t open until 8:30am. So no rushing this morning. Got to the post office and was told they didn’t have a box big enough for my pack. Luckily the outfitter a block away had one, so I was good to go. We got breakfast and was on trail by 10am. Kind of a late start for our 15.7 miles and it’s suppose to rain this afternoon, but if we need to stop early we will. Took breaks every couple hours for Not Sure. He held up well considering ...

Slept in this morning. Packed up my new pack for the first time. Everything fits really well. I weighed it with 2 days of food and no water and it came to 22 lbs!! Hopefully it rides well. Made it back into Damascus in the early afternoon. The Place, the hostel we are staying at tonight, has check in at 4:30pm. So we got a late lunch and chilled. The Place is run by a church, but it was not very welcoming. The guy running it was rude and there were a lot of rules. Anyways it’s only for a night. ...

Excited to experience trail days today. Going to visit vendors, eat food, and see hikers I’ve met on trail. I would like to get a new pack and sleeping bag. My pack is 4.5 lbs which is on the heavy side, but is comfortable. The 2.5 lb packs aren’t meant to carry more than 25-30 lbs. Now that it’s warming up I want to switch my 15 degree bag to a 40 degree. I have one at home, but it’s the same weight (2.4 lbs) as my one now. Hopefully, I can find one lighter here. There weren’t many good pack vendors ...

Have a 22 mile slack pack today. Getting shuttled by Boots Off to the trailhead. Unfortunately they couldn’t get me there until 9:30am. I’ll be hiking into Damascus and Trail Days starts today. Trail Days is a annual event. There are vendors, food, and music. Hikers come from past years and current thru hikers shuttle back or up wherever they are on trail. The hike today is a pretty nice one. I’m up on a ridge, so there’s little elevation change before I descend into Damascus. Made good time. About ...

Had a nice and relaxing morning. We don’t start gathering for Aqua blazing until 10am. 😁 They have a full group of 14 hikers signed up. We are kayaking 8 miles and that will equate to 21 miles of the trail. Today was a beautiful day. Partly cloudy. Little wind. Still a little to cold for me to swim, but nice to dip my hands and feet in. I’m a little nervous that my arms won’t be able to handle all the work, but they held up really well. I was the only female that did a single kayak (the ...