That is the perfect way to describe the first Trail Dames back pack trip, which took place this last weekend! Ann, Sandra, Kelly, Melissa, Trina and I backpacked over 11 miles of the Appalachian Trail and not only did we live to tell the tale, but we laughed through the entire thing! The trip started with us all meeting up at the hiker hostel at Mountain Crossings on Friday night. The Dames took Starbucks coffee to the staff of Mountain Crossings, and proceeded to spend lots of money at the wonderful outdoors store there. Melissa won the prize with a fabulous new sleeping bag, while the rest of us drooled over the tents, packs and boots. After shopping til we dropped, we headed down into the hostel. The hostel is basically two big rooms, one for hanging out, and one filled with bunk beds for the hikers. As we walked in, we were immediately hit with my favorite smell.....eau de hiker! It is stale and stinky and symbolizes thousands of miles walked. I love it! Kelly said, "This is just like camp!!" and grinned the whole time she staked her claim to a bunk. We got to meet our first Southbounder (SOBO), meaning that he had hiked over 2,100 miles and was headed south to Springer Mountain to finish his thru-hike. Like so many SOBO's, he was reserved and quiet, but answered our questions patiently. I just kept wondering what could be going through his mind, knowing that he was on the verge of finishing such a monumental journey. The hostel was pretty full with us 6 Dames and 6-7 other hikers. Everyone was hitting the trail at different sections, and we all had fun comparing notes. The most fun, however, was when Sandra set up her tent for the first time in the yard. She climbed in with that big, beautiful smile that she always has and just peeked out at us. I didn't think we would ever get her out! When we finally got her out of her tent, we all
Once again, Sandra was the life of the party with her big, giant external frame pack and 42 pound Coleman sleeping bag! She literally brought everything but the kitchen sink, and was reluctant to leave anything behind. However, she did finally agree, under duress, to leave the big, two-pronged metal skewer that she wanted to roast marsh-mellows with. :) The next morning, we headed out before the sun came up, so that we could shuttle the cars up and down FS42. (Those of you that came on the very first TD hike will remember this road! In fact, we started our hike from that very parking lot!) We met a bunch of boy-scouts and their leaders. They were all very nice, and it wasn't long before one of the leaders was offering to carry Trina's pack for her. :) While we were loading up our gear we also met another SOBO named Dr. Jekyll. He was waiting for his parents to come hike the very last mile of his hike with him up Springer Mountain. Isn't that cool? He took our 'before' picture and wished us luck as we hiked out. Seven miles on the AT in Georgia is a really long
suggesting that we hike to the Stover Creek Shelter first. This is a new shelter and is really, really nice!!! Some of the women got their first chance to use an outdoor privy and we all got good and settled with our packs. We were basically hiking together and our biggest problem was keeping our eyes on the trail while laughing hysterically! The weather was stunningly beautiful with the brightest blue sky you have ever seen. The leaves were all kinds of colors and every time the wind blew, it rained gold down on our head! It was cool enough to be perfect while you were moving, and then to require a jacket when you stopped. We waded through ankle deep leaves for most of the trip and had great views when the trees parted. All of this made us giggly and light-hearted and we literally laughed our way through the day. After Stover Creek, Melissa had us hike to Long Creek Falls for lunch. I am not sure how I have done this trip twice and never seen these falls, but sure enough, they were brand new for me. The falls are about 200 yards off of the AT and when we rounded the corner, everyone oohed and ahh-ed! It is so pretty and the perfect place for lunch. We lounged on the rocks and ate healthly hiker fare like summer sausage and little debbies. :) It was here that I heard the words that I would go on to hear a thousand times...."Next time...". "Next time let's do this....", and "Next time lets try that...". This is the first time I truly relaxed. Everyone was happy and enjoying themselves so much that they wanted there to be a "next time". Life is good. :) :) The final push of the day took us by a huge field covered in ankle-deep grass. Kelly said, "Oh man...I want to go roll in it!!". I said, "Let's go!!" and the two of us proceeded to first twirl in circles singing "Climb Every Mountain" and then to lay in the soft grass. It was awesome! The sun was warm and the grass smelled great and I felt like a kid again. However, we still had a few miles to go, so we reluctantly got up and headed to our stopping point for the day. The last few miles took us to Hawk Mountain Shelter. It was tiring for everyone, but the smiles never faltered. Sandra talked herself over each mountain while Ann, Trina and Kelly all encouraged her and each other. When the roof of the shelter finally came into view, we were all very happy!! Of course, then we saw the group of boy scouts and kids that had taken up residence in the shelter!! They were very rambunctious and I am not sure we were all that happy to see them, but they ended up being very sweet. The adults that were with them were also nice and we all became a trail family for the evening. The Dames all treked down to the spring, treated our water, put up tents and changed clothes. Kelly kicked back in front of her tent in a camp chair reading her book and looked like the absolute picture of contentment. Trina crawled into her tent and declared herself so cozy that she didn't ever want to come out, and the rest of us puttered around enjoying the warmth of our fleece as the late afternoon became cooler. Before too long, though, we all settled down to the serious business of cooking. When you are out here, food takes on a whole new meaning and we were hungry!!!! I ate Ramen, while most of the other women ate freeze-dried Mountain meals. Sandra, of course, ate roasted garlic mashed potatoes and grilled herb chicken! :) She pulled out a frying pan and went to work! That woman is truly amazing! :) As the sun went down, we hung all of our food and toiletries from the bear cables that the GaATC has so thoughtfully built, and Ann, Trina and I headed for our tents. We were all looking forward to some cozy alone time in the comfort of our bags. We laughed and talked through our tent walls, teasing Ann as she fired up her cell phone to call home and check on her men. Of course, for the rest of the women, the night had just started and we could hear peals of laughter and shouting as they broke out Sandra's Uno deck and joined the kids for a rousing series of games. Ah, youth.... :) :) I put on every single bit of clothing I had and hunkered down for what was sure to be a cold, cold night. Alert for the sound of bears, I spent a bit of quality time with the Lord of the Rings before my head lamp started to flicker. I knew I should have replaced those batteries! I was asleep by nine and the worst thing that happened the entire weekend was that I had to get up in the middle of the night to answer natures call. I did end up scaring the daylights out of Ann, who thought that I was a bear, but we quickly settled down back to sleep. When the sun was barely up, I heard Trina and Ann both unzip their tents, and using my best teacher voice, said "NO!! Go back to bed!". they laughed, but kindly did go back to bed. It was too cold to get out of the sleeping bag yet! Around 7:00, we finally rolled out of our tents and wandered over to Kelly and Sandra's tents and sang to them gently. There is nothing like a soft version of "Here Comes The Sun' to get you up in the morning. :) The next few hours were spent cooking breakfast and packing up. The highlight of the trip for us AND the boy-scouts, was watching Sandra pull out that frying pan again and cook up blueberry pancakes!! She kindly offered to share with everyone, and we all agreed that she was the most popular Dame on the trip! After voting her Miss Congeniality, we slowly packed up and head out. We were all a little concerned about Sassafras Mountain, which is a really, really big mountain and was the last part of our hike. We only had to go four miles today, but they were significantly harder than any of the miles yesterday. Along the way we climbed up and down several small mountains, all of which were tiring, but do-able. All of the while....Sassafras was looming. We stopped for lunch and along came Ranger, our SOBO from the hostel. He was hiking with his father who took one look at Sandra and was mightily impressed with the pack that she was carrying. "They ought to call you Sherpa", he said. Someone else suggested "Sherp-ette" and a new trail name was born. It is a name that she truly earned and later said that she would be proud to carry. When we finally got to the base of Sassafras, we all took a deep breath and steeled ourselves for the
lot of uphill. And every last Trail Dame made it to the top just fine. :) :) We proceeded to do the 'Dance of The Real Woman' before heading on for the final descent. When we got to the cars, we took our 'after' picture and all you could see were grins spread far and wide. I think we were all really proud of ourselves and each other. Speaking for myself, I felt so blessed to be in the company of such amazing women and had to fight back the tears of happiness. What an amazing weekend. In unanimous accord, we headed to town in search of giant cheeseburgers and ended up at Turners Corner where we shared a bottle of wine, lots of food and more laughter. We recapped our favorite moments and said, "Next time..." about a hundred more times. We are all looking forward to the next trip, not only for ourselves, but also for the other Trail Dames that will join us. |
| TD Back Pack Trip- Appalachian Trail, Fall 2007 |
Trail Dames Back Pack Trips
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Two-Day Backpacking Gear List *- can be rented at REI if you do not own - I have a couple of extra to loan, first come, first served #- not everyone needs to bring these, we will share some of this gear among us Backpack * Pack cover Blaze Orange- something bright to pin on your pack. Hiking Poles Tent * Ground cloth Sleeping Pad Sleeping Bag * Clothes- basically 2 sets To hike in: pants, shirt, sports bra, socks, boots/shoes For camp/To sleep in: pants, shirt, fleece pullover or jacket, socks, hat rain jacket, rain pants extra socks light jacket camp shoes- tevas, crocs, etc. (Make sure all clothes are appropriate material, absolutely no cotton tees or jeans) Stove # Fuel # cup/bowl spork lighter bandana- 2 head lamp small camp towel emergency ditty-duct tape, extra lighter, dental floss, pocket knife, emergency blanket personal ditty- comb, tooth paste and tooth brush, chapstick, sunscreen, bug spray, body-glide first aid ditty- antibiotic cream, bandaids, advil, duct tape, needle, tylenol pm, benadryl, any medications you take Toilet supplies- TP, hand-sanitizer, trowel, handi-wipes Bear bag rope # Water bag # platypus or nalgene bottles for water- 3 liters worth water purification- either drops, filter #, or steri-pen Food- plan on 2 lunches, 1 dinner, 1 breakfast, and snacks. Always bring one extra dinner for emergencies. Breakfast suggestions- bagel and peanut butter, instant oatmeal, trail mix, instant coffee and hot tea Lunch suggestions- this is usually a cold meal. Beef jerky, tuna packet with mayo packet, cheese, bagel or bread, little debbies, candy bar, dried fruit Snack suggestions- Luna bars, Snicker Energy bars, trail mix, nuts, Dinner suggestions- something that you can mix up with hot water- Ramen, Instant potatoes, lipton noodles, beef jerky etc. Carry stuff that is light, easy, and can spend two days in a backpack without going bad. You will be burning @6000 calories a day, so don’t try and cut calories....you will really need them. Notes: Think light!!!!! If your pack weighs more than 20 lbs without food and water, it weighs too much!!! Less is better!! Pack everything in zip lock bags- you can never have too many zip lock bags! Leave the extra packaging at home. Pack your extra clothes and sleeping bag in big garbage bags Please, please break in your boots or whatever shoes you intend to wear!! Also, bring some money or credit cards for hiking into town! |