1800 MILES….OH MY!
Hey everybody!
Well every time I start to write this blog more time passes before I can finish! At first I started it at 1300 miles then 1,500 miles, 1700 miles and now here I am at 1800 miles!!! Wow! Time just flies by when you live in the woods 🙃!
Honestly it just blows my mind that here I am at 1800 miles on the Appalachian Trail and when I last wrote a blog I was around mile 420! It's incredible to know how far I've come and all the amazing things I've witnessed and that I’ve felt. I can't really even put into words or writing this whole experience. It's just so deep and so potent. I feel like you just can't make this shit up but it's so crazy and so beautiful and so wild that sometimes just doesn't seem real but it's SO real.
The trail really has been nothing but magic! In some ways it's the easiest thing I've ever done having to walk and hike through the woods everyday without a single person needing a single thing from me with no agenda or thought about where it is exactly I need to be…. and at the same time it's by far one of the hardest things I've ever done. To be so disciplined and so in the moment. To be uncomfortable and to expand my beauty of being a raw human. To feel the most alive I've ever felt in my entire life. It's also the most peaceful.
There is something about being out in the woods, to be surrounded by nature, to wake up to the birds chirping, hike all day, be out in the woods and to fall asleep with the stars and the Moon that shines so brightly that sometimes you think somebody should shut off their headlamp it's so bright!
I'm humbled by my experiences on the trail and my perspective about things and people and my own path shifting in front of my eyes. One thing that has been on my mind while spending so much time in the woods with such minimal things is the time I get to spend on me and how I can be a better human. We live in a world that is out of balance and materially oriented. Humans can consume things and preoccupy time with “things” instead of cultivating a higher quality of their ownselves. It's interesting the things that come up and I feel more compassion and love towards myself and others.
Some funny things to note about thru-hiking:
You are just going to be dirty…. Even though I might look clean…you haven't seen the tons of mud under my leggings on my legs. A staple item in my backpack is my loufa! Gotta have a loufa!
I am “ hikertrash” …..it's a common phrase about thru-hikers…… you can tell a thru hiker when you see them.
I eat anything. Yep even spam…..one day I consumed like 4,000 calories just in donuts at Dunkin donuts….and if you know me you would think it's craZy to see me eating such fine foods. At this point honey buns and marhmallow fluff are staples. AND any sour gummie snacks. And sometimes in my finest moments I eat fried chicken in front of Walmart.
I'm always wet even if it's dry out.
Yes I camp all alone in the scarey woods.
I went “ultralight” and got rid of my stove and a few other things like “camp shoes”…. I now only eat cold food and my “camp shoes” are my hiking shoes without socks..haha!!
Yes I'm having a great time! Living it UP!
Signing out! I'm actually at around mile 1835 or so….. I am in the White Mountains New Hampshire! Thanks everyone for all your support!!! I'll be Tucson bound in about a month or sooner! YOLO
❣️❣️Xoxo
Sailor Mooney