Apologies for the radio silence! For a while the most common questions I got from everyone I encountered were “When are you starting?” (January 2025) and “Which direction are you going?” (northbound) and “Are you going with anyone?” (no, just me!) But these days the most common question I get is, “How was the AT?!” So an update is clearly overdue.

I spent most of October doing training hikes 2+ days per week. Aside from a fun 3-day diversion on 50-mile Jockey’s Trail, all of my practicing has been in and around Nags Head Woods. It hasn’t been particularly noteworthy. Just hundreds of miles with an obnoxiously overloaded pack, doing laps around the same small loop trails in perfect autumn weather near sea level with elevation gain measured in inches. It’s kept me in good shape, but not brought me closer to Springer Mountain readiness with under 2 months to go!

And so it was time to get serious. I had two weekends worth of parties to attend in New England and a gap in between begging to be exploited. I got a headstart during the first weekend in Vermont (HBD, Mary B! 😘) where it dipped below freezing so I camped outside my AirBnB. But to get any colder, I knew I’d have to head farther north. And while this video is neither cohesive nor coherent, at least it gets me back in the groove of posting.

Notable firsts on this trip:

• 1st time sleeping out in below freezing temperatures (24°F)
• 1st time wearing my AT hiking clothes while actually hiking
• 1st time needing my Kahtoola MICROspikes on icy trails
• 1st time making video and blog posts without my MacBook: video editing with LumaFusion, and photo editing with Affinity Photo
• 1st time thinking, “Wow, 38°F is downright balmy!”

I wish I could have experienced temperatures closer to 10°F on this trip for added confidence, but some things must remain a mystery until I reach the AT. Things like, “What does it feel like to freeze to death?” and “Will I poop more often or less often when it suddenly becomes much less convenient?” and “Where can I go hide out for 6 months while everyone thinks I’m still thru-hiking?”