Author Archives: marshawh52492

There were more changes to my set up during the course of my thru hike than I anticipated. Even though I felt pretty dialed-in from the get go, the smallest of imperfections or inconveniences compound over the course of 2,200 miles, and one finds themselves unable to resist refining. I’ve re-weighed all my gear atContinue reading “Final Gear Post”

At approximately 10:30AM EST on Wednesday, August 11th, 2021, I completed my pilgrimage to the Good Mother Katahdin. I’ll be posting some backlogged content as well as some “recap” type posts regarding gear, opinions, and other tidbits in the coming weeks. It became challenging to maintain the blog in real time toward the end ofContinue reading “Finished!”

I’m writing this post from Lincoln, New Hampshire. I’m finding less time these days to write as my days are increasingly occupied with obvious activities (hiking and camping), and simultaneously occupied with activities that may seem less intuitive (gear maintenance and repair, resupplying, and getting to and from towns to name a few). I’m learningContinue reading “New York + New England”

The Appalachian Trail follows white “blazes” for the entirety of the trail. Blazes are marks on trees, rocks, or other structures so that hikers can see which direction head in next. There are a number of other colored blazes that indicate different things, and some clever plays on colored blazes to describe different approaches toContinue reading “AquaBlazing New Jersey”

The state of Pennsylvania has a nickname – “Rocksylvania”. In talking to hikers leading up to entering this state, I’d grown quite nervous that my Bedrock Cairn sandals with over 1,000 miles on them would not be up for the task of stepping through this state. In fact, if you’ve been following along with myContinue reading “Pennsylvania”

It’s been a bit since my last blog post, and quite a lot has happened in the interim. I’d begun drafting a number of separate blog posts, but decided I’d consolidate them to what you’re reading now. With that in mind, this is going to be a longer post compared to some of my others.Continue reading “Northern Exposure”

I’ll let you figure out the comedy formed by the titular acronym. The last, say, 10 days of hiking have been some of the most difficult, but great nonetheless so far on my trip. I mentioned when I entered Virginia that it is mentally known to be a difficult state – I’ve not yet experiencedContinue reading “Showtime’s Hike-In Theater”

Warning: this is a gear post. If that’s not your thing, feel free to sit this one out. If you’ve perused my original gear post, you know that I spent quite amount of time figuring out precisely the gear that I wanted to take on my thru hike attempt. I was certain that I hadContinue reading “Gear Update”

One of the members of the “Cornell Crew” that I hiked with for a bit named Geodude has a mantra: “never ever listen to anything anyone tells you, ever”. Said partly in jest, there is some value in this expression while on the Appalachian Trail. There are a lot of sources of information on theContinue reading “Learning the Hard Way Not to Feed the Ponies”

Forgive me for the cliche song lyric post title, I truly couldn’t help myself. My last blog post was around time spent in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Since then, quite a bit has happened, including the most recent milestone of entering the state of Virginia. Anecdotally, a thru hiker’s chances of success roughlyContinue reading “Meet Virginia”