Learning the Hard WAY!

Physically everybody is different, shoes for one are not necessarily for someone else.

(This is Sir Richard, over here from the UK, a great guy!)

When we first started backpacking we used boots and shoes we accepted as comfortable. They weren’t. The experts then told us you need this or that. We bought them. My feet still burned after a few miles with the pack. I decided to go home and get my work boots, I had worked in them 8-12 hours a day and they never hurt. The first day I threw them out, they about killed me, working and walking are different.

(One of our camp sites on the last hike)

After about a thousand miles of hiking I found that the best thing for me was Reebok tennis shoes with the toes split with my knife. Wow I was amazed, I had talked to experts on boots and shoes and nobody had the answer. We found it ourselves. I am not saying that is right for everyone, but that is the best for me.

Sherry also went to tennis shoes (I guess they are not really tennis shoes anymore, but that is what I call them). Sherry lost most of her toe nails until she switched. My feet did not burn anymore; I assumed it was because of the ventilation with the split toes.

(This mountain shot is actually from Pike’s Peak, of Denver. I got it mixed in with the AT)

Yep, I got a lot of strange looks around the campfires (that we built) as hikers stopped by to warm or spend the night. I say we built, because most hikers are too tired to drag up wood to build a camp fire. Sherry and I hiked only 6-9 miles a day, while these kids were hiking from 12-26 miles a day and they were beat and enjoyed a fire that they did not have to work for. It was a pleasure sitting around and hearing the hissing of little gas stoves as they fixed supper and crawled into their sleeping bags dead tired. The conversations with the youths who were out to prove they could live with nature for 6-8 months and hike 2176 miles were very interesting.

(This is ‘Cricket’ at the beginning of the 100 mile wilderness, At this point she has hiked (solo) about 2,000 miles in 6 months)

Generally over 2000 hikers start but only a couple hundred finishes.

The tales were as interesting as their trail names: One sweet young girl was called ‘Pig Pen’. There was Choo Choo, Chilly Willie, Just Ray, Shaggy, Miles to Go, Moose Burger, Papa Smirf, Boats, Chief, Cuppa Joe, and a million others it seemed. We were called the ‘Overland Hermits’.

(We caught these three Hikers in Monson, ME, shopping for food for the 100 mile wilderness, the one on the right is Cricket, one of the guys is ‘Stretch’ the other Tin Man I think, I would have to look it up!)

We have been talking, we only need to hike a little over 300 miles to finish the Appalachian Trail, and we want to give it one more try. Sherry said, ‘Let’s try to do the hundred mile wilderness; at least we can do that.’ That is the last 100 miles of the trail with no towns or public roads. We just might try it after the ‘black fly season’ next year.

Thanks for reading this mess,

Nite Shipslog

PS:

Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw fish to them.