So I’m laying there, giddy with excitement thinking about my adventure and suddenly I think about how I’m about to leave all the glorious creature comforts like my snuggly bed; my nice, hot baths; electricity allowing for lights, A/C and heat; running, clean water; soap and shampoo; clean clothes, a chair; a flushing, inside toilet; my pantry full of food; and most importantly, my hubby, who is always my encourager when I’ve had a bad day, or who smiles with me on a good day❤️. What makes one walk away from such awesome stuff. Well, I don’t quite know the answer to that.

I’ll be carrying my backpack like its my child attached to my back, dead weight, for 8-10 hours a day. Then after the hiking ends sitting down to relax would be great, but that would be dreaming. A chair is one of the things I miss most. My back longs for a comfortable chair where it gets support and my legs get to dangle. Not to be, though–the cold, hard ground will have to suffice. There are chores like gathering and filtering water because I won’t have my plumber friend, Josh, to work his plumbing miracles along my path. I’ll set up and tear down my “house” (coffin-sized tent) everyday. I’ll sleep on a mummy-shaped, blow-up pad that’s equivalent to a pool float which doesn’t allow for turning over without rolling off (but when I roll off, my face is planted against the side wall of the tent, because remember it’s coffin-sized)–definitely no snuggly bed. If nature calls in the middle of the night, I must slither out of my little cocoon, find a light, my mountain money, my shoes, and a spot away from my tent, one hopefully void of poison ivy, a sleeping bear or snake, and then retreat back to my tent hoping I haven’t ventured too far away so as not to be able to find my way back, seeing how there’s no way to “leave the lights on”, and then try to get settled back in. My food pantry consists of the same thing over and over. It’s lightweight, sweet, fattening, high carb foods that cook quickly with little clean-up required. No real veggies or fruits, and extremely salty meats. Foods that literally gross me out at home are amazingly delicious on the trail.

I’ll smell like rotten food, have dirty hair, dirty clothes, sore muscles, torn up feet, I’ll get homesick, and probably get lost a time or two.

So why do I want to do this?–I don’t really know, but I can’t wait to. I’ve heard way too many times, “You must be a little crazy to do this.” Well, I guess so. Call me crazy. I like to call it “special”. Lol