My final maildrop will actually be off the trail, but it's where I'll go to immediately after finishing. And I'll be there through Thanksgiving, where I can properly post some pictures and such on here:
Cameron Bynum
2561 Lake Flair Cir NE
Atlanta, GA 30345
per Jenn's request.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
More on Diet
So hikers eat the same foods over and over again. Next time you're at the grocery store, try shopping like a hiker: Nothing perishable, nothing bulky, nothing heavy, nothing that requires a refrigerator, freezer, microwave, oven, or toaster. If it's more than one serving its packaging has to be resealable. And nothing that can get "smushed". What you're left with is the diet of a diabetic: cookie, chips, peanut butter. Which is reinforced by the fact that some of your "grocery stores" are just gas stations with gas station food anyway. Once you've bought it all, carry every scrap with you for the next week, including all the trash, even from the first meal (unless you smartly eat a bunch of food in the parking lot). As I've mentioned you burn about 3xit the average daily calorie intake, so hikers often have the appetite of a stoned anorexic.
Men typically lose about 20-30 lbs on a thru hike. My favorite part of preparing for this trip was the couple weeks leading up to my hike where I...sat around and gained 20 lbs. The day I started was the most I've ever weighed in my life (195 lbs). At one point in this hike I had lost as many as 35 lbs (down to 160) but I've gained about 10 lbs in the last month or so and overall I'm about 5 lbs less than what I weighed 6 months ago (and in the middle of the range I've been in for a few years, between 165-180.
Men hold excess weight around their belly (apple-shaped), and that fat gets burned away in a hike. But your abs aren't really used hiking, so the only 6-packs you'll find on hikers are preexisting ones. Women, on the other hand, do not lose any weight. They gain a little if anything. This is because women tend to hold excess weight in their butt, hips, and thighs (pear-shaped). And those muscles ARE used in hiking, so fat is not just cut away but turned into muscle, which is of course denser. This is all just my theory, and there are exceptions. One of my fellow (male) hikers has lost over 50 lbs, while another (male) has miraculously gained about 15 lbs. But my appetite has somewhat settled down (Half Gallon Challenge Notwithstanding) since the beginning, as this caloric intake and consumption rate has long become my body's norm.
Anyone who thinks a thru hiker eats a very organic diet is mistaken. We are stuck with far too many processed foods, out of geographic isolation and caloric need.
Some Typical Meals:
1) Generic Captain Crunch and Nutella in a Tortilla.
2) Smushed Bananas and Peanut Butter, on Smushed Bread.
3) Chia Seeds, Lentils, and Peanut Butter.
4) Half a Gallon of Ice Cream.
I recommend absolutely none of these meals.
Men typically lose about 20-30 lbs on a thru hike. My favorite part of preparing for this trip was the couple weeks leading up to my hike where I...sat around and gained 20 lbs. The day I started was the most I've ever weighed in my life (195 lbs). At one point in this hike I had lost as many as 35 lbs (down to 160) but I've gained about 10 lbs in the last month or so and overall I'm about 5 lbs less than what I weighed 6 months ago (and in the middle of the range I've been in for a few years, between 165-180.
Men hold excess weight around their belly (apple-shaped), and that fat gets burned away in a hike. But your abs aren't really used hiking, so the only 6-packs you'll find on hikers are preexisting ones. Women, on the other hand, do not lose any weight. They gain a little if anything. This is because women tend to hold excess weight in their butt, hips, and thighs (pear-shaped). And those muscles ARE used in hiking, so fat is not just cut away but turned into muscle, which is of course denser. This is all just my theory, and there are exceptions. One of my fellow (male) hikers has lost over 50 lbs, while another (male) has miraculously gained about 15 lbs. But my appetite has somewhat settled down (Half Gallon Challenge Notwithstanding) since the beginning, as this caloric intake and consumption rate has long become my body's norm.
Anyone who thinks a thru hiker eats a very organic diet is mistaken. We are stuck with far too many processed foods, out of geographic isolation and caloric need.
Some Typical Meals:
1) Generic Captain Crunch and Nutella in a Tortilla.
2) Smushed Bananas and Peanut Butter, on Smushed Bread.
3) Chia Seeds, Lentils, and Peanut Butter.
4) Half a Gallon of Ice Cream.
I recommend absolutely none of these meals.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Russian Dolls
So as I mentioned in the last post, I'm well over halfway. I'm even finally out of Virginia, after spending Lent there (about 40 days). If you look at a map of the AT and I've done this crazy distance with only this tiny bit yet to go.
Have you ever gone and seen a 3-hour movie in the theater? It's great, but towards the end you get a little squirmy and shift in your chair and maybe sneak a look at your watch. You're not remotely considering leaving the theater before the movie ends, but you want them to wrap things up already. Dragon's slain, princess's rescued. Let's happily ever after and get those credits rolling already.
Right, that feeling lasts, what, 10 minutes? I'll even say 30. While I'm pretty much just about all done I still have a month to go and 500 miles to walk. Do you know what it's like to hike 500 miles? I do, and it's not always fun. Especially when I wake up with everything soaked, hike about 16 miles on the day, 14-15 of which were uphill, and then give up on getting to the shelter that would have been 18 miles for the day, pitch my tent in the rain (never fun) and do it all again tomorrow. The problem is we know what these remaining weeks are going to be like. We know exactly because we've been hiking for 4 1/2 months. And if you do that you have a pretty good idea of what it's like to hike 5 1/2 months. And you don't want to do it. The novelty has worn off, and you all too familiar with the lifestyle. Worst of all the only reason you're still going forward is to be able to tell people later that you hiked the whole thing, rather than 90% and then you stopped because you got the gist of it. It is incredibly difficult to motivate yourself to do something when your only motivation is to talk about it later. Because that's a BS reason to do something. Earlier today a fellow hiker broke down literally crying (I won't name names). I had to give him a gooud long reassuring hug as he groaned/sobbed "I hate hiking I'm so sick of it" etc. We passed a very bleak gravestone today. We've passed a few cemeteries along the AT but this marker was fittingly alone: Mr Grindstaff (I forgot his first name), 1840-1890(ish). And on his tombstone, the man's life was summed up thusly: "he lived alone, he suffered alone, he died alone." Seriously. Incredibly bleak and macabre stuff. And the tears were before that.
All this said I still have some fun times and enjoyed going through a cow paster today. But, mentally, these are the hardest miles of the whole trip.
Have you ever gone and seen a 3-hour movie in the theater? It's great, but towards the end you get a little squirmy and shift in your chair and maybe sneak a look at your watch. You're not remotely considering leaving the theater before the movie ends, but you want them to wrap things up already. Dragon's slain, princess's rescued. Let's happily ever after and get those credits rolling already.
Right, that feeling lasts, what, 10 minutes? I'll even say 30. While I'm pretty much just about all done I still have a month to go and 500 miles to walk. Do you know what it's like to hike 500 miles? I do, and it's not always fun. Especially when I wake up with everything soaked, hike about 16 miles on the day, 14-15 of which were uphill, and then give up on getting to the shelter that would have been 18 miles for the day, pitch my tent in the rain (never fun) and do it all again tomorrow. The problem is we know what these remaining weeks are going to be like. We know exactly because we've been hiking for 4 1/2 months. And if you do that you have a pretty good idea of what it's like to hike 5 1/2 months. And you don't want to do it. The novelty has worn off, and you all too familiar with the lifestyle. Worst of all the only reason you're still going forward is to be able to tell people later that you hiked the whole thing, rather than 90% and then you stopped because you got the gist of it. It is incredibly difficult to motivate yourself to do something when your only motivation is to talk about it later. Because that's a BS reason to do something. Earlier today a fellow hiker broke down literally crying (I won't name names). I had to give him a gooud long reassuring hug as he groaned/sobbed "I hate hiking I'm so sick of it" etc. We passed a very bleak gravestone today. We've passed a few cemeteries along the AT but this marker was fittingly alone: Mr Grindstaff (I forgot his first name), 1840-1890(ish). And on his tombstone, the man's life was summed up thusly: "he lived alone, he suffered alone, he died alone." Seriously. Incredibly bleak and macabre stuff. And the tears were before that.
All this said I still have some fun times and enjoyed going through a cow paster today. But, mentally, these are the hardest miles of the whole trip.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Rank, Order, & the Train
So, 4 months into it, I know who the other Sobos are. We all move along, and the people around me are like people in the same compartment of a train as we hike South. Want to see what the people ahead of you are up to? Just push hard and hike a long day, and you'll be in the next "train compartment". Sick of those people? Take a slow day or a day off, and you'll see all the people in that other car again. Whenever I take a day, I'll get back to the trail and discover those great guys I haven't seen since Connecticut. I didn't think I'd see them again, but they knew they'd been gaining on me for weeks. Likewise I know everything about the people in front of me, and nothing about those behind me. This is part of why some people want to get to the front of the train, as if that somehow makes them the conductor of the train. These competitive conquerors think that finishing the trail first makes them the best hiker. There is no ranking out here, and the guy who sprinted through everything missed some of the finer things, and end up with the shortest vacation. A 10 mile day out here is better than any day at work. A 25 mile day is not. I've done big-mile days, but they suck. They're the days you hike all day long, and do nothing else. I like getting sidetracked by towns or conversations or natural wonders. And at this point, a lot of people are trying to push to finish by a certain date. Not me. I'm going to still enjoy every day and (gasp!) finish a week or two after all these people who are sick of the trail and are just wanting to finish.
We're at that funky spot where we're well over over halfway, but still have a long way to go. To quote Julia, the person who inspired me to do this thru hike: "I was past the 1/2 way point, and my psyche shifted. That happens to me in almost all things - whether I'm reading a novel, writing a paper, in a tough work-out, or even on a vacation. The second half is less easy to hold onto one's in-the-moment-zen thing." All the other hikers I've been talking to are all talking about what they have to average to finish by certain dates, and what they're going to do after being done with the trail. But they still have a month to go (and I have roughly 6 weeks), and that's a lot of time to just look forward to the next thing, since this one is almost done. But I'm rejecting that, and even though it means I'll be closer to the Caboose, I'll be having a better time, and stop and smell the flowers. That's part of the point of a thru hike. If I was in that big of a hurry, I'd just drive to Georgia.
We're at that funky spot where we're well over over halfway, but still have a long way to go. To quote Julia, the person who inspired me to do this thru hike: "I was past the 1/2 way point, and my psyche shifted. That happens to me in almost all things - whether I'm reading a novel, writing a paper, in a tough work-out, or even on a vacation. The second half is less easy to hold onto one's in-the-moment-zen thing." All the other hikers I've been talking to are all talking about what they have to average to finish by certain dates, and what they're going to do after being done with the trail. But they still have a month to go (and I have roughly 6 weeks), and that's a lot of time to just look forward to the next thing, since this one is almost done. But I'm rejecting that, and even though it means I'll be closer to the Caboose, I'll be having a better time, and stop and smell the flowers. That's part of the point of a thru hike. If I was in that big of a hurry, I'd just drive to Georgia.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Shenadoahs
So as I mentioned in the last post, Virginia goes on forever. But it's broken up into different sections. The first bit was the last of my deja Vu, and then I entered Shenadoah National Park, a rather narrow mountain range that stretches for ~75-100 miles. It was great for wildlife. I saw 12-15 bears, 10,000 deer, some rabbits and turkeys, plus all the usuals. And even though it's wild by a lot of people's standards, there are actually a few waysides (basically gas stations) along the way, as the trail weaves past Skyline Drive, so I didn't have to carry as much food, or had to carry my trash as long, and only had to filter water from creeks once or twice the whole time, as they had running water too. Talk about luxury.
A week or two after the Shenadoahs I got an even more luxurious treat. I went and visited Nicole, a girl I have long-standing feelings for. And that affection is at least somewhat reciprocated, as she was willing to drive a couple hours to come pick me up, and gave me a bed to sleep in and some good food and she showed me around her town in, get this, a car! Plus I got a few showers and a load of laundry, though that was more for her benefit than mine. Nicole works a tough shift at the hospital (she luckily wasn't on call the weekend I came, and I was able to spend a solid 48 hours with her, from Friday evening to Sunday evening. That was best from her schedule, of course, as hikers have no idea what day of the week it is, since we have no weekends. Usually good on the date though (today is Sep 20, day 112 of my trip). Nicole works a job where you really shouldn't go to the restroom, as you then have to thoroughly rescrub before returning to surgery or whatever. I was in a condition where, despite the cold and somewhat rainy weather, we had to drive with the windows down, and my smell really lingered in her house, even after multiple showers. Not exactly the best condition to see someone you have a crush on, and the weekend might have been two steps forward, one step back with her. But that's still positive. I'll make sure to be cleanshaven and superclean and wearing a tuxedo the next time I see her, and she'll forget about that dirty hairy smelly version of me that showed up while I was hiking the trail. About 2/3 of the way done with the whole trail. Yay.
A week or two after the Shenadoahs I got an even more luxurious treat. I went and visited Nicole, a girl I have long-standing feelings for. And that affection is at least somewhat reciprocated, as she was willing to drive a couple hours to come pick me up, and gave me a bed to sleep in and some good food and she showed me around her town in, get this, a car! Plus I got a few showers and a load of laundry, though that was more for her benefit than mine. Nicole works a tough shift at the hospital (she luckily wasn't on call the weekend I came, and I was able to spend a solid 48 hours with her, from Friday evening to Sunday evening. That was best from her schedule, of course, as hikers have no idea what day of the week it is, since we have no weekends. Usually good on the date though (today is Sep 20, day 112 of my trip). Nicole works a job where you really shouldn't go to the restroom, as you then have to thoroughly rescrub before returning to surgery or whatever. I was in a condition where, despite the cold and somewhat rainy weather, we had to drive with the windows down, and my smell really lingered in her house, even after multiple showers. Not exactly the best condition to see someone you have a crush on, and the weekend might have been two steps forward, one step back with her. But that's still positive. I'll make sure to be cleanshaven and superclean and wearing a tuxedo the next time I see her, and she'll forget about that dirty hairy smelly version of me that showed up while I was hiking the trail. About 2/3 of the way done with the whole trail. Yay.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Deja Vu
I've spent the last ~2 weeks repeating the section of the trail I did last summer, although in the opposite direction from how I went before, so I'm remembering everything in reverse order of how I did it. And as much as I dislike the Conquerors who race through areas, I'd purposely planned to cruise through here, since I'd already done it. I have occasionally stopped to say "oh my god, I remember camping here!" pointing at a random patch of ground, but for the most part I have skipped viewpoints and such and done some of my highest (mileage) days. But now I'm entering Virginia. If you add the miles of ME and PA together (the 2nd- and 3rd-longest states, respectively)you get less than Virginia. I never knew it was that large of a state. The AT goes all the way down the panhandle of VA, and with switchbacks and such it's well over 500 miles, or over 1/4 of the whole trail. So I'll be here for a month. Great.
Food and Hunger
Hikers typically burn around 6,000 calories a day, or approximately 3x the average daily human intake. This leads to an unsatisfiable appetite that's a stoned anorexic's dream. You can eat whatever you want and you're hungry again a few minutes later. Some hikers (and some of the towns along the trail) reinforce this, and there are a lot of food challenges, like "eat the whole pizza and it's free". I've passed on most of these, but did do the one that is most famous among the hiker community: the Half Gallon Challenge. At a small store almost exactly halfway through the entire AT (in Southern PA)hikers can celebrate completing half of their journey by eating a half gallon of ice cream. It's over 3,000 calories (or again 1.5x what most people eat in an entire day) and I ate it in 34 minutes. And was hungry again and ate some peanuts within an hour after finishing it. It was actually great fuel and I did one of my highest (miles) days the day I ate it.
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