Category: Appalachian Trail

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July Walks: Unfamiliar Trails

July 11,2024

This has been another two-walk day. What was different was that both walks were on unfamiliar trails where I had not yet walked. In the morning, I met my new friend Antoinette at Rentschler Forest Preserve near Hamilton, OH. That’s close to her and on my way to an appointment with a chiropractor I like.
I have been walking solo so much during the past year that I had forgotten the joy and ease of walking with a friend, sharing conversation, exploring our life stories and challenges too, stopping at scenic spots to listen and watch in silence.  We agreed that we must meet again! read more

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July Walks: Inner Voice

July 8,2024

I took two walks today, morning and early evening. I felt deep gratitude for listening to my inner walking voice instead of my cynical voice that would have gone straight home after visiting my Mom, giving in to the discouraged bewilderment of the assisted living environment.

“Go walk,” said my inner walker, who knew that 45 minutes of walking on an undulating trail through woods would breathe out my frustration and remind my brain of balance and beauty. I’m enjoying pretending I’m on the Appalachian Trail by carrying my pack and sitting at a picnic table under the expansive sky rejoicing in my walk. read more

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July Walks: Pretend Appalachian Trail Idea

July 7, 2024

Today, I felt the urge to walk first thing! I walked an hour in my neighborhood park in the freshness of sunrise. I took a 30-minute breakfast break at home, then drove over to Taylorsville Metropark. I walked the same circuit as I did yesterday in the opposite direction, taking me first down the hill to the bank of the Great Miami River. The melodic rippling of the shallow water was mesmerizing, and I listened to the call to stay for a spell, emphasis on “spell”. I recorded words in my favorite Cinquaine form. read more

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July Walks: Heart Refreshed

July 5, 2024

First is to celebrate middle son, Adam’s 38th birthday! Next is to celebrate my heart refreshed on my walk in the cool morning forest! It always surprises me how amazing it is to step from the neighborhood street into the park. The only thing better would be walking all day and staying out. Oh, right! That’s what long-distance walks are all about. Time to plan one! Now, I’m aiming for July 13&14, maybe  in Virginia.

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Love Your Gear: New Shoes

Blue Altra Running Shoes
Nice wide toe box and cushy feel

I need to update my list of 20 or so pairs of shoes I’ve worn since I started walking in service to others. It’s February, 2024, and I need bigger shoes! There’s a pun there, I know! Something about “those are some big shoes to fill”. Hmm. Maybe my own purpose is getting bigger, so I need bigger shoes?? Anyway, since that time walking on the Continental Divide Trail in 2013 when my shoes felt just too small and I bought a pair of used Reeboks with pink trim in a second-hand store in a trail town, my shoe size has increased again! read more

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How to Start Your Appalachian Trail Walk

I’ve walked the Appalachian Trail twice, plus another 2,000 miles working as an Appalachian Trail Conservancy ridgerunner for seven seasons.. How did I start all this? By locating the nearest trailhead to my home and setting foot on the trail. That one hour greeting let me hear my call to the trail “If I just keep walking, I can get all the way to Maine!”

Next step: a half day walk with my husband, exchanging the car key in the middle as we walked in opposite directions. Over the next four years, we built up to a full month on the trail, two trips per year, from over night to three nights, a week, two weeks. There are landmark steps, I think: read more

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Getting Started on the Appalachian Trail

“I think I want to do a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. How should I prepare for that?”

Here’s my answer:

Go out for a day, then a night, then three or four nights. Go out for short walks in all four seasons to test your gear. One landmark in preparation is to go out long enough to have a resupply or maildrop, say 8-10 days. With the experience of finishing a 3-5 day section, taking a townstop, then going back out, you’ll have the basic idea of a long distance walk, which is really a long string of 4-day walks without going home in between! That’s the best part of long distance journeys. Resupply, rest, cleaning up and going back out!! read more

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Call for an Inner Journey

November 16, 2019

I read this in a women’s hiking blog.

“Can I just rant for a moment?I’ve posted before about having to come off SOBO due to my knee this year. Also mentioned I had surgery in Sept for it. They did a couple things and I was excited that I’d get another go at it next June.Well.. nearly 2.5 months later, the original pain I was having is gone, but now I’m having more pain, just in different spots. When I stand straight I get a sharp pain at the bottom of my knee. Feels like bone on bone. Best way to describe it. Then also when I go from having a straight leg to bend it.. it gets stuck, a lot and it hurts.Saw the ortho again this morning and they gave me a steroid shot. From the sounds of it, the effects are supposed to be pretty immediate. Not for me! Still having pain and just before I decided to make this post, my knee got stuck and hurt so bad trying to unlock it. read more

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Thruhiker Celebrity?

“Thruhikers are celebrities!” I read that in a women’s hiking group and chuckled. I don’t feel special! I walked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia within a year’s time, so I am a thruhiker.

As a thruhiker, how I know about myself is that I fulfilled my dream of being able to say, “I walked the AT”. I feel true to myself, that I listened to my heart and did what it took to walk one day at a time – and keep walking! So, if doing that makes me a celebrity, great. More than fame, however, what I want to do is entice others to create their own walks wherever they are, on the Appalachian Trail or in the neighborhood park! I want to help you discern what your equivalent of the Appalachian Trail is and step into fulfilling that dream! read more