Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays / Happy New Year everyone! So it’s been over 3 months since we’ve finished our hike and we’re back to the “real” world. I’ve been a lazy bum about finishing this post as promised for no particular reason, but I finally did it. I’d like to give many thanks again to everyone who helped us out (our parents especially), sent us goodies, donated to our gofundme campaign, sent us well-wishes, and followed along in any capacity. I don’t think we could have done it without that support.
Anyway, here’s the day in the life video – apologies for the Blair Witch Project-esque jumpiness. Also, please be forewarned that I drop a few curse words in this.
This was filmed all in one day of hiking in New York on Friday, July 18th. Here’s the blog post from that day if you were interested.
And here are the “stats” –
Final stats :
# of miles hiked – 2185.3 plus a lot more to get water, to get into towns, to find campsites, to go to shelters, etc.
Start date – Wednesday, April 16, 2014
End date – Monday, September 15, 2014
# of total days – 153
# of hiking days – 132
# of full zero days taken – 21
Average miles hiked per hiking day (doesn’t include zero days) – 16.56
# of steps (approximately) – 5 million
Total pairs of sneakers used – 4 (Cowboy), 5 (Trippy)
# of states hiked – 14
# of bears seen – 12
# of campfires lit – 3 (usually too tired or hot to bother)
Favorite state – no contest – Maine (C, T)
Most challenging state – Maine (C), New Hampshire (T)
Most challenging section – no contest – Gorham, NH to Andover, ME (Mahoosuc range in western Maine) (C, T)
Favorite section in 2nd half – Rangeley, ME to Monson, ME (C, T)
Favorite overall section – Rangeley, ME to Monson, ME (C), tie between Rangeley, ME to Monson, ME and Hot Springs, NC to Damascus, VA (T)
Least favorite overall section – Duncannon, PA to Delaware Water Gap, PA (C), Massachusetts to Bennington, VT (T)
Best overall view – Avery Peak, ME (C, T)
Biggest surprise – amount of rock scrambling required in the Whites (C), New England terrain in general (T)
Biggest annoyance – bugs and water-logged trails (in Massachusetts) (C), mosquitos and descending sheer rock slabs in New England (T)
Favorite overall zero day town – Rangeley, ME (C, T) (Gorham, NH and North Woodstock, NH were close)
Favorite unplanned stop – Cornwall Bridge, CT (C, T)
Favorite 2nd half town we didn’t zero in but should have – Salisbury, CT (C, T)
Favorite overall town we didn’t zero in but should have – Front Royal, VA (C, T)
Best 2nd half accommodations – Autumn Breeze Motel North Woodstock, NH (C), Town and Lake Motel Rangeley, ME (T)
Best overall accommodations – Tree Streets Inn Waynesboro, VA (C), Hiker’s Inn Damascus, VA (T)
Worst overall accommodations – Uncle Johnnys Hostel Erwin, TN (C), Budget Inn Franklin, NC (T)
Hardest climb – Mahoosuc Arm, ME and Katahdin (C), Wildcat Peak E, Whites, NH (T)
Sorest 2nd half body part – knees (C), back and shoulders (T)
Food that we packed before the hike started that became the most unappealing – oatmeal (C), everything (T)
Grocery store food most craved – Mexican rice sides (C), Pop-Tarts and Velveeta shells and cheese with tuna (T)
Town food that was most craved – wings and beer (C), iced coffee (T)
Best breakfast – Little Red Hen, Andover, ME (C, T)
Best town meal – Forks in the Air Mountain Bistro, Rangeley, ME (C), SAaLT Pub, Gorham, NC (T)
Thing most missed about the trail – Relatively stress free living (C), Simplicity of life (T)
Thing least missed about the trail – Worrying about weather (C), Lack of toilet and bugs (T)
Would you do it again if asked immediately after finishing? – Maybe (C), No (T)
Would you do it again? – Yes (C, T)
For the fellow nerds out there, I made some graphs of our mileage hiking data.