WELCOME TO THE PACK

My First Backpacking Trip Plan & Hello New Hiking Friends

It is a chilly, rainy evening at my home base in Pittsburgh. Memorial Day weekend. A time that, to many, signals the unofficial start to summer. It doesn’t feel like that to me today, as I type, sipping hot Moroccan mint tea, wearing long sleeves and a beanie, a pile of collected treasures for outdoor adventures and my upcoming backpacking trip spread out in front of me, taunting.

It has been awhile since I’ve written an update on my journey to backpacking - I’ve been busy. Over the past few months I’ve taken a head first dive into: training workouts, researching and collecting gear, falling asleep to backpacking videos on YouTube, dreaming up a list of trails I’d like to plan trips on, and planning an epic backpacking weekend with my long time friend, Dan and his wife Naomi.

I hoped to get some spring backpacking in to test my gear and hone my skills on some of the popular trails in the region, including a thru hike on the 70 mile Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail (LHHT). That hasn’t happened -- yet, but I am still hopeful to fit it into the season. It’s hard for me to convince my non-backpacker friends to commit to the fun of a multi-day hiking trip, and I hope my frequent trip proposals aren’t too tiring for them.

While I haven’t had the opportunity to field test my gear like I wanted to, I’ve been able to put in a lot of trail miles with a 20-25 pound weighted pack. I’m making progress toward my 500-mile hiking goal for 2021, and toward completing the local Rachel Carson Trail (RCT) 35-mile “Challenge” route. The Rachel Carson Trail Challenge will host around 600 participants, many vying to complete the full 35-mile route in a single 15 hour and 4 minute day on Father’s Day weekend. The plans I’m using divide the route into four 7-10 mile hikes, and the elevation gains are still challenging!

I recently started an exciting new job at my favorite outdoor store, 3 Rivers Outdoor Company (3ROC), where I’ve been learning a lot about outdoor technical gear and making new friends to share adventures with. Getting to know more people with shared interests through 3ROC’s Tuesday Night Trail Run club and volunteer events have been a game changer, and I’m thankful that the last year has made me more open to sharing experiences with people I don’t know well. I love getting messages from local hikers that are interested in hiking or backpacking together and I can’t wait to meet and share miles with some new friends!

But, today I am fully feeling the deflation and determination that I saw on so many faces at the store on Friday as they geared up to salvage their best made plans for the long weekend, adapting those plans at the last minute for rain and chilly weather. Friday night, I finally checked the forecast for the White Mountains region of New Hampshire, where I am set to backpack the difficult 22-mile Presidential Traverse route next weekend. The forecast is a wash -- rain all weekend. But this region is known for weather conditions that can change on a dime, so… fingers crossed.

I’ve been pretty buttoned up about my plans to hike the Presidential Traverse, aside from discussions with close friends and contacts, but this trip has been in the works since the end of 2020. I didn’t want to jinx it by broadcasting it to the world. This specific backpacking route that tackles eight of the 4,000+ foot peaks in the Presidential Range has become personally important since my summit of Mt. Washington last summer. A summit day that was a mix of triumph, heartbreak, and beating (by chance) the notorious “worst weather” in the high peaks of the Whites; read the story if you haven’t already. That day on that famous mountain hammered into my mind the fact that for as much training and preparation as you do, the weather is the great determining factor that is completely out of your control. Even worse when you don’t have the luxury of flexibility to wait out bad weather.

For the next few days, I'll be crossing every finger and sending positive vibes and wishes for good weather out into the universe. I had a call with Dan over the weekend to discuss our rain plan. We have a few backup trails planned, but an all out regional wash of rainy weather makes things difficult. We've decided to head towards the Whites as planned, and make the most of whatever weather comes our way. If the past year has taught us anything, it is the constant need to adapt and to try to let go of the stressors that are beyond our control. “Let it wash over you like the waves of the ocean,” I frequently tell my friends. It is a continuing practice.

Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing information about the gear I’ve chosen for my first backpacking kit on Instagram and Facebook. Tune in to check out my new purple(!) pack, everything that goes inside it, and how much it weighs! After the trip, I’ll follow up with my review of the gear I used along with the complete story of my first backpacking trip. Come rain or shine, Live Wildly!

Mount Washington, Tuckerman Ravine, August 2019