Scoutmaster Musings

I've posted my trail journal, photos, and map from my short Appalachian Trail excursion. You can review it all at AT Hike page.

I've been out walking 4 to 8 miles on the local trail this past week to keep my knee moving. It's feeling much better and I will be spending days over the next month taking in some local hikes around the Twin Cities. I have a book titled "60 Hikes Within 60 Miles" for Minneapolis and I'll check out a few of those.

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I think a good question to ask yourself when you are participating in a recreational activity, such as a long hike, is: "Is the effort I'm expending worth the enjoyment I'm receiving?"

Most outdoor activities include some strenuous effort that result in rewards. For example, hiking to a mountain top, or paddling across a lake, or climbing up a cliff. Parts of the activity are grueling work, but the rewards of beautiful views, exciting rapids, or new terrain are worth the expected work.

When the answer to the question is "No, the effort is more than the rewards," then it's no longer recreational. And, I feel, it's time to stop. That happened to me earlier this week, for the first time on my long hikes.

My left knee became painful the second evening of my hike, most likely because I was pushing too hard on very rough, very steep, downhill portions of the trail. The next day, the discomfort grew until it hurt on every step - up, down, or level. For 3 more days, I continued on with the hope it would eventually work itself out but it maintained a fairly consistent irritation.

So, when I arrived in Duncannon, PA on Sunday night, I had a plan to visit a doctor in the morning and then make a decision. If the knee should feel better in 2 days or less, I would continue. If it would take longer than that, I could not afford to sit in a town for 3 days or more because I would miss my already small window of completing the trail before winter weather.

Monday morning, the doctor checked me out and said it looked solid with no major tearing and I could continue to walk on it - but recommended slower pace and even terrain. She said continuing my hike on the trail would most likely not make it worse, but it would not get a chance to heal and the pain could take a long time to abate.

This is when the question came up. A 2 hour debate with myself and I concluded: "No, I'm not enjoying this." The ongoing discomfort from the past 4 days would continue for the near future and I would not have fun.

I arranged a 20-mile shuttle to Hamburg, PA where I caught a 1,106-mile greyhound bus ride home. Late Tuesday night, after 24+ hours touring the country, I was home. I took yesterday to rest and come to grips in my head with my first long distance hiking failure.

Failure is the description that I keep coming back to for this hike. I had a goal to walk a certain distance in a certain time and reach the trail end. I failed to do that, actually didn't even come close. So, my trail record is now 3 wins and 1 lose. I completed the AZT, SHT, and IAT. I didn't complete my first effort with the AT.

It's pretty easy to start coming up with better ways to look at failed goals to make them not seem so bad. I hiked 123 miles in 5 days. I walked in 3 states - WV, MD, and PA. I learned a lot for future hikes. I met some interesting people. But, for now, I'm just sticking with 3-1 and admitting to myself that, however I look at it, I didn't reach my goal.

I'll share tomorrow some of the things I learned on this short trek and my plans for some shorter hikes the rest of this year.

PS: This picture is the last one I took on my hike. I am resting on a mountain before the final 600-foot steep, rocky, drop into Duncannon.

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The shelter I stayed in last night was 1.5 miles from a scout camp. The visitor registry had dozens of entries from scouts that had hiked there over the summer for their advancement requirements. Lots of fun to see. Other than that, haven't seen any scouts on the trail. But, met a hiker who is an Eagle scout.

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I walked 68165 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 32 miles today.
My first day on the Appalachian Trail has been spectacular! At Harper's Ferry, this sign started my journey at about 6:30am and I'm now settled in Cowell shelter almost 32 miles from my start. Check out my current location on the map. I've already met more hhikers than on my entire AZ Trail hike, but nearly all are day or short-trip folks. I found one guy that has been hiking the whole trail and is now following behind me. Another guy, Rising Star, let me hike with him to this shelter. He's a wealth of information, having hiked arund here often. He's heading to NY, but we'll separate tomorrrow. The cicadas are amazingly loud tonight as the sun has set and things cool down.

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Tomorrow starts this year's long hike for me. I'll be taking a plane to D.C., then bus, metro, and train to Harper's Ferry, WV where I'll find the Appalachian Trail.

The trail runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine which is about 2180 miles, but I'm only doing the northern 1165 miles this summer/fall - that's why I'm calling this my "Half Hike". Other commitments both in the earlier summer and in October have allowed me only 55 days to hike so this is how far I figured out I can go - at a pretty brisk pace.

About 2000 people or so start hiking from GA to ME each year and they all start around the same time. This creates a big bubble of people moving up the trail. Since they have different paces, the bubble spreads out the farther north it moves. I will be starting my hike at the very tail end of the bubble, and hopefully will catch up to hikers every day. I'm excited about this, but also a bit concerned...

Who will I most likely find on the trail? Well, those that are slow, injured, or got a late start. Possibly people not having a really good time. But, they've all made it over 1000 miles, so I plan to be as encouraging as I can, and learn as much from them as I can quickly.

I'm starting on a fairly easy area of the trail so I have a few hundred miles to "warm up" before reaching what seems to me like the most challenging part - the White Mountains. Since I'm hitting these barren mountain tops late in the season, I will see cold temps and possibly snow. I'm hoping for a warm, dry Indian Summer in the northeast! :-)

As usual, you can follow my progress here since I'll be carrying my Spot tracker that will blip to a satellite every 15 minutes or so, and I'll be blogging every day.

I've made it possible to read comments you leave here on my cellphone and reply to them - assuming I have coverage out there. Just a 'howdy' can be a real boost when I've been plodding down the trail for days on end, so I look forward to hearing from you.

Also, I would appreciate it if you could tell any hiker friends you might have about my hike so they can follow along.

Finally, anyone living anywhere near the Appalachian Trail is welcome to contact me and hike along. An unexpected night off the trail at someone's house has always been a great surprise!

Hike On

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With the blog being dormant for the past few months, I've had a few folks ask, "Where are you?" - not many, but a couple.

Well, that little thing called 'life' has gotten in the way of blogging. And, unfortunately, not much of life has involved Scouting. Passing on the scoutmaster position to another volunteer, giving unit commissioner a try, and helping with a new troop (that didn't work out) all resulted in my actual scouting time dropping to nearly nil.

But, I have trained about 150 Scouts and Scouters in Red Cross Wilderness First Aid this year, helping them prepare for those high adventures. I even did a crash course for a troop 2 days before their plane left for SeaBase and they had missed the step about certification being required! It all worked out.

There have also been some Leave No Trace talks and lightweight backpacking presentations to some scout troops interested in those things.

So, I've been doing Scouting support, but nothing really too interesting that would help you all deliver a better program.

Now, I'll be gone hiking for awhile. Last year, I did the 1,100 mile Ice Age Trail through Wisconsin and before that the 800 mile Arizona Trail. This year's adventure is what I call a "Half Hike" of the Appalachian Trail.

I'll tell you a bit more about it tomorrow, but just wanted to let those two people know I'm still here. And, I'll be blogging from the trail starting in a couple days.

Scout On

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