Last night I freaked out so much that my core temperature felt close to boiling. My pack was way too heavy and I couldn't imagine being able to carry it for more than 30 minutes max. I spent a lot of time going through it and cutting things that I could have sent to me later. I ended up being able to shed some weight, thankfully. I was having a mix of unimaginable excitement for the journey ahead and absolute fear of its difficulty. The bus ride up was absolutely crazy because it was the first step- I kept thinking "holy cow I'm actually doing this!" I had to transfer buses in New York city, which is where I'll be going to school in January, so I got to ride around the city and see what lies ahead.
My best friend, Maggie, got me a card with a cookie flexing its "arms" and it said "One tough cookie!" Haha oh my, if I had only known how valuable that would be in the days to come.
I even had a surprise preparation test to pass before leaving! I somehow managed to get my first ever tick in D.C. before even stepping foot on the trail! Haha I wish I could've seen myself trying to get that tick off of my side. Ryan was there too, so it was pretty hilarious having two people who don't exactly know to do with a tick trying to remove one.
In the evening, I was picked up from the bus station in Millinocket, ME along with 4 other southbound hikers (Biff, Will, Bill, and Justin), who I would start the beginning of my journey with. We were taken to the Appalachian Trail Lodge's Cafe, where I stuffed myself silly with chicken alfredo in preparation for Mt. Katahdin in the morning. At the lodge I met Bomber, a really awesome northbound hiker who had just finished that day. He helped me go through my pack and figure out what to leave, what to save for later, and what to keep. There was one thing that I was advised to ditch that jolted the girly girl inside of me- no deoderant! It attracts too many bugs out in nature and I wouldn't want to subject all the hikers near me to so many bugs! So, I'm getting used to the idea of just letting nature be nature and being a little smelly. I'm excited to actually get to sense people's nature and nature alone. He also figured out that I didn't have enough food- mainly bars- to get me through the 100 mile wilderness. Bomber offered to get some bars for me and give them to me when I got done with Katahdin the next day. <-- my first trail magic! The next morning he stuck the bars in my pack along with a note that would also become very valuable to me on the trail. I went to bed ready to eat a huge breakfast in the morning and then hike a mountain!
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