Now that I’ve posted all my journal entries from the trip, it’s time for a wrap-up.

It was a great adventure, even if we didn’t hike as far or camp as much as expected. We experienced the park like most people never will and I marked two items off my life to-do list. I was very disappointed in the section of the Appalachian Trail that we hiked, but I don’t think that’s representative of the whole. Or maybe it is… I’m going to check into that. Actually, it was more the whole southern district of Shenandoah National Park that was the disappointment. We didn’t see or hear many animals in the south, nor were there many spectacular views. The central district was much, much better.

As I wrote before the trip, I thought we could easily do 20 miles a day. In reality, that did not turn out to be the case. I think we could have done the 20 miles without packs, but have 30 lbs or more strapped to your back changes things a little. I didn’t take that into account.

Also, I was dumb enough to think we didn’t need to be conditioned to do the trail. Sure, I hike locally on occasion, but I’ve only done 15 miles in one day before. Mindy and I should have hiked more often and longer distances before we hit the trail.

Thankfully, I held up fine physically. I only had one blister, at the base of my big toe on my left foot, and that didn’t effect my walking at all. Though the pack hurt my shoulders, it wasn’t a lasting discomfort. Once I took the pack off, they were fine. My legs were never sore and neither was my back. I was worried that my back would cause me the worst pain, but it didn’t hurt at all.

One area that I need to work on for next time is food/cooking. This is three-fold. First, we never got into a regular routine for our meals. I munched on snack bars throughout the day and didn’t fix an actual meal but for a few times. I bet we would have had more energy and been able to hike further if we had three “real” meals throughout the day.

Second, I packed too much of the wrong type of food. I brought backpacker meals, the freeze-dried kind, along with the snack bars. If I had thought more about it, I’m sure there were many other meals I could have bought at a grocery store that would have been less expensive and more appetizing.

Third, the pots I brought were mostly useless. They weren’t stable on the stove and took up too much room in the pack. For the next trip, I’ll get “flatter” pots, something to measure with and a plate to eat from.

As far as hygiene, I was well prepared. I didn’t find myself wanting something I didn’t have. While I probably didn’t smell like roses, I at least felt fresh each morning and clean enough for bed at night.

One thing that surprised me is how much I relied on my trekking poles. I haven’t really used them effectively for my shorter local hikes, but I could not have made it out of the canyon without them. Along the way, I think we also summited four mountains - Bear Den, Little Calf, Turk’s and Pollack’s Knob - and they helped with that as well.

All in all, it was good to be out in nature for a week, and away from the office. It was a good learning experience for future trips. Maybe I’ll hit the section of the A.T. in the Smokey Mountains next time - as long as it’s a scenic trail.