Sunshine Prepares for the Appalachian Trail

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We were often told by past thru-hikers that it is difficult to adjust to town life upon return. They were right! Neither one of us could sleep without the windows open for several weeks. I had a hard time staying asleep in a real bed. I was perpetually sick for the first two months off trail after losing 30 pounds and many essential vitamins and minerals. The only thing keeping us from going stir crazy was the promise of a new trail. I cannot imagine the inner turmoil of those who never have another opportunity to thru-hike. When we were not at work or in school, much of our winter was consumed with preparations for the Appalachian Trail.

Sunshine has absorbed herself with school and violin. In fact, she currently has a 4.0 GPA. I have been working hard in my trade as a journeyman electrician to earn enough for another thru-hike. It gave me a great deal of peace of mind when my last employer emailed me while still on the PCT to let me know that they had a job waiting for me.

I made it a priority to take my youngest daughter, Butterfly on overnight adventures, including hot springs and snowshoeing into nordic shelters. My wonderful wife Teresa spent as much time with Sunshine as her Masters studies and interim teaching position allowed. We have all been so busy, yet feel abundantly blessed.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Re-entry
Getting Started on the Appalachian Trail
Bugs and Rain and Fauna, Oh My!
Gear Overview
Food
Clean Water for Others

# WORDS: 1960
# PHOTOS: 9

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Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 29 total)

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Mar 27, 2012 at 12:50 pm #1287912

Addie Bedford
BPL Member

@addiebedford
Locale: Montana

Companion forum thread to:

Sunshine Prepares for the Appalachian Trail

Mar 27, 2012 at 1:15 pm #1860057

Mary D
BPL Member

@hikinggranny
Locale: Gateway to Columbia River Gorge

Go, Sunshine, go!!!

Mar 27, 2012 at 2:15 pm #1860103

James Castleberry
Member

@winterland76

I will be eagerly anticipating the stories! Good luck!

Mar 28, 2012 at 5:51 am #1860369

Ryan Linn
Member

@ryan-c-linn
Locale: Maine!

You two are rock stars. I hope you enjoy your trip to the east!

Mar 28, 2012 at 6:05 am #1860371

Louis Brooks
Member

@louisb
Locale: North Adirolf

Are you doing a trail journal? I would like to follow along on your trip.

edit: Just found your trail journal. http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=364996

Thanks,

–louis

Mar 28, 2012 at 6:48 am #1860376

Chad Miller
Member

@chadnsc
Locale: Duluth, Minnesota

Eric your little girls and adorable!

Mar 28, 2012 at 6:56 am #1860379

Jim Cowdery
BPL Member

@james-cowdery
Locale: South Florida

I am envious! My daughter, Jukebox, finished the trail in 2009 at age 18. It has been my dream to thru-hike for several years but I have only been able to section hike. I did manage to do a few sections with her including her finish at Springer Mountain.

And if you really want to be southern all-y’all need to be safe and have a good time!!

Mar 28, 2012 at 7:32 am #1860391

Richard Cullip
BPL Member

@richardcullip
Locale: San Diego County

I certainly enjoyed following your 2011 PCT adventure and I'm looking forward, once again, to follow your 2012 AT adventure. Good luck out there on the trail this year.

Mar 28, 2012 at 8:36 am #1860422

John Mc
BPL Member

@retiredjohn
Locale: PNW

What a fantastic family! I wish you luck on your AT hike. I was just ahead of you on the PCT in Oregon. I was hiking with Wired at that time. I remember seeing notes on the trail written for Sunshine to pick up. I'm sure they were notes saying how amazing she is.

What are Keen Mesh Ramblers? I don't see them on the Keen site.

Mar 28, 2012 at 10:54 am #1860484

Maxine Weyant
BPL Member

@maxine

Re: Cuben rain chaps–I scuffed holes in mine at the inner ankles within a day or 2. You might want to reinforce the bottom or rig a strap closure. I had Dirty Girl gaiters but the chaps always slid out after a short time.

Kudos to you both for the Active Water endorsement, for "walkin' the talk!"

I met you 2 on the PCT last year just north of Crater Lake NP, and the renowned Billy Goat just 20 minutes later. I'm not a big blog follower, but it has been such a pleasure keeping up with you 2. I'm so delighted you're continuing on with your spirited forays!

Maxine (Dys-feng shui-nal)

Mar 28, 2012 at 11:10 am #1860488

. .
BPL Member

@biointegra
Locale: Puget Sound

Dear Sunshine and Balls,

We are excited to follow your journey once more. I ended up reading your PCT account as bedtime stories to our girls and they simply ate it up. They will be thrilled to follow you on the AT as they are inspired for their own hikes by your steady stories. May God bless your every step.

Mar 28, 2012 at 11:59 am #1860509

Patti Binder
BPL Member

@quiltbinder
Locale: Southwestern Florida

How exciting! I won't be able to follow your progress online, but hope to meet you on the trail, when you pass me. I'm starting 3/30 from Standing Bear Farm. N of the Smokies, And will also be traveling N, though at a slower pace. So if you pass an older lady with wooden hiking poles and wearing a Macabi Skirt and Sunday Afternoons Adventure hat, please stop me to chat. If we're in camp, Sunshine can try out my hammock.
I was very impressed by your PCT hike.

Have a fantastic hike,
Longskirt

Mar 28, 2012 at 12:23 pm #1860519

GD
BPL Member

@nsiderbam

I had a great time reading about your adventures on the PCT and am excited to read about your experiences on the AT. I spent a week on it over spring break and every single thru-hiker I met was an awesome person — the trail is a lot more beautiful than I expected (coming from a west-coaster who hadn't hiked on the AT until a year ago).

Do you have a blog that you'll be updating or will all of your updates be posted as articles on BPL?

Mar 28, 2012 at 7:02 pm #1860719

Stephan Doyle
Member

@stephancal

I too am looking forward to following your adventures for another hike!

Mar 28, 2012 at 7:28 pm #1860730

C Nugget
Spectator

@nuggetwn
Locale: Pacific Northwest

Travel safe & God Bless

Mar 28, 2012 at 7:45 pm #1860745

Warren Greer
Spectator

@warrengreer
Locale: SoCal

Go Sunshine and B*lls!

I'd follow your journal but for the life of me can't seem to figure out how to "join" or "subscribe".

Mar 29, 2012 at 9:35 am #1860951

Michael Ray
BPL Member

@topshot
Locale: Midwest

Warren,
The RSS feed button is on the bottom left column of their page so you can add it to your favorite Reader.

Mar 29, 2012 at 1:14 pm #1861083

Kier Selinsky
Member

@kieran
Locale: Seattle, WA

Kudos to both of you! When I told my son about the long trails of this country, his reaction was "we could go backpacking and camping for four months straight!". I'll be sure to share this story with him.

Quick question – how did you work out Sunshine's schoolwork while she's on the trail? I'd like for Mickey and I to do a long trail at some point. If you have any tips on negotiating that, I'd be interested.

Mar 29, 2012 at 10:02 pm #1861362

Eric Gjonnes
BPL Member

@ekg
Locale: Northwest

Good question Kier. Oregon requires a child to be enrolled in a school or Homeschool program. We contacted our local state education district and enrolled her as a Homeschool student only for the months on the trail. But she returns to public school the rest of the year. We worked with her teachers to see their recomendations as to what she should study on the trail. They even provided work sheets for us to put into our resuply packages. Last year, she started public school ahead of many students even though she was a month late. Contact the office in your area that governs home school requirements and see what you need to do to make this happen. You will never regret it!
Thanks for following us,
Balls and Sunshine

Mar 30, 2012 at 5:19 am #1861413

James Marco
BPL Member

@jamesdmarco
Locale: Finger Lakes

Good Luck and enjoy the trail!

School work is mostly learning about things that are interesting. The AT is certainly one with lots of history available. Bugs are not real bad, but can get annoying, nothing like black fly season in the North East or ADK's. Ticks, and Lyme disease, are a problem with many authorities predicting a difficult year. (My wife picked up Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever on our trip, about the same time frame. We spent a couple days getting her tested and getting an anti-biotic. Odd, but, hey…that *is* a trail.) If you can get a couple days to spend in washington, the Smithsonian has excelent natural history departments. Along with coverment visitations…Well worth the stop even if they don't let you climb the Washington Monument anymore.

Yeah, vitamins, and minerals are somthing that is often missed with dehydrated foods. Especialy, the "fresh" vitamins…folic acid, vitamin-C, etc. You sound like you have it well in hand. I would suggest picking up some fresh ruits/veggies as you leave town…pills and mixes are never the same. Use care with water sources, the AT passes through several populated places. Chemical, filters and even boiling does not clean the water in a lot of these.

Mar 30, 2012 at 10:06 am #1861530

Sunny Waller
BPL Member

@dancer
Locale: Southeast USA

WOW… I am so excited for you both and cannot wait to read your articles. I live in Atlanta and the weather forcast for Sunday is awesome. Up in the mountains we are already having warm days with cool evenings. I would love to meet meet yall but I will not be up on the trail this weekend. I teach a lightweight backpacking class at the Hike Inn which is on a alternative approach trail on the way up to the top of Springer from Amicalola State Park. If you are hiking up to Springer it is worth the trip to stop in and have some cookies for the trail. Please send me a PM if you want an extra contact at this end of the trail…I will be happy to help out if you need anything.

Mar 30, 2012 at 2:44 pm #1861642

Kier Selinsky
Member

@kieran
Locale: Seattle, WA

Sounds good – thanks for the info! Good luck!

Mar 30, 2012 at 3:40 pm #1861656

Luke Schmidt
BPL Member

@cameron
Locale: Alaska

You guys should have a ball on this trip! Here are some places you should visit.

1. Grayson Highlands – Obviously you two will hike through this area but I'd plan on having Teresa and Butterfly meet you at Grayson Highlands state park for some family time. The area is beautiful and their are wild ponies (actually very tame ponies but they are cute and I'm sure Butterfly would enjoy them). From the park its a short hike into the high country so Teresa and Butterfly could get a nice hike in relatively easily if they wanted to. I think there are showers down in the campground but I'm not sure.
2. Colonial Willaimsburg – A bit expensive but if you (Balls) like American History this is the place to go. Probably about the closest thing to travelling back in time you can experience.
3. Air and Space museum.

I'm be in Virginia in early summer/late summer. Maybe I'll see you.

Mar 30, 2012 at 5:01 pm #1861680

John Donewar
BPL Member

@newton
Locale: Southeastern Texas

+1 on Number 2 Colonial Williamsburg is blast from the past.

When my wife and I were there the Play House was great. During the play the audience is invited to make comments aloud to the cast of the play. It was a "hoot"!

And what kids don't like ponies?

Party On,

Newton

Apr 3, 2012 at 8:50 am #1863013

Matthew Zion
Member

@mzion
Locale: Boulder, CO

Best of luck to you both! Sunshine working on triple crown before 13?
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