Last weekend I went on a 15 mile training hike hosted by the Florida Trail Association (FTA) and specifically coordinated by Traci and Kathy. It was my first training hike with all my gear loaded into the pack and I was excited to see how it would feel. It’s a bit of a drive down to Thonotosassa, FL where I was meeting the group at the trail head, so I loaded up the van and started driving before the sun was up.
It was a great group of folks, Shanna the Trekking Dog was a particularly great motivator – the only one of us to be as excited at the end as we were at the beginning. I also got the contact info of another hiker that will be starting the AT on the 15th of March, I look forward to catching up with her and making more hiking friends along the way.
There was quite a lot of hanging moss to see, but also a lot of variety to enjoy as we walked between the swampland and the woods. We even stumbled upon a geo-cached turtle watching over the trail.
A random spot halfway through became our picnic spot to enjoy lunch. Nothing is quite as delicious as food after a morning on the move. While the Wawa sandwich was particularly delicious, that won’t be a common luxury on the AT. My plan will be lunches of nuts and peanut butter & honey tortillas, I’ll let you know how that works out.
After lunch there were still another 7 miles to go and by the end I was definitely dragging. I’ve determined that I need some softer insoles for my shoes, the lightweight trail runners worked well but my feet felt really bruised afterwards. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with how I faired and how the gear felt.
Overall, it was a great day filled with new friends and a large dose of nature. Thanks to everyone who put it together and made it a better experience than I would’ve had training alone. Take a look at the video that Kathy put together for more snapshots of the trail.
Next up I’ll be doing a 4 day, ~43 mile training hike and I expect that’ll a real indicator of how the beginning of the AT will go. Look for more updates next Sunday!
Cheers,
Paul