A mere 60 days remain when I check the countdown I spent a solid half hour adding to my calendar 39 days ago. Two months until I officially step foot onto the Amicalola Falls approach for the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) in Georgia. That leaves eight weeks to finish the arduous task of researching, prepping, packing and planning for the Appalachian Trail.

The planning journey thus far

I’ve been living and thinking of little else for the past six months but the forthcoming six month hike I will embark upon. Planning for the A.T. has been a journey in and of itself, and it’s brutally exhausting in its own right. I’m not much of a shopper, and yet the vast checklist of needed items has meant I’ve been doing little else but shopping in my free time.

When they say your full set-up of gear will cost around $2,000-$3,000… well it turns out that is not an exaggeration.

I did have a few things already purchased that will work for my A.T. gear, including the costly purchases of my 65 liter backpack and my extremely warm but lightweight winter jacket. But there are many more things I need to acquire specifically since deciding upon a full on winter start date, including winter boots and spikes and heavier layers of clothing.

The current mountain

But currently, I am totally stuck on researching the purchase of an item that is especially important to me personally. The camera.

Since I was gifted my first point-and-shoot camera in the 7th grade, I’ve rarely been found without a camera in hand. To consider walking across the United States without a camera to capture and document all I see is pretty much unthinkable.

Up to this point I’ve always brought along my main camera along with me on hikes. The camera I use as a professional photographer. A whopping SIX pound camera in total. For a backpacker who literally is carrying everything needed to eat and drink and sleep on their back, that is a laughable amount of weight to add considering I’m aiming to keep my base weight no more than 25 pounds.

But to find a lightweight camera that meets my arguably high standards has been a difficult unicorn to find. I did find a couple that met my strict checklist fairly well, but one is backordered at every location that exists, and the other costs $6,000. Ouch. We expected a bit of difficulty due to supply chain issues in our current pandemic world, but it’s still a bummer reality to face.

How does one plan for a unique set of worries

Other than gear – the closer the 29th of January creeps, the more real everything feels. The excitement and anticipation, but also the worries and concerns. I finished reading yet another book about the AT last night, Appalachian Trials by Zach Davis, and as full of pumped up energy and “you can do this!” vibes it gave – it also, and importantly so, outlined all of the not so pretty realities found on the trail. The book is broken up into three parts, planning for the Appalachian Trail, hiking the trail, and what comes after you complete your thru-hike.

Concerns are understandably numerous when you’re making the unpredictable outdoors your home for half the year.

You have to simultaneously be prepared for any type of weather, while keeping your total pack weight bearable. A full-body tick check is mandatory every single day. Those Lyme disease carrying assholes can be found active even in winter, and especially through spring and summer. And of course, all of the typical what ifs. What happens if an injury occurs? How do we correctly treat hypothermia or frostbite? What happens if one freezing night my water filter cracks unbeknownst to me and I end up getting giardia?

Does a vegan thru-hiker exist?

A specific concern I have is about my diet. How do I confidently find enough nourishing and hearty vegan food while walking through 14 states? In my experience, small towns have very little in way of vegan options. And small mountain towns without even a Subway have even less. I have been able to find very limited resources when it comes to how to successfully consume a vegan diet while hiking the A.T. But I did read one interesting concept I hadn’t thought about before.

When it comes to eating vegan on a multi-day stretch of trail between towns, most people eat vegan foods anyway. Oatmeal, peanut butter, tortillas, Clif bars, nuts, trail mix, and ramen, among many other items, are popular backpacking staples for almost everyone.

https://thetrek.co/appalachian-trail/vegan-on-the-appalachian-trail-is-it-feasible/

So if hikers eat vegan foods anyway – as an unconscious decision – will it end up being that difficult for me?

The average hiker consumes upwards to 5,000 calories each day to maintain the level of energy they exert daily. My current diet primarily exists of vegetables, legumes, pasta, grains, and chocolate. Some of that won’t be too much of a problem; beans are especially a tasty dehydrated meal. But pasta generally takes too long to heat up on a small camp stove. And you can find fresh vegetables can only in a trail town.

So yeah, I’m a little concerned.

Mental preparation

But being prepared mentally is such a big part of success. After all, much of what we fear is actually the unknown. The what ifs. But having an idea for a course of action, or at least the conscious knowledge of a concern is helpful.

So finishing up my shopping checklist and reading and researching as much as possible so I am as physically and mentally ready as possible is what I’ll continue working on for these next 59 days as the planning for the Appalachian Trail journey ends, and the start of my hiking journey begins.