'Where even the downhills are uphill'
Revisiting my younger and more inexperienced self
I’ve started working on a project I’ve been thinking about for a while now: a trail journal about my solo end-to-end hike of the Long Trail in 2016. I don’t know why I finally managed to start writing it, after years of procrastination. (Except, perhaps, that I really miss and crave hiking right now and revisiting this trip is the next best thing.) But I’ve found immense enjoyment revisiting my younger and more inexperienced self.
It’s been very interesting to see what moments float out of the ether, vivid and sharp, and what has been lost to the obscurities of time. I have the physical journal I kept while hiking to refer to, which I wrote in regularly, if not every day. This can help jog my memory for small details—although it often isn’t necessary. I’ve been trying to write each entry without referencing the journal first, to see what comes up without its aid, and then refer to the journal to fill in the gaps and add color. Comparing my actual memories and private journal entries to my short and spare public-facing posts on Instagram is quite a study in contrasts: The highs are still high enough, but the lows—well, I don’t think I wanted to alarm anyone.
Also, I think I forgot how hard the Long Trail was. I mean, I remember how hard it was for me but it’s also hard in general, a trail “where even the downhills are uphill,” as ultra runner Alicia Hudelson put it.
While researching a small detail, I came across this documentary about Nikki Kimball, the woman who set the women’s supported FKT record in 2012. It has a lot of (shaky) footage of the trail itself, which really brought it all back. (Available to screen here.)
Reading list
“A hiker in the northern Italian Alps has stumbled across the first trace of what scientists believe to be an entire prehistoric ecosystem, including the well-preserved footprints of reptiles and amphibians, brought to light by the melting of snow and ice induced by the climate crisis.” [Angela Giuffrida for the Guardian]
“When Steltzer, a spiritually minded environmental scientist based in Durango, ran out of water on the Colorado Trail, her first thought was to pray. Her second was that it probably had something to do with climate change.” [Shannon Mullane for The Colorado Sun]
“Portland Trails is in the middle of a $100,000 emergency fundraising campaign to repair widespread damage to its regional trail system caused by last winter’s storms and prepare it for a more unpredictable climate-driven future. The damage caused by back-to-back-to-back storms shocked trails manager Jamie Parker, a veteran of hundreds of storms during his nearly 20-year career with the nonprofit. Eighteen trails were damaged. A thousand feet of bridges had to be replaced. River banks were washed away.” [Penelope Overton for the Portland Press Herald]
Utah Senate candidates put the trail in “campaign trail.” (Article predates the election, but John Curtis, the “climate-minded conservative,” won.) [Brigham Tomco for Deseret News]