Still a Noob, an Insatiable Hunger and The Next 200 Miles

Novice.  Rook.  Green.  Wet behind the ears.  Freshman.  Bambi.  Amateur hour.  Tenderfoot.  Noob.

All of these words and phrases would be appropriate trail names for me.

300 miles in, and I still feel like I am learning how to do this thru-hiking thing.  

I thought we were over-prepared because Bean and I watched too many YouTube videos.   We spent hours reading blogs and articles.  We talked to anyone who had hiking experience.  Silly me.  It didn’t matter.  That isn’t how this works.  I have quickly learned that for us noobs, there is no substitute for the lessons you will learn while actually thru-hiking.

What could we have possibly learned in 300 miles of hiking?

We learned what a CNOC bag is after using the pouches that come with the Sawyer Squeeze Water Filter.  From day one you will learn how important to make your chores clean and easy.  No one wants to clean pots and no one wants to be wet.  There is nothing quite like getting sprayed with dirty water while pushing water through the filter.  Yeah, the Sawyer Squeeze dirty water bottles are terrible.  How did we not know what a CNOC bag is?

We learn every day that we need to stick to our packing and unpacking routines.  Trust me. You don’t want to leave valuable pieces of gear behind like a cell phone in your shuttle driver’s car.  And then when she knows that she has it, she makes you dance to get it back.  Yep, she has the footage.  Thank you for turning right back around, Miss Janet.

Continue reading the full article written by Cj Roberts, here.