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Solo road trips are very fun. I don't think my mental health can survive without hiking 30 miles somewhere new on the weekend anymore. Unfortunately this is making me a social outcast, at least compared to how I used to be. I think people see me as entertaining/interesting, but getting someone to join my adventures is tough. It'll probably force me to leave the job and city that I like when I complete every decent trail in an 8-hour radius in a couple years
move to Seattle and take up mountaineering
Dude I'm on the cusp, I drafted an insta story earlier today to ask everyone I know if they'd be interested in learning mountaineering with me to tackle some mountains in the Cascades
I'm afraid to press send bc I'm scared this is a slippery slope to dying in a bad fall
Start reading Accidents in North American Climbing. They publish annually. See how you feel after reading it. I wouldn't recommend being a "travel" mountaineer - it's something you do continually or not. Skills and fitness get rusty quick. The risk of death is real. I have almost died in the mountains on two separate occasions.
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Appalachia is good too, Asheville/Brevard are right in the mountains and like 10 minutes from Pisgah Forest, DuPont Forest, the AT, the Mountain to Sea, and Art Loeb.
All those trails are more forest heavy and the traversal isn't that bad. I know people who will just go out for a week and come back.
I've been in the midst of a similar realization for the last year or so
You're the first person I've encountered who can relate, that's amazing XD
It feels weird to talk about the NEED to be outside and busting your ass hiking somewhere. I guess this is probably how people end up on the PCT. I don't know how to rationalize it otherwise
Yeah! I used to be able to get friends to hike and go on camping trips with me but people's priorities shift and I've realized no one else is really interested enough for it to be worth trying to plan/get people together anymore, so I just started going by myself last year and it's great. I shoulda started doing it sooner but I guess I didn't want to admit that no one wants to go on adventures anymore
It really is a pretty good antidepressant though. Sometimes a good hike gives me an afterglow for the rest of the week. I gotta get a water filter soon, that'll open up another handful of backpacking trails within a few hours of here.
Same, my friends all have new priorities and obligations with significant others, and then there's me 🥴. I convinced the person who used to be my most reliable friend to do big hikes with me in Europe and Mt Whitney this summer, but he's only done like 2 hikes this year so we don't know how it will go lol
Sawyer squeezes (the regular ones) are the way to go. Coupling one with a Cnoc bladder and a cheap water bottle female-female coupling (I think from Garage Grown Gear but also sold by Sawyer) makes either a gravity-fed or hand-squeezed setup easy. I've started bringing it with me on regular hikes in place of extra packed water
Do you backpack without a filter?? I know giardia isn't guaranteed, but that's pretty brave lol
Oh heck yeah that sounds awesome, i hope his knees are ready for it! Might recommend some trek poles to him if that isn't already a given? I really wanna go on a bit of a longer trip to do some mountain backpacking out west but i definifely need to train up a bit more. I did a couple day hikes in Colorado a few years ago and the terrain and scenery are such a refreshing change from Appalachia.
About the the filter- nah no way haha, a couple of the trails i did last year had cisterns of drinking water at a few points and another one i was able to cache water in advance at a road crossing about ten miles in. I'll check out the sawyer and cnoc, thanks for the recommendation! Heavy metals from old ass mining operations are a big concern in the backcountry water sources here, I'll have to brush up again on what's out there but from what I remember Grayl had the only filters that made any promises about heavy metal filtration. Kinda inconvenient since they don't lend themselves to hooking up to a bladder but i guess that's just the price of living in the dang rust belt.
Honestly, being a runner has s similar flavor.