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October 13th: an Atlantic Ocean, Nova Scotia hike from Green Bay beach to Broad Cove and back. 11K of laughter and fun conversation; navigating around and through water, unfortunately without photos to document! I will hike with these family-hikers @toesalad @hammerhead @mypictograph @celine @brienne @reneetougas pretty much every opportunity I have :)

@toesalad carrying the canoe. This is one of the short portages so he’s not wearing a bag also. The terrain is fairly representative of our portage trails, though they usually have more rocks and roots. On the longer portages Damien is also wearing a bag of gear on his back, approx 35-40 pounds. The canoe is 40 pounds.

End of the journey.

When can we go again?

Talking about finishing the trail next year.

Happy 65 birthday Mom and Dad and 45th wedding anniversary - the reason we did this trip together was to celebrate these milestones. And happy hiking to al my hiking partners on this trip @toesalad, @karentogo, @hammerhead - love all of you so much!!

Day 10

I don’t have Guthook’s app on my phone (@toesalad has it on his phone, we couldn’t download to my phone for some reason) and I don’t carry the map. This is my dad’s GMC map of the Long Trail and this is the image of today’s hike from Clarendon Shelter to Cooper lodge at Killington. A long climb.

Day 70 - Zero at Daleville, VA

0 miles

It was a rough time for Otter last night. He threw up multiple times, but there was much less stress and anxiety (and less severity) than the night Tenacious Bling was sick in Marion. But it did feel a bit like déjà vu.

This is the most gastro sickness, packed into three weeks, our family has ever experienced in our entire history.

Otter slept till mid-morning and didn't throw up again for the rest of the day, but he was very fatigued.

Which means he missed out on the swimming, poor guy.

It was a warm day, felt like 80-90 degrees. Perfect pool weather, while Laurent slept and rested the girls swam and spent time online and watching TV. Padawan downloaded music and movies. @toesalad went grocery shopping for our resupply.

I did laundry and lots of hand scrubbing in the tub, since I had the time and space to do so. Walked over to the Kroger, twice, for the day's food needs (& wants - Kozyshack Rice Pudding is one of my favorite town foods). Hung out by the pool with the girls and went swimming and took Tenacious Bling to Goodwill where she finally found some bling to add to her hiking outfit.

@toesalad and I did general catch-up work because we didn't have a video to upload and publish this town stop. @toesalad caught a ride with Miss Janet, who happens to be in town (following the hiker bubble I'm guessing), over to Roanoke to get fuel for our stoves.

There are lots of hikers at the motel this weekend plus it appears that some people live here, at least short term.

Today was full of activity and one kid was recovering from being ill, but it felt like vacation to me. Which says something about the intensity of our hike.

Early evening view across the channel from our beach.

The end of day 5 and our last camp night.

An easy 8-10 km tomorrow to the car.

I finally learned that my map distances don’t match @toesalad watch numbers so it could be 8 or closer to 10. Not even 2 hours.

Listening to the loons in our tent as I type this.

The colours are starting to change.

Parking our car at Smugglers Notch and getting a ride south to Middlebury Gap with a trail angel @toesalad met hiking on the Long Trail earlier this summer.

Morgan picked us up at Smugglers Notch and drove us to Middlebury Gap, where we ended our hike last year with my parents.

Trail people are the best.

A flattish area off trail is about to become our campsite for the night. We planned for a dry camp on the north side of Lincoln Gap so we lugged water all the way from Cooley glen Shelter, roughly 6 away.

Long way to carry and extra 4 litres of water but there aren’t many water sources through here so you do what you must. @toesalad carried most of it.

His & Hers

@toesalad is hiking in Altra Superior 2.0 which he loves for their wide toe box and zero drop. And as he says, "these shoes have achieved that sweet spot between ground feel and rock protection"

I'm hiking in New Balance Minimus, my all-time favorite running, walking, hiking and backpacking (all-purpose activity) shoe.

By 7:30 we were in bed for the night at Wallface Lean-To.

Hiking Sentier Mont Kaaikop to Mont Kaaikop summit with @toesalad.

We were thrilled to discovery this winter wonderland 1.5 hours from the city. But we were more thrilled to discover the vast trail networks for hiking, x-country and backcountry skiing around the village of Saint Donat in the Laurentian mountains. So much to explore here and this was our first taste. We will be coming back to this area, often. I can’t wait!

Day 33 - Hogback Ridge Shelter to Whistling Gap campsite

13.3 miles

Got out of bed this morning cranky about my time needs not being met. No time for writing, journaling, or photography editing so far this week. I'm not wanting to surrender to the trail, if that's what it means, no time to do the things I enjoy.

Started the day complaining to @toesalad.

A lot of beautiful rolling terrain today, some of my favorite terrain so far on the AT.

Pretty views from Big Bald and the carpets of Spring Beauties hiking up to the summit was spectacular.

There were high points to the day, for sure. But I started ragging on @toesalad later in the day - sore feet, long day, I'm just tired of hiking.

By the end of the day @toesalad reached his limit. We were silent through camp, supper, and clean-up (gorgeous camp setting, miserable moods), and finally before going to bed, into separate tents, we let it all out. Both of us were in tears.

I miss intimacy with Damien. I'm frustrated by the lack of time for things that matter to me, which makes the intense physicality of this adventure hard. Damien is frustrated that his family doesn't appreciate this adventure for the opportunity it is. That we don't appreciate this time with him.

He wants to be a dad and husband who isn't chained to his desk job and he wants to be with us, and not simply deal with all our complaints. I can see that we are not appreciating Damien and all he does for us.

We had a long talk in the gathering dusk, keeping warm in our puffies, while the kids were falling asleep in the tents. We have a few practical tech and gear ideas which may help solve some of our troubles. (Doing all my work and writing on my iPad is very time consuming, glitchy and amplifies my frustration.)

I feel more connected and on the same page than I have for the past week. Now, I desperately want a private space with my husband for physical intimacy. No such luck tonight.

@celine creating a shady nook to rest at Gooseberry camp in the Fishlake National Forest. $10 campsites make car camping super affordable. You can pitch a tent for free in National Forest lands but lots of designated campgrounds come with water &pit toilets (and picnic tables and fire pits).

The gravel pad proved difficult for pounding stakes and @toesalad drove in 2 so hard (with the blunt end of the axe head) they never did come out.

Day 34 - Whistling Gap campsite to Erwin, TN

12.9 miles

I got up at 5:30 this morning. It's my attempt to find more time in my day for writing and photography work, as per @toesalad suggestion. I'd like to aim for 5am but started here.

We were out of camp by 7:45 and into Erwin by 3:45.

We were by ourselves the whole day didn't see any other thru-hikers. It was a lovely day for hiking with great views of the Nolichucky river as we hiked down into Erwin.

Earlier in the day @toesalad got ahold of Miss Janet, who picked us up at the trailhead on River Road in Erwin.

She kindly offered us a place to stay tonight at her daughter's house, a former hiker hostel. I feel kinda funky and out of place, like I'm a homeless college kid.

We did some online work today, ordered a new compact computer for the trail. We thought we could get by with iPads but the work we have to do in each town stop and the writing I want to do on the trail is proving too onerous and slow-going without a better tool.

We planned our hiking and resupply days until Damascus, VA. Hard to believe in less than two weeks we'll be in Virginia.

@toesalad making our supper on a large flat rock in Indian Brook.

Eating supper at the water makes sure our camp gear and sleeping area, at Wallface Lean-To, doesn't smell like food (and attract bear and vermin). And it's also a more pleasant and light filled place to eat (and clean-up) than the dark wood shelter. Not to mention, you don't have to haul any water, for cooking or washing, you just scoop from the brook.

Day 4 - Lance Creek Camp to Bull Gap Camp

8.5 miles

Sunny. Warm. Hazy skies.

Camp was pretty this morning. We woke up early at 6:30 so we could spend time in the afternoon at Neels Gap.

Left camp at 8:30. Hiked a good pace. Summited Blood Mountain (4461 ft.), the highest peak on our trip so far and the highest peak on the Georgia portion of the trail.

Hot day, no shade.

Everyone in good spirits. Tenacious Bling bruised her knee. Toesalad helped by carrying her pack down Blood Mountain into Neels Gap.

We arrived at Neels Gap at 1:30. 7.5 miles in 5 hours. We were pleased with that pace.

Bought some gear, picked up an Amazon order of food stuffs, accessed wifi, did email, and tried to upload a finished video to our video series. The upload did not finish in time.

We weighed our packs in the shop. 20 lbs Tenacious Bling, 21 lbs Padawan, 23 lbs Otter, 27 lbs my pack (not including camera), 29 lbs Toesalad (without water).

Enjoyed a very tasty trail magic supper at the hostel.

The highlight today was arriving at Neels Gap. I loved the stone buildings and the history and significance of this place on the trail; the sense of hiker camaraderie and that we belong here with the mail drops and gear. All the hikers are lovely people.

Kallins with us at Neels Gap and campsite.

I’ve been paddling in stern the whole trip, so far it’s a good position for me as I like to control the direction we’re going (ha!), I’m also the keeper of the map, plus @toesalad provides more of the power in the bow and I can take it easier in the back when the conditions are pleasant. When I need/want to take it easy I only need to steer not provide a lot of forward propulsion.

It’s a configuration that’s working for us for now.

The Bluff Wilderness Trail, https://wrweo.ca/wp/the-bluff-trail/, is a gem for enjoying wilderness so close to an urban area, in this case Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, Canada. My husband and I have hiked some or all the loops available several times; thank you to @toesalad and family for introducing it to us. April 23, 2017, was the earliest in the season we’ve hiked here, offering a different, more open view without the foliage. Very few hikers but a nice trek - logged close to 20KM.

Hiking to refuge de l’Appel with @toesalad

This was a beautiful hike starting at Lac du Rocher in Val des Lacs. Highly recommend this trail. Would be good for snowshoeing also but it gets hiked/walked enough that you can manage without snowshoes.

However when Damien broke off trail, walking on the ski route, in order to get near the summit I’d Montagne Blanche, we could have used snowshoes then. We were regularly post-holing to our knees and hips.

Such a beautiful day, we didn’t mind :)

@hammerhead checking his Green Mountain Club Vermont’s Long Trail map (an excellent and accurate resource) as we leave Clarendon shelter. Signage and trail marking was great- @toesalad also had Guthook’s app- all in all, our navigation was well-covered. (For the record- this is the morning after a brief evening downpour that resulted in a wet tent floor :( survived the night okay although we have some discovery work to figure out the source of the problem. Tent was pitched on a hard pack slope which didn’t help!)

September morning at Edmunds Lock.

Some cyclists arrived last night also and camped here. You can see their tent in the far left trees. @toesalad is preparing breakfast at the picnic table on the dock at far right.

Our campsite was right next to the public boat launch and this sunny September Saturday morning is a good time for fishing. A couple boats were launched from here and a dad and his son were fishing from the dock, Tim Hortons hot drinks in hand.

Slices of life along the Rideau River.