Project Eveningland

To begin the blog at the first post of my 2023 Appalachian Trail journey (the original purpose of the blog), click this link. Additional navigation shortcuts are available in the sidebar. Spoilers ahead, highlight the next block to read:

Around about day 140, a 1000-year rainstorm caught me in Harriman State Park in New York. The Appalachian Trail in Vermont and Maine was a mess, and I had been slowed to a crawl by the lingering effects of the meds I had to take to treat giardiasis and so was running out of time anyway. I decided to switch to the Colorado trail for another 100 miles or so and dry out and make the finish less sad than a “failed” thru-hike, so that’s why the last posts are in Colorado, if you were wondering. There is no such thing as a “failed” thru-hike, by the way!

Anyway, enjoy the blog! I’ll add future journeys as I go. I hiked 100 miles on the AT in Georgia and North Carolina in February/March of 2024 to help work on my book. I may add those entries if the time is right–it was a very personal journey. I plan to hike and write and research throughout 2024, and will add posts and pictures as I see fit. Subscribe so you don’t miss out!

“That’s me. I’m watching you. You’re doing great” –Naomi Nagata

3/17/2023 Friday

Dear Reader, please help me. I’m trapped listening to just the worst conversation while waiting for a shuttle from the hostel that’s 20 minutes late. For the last few days, I’ve kept running into a person who just sets my teeth on edge. They make my skin crawl. And why am I breathing cigarette smoke outdoors?! Where is the fucking shuttle?!

3/16/2023 Thursday

Well, the crabbiness passed in the night. In the morning something in me softened—I think it happened when I helped Hide reacquire a piece of gear. Hide wasn’t there at the shelter; I helped by passing on a message—long story.

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3/15/2023 Wednesday

Last night somebody started washing pots and pans, loudly, right outside the cheap door to my bedroom, at 10:30 at goddamn night. I went out and said, politely at first, “what the fuck are you doing?” He was reluctant to stop and carried on for ten more minutes before I came out and confronted him again. I don’t normally get up in people’s faces but Christ on a cracker! I was so pissed at the thoughtlessness that it took me a bit to return to sleep. Took sleeping pill…

3/14/2023 Tuesday

Hostel noise has a way of drawing you to wakefulness in the morning. It’s honestly a very gentle way to wake, under the right conditions. In the morning, I met the other half of the couple that own the hostel (Sunshine and Jumanji).

3/13/2023 Monday

When I arrived last night at the shelter area, Indiana told me that the precip was done. His confidence did not persuade me—quite the opposite. The light rain continued most of the night and sounded a bit icy on the outside of the tent.

3/12/2023 Sunday

When I looked out the hotel window in the dark this morning, the rain was intense. It flowed down the steep driveway of the Knight’s Inn outside my window. I bought breakfast sandwiches to have for breakfast—the hotel’s offerings were just too underwhelming.

3/11/2023 Saturday

Do I have the energy to write this on my zero day, after six days in the Smokies? Yes. Apparently.

3/10/2023 Friday

Do you remember that old queer rights chant, “out of the closets and into the streets!” from, I wanna say, the 1970s? Take that same cadence and chant, “out of the Smokies and on with our lives!” It was eleven miles (rounding up) from Cosby Knob to Standing Bear Farm, where I planned to stay tonight, so I wasn’t in any hurry. It’s all downhill anyway. I’ll admit it is a relief to be getting out of the Smokies after six long, hungry days.

3/9/2023 Thursday

I’m writing this from my tent, perched on a small parcel of level ground nestled between dramatically swooping inclines covered in, you guessed it, rhododendrons. The shelter is above me in the ravine and I can hear the sounds of friendly hiker chatter (there’s a ridge runner here who used to be an attorney and has a manner not unlike Mr. Rogers about him—none of the thru hikers were chuffed to have a “cop” sleeping in the shelter with them).

3/8/2023 Wednesday

We have now had four full days in the Smokies, with no rain, in March. Is this because I saved those orphans from that boxcar? All I did was call child protective services.