Ireland/UK Day 16 July 6, 2023 16 miles hiked It’s the last day of the trail, and I’m not ready for it to be. I think that’s why it takes me so long to get ready this morning, or perhaps that’s just because of how I am as a person. In any case, I enjoy …
Ireland/UK Day 15 July 5, 2023 21 miles hiked Getting ready to leave the bunkhouse is a little bit of a struggle. I knock my water bottle off the bed, wrestle with the duvet cover and fitted sheet, try and fail to remember where and how I pack things, and eventually get myself passably together …
Ireland/UK Day 14 July 4, 2023 13 miles hiked The best bit about staying in a bed and breakfast is the breakfast. Ours is large, filling, and very Scottish; I think I consume an entire day’s worth of sodium in the bacon alone. There’s also homemade marmalade and preserves, which the owners make themselves. As …
Ireland/UK Day 12 July 2, 2023 15.4 miles hiked Despite feeling like absolute death last night, I feel pretty good this morning—after stretching anyway. I guess this achilles thing is just going to be for life. I need to make sure I do better with doing all of my stretches every single day, before and …
Ireland/UK Day 11 July 1, 2023 19.3 miles hiked I’m out of practice with getting ready for a long hiking day. I fumble around with the coffee maker, pack some things, forget some other things I was going to pack, have to repack, mess up the Nespresso somehow, the simplest coffee maker ever, have to …
Continue reading West Highland Way Day 1: Milngavie to Balmaha
Friday, June 30, 2023 How is it already the last day of June? I don’t know where time goes and why it still surprises me that it goes there. Today’s a travel day. We wake up with the alarms and pack up our stuff in the Dublin apartment. It was really nice to stay in …
One whole rotation of the sun ago, I stood at the monument in Campo, California, and started walking north on the Pacific Crest Trail. I wanted to write a long, meandering, weepy reflection on this day like I tend to do, but I don't think I have it in me. I really should be grading. …
I thought of it in the desert. I started it in September. I've been teasing it for months. And now it's finally available: Absolute Creatures: A Zine About Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.
September 17-21, 2022 0 miles Seattle, Washington I wake up on the morning of September 17 in the ranger cabin feeling groggy. I don't know why, but the quality of sleep I've experienced on the PCT is far lower than on the AT. It could have something to do with the fact that my sleeping …
September 16, 2022 The alarm goes off and we set about packing up. It's still dark, and it's cloudy again today. If there was any doubt before that the seasons are changing and autumn is setting in, those doubts are gone. It's undeniable. We are at a crossroads. And today is the last day on …
Sarahmarie Specht-Bird 