Unfortunately my knee is not back to full strength so after taking the last two days off, I’m taking at least one more day off. It’s making good progress though, so I’m hoping to be back on trail tomorrow or the day after! 

But during the downtime, I figured I may as well answer some of the questions I’ve received (and usually ignored!). 

Question: What is a bear hang?

Answer:  Every night before you get into bed, you’re supposed to hang your food from a tree branch high enough that a bear can’t reach it from the ground, but hang it so that it is low enough that they cannot reach it if they climb onto the branch.

This done by tying a string around a rock and throwing the rock over a branch. This is usually followed in my case by realizing your knot wasn’t tied well enough as you watch the rock sail off into the ether while your string lazily falls by your feet. You then retie your knot and through your properly lashed rock over the branch (usually missing a few times. Or in the case of Mosey, missing everytime) and then tie your bag to the other end of the rope and hoist it up into the air. 

If you’re an older than there some extra required steps of course which include walking around the campsite a few times, finding the perfect bear hang branch and then proceeding to tell everyone else that there aren’t many good branches but you’ve found a great one and you can show the newcomer if they want.

Everyone does a proper bear hang for the first week or two of the hike. By week 4, half of the people still hang their bags properly, a quarter just leave them a bit away from camp and the rest use their food bag as a pillow because does a bear really want to eat refried beans and cheddar cheese? 

Question: how does time feel?

Answer: I don’t know. I have no idea what day it is, or usually what time it is. When a day hiker inevitably asks how long I’ve been out here I just guess. When I realized I had been out here for over a month I was shocked – it feels like a week or two. 

But on the other hand, when I think back to day 0 at Amicalola falls, that feels like a lifetime ago. I can barely remember the first night’s camp fire or the wind whipping my rain fly around so badly that I couldn’t sleep and just waited for morning. 

The days seem to last forever, sometimes in the best way and other times in the worst. But the weeks seem to fly by. 

Question: How does your cheese not go rancid 

Answer: the general rule of thumb is that the harder the cheese, the longer it can stay out of the fridge. I usually try and leave town with some fresher foods (cheese included) and eat those for the few nights so I can get some real food in my diet. Also sometimes the cheese does melt and the fats separate out, and it gets real gross but that’s just part of the fun. 

Question: Does anyone shave? 

Answer: only the losers 

Question: but for real, how bad do you smell?

Answer: it’s bad. I had a guy who was actively smoking a cigarette with the windows closed, roll the windows down when we hopped in the car to “get a bit of air flow”

Question: does everyone eat like you do

Answer: No. some people really try and make good tasting meals. But in my opinion it’s just not worth the effort, especially because often those meals are still gross. A lot of people don’t carry stoves and just “cold soak” their foods (including kraft dinner) for hours until they soften up. That’s grosser to me than anything I’ve eaten.

Yet apparently my meals are considered something else. Jackrabbit summed it up best when he said “dude, I’m 23 years old. I’ve never had a corporate job, I’m an actually dirtbag. But some of the shit you put in your body grosses me out.”