Getting Ready for Another Trail Week

Cooking lentils on a campfire

For a TrailWalker, the days before going back on the trail can seem to blend together like one big day. You feel like you are on vacation, because in a way you are with 6 days of no work, but then on a Tuesday night - just before going back to the trail - you suddenly stop your lazy canter and begin packing. For experienced TrailWalkers the packing usually starts late at night when your roommates are done talking. For the new ones packing started the day before when you were going to the Army Surplus store to buy a better pair of shoes or some more bandannas or whatever you missed while on the trail last week.

The gear is usually left in the same places: back porch, under the bed, or in the corner of any room in the house where it won't get stepped on. The back porch tends to be the most popular spot for leaving gear because if you have roommates they usually don't like how it smells (lots of campfire smoke and some kind of strange funk, thought to be caused by body odor we get from living off of lentils and rice).

The experienced TrailWalker usually has packing already worked into a system, and it's a matter of just wrapping the usual things in the burrito (Anasazi slang for a military bivy sack) and taking it with you to the office in the morning, where you finish packing after getting your food pack.

The best part about going back on the trail is finding out which group you'll be in. Will it be the boys group? The girls group? Sinagua? Which other TrailWalker(s) will you be partnered with? And the next best thing about going back is the anticipation of what the hike is going to be. Following a stream or following cow tanks? 15 miles or 30? There is always something new.