In the next week I'm moving out of my apartment in Harrisonburg, VA, my home for the last 5 years, working my final shifts at my jobs, saying goodbye to my friends, and returning briefly to my native land of NOVA (otherwise known as Northern Virginia) before departing westward.
In hike planning world, here's what's happening:
- Finished sorting all my maps and guidebook pages into plastic bags with labels so they get put into the right resupply boxes.
- Dehydrating food and inventing recipes for my mother to send me while I'm on the trail. Marinara and vegan pesto sauces!!! All things that go well with instant potatoes, rice, and pasta. Onions and peppers and beans, oh my!
- Practice hikes! I carried 50ish pounds up Old Rag Mountain (which I do not recommend. Those crevices are TOUGH with a load like that. Bruised up my elbow pretty bad.)
- Walking. Everywhere. It's fabulous :)
As excited as I am for this adventure, it is very difficult for me, leaving the Shenandoah Valley. I have loved living in the "Friendly City" for the last few years. I love all the people I've grown close to here and I've come to think of them as family. I'm going to miss the community, the culture, the food, the local beer and wine, the music, the Blue Ridge mountains...the Shenandoah Valley is the first place I've truly called home, and I look forward to the day I get to return to it. I will miss this place so much while I'm away, but this is not goodbye forever.
The Steel Wheels, a local bluegrass roots band, singing about my favorite place :)
