For those of you that were following my AT thru-hike journey, I apologize for allowing the blog to fall to the side. Daily blogging became such a burden that I found I was spending nearly all of my zero days in town typing away just to try to catch up. I decided to focus my energies on my hike rather than my blog. It was tough to shake the guilt of not keeping my supporters updated, but in the end I think it was the right decision.
In case you were wondering, YES! I finished my thru-hike. I summited Mt. Katahdin on September 24, 2014. It was a beautiful blue-sky day and I was able to summit with a great group of people, including Tigger, whom I had met at the very beginning of my hike.
You can catch a glimpse of me summiting in Red Beard's YouTube video linked below. I'm the one with broken trekking poles that wouldn't collapse. (Note to future thru-hikers: You won't need trekking poles to climb Katahdin.)
Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail was absolutely the best experience of my life and something I doubt I will ever be able to replicate. When I finished, losing my trail family and day-to-day trail life left me feeling like I had broken up with dozens of people at once. I was so glad to be done, but it was tough transitioning back to my other life. I refuse to call it "real life" because I quickly came to realize that life on the trail was more authentic than the rat race back home.
I wanted to get caught up on this blog when I returned home from my journey, but I found revisiting those memories too painful at the time, if painful is the right word. I wanted to keep those memories private for a while until I was ready to share them with the world.
I'm not sure why I had that reaction. As I mentioned, my thru-hike was the highlight of my life so far. I never had a bad day, although there were some less-than-stellar moments. When I came home, I was surrounded by loving friends and family that were eager to hear about my trip. And I definitely talked their ears off. But I know despite their best intentions, people that haven't thru-hiked the AT can never truly understand how transformative and deeply personal it is. I just couldn't bring myself to put my reflections down in words. Until now.
I may go back to my journal and finish reporting on my thru-hike. I haven't decided yet. But I definitely want to talk about the impact the trail had on me and document my future adventures. I'd love to do some things like gear reviews, tips, trip reports and other non-AT related things. I hope this blog will help others with interests similar to mine.
If you'd like to hear more about my hike in my own words, I encourage you to listen to a podcast by a member of my extended trail family, Steve Adams aka Mighty Blue. A few weeks ago, Mighty Blue interviewed me for his Appalachian Trail podcast. You can listen to it here:
https://mightyblueontheat.com/episode-60-stacey-bucklin-stylez/
If you like it, please help support him by subscribing and reviewing his channel. You can also listen to the reflections of a few other members of my trail family. I'll link them here:
Wing-It
Tigger
Muffin Man
Beans
Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read my ramblings. I hope to be better about keeping this blog up and perhaps branching out into other content formats soon!
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