It was my first backpacking trip. I went with someone who both wanted to impress me and vastly underestimated his ability. It was supposed to be just over 12 miles. There were shelters at both mile 4 and midway. Our goal was to hike to the shelter that was the halfway point.
Unfortunately we were only about 3 miles in when he was struggling and needed a bathroom break. I offered to carry his pack to give him privacy and a break. Two packs would slow me down and he would catch up soon enough. I didn’t realize until I got to the shelter that I had hiked a full mile with both packs and it took quite a while for him to catch up. When he got there he needed to rest so I went to find water.
Upon filling up I returned to find my hiking partner asleep on his pack. While giving him a reprieve, I got to talking to some members of a hammock backpacking group from meetup.com. I was fascinated and asked an abundance of questions about their gear. When my friend woke up we decided to stay at that first shelter with our new friends.
It was that night that I learned one of the guys had done 500+ miles of the Appalachian Trail. These were serious hikers! Even though I was a complete newbie, they put me at ease and I eagerly started to join them on meetups. Little did I know that this meetup group would be changing my life forever.
The hammock backpacker group gave me the opportunity to grow confidence on trail. The support they provided allowed me to grow and fall in love with the trail. They helped me to believe I can thru hike. They changed the course of my life and I couldn’t be more thankful!
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