formally_frank

Oh my gosh! Is this the Stretch I met in the Smokies? This is Frank (a girl). If so, I have a picture of you doing yoga in a shelter (while I was huddled up, not doing yoga).

EDIT: I've read your other posts, you HAVE to be the same Stretch! I haven't seen you since Hot Springs!

EDIT 2: Guess which one is Stretch

Edit 3: I'm getting a ton of harassment on some of my old posts, so I'm deleting this account. It is super cool to call a pregnant woman fat, ya'll. Thank you for the gold and for the kind words, but I would have never posted anything if I had known it was going to blow up like this.

I had to get off in New Jersey! My husband asked me to come home, and that was our deal, so I did. I was so freaking disappointed. Yeah, I was getting pretty solid 25 miles a day for a while there (North PA was rough). I left lots of Beyonce lyrics behind, though.

Want to talk about post-trail depression, I basically sat at home and cried over instagram for weeks after I got off trail. It took everything not to drive back and try to finish. Husband and I had a deal that we would finish the last 700 miles this summer.... but then he went and got me pregnant. I think it was a secret plot so he didn't have to sleep outside :)

For me, trail was this incredible time where I felt something I had never felt before: daily accomplishment and purpose. You wake up, you have a goal (X number of miles), you hit that goal, you stop, set up camp, and relax. You are completely done. You did everything you needed to do and there is not one more thing you could have done better. It is a sense of accomplishment that really only comes from having such a simple life.

Even my days off (zeros) a were more relaxing than anything I've ever done because you are resting "on purpose". Your job for that day is to sit there, do nothing, rest, read a book, maybe drink a beer. You aren't slacking off or missing anything. It is really, for lack of a better word, zen.

Throw in some amazing views, a sense of community with really great people, long periods of peace and quiet, gorgeous nature, and the ability to eat a million calories and still lose weight, and it's just unlike any time in my life.

Coming back meant getting back into the swing of normal life: groceries, job, house, boredom, nothing to do. I'm sure there's a lot more to it, physiologically (endorphins from exercise, etc), but that's what it was for me, emotionally.

Right! I have a hiking carrier and am already planning sections we can hit next summer.

It was so cool to see you on here! I'm so pumped you finished! Congratulations!

Guess which one is Stretch (and everyone else is huddled around a tiny, not-very-warm fire)