This post is part of a series called Hiking by the Numbers. During our hike on the AT, I kept track of all kinds of statistics like calorie consumption, number of wild animals, nights spent in the tent and more. I'm a nerd like that. To read all of the posts in the category, click here.
Last summer Serial, Rooney and I hiked about 1400 miles in about 4 months. Most of this was on the Appalachian Trail and a little bit at the very end was on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP). You can read more about that here.
In my non-trail life, I'm a bit of a numbers nerd. I like to track things and find patterns. I do this for my job, but I also do it in my regular life too. The things I track range from the food I eat, to the money I spend and everything in between. I like spreadsheets and data. (I hope you are hearing that in some kind of nerdy voice... like a female Urkel).
On the trail, I carried a kindle and used a spreadsheet app to mark everything down at the end of the day. Now that I'm home, I'm starting to go through it all again and I thought I'd share it with you. These are just my numbers... they don't include Serial's numbers. There is no way that boy would use a spreadsheet every day on the trail. These only include the days on the AT, not the days on the GAP trail.
In my non-trail life, I'm a bit of a numbers nerd. I like to track things and find patterns. I do this for my job, but I also do it in my regular life too. The things I track range from the food I eat, to the money I spend and everything in between. I like spreadsheets and data. (I hope you are hearing that in some kind of nerdy voice... like a female Urkel).
On the trail, I carried a kindle and used a spreadsheet app to mark everything down at the end of the day. Now that I'm home, I'm starting to go through it all again and I thought I'd share it with you. These are just my numbers... they don't include Serial's numbers. There is no way that boy would use a spreadsheet every day on the trail. These only include the days on the AT, not the days on the GAP trail.
 A Turtle |  Rooney barking at the turtle |
In 1319 miles, 8 states and 117 days....
I ate:
I purchased or had shipped to me:
I ate:
- 19 pizzas
- 51 ice creams
- 40 egg and cheese biscuits
- 23 candy bars
I purchased or had shipped to me:
- 3 pairs of shoes (I changed shoes at mile 425 and again at mile 1017.3)
- 8 pairs of socks
- 4 pairs of insoles
- 18 AAA batteries (for my headlamp)
- 3 fuel canisters
- 4 batteries for Rooney's collar (it lights up at night)
- 4 bottles of hand sanitizer
- 2 razors
 My shoes after 425 miles |  Red eft! |
I saw:
And... I fell down 10 times. Twice it really hurt. The rest were pure comedy.
- 3 rainbows
- 25 deer (One snuck up on me and snorted loudly. I screamed. It ran.)
- 15 snakes (3 rattlesnakes, the rest were harmless)
- 11 red efts (cutest little buggers out there)
- 1 blue eft
- 32 tiny frogs (the size of a half dollar)
- 2 bird nests with eggs inside
- 5 grouse
- 2 turtles
- 1 owl
- 1 bear
- 1 lizard
- 2 bee hives
- 2 eagles
- 1 snail
And... I fell down 10 times. Twice it really hurt. The rest were pure comedy.
 Deer in the Shenandoahs  Snake! |  Bird Nest  Snail |
See, don't you want to start writing everything down now? No? It's just me? *sigh* I still have more numbers for ya so stay tuned. I'll talk about our mileage and pace, the number of nights in the tent vs nights in a hotel, the number of showers I took, the number of days with sunshine vs rain.... gah! So many numbers!
