 But GMC, for those of you who aren't familiar with the founders and maintainers of the Long Trail, I have to read the mission because it's so good, I'll mess it up otherwise. We make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the people by protecting and maintaining the Long Trail system and fostering through education the stewardship of Vermont's hiking trails and mountains. And I really can't think of a better way to do that at a time like this than just hanging out with a bunch of people who love spending time outside in Vermont's mountains. Before we jump in though, I'm going to have Lauren walk us through how a Zoom webinar is actually going to work tonight. Awesome. Thank you so much, John, and thanks all you out there for joining. You wouldn't think it, but the Green Mountain Club as a trail building organization, we're pretty good at running webinars, it turns out too. So I can help you get situated out there. So the way that this works is that we essentially have John and myself and the rest of our fabulous Long Trail end to enders who are what we'd call panelists. And then you folks all out there sitting in the comfort of your homes are the attendees. You don't have the capability of video or audio. We keep that off for the ease of transmitting information and just not managing 80 different participants. But you do have a lot of other capabilities. Those are found, I think on the bottom of your screen or the top left of your screen, and that would be the chat box and the question and answer box. So if you have a comment or something that you'd like us to know or say that somebody else on the panel is used your favorite backpack and you have that as well. You can add that into the chat box. If you have a specific question or something that you'd like to know, then the question and answer box is really good for that. It forms a thread and everybody can enter into that. And we'll monitor the question and answer box throughout the night. So if there's something that goes in, then John and myself will be able to take that question. We can pose it to all the panelists or we can just answer it right away there. So those are really the two important things are the chat box and the question and answer box. There's also a feature called raise hand. If you do that, then we'll probably send you a quick chat and ask what's up or we'll encourage you to post into the Q&A box for the ease of things, then we're going to keep the audience muted for the majority of the panel. So those are the two. If you have issues, if there seems to be a problem, then please state that in the chat box and we'll do our best to mitigate any technology challenges. And as always, while I said we're getting pretty good at it, I would rather be in a room with all you at the same time. So just have patience and flexibility as we go through these things. Thank you very much. Thanks, Juan. Yeah. So for the end of the panel, the way it's going to go tonight is we're going to have the panelists introduce themselves and then we'll run through a series of questions that we prepared based on interest from the attendees. Some of the big topic groups that we have picked for tonight are resupplying and gear, obviously, food storage and wildlife shelters and tenting, transportation and logistics and any hazards you might run into out there. So throughout the panel, feel free to submit questions like Warren said through the chat or Q&A and you'll also be getting a couple polls throughout the night so we can hear from you as well about specific things. And we'll do our best to answer all your questions as we can. I know we're all thinking this year what hiking is going to look like. It's a little uncertain at the moment, but in order to address those concerns right off that, so we can spend the rest of the night thinking about the good times we'll have out there, I've asked Mike Debanas, the GMC's executive director to join us and it's been a few minutes talking about what our response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been. So Mike. Thanks John, if you can hear me okay. I have to be honest when I first got the email from John about the end-to-end panel, I was like really excited. I was like wow, I get to be on the end-to-end panel and it's kind of a big deal and I was pretty psyched about it. Then I read the email and no, he just wants me to come on and talk about COVID-19. So apparently I'm not ready for the panel, but maybe in a future year. So COVID-19, so in the normal year, club staff and volunteers will be preparing trails for the upcoming hiking season. Hikers will be getting ready to start their through hikes after mud season, but we all know this is not a normal year. The COVID-19 global pandemic that's impacted all of us has also impacted the long trail. So I just want to take a couple minutes tonight, as John said, talk a little bit about basically the best information that we have on trail closures, conditions, hiker services and then what through hikers can expect this year. So specifically related to COVID-19 and trails due to the highly contagious nature of COVID-19, the difficulty of maintaining adequate social distancing on many sections of the trail and the possibility of the virus staying on frequently used surfaces like shelters, privies and picnic tables. The Green Mountain Club is asking hikers to avoid hiking on the long trail and appellation trail for the time being. So what's open, what's closed? It's mud season in Vermont and currently the long trail and side trails and backcountry facilities on state land are closed. Trails, including the long trail and appellation trail and land managed by the federal government, the forest service, park service are open, but backcountry facilities such as shelters and privies may not be available for use until June 15. Typically, with mud season behind us, hiking trails across the state are open by Memorial Day weekend, and we expect that to be the case this year. Shelters and privies may be open by June 15, based on guidance by public health experts and our land management partners. Please check the GMC website for the latest updates. So what can you find out there? What are the conditions? What's maintenance spend? Based on the governor's order, GMC staff and volunteers have very limited capacity to conduct trail maintenance, and most trails, shelters, privies have not been prepared for hiker use. Overnight sites and summits may not be staffed or maintained this season. Hikers on the long trail and appellation trail should expect un-maintained trails and tribulated facilities for the foreseeable future. So what happens in town? Again, based on the governor's order, hiker services in Vermont may not be available or may look a little different. Shovels, hostels, gear shops, restaurants, medical facilities and grocery stores normally available to hikers may be closed or operating at a limited capacity for the foreseeable future. The Green Mountain Club Gamerov Hiker Center, a library center is physically closed, but the hiker center is available to answer questions and provide information virtually in email and the online store is open. So again, please visit the GMC website or contact the hiker center for the latest information on what's happening, what's open, what's closed. So the big question, when are things going to open back up and when can I start my through hike? Some trails and tribulated structures and services will open as normal by Memorial Day weekend, but others may not open fully or operate in a different way for the time being. As the risk from the pandemic decreases, trails and tribulated services will resume based on guidance from state health officials. This guidance is still being developed now and we will share this with the hiking public as soon as it's able, as soon as we're able. Once trails open hikers should expect public health and social distancing precautions to remain. New guidance for protecting public health at parking areas, shelters and overnight sites and privies may be implemented and impact the use and availability of these services and facilities. Now, there's no doubt that the 2020 hiking season is going to look a little different than past years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hiking along trails is a privilege and it's a life-changing experience for many. The trail is going to be there and hikers should consider whether they need to through hike this year or whether plans postponed until fall 2020 or the 2021 hiking season. If you hit the trail this year, expect some level of trail and tribulated facilities to be available this summer and fall. But availability may be limited to protect public health and trail resources. I think the biggest way, the biggest takeaway from this update is that through hikers should approach trip planning this year with an open mind and flexibility. The Green Mountain Club is in the business of promoting hiking in Vermont. We've been doing so for 110 years. Nobody wants to see people out and join the hiking trails more than we do. But we also want people to be safe and protect you, other trail users and the trail resource itself. So please stay tuned for further guidance as we get into the hiking season and be safe out there. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. So we'll jump right in to introducing our panelists. So I've given them all a few questions ahead of time that they can tell you a little bit about themselves and their hike. So I see Tolita, you're unmuted. Why don't we start with you? Yeah, so my name is Tolita. My trail name was Wolf Mama. And that's because I threw hike to a long trail of my dog here, Nala. We threw hikes last summer. We went in Novo and we completed the whole trail in 36 days. What I can offer to the panel tonight is that I did hike with my dog. I solo hiked as a female. I live in Nass, but I do call Curitiba, Brazil, my home because that's where I was born and that's where most of my family lives. And one thing that I wish I knew before my hike was that, you know, it is very crucial to plan everything. And I tried to plan everything to the last degree. But when it came down to it in the end, things change and plans change. So I feel like it's good to be prepared to know what's coming. But like all the planning I did and like I just spent so much time and effort in the end, like things change daily and I just had to be adaptable. Great. Thanks, Tolita. How about we have the Donna's go next. Great. I'm Jesse Donovan and I hiked to the kids, hiked the trail originally with three kids and finished with two kids. We started on June 20th and it took us 18 days. My trail name is MEDIC and this is Ava or WATCH, what's my trail name? And my name is Elliot. My trail name was Maui. And it was pretty fun. They both had their birthdays out on the trail. So Ava turned 12 and our WATCH and Maui turned 12 and 15. And we are from Vermont. So that made it easy as far as logistics because my husband was able to support us every four or five days and just resupply us. Ava, what's one thing you wish you knew? I wish I knew that like I didn't need a full set of backup clothes all the time because I carried like a full extra set of clothes the whole time, but I didn't ever use it. But yeah. And I guess I would say I wish I knew that my kids didn't need like four extra days of food just in case at all times. Because like I had always had this huge extra food bag in Elliot. I wish I had brought more socks wet most of the time. So there you go. Great. Thanks, guys. How about Niels next? Hi, my name is Niels. I threw out the long trail last year in July, late July, southbound. It took me 18 days. My trail name was Fritos because I always had a bag of Fritos with me. And I'm from Vermont. And I wish I knew how much it would rain on the trail. Good one. And we'll finish up with Tom and Rockhopper. Hey, I'm Tom Kidder from West Newbury, Vermont. My trail name was Krumholtz. I true hiked the trail in 2014 and then hiked it again with my grandson, section hiking it from 2016 to 2019. That's Rockhopper, who's going to introduce himself next. I live in West Newbury, Vermont. And I really thought very hard about what I wish I had known. And I didn't have too many surprises. I was a little bit surprised that so many college freshman classes were having their orientation on the on the trail that it would sort of lock up the shelters a little bit was fine. Which is a surprise to me, but it was easy to work with and I'd rather enjoy their company. So no surprises that were negative. Great, thanks. And Rockhopper. I'm Cyrus Kidder. I section hiked it between 2016 to 2019. My trail name was Rockhopper. And something I wish I knew before I hiked the trail was that powdered milk does not taste good. Very true. Well, thank you all. And now we've heard a little bit from our panelists. We're curious to hear about your all's experience. So we're going to do a quick poll just to hear a little from the attendees and what you're interested in. All right, thanks, John. I'll pop that poll up. And so all you out there in the audience at home, going to see a thingy pop up on your screen and we would love you to participate in the thing. We can get to know a little bit about you. So here you go. And panelists, you should see that on your screen as well. Feel free to add in. You've done that already, but the more the merrier. And just to let you all know, somebody did ask a question. So as we get to going around and circling around, folks out there are interested in what time you hiked. So if there's a time of year that you were out, particularly, I think people generally like to know that. Oh, wow, we are getting answers flowing in. That's cool to watch it go. You can see that. Yeah. Yeah, it's really neat. Tom, I didn't know that your child's name was Krum Holtz. That's a cool one. Thanks. What the Krum Holtz is, the alpine zone where the trees grow about knee high and they're old and tough. That's pretty well. It's my favorite part of the mountain. Oh, siesta. I like siesta as you get to take naps and during siesta time, that's cool. Oh, I'm sorry, Dayton, please, please accept my apology. We were limited on the amount that I could put in there. I love Rhode Island and New Jersey. Great places. All right, John, looks like we got most most answers in there. So I'll end and I will share the results and let you take back over. Well, thanks, Lauren. You're welcome. Yeah, it looks like we have a fair number of the experienced hackers out there, which is which is great to see. People still interested in learning more. We like we like to hear that. And yeah, everyone loves food and people are always curious about logistics. Cool. Well, thank you all for responding. And a good amount of backpacking experience, too. That's that's wonderful. Everybody's just trying to get their end into the long trail piece there. Yeah, yeah. OK, panelists, here we go. First question. What inspired you to hike the long trail? We'll start with meals. Um, I I'm a Boy Scout and when I was 11, my first merit badge was the hiking merit badge. And we hiked all of the 4,000 foot peaks in Vermont. And ever since then, I wanted to do it. Thanks. Anyone else care to share? I can go. So I like the long trail because I always had a dream to do like any long distance trail. I've had my eye set on the AT for a while, but I was like, can I really do that? Like, I don't know. It's kind of crazy. Like, can I carry everything on my back? So I kind of like when I started it, I kind of went into it thinking, like, all right, let's see how far I can push this. Like, can I do this? But then a week later, I was like, all right, I'm in it for the win. Like, until the end. That's great. Thanks. We I was inspired to hike the long trail. I really became kind of obsessed with the idea of like going for the fastest known time, seeing how fast I could do it. And then I thought, what about the family fastest known time? So we would joke that when we were when we were out there, it was more of an adventure with the kids. So what has that to do with that? Well, my parents hiked the Appalachian Trail together, like after college, I think. And I thought it was really cool. And I found like their old journals like that they wrote in every day. And I like read them a little bit and I got really interested. But like the long trail was like set seemed like a better length than the AT. Yeah, yeah, it's a little more approachable. And we had actually never we had spent one night in a tent as a family before our first night on the long trail. So we we had no experience as a family. And you can still do it. That's good to hear. Yeah. Cool. Anyone else? Well, I just first time I hiked it, I just retired. And I I just I love being in the woods and I like the idea of living in the woods for that long period of time. And the second time, I just really something really wonderful to do with my grandson and a great way to spend time with him. Yeah, group to be was incredible experience. That's great to hear. And was it was it your idea, Rockhopper? Um, I thought it was cool that grandpa hiked the long trail. So I decided that I wanted to do it and then I did it. Nice. So the one thing that people always ask me about hiking and going on a long hike is what's the coolest thing that happened to you? Because, you know, you're just like walking in the woods every day. And it might seem like every day is the same, but there's got to be like, you know, that one cool thing that happened. So does anyone have like the cool thing that they tell people when they only have like an elevator ride to tell them about their long trail hike? Is that too tough on the question? I would say swimming in that brook that's at the base of Clarendon Gap and watching my grandson dive off the rocks down there was pretty incredible. I would have to say also it's just being out there in nature and connecting with like on a spiritual level with nature and just being able to enjoy like the sun sets every day and the sun rises and like you just come across a very simple like pond and you're just like, oh my God, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It just like, it just turns into such a, it's just like so, I'm sorry to explain it is a very strong emotion, you know, very emotional. That's great. Well, I thought it was pretty cool. I just met a bunch of really cool people out there. I never would have met otherwise. Like I don't think I ever had like a bad experience with another person on the trail. It's always cool to meet all the new people. Yeah. I always call people, I got soaked within the first hour of hiking. I liked swimming in all the water places, but then I also liked getting to the top of the 4,000 footers. Yeah. Yeah, and like both of you mentioned, there is a lot of water on the long trail coming from above and below for sure. All right. Well, I know food was a hot topic. Everyone's always curious, what do you eat while you're hiking? So I'm just curious what people's different, like cooking routines were. If anyone, Tolita, do you want to start? So my cooking routine, yeah. So I had breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks all throughout the day. My breakfast, I'll just kind of like go really quick. I have like three days worth of all different meals for different, you know, for examples, but I had either like oatmeal or like I had like a chocolate powder protein shake with powdered milk. For lunch, I always had some sort of wrap with tuna and like chips and honey mustard or whatever, whatever I could get. For lots of bars and meat sticks and chewy candies. And for dinner, I had an MSR stove with a little pot and I basically cooked myself, either North sides or ramen noodles and stuff like that. Anything I could boil in water pretty much. Cool, thanks. Anyone else? I would just say that hiking with kids, I definitely overpacked on food just because I was like, we're never gonna bunk. And I was very on top of them, constantly eating throughout the day. But we did the same thing, like hot breakfast, oatmeal, I had coffee, which was a treat that I never did on the Appalachian Trail. And then we had just camp meals for dinner and then we would just have wraps and peanut butter and meat sticks and pretzels and whatever, you know, we were craving that four or five day section we would load up on. Did you have like an extra big pot so you could cook for all three of you? No, we went very lightweight in all ways. So we carried one bowl, one tiny bowl, one cup that I would have my coffee and dinner and then we would eat out of the camp meal packet. Then we had three different things and then we would save that first camp meal packet for breakfast and we did oatmeal out of the dinner. Nice. So yeah, we were all about, I was all about lightweight. Yeah. Thank you for the hot water and everything. Jesse, can I ask you a question? If you made coffee, did you have coffee grounds or did you do instant coffee or what? I did instant coffee and it was pretty good. The Starbucks was really good. I tried like, I don't know, some sort of like vanilla latte in, which was really not good, but the Starbucks coffee was actually really good. And it was, I would wake up before the kids and it was such a great way to start the day and have a coffee and. The ritual. Yeah. I had a coffee ritual that I would make coffee the night before and have it all ready to go in the morning with a little lid on it. And the first thing when I'd wake up, I just drink cold coffee and that got me on the trail a lot faster. I wouldn't have to stop and eat a lot of water and wait for my coffee to cool. And it was actually pretty good. There you go. Nice coffee. We also mixed up our meals a little bit once in a while. If it were raining in the morning or we were wet, we would eat our lunch in the morning because lunch was usually very already prepared. And then we'd stop along the trail after the rain stopped and cook our breakfast about lunchtime. And you make those adjustments. Yeah. Makes it interesting. Yeah, I did it. I did it similar to everybody else on our long days where I would try and get a lot of miles in. I would usually eat like a no cook breakfast, usually like pop tarts or stuff like that. And then almost always for lunch, I had tortillas with tuna. And I always got it in oil because it's higher in fat. Oh, yeah. There you go. And Rockhopper, what did you do for cooking? Grandpa did all the cooking, but. That's good. My favorite meal was chili mac and beef, the freeze-dried stuff. Oh, yeah, that is good. Nice. And then I had hot cocoa. Oh, okay, cool. John, do you mind if I ping in a couple of question and answer questions? Yeah, sure. Did any of the panelists go stoveless? Everybody likes their hot food and their coffee. Hot food. Hot food away. And does anyone have any particular food allergies that might have affected that, whether you're a vegetarian or you're vegan or an allergy that you might have? My one child who ended up getting injured in the beginning, he has to follow a keto diet. So I saw somebody asked about a vegan diet which is totally different, but at the same time, there's so many different canned foods out there. You can find just about anything. And I think a vegan diet would be really easy to follow. I liked having the time to eat the food just because my kids really liked to get camp. So we were there for hours, that was just part of our ritual, but you definitely could go without a stove if you wanted. Cool. You also did. And I'm curious how different people stored their food. So how about we raise our hands? Who did Bear Hanks? Okay. Niels, what would you do sometimes? I use it in a sack. Okay. Oh, shit. Cool. Yeah, that's what I've used historically. That's what we had. Okay, cool. Yeah, just a note. And we hung it. We had that sack and we hung it. And hung it. Cool. Yeah, that's about it. Great. Yeah. Yeah, this past year was an active year, shall we say, for Bear Activity. There was a bear put down at the Bedel shelter because I got my hikers food. So I'll just take this time to say that the GMC strongly recommends the use of a bear canister now. And everyone should know how to use it if they have one, but in a secure place so that a bear doesn't bat it off of a cliff or into a stream. If that's not possible, well, I guess I should say that the first option is to use a bear box if it's provided at the shelter. Then a bear canister if you have one and the last option is a bear hang. But that's the least preferred option because most of them that I've seen at least are not to spec, I guess I would say. They're pretty easy for bears to get down, I think. So let's move on from there. So I saw a question already about tenting and shelters. Did anyone have a preference or what was your approach to selecting that? Tom, do you wanna go first? Well, second time, usually that Cyrus decide, Rockhopper, and he tended to prefer the shelters but once in a while, the tent. Sometimes the shelter was full and we would use a tent or a fly. I tended to prefer the tent, but many times I had a shelter for myself and that was kind of nice too. So it was back and forth. I love the shelters and I love my tent. Yeah, Jesse, how'd you do it with the kids? We never had a night alone at a shelter or a tent site. We left it up to them. They liked the shelters. I thought at the end, yeah, I called them shelter rats because I'm like, really, I really liked the tent but they liked the shelter. We had a pretty small three-person tent. So it was totally, it wasn't three-person tent. A very small three-person tent. So if there was room, we ended up staying in shelters quite a bit. Yeah. So as for me, yeah, I brought a tent. I stayed mostly in my tent because of my dog too, unless we were alone at a shelter, I would just sleep in the shelter. I did notice that throughout the entire Southern section before we hit Route 4, which is where the Inn at Long Trail is, that's where the trail branches off from the Appalachian Trail. So up until that point, all the shelters were pretty much packed every night so I was glad I had my tent. I even brought the vestibule accessory that I attached to the front of my tent and that's where my dog slept. She slept right under the vestibule outside the tent. But I did notice that I, like after the long trail separated from the Appalachian Trail, I slept almost nights alone in the shelter with my dog. So it wasn't too bad after that. Yeah, it can be pretty quiet in the northern section of the trail for sure. Niels, what'd you do? I preferred the shelters. I had a tent just in case the shelters were full, but. That's always a, I'm gonna jump in for a sec, John. That's always a good idea Niels, is carrying a tent as a backup or some type of emergency shelter. You don't know where you might get stuck and having that can really help out. And did you all have just normal like freestanding tents with poles? No, what'd you have Jesse? It wasn't like a full on freestanding tent. It was almost, I forget what it was. Like you needed trekking poles to hold it up or something? You needed, you could do it without, but it would kind of collapse on the front. So it was like half freestanding. I can't believe I can't remember the name of it. I have it right here. And I'm surprised there's no hammockers here actually. It's become a bit popular, but. Yeah, we saw a lot of hammockers like on the AT section and my son wished that we had one. And I saw somebody asked if there were spaces between. I felt like it was more in the south than when you're on the AT section, not as much when you leave the AT. Yeah, there's certainly plenty of trees in Vermont, but there isn't always a great place to tent or hammock. We had a big Agnes tent and something interesting we discovered that if we had to take the tent down in the morning and if it were raining, we could take the inner tent down and keep the fly up and keep everything dry as we packed. And the only thing that was wet when we left the campsite was the rain fly. It was pretty slick. Nice. And what could you, what sleep system did you use and like what sleeping bag and sleeping pad and remind us again, what time of the year you hiked just so we have a sense of how that worked. Niels, do you want to go? I hiked in late July and August, so it was pretty warm. And I had a quilt that I made myself. It's a copy of the Enlightened Equipment Revelation Quilt. And then I had a climate pad, one of the, I think it's the static V. I just like the inflatable pads because they're more comfortable. Anyone else? We went in June and we used quilts and there was a few nights that it was a little chilly in the quilt. Like we were wearing a puffball jacket in the quilt. Didn't you think it was cold a few times? And we had the lightweight thermal rest pads and they're super loud. That's the only. Yeah, they're crinkly. Really crinkly, yeah. It's kind of a weird crinkly noise that you would never think exists either. Just funny. And amplified when you're in a shelter. Tom, what did you use? Just a lightweight sleeping bag and an inflatable, lightweight inflatable pad. And I was going to tell you what he used. Yeah. How about you, Rockhopper? I had a thermal rest, a ground pad and a mountain hardware sleeping bag. Cool. So everyone stayed warm out there for the most part. Nice. I was even worried about if I should bring my puppy jacket and I feel like that's something a lot of people have asked me to. I did not bring my puppy jacket. I even purchased like a lightweight puppy specifically for the trail and I didn't even bring it because I didn't even need it. I have like a light grid, at least. That's what I slept in and if I got cold, I would go in my sleeping bag and I was pretty much fine the whole time. So did anyone have a favorite place that they spent the night? Talita, you're... I would say probably Puffer Shelter. What about the sunrise there? The sunrise, yeah. Yeah, it's a beautiful view there, for sure. For me, I'd say Stark's Nest. That was awesome there. I love that place. Anyone else? I like Thorendine a lot. Very nice view from there and white face. Oh yeah, white face is nice. It's... We hit Puffer in like the worst mosquito swarm. It's, you know, the only... We carried bug nets and that was like one of the only days when I wore it. I mean, it was like, it was horrible. We're trying to get water and it was warming everywhere. Hot, leggy day. And we had just a magical night on the top of Bromley. Warming hut there. There was people out in their hammocks. It was just, you know, sunshine and we spent hours up there. That was amazing, right? And yeah, Elliot found like sticks and built the house. So, magical night. Yeah, yeah, we talk a lot about the shelters, but you're gonna have some really nice nights on top of the ski areas where it's all mowed down and you can see all around. It's certainly a viable option for a wonderful night on the trail. Rockhopper, did you have a favorite night on the trail? I really enjoyed when we spent the night at the Inn at Long Trail. Oh yeah. My dad came and joined us and it seemed amazing compared to Cooper. Yep, that's a step up. I would say, yeah, the Inn at the Long Trail is probably a little cozier than Cooper Lodge, that's for sure. Did anyone have a particularly bad night's sleep out there? No, Rockhopper, you're probably gonna say Cooper now. You can nod your head, yeah. Yeah. Anyone else? I had a pretty crazy experience. So, I was hiking throughout July and I remember it was the 5th of July and my two girlfriends had come out to hike with me for a week. And we were like, we stopped and we were camping at the Clarendon Gorge because it was like a nice little river. We were like swimming in the river, like perfect water source, like perfect camp spot. We were like, this is great. We went to bed and then as soon as we went to sleep, a bunch of people I think that came from because the street is not even half a mile away, the bunch of hooligans came and started setting off really loud fireworks, only 50 feet from where we were camping and we were all asleep at this point and my dogs started freaking out and it was like the loud banging fireworks. It was pretty scary at that point and when we got up to go find out what was going on, they all just disappeared into thin air. It was definitely startling. It's the 5th of July. Yeah, that's good. When I went to Tucker Johnson shelter, I think it is, my friend had just barely joined me to do a three day section with me and when we got there, there was just terrible swarms of mosquitoes. And we barely slept and then at like midnight, we set up the tent and slept in there. Yeah, the bugs can be one of the biggest hazards out there sometimes of the year for sure. Well, cool. That gets us through a few topics that we wanted to cover. I think we're gonna transition now and did you want to do a poll now, Lauren? Not quite yet. I might have a question or two, John, that I want to put out there if that's okay. Yeah. So we just talked about some stuff. Let me just look through and make sure that I didn't miss anything too bad. A lot of people asked about the temperature rating of everyone's sleeping stuff. I, when I threw hiked, I used a 30. Did anybody go drastically different than that? I used a 20. I used a 30. Yeah, that was asked by a number of people. So I think we knocked a lot off there. Okay, cool. So now we're gonna mix things up a little and we're gonna do a rapid fire round. So I have a few questions that are like one word or one sentence answers that we're gonna go through and just like common questions that people ask and bikers that are fairly simple to answer. So we'll start with, what was your favorite piece of gear and just whoever can think of it first can go. Okay, I'm up. I wore a really thin, long sleeve shirt instead of a short sleeve shirt. That's all the only shirt I brought. And it was perfect because it kept the bugs off but it never got too hot but it was also warm if it was cold. Nice, good choice. Oh, my hoca hat. I'm wearing it right now too. Just extra comfy? Oh yeah. Who's next? Alita? I would say my satellite tracker because that thing got me out of lots of times where I lost the trail and it saved my life. So my satellite tracker. Nice. I liked my L.L. Bean fleece. Oh yeah. Tom, I saw you hold up a stove there. A stove. Oh, you're muted there, Tom. Oh, I tried to unmute you but I didn't, sorry. Okay, it's this little stove. It burns wood or pine cones or birch bark and so I didn't have to carry any keel and it was kind of fun to fool around with. I carried some pellets along just in case I didn't find any dry firewood but I was always able to find something dry somewhere. Nice. I had a pot and a plastic bag so I wouldn't get my clothes all wet or black but otherwise it's a great little toy. Yeah, that's handy. We even had one. Yeah, it's good. I just liked my mom and Rick and I got to like get into it at night and it was always clean. Oh yeah. Can I jump in with a question there? So you were saying how you carried an extra set of clothes but you didn't really wear them. Did you ever have a change of clothes for bedtime? Yeah, I had like a set of just like light long underwear that I put on at camp but otherwise I just wore like the same shorts and like a shirt for hiking every day but I carried an extra set of clothes just in case I ever got wet. I never really needed it. Cool, thank you. What was on your feet while you were hiking? For me, I wore in-dingy socks. They're like toe socks and they're super cushiony because I always get blisters on the tops of my toes. I wore those and I wore Meryl's like super lightweight hiking boots. I had darned tough socks and then Meryl Trail Runners. We wore darned tough socks, Keegan Randall's special edition. And we all wore like trail running shoes. I wore sock liners and darned tough socks and low-cut hiking shoes. I wore a range. I wore hiking boots. My favorite were trail running shoes and smart wall and darned tough. So you changed your shoes at some point? Because you were hurting? What? Why did you change your footwear during the trip? Because the section liked it. Okay, so you had different shoes for different sections, gotcha. Let's see. How do you know that this is not an advertisement for darned tough even though they're socks you're so gray? I expected that, that was fun. I almost, yeah. How did you purify your water? Delita? I used a Kataden pump filter. So basically there's like a dirty tube and a clean tube. You stick the dirty tube in the water. You stick the clean tube in your water bladder, water bottle, whatever, and you pump it. The great thing about that was I literally had water no matter what. I ended up showing up to some shelters that were dry. The water source was completely dry. I ended up, at one point I literally dug a hole in the ground until I found muddy water and that's how I got my water. I filtered that water. Neils, I saw you got something in your hand there. Yeah, I used a Sawyer Mini and I put it in line in my water bladder. And then so my water bladder slides open so I could scoop up water really easily and then use it on the trail to drink water directly or use it as a gravity filter and camp. Nice. We used the Aqua Mirror for drops. Yes? We used a Sawyer also and a smart water bottle sometimes, but we had the Sawyer Mini's and we also used the, I don't even know what it's called, like the big water thing that you just showed Neils, which I noticed most through hikers had bottles, but I found it really easy to have the hose just going into your mouth. So you didn't have to stop, pull out a bottle. It was much easier. Did you have one filter for each of you? No, no, we shared everything. We had, we brought two filters at all times. But one of them were actually split at the top. These bags, actually, we had three different ones break. You know, we were squeezing them, but they split at the top. We had two break on the same day, but luckily we had a smart water bottle, so that's something to look out for. You prepared? Yep. How did you navigate? Did you use a map, a GPS? I know, Toledo, you said you used a device there or a map or anything. I used, so yeah, I had my device. I also had a map and I had my guidebook with me. I had the long trail map and I had an altimeter watch and then just kind of did calculations in my head for distance and altitude and stuff like that. We used a long trail guide and just used the maps in there. Nice. I had Grappa. We had an outdated guide. A map. And a GPS. You have to tell that part. All of the blazes. We used Got Hook. Okay. A map and the long trail map. Great. It was like our favorite entertainment every night was the long trail map, like the map out. Like if we did this tomorrow, then we'd be here and then we'd be there. That was our only entertainment. Yeah. It's amazing how much fun you can have looking at the next day. Yeah. What's ahead of us and where have I been? John, do you mind if I chime in for a sec? Yeah. And everyone should know that the GMC, the headquarters are still shipping out maps and guidebooks if you need. So depending on whenever you're planning, you can get that. And then the long trail map and the long trail guidebook are available through an iPhone app as well. It's relatively new. It's really good. It works like a GPS. You don't need data. And you can find that on the website as well. So check that out if you're interested in a mapping app for your long trail hike. What was your favorite treat on trail, whether candy or Slim Jim's? I always had the Nutella with breadsticks to go. That was like my favorite treat. Very specific. Anyone else? Fritos? Oh yes. I like to have sour gummy worms. And we always had them. My brother carried them because if I had them, I would just eat them all but he was very good at like divvying them out. So we would get them like whenever I was sponking or we just like reached a certain point that we would just have like one sour gummy worm. It was really good. Nice. Like Snickers jelly beans. Cool. Tom, what was your treat? I don't like feeding Cyrus's jelly beans. And I like a little beef jerky now and then and almonds are always good. There you go. Let's see. Throughout the whole trip, what was your favorite meal that you had during your hike? Both on trail and if you got off trail. No, what was that meal as well? Tolita? For me, my favorite meal I'd say was I had these like dried, it's like dry rice with vegetables. It was like Boiya meal and it took so long to cook it but it was like so good and so filling. That's what I had. Off the trail, I went directly to Ben and Jerry's. On the trail, me and my brother really liked like this fettuccine Alfredo like camp meal that we had and it was always like so like exciting to look forward to it all day. But off the trail, like we got to go to Skinny Pancake and it was like my first time ever and it was like amazing. It was really good. Nice. I liked Mountain House freeze dried spaghetti on the trail. And then, oh yeah, with meat sauce and then off the trail, I liked Chipotle. Dr. Copper? I liked, my favorite meal was when I had French toast after coming to Killington. And then I also liked Ben and Jerry's when we got off and we went to a B&B. Cool. We'd also stopped in Montpelier a couple of times at the gelato shop. That was delicious. Oh wow, nice. Let's see. What side trail or off trail destination do you think was worth the time? So for me, every like, because I feel like like Killington, the trail didn't go like directly to the peak so we had to like point two off the trail to get to the actual summit. And like Belvedere was like the same, like any trails that go to the peak or to the summit, I would say is worth it for sure. Jesse? Yeah, we were gonna say Killington because it's super steep. You know, you start up and you're like, oh, and we were heading to town so we really wanted to get to town but it's such a great view up there and it's totally worth it. Yeah, every side trail is worth it. I mean, you're just out there to be. So take them all and swimming. Every swimming hole is also worth it. That's the answer we're looking for. Yeah. I like the Clara bow trail near Taylor Lodge. It's really cool. There's like a ladder there. You go through some caves and stuff. Cool. Tom? Oh, I think this side trail at Belvedere and Killington probably, yeah. Can I jump in? Somebody asked if they need to pack bathing suits? I've seen a lot of that ways. You just jump in in the clothes you've been hiking in all day. That's how you keep them clean. That's right. Yeah, cool. Well, that's all the quick questions I had for you. Oh, John, do you want me to do my poll? Oh, yeah. Yes. And you want to do the poll, though? Oh, yeah. All you out in the audience. We want to know a little bit about you, too. So, ba-da-boom. I'm getting some back, huh? So interested to see what the favorite candy bar is always. Wow. So I do see a question here that's towards me and I like to answer it live. Go ahead. So there's actually a few questions here. One of them is, are there any areas in the north where you will need to provide assistance to your dog? And that is, yes. There is one specific section that a lot of the southbound hikers were like asking me, like every time I would go across someone on the trail, they would be like, oh, how are you gonna get past where your dog with ladder ravine? How are you gonna get past ladder ravine with your dog? There's really steep ladders. Like, multiple people brought that up to me. I was really worried about that. And when I got there, it did end up being like, it was like one 12-foot painter's ladder, like straight down, super steep. The way I prepared to do that was I brought a pulley system and I had Nala pack it out in her bag and I basically had planned on using pulleys to bring her down the ladder. But I did find that, I basically went around to the left a little bit. I just went off the trail around to the left where it was not so steep and she just jumped off the big rocks and she was fine. And I didn't even need anything. And also there's a lot of ladders going up Mansfield, up the forehead. So I just took the forehead bypass trail and I just went around all the ladders and I was fine. I did not bring an emergency dog harness, but if you feel like your dog may need something like that, I definitely would bring something like that. They're pretty light. There's one thing called a pack-a-paw harness, which is like something you can just pack in your dog's bag. And as for rest days, we only had one zero day. We had a few Nero's, but we only had one zero day. So she was like running ahead of me the whole time pretty much. I was trying to keep up with her. Thanks, Talita. Good to answer some of those dog questions. I know a lot of folks like to go with their dogs out there. Another one, John, that might be nice. Just where we're at right now, people are still doing the pull. And that is, does somebody want to describe what they might see as advantages or disadvantages to going north versus south, or south versus north? I think, I thought southbound was pretty smart because I did a lot of training before going to the trail. So I thought starting out fresh on the tough sections and then finishing it off easier. I like going north because it sort of works up to a climax. You start low in the woods and it's relatively gentle compared to the north. And then it just gets tougher and tougher and more spectacular as you go. So it's just a storyline or a symphony or whatever you want to say, but it's nice to build up for me to a climax. Yeah, cool. I agree with Tom. Yeah, I also agree. The southern was definitely a lot nicer than the northern half. It was definitely more rugged than I had anticipated. Another question, I guess, Neal, as you said it, maybe somebody, if anybody else is a thing, is there something that you all did specifically to train to get ready for hiking 270 miles all at a time or in pieces? I think it's important to wear your backpack with weight in it just to make sure you like the feel of it. And my mom hurt her shoulder so she put a little bit of padding in. But if you start the trail and your backpack's uncomfortable, it's like a real bummer because it just hurts. I definitely, I made my kids like, you know, we did not insane hiking, but a lot of day hiking where they could at least break in their shoes. We could make sure everybody's equipment worked before we were committed to being out there in the woods. Yeah, I agree. I did like progressive day hikes and a lot of running during the week. And then, yeah, that was mostly it. Day hikes always, I always have my pack with weight in it. Yeah, I pretty much did the same too. I did a lot of day hikes with my bag fully packed and my dog's bag fully packed. I made sure she was trained, you know, she's a German shepherd, 87 pounds of pure muscle. So I just had to make sure that she was, you know, good enough shape to be able to do something like. Great. I can share the poll results, John. Snickers just crushing the competition. M&M's and Reese's got a little play, some twigs in there too, but it's tough to, and I say this as a person who's allergic to peanuts, tough to beat that combination of fats and sweets and sugars that you get in a Snickers bar. You get everything in there. And then, yeah, a lot of people coming for a squeeze filter. There's certainly a lot of convenience in that. Like, yeah, Neal's had a pretty unique system there and Jesse is using it well. So, great. Thanks, everyone. Lauren, did you have any other questions that you wanted to ask right now? Yeah, there's been a decent amount of talk about resupplying as well and how to do gear drops or other stuff like that. So maybe if either of you, any of you want to speak up to that, that'd be great too. Jesse, you know, you live in Burlington, you were able to have help on your hike? Yeah, it was easy for us because my husband didn't hike with us. So he just, I packed all the boxes beforehand and he would just meet us every four or five days and we would just pull from the back of the car based on what we needed. And then I'm from Bennington, Vermont, which is down south where the trail starts and that's where my dad still is. So he had a box of stuff. So, yeah, we were spoiled. It was easy. Yeah, I had it similar. I live in Berlin, Vermont. And so my family would come and I had all my food that I wanted for those specific days in Ziploc bags. And then I would like get a fresh meal and my Ziploc of food and switch hiking partners usually. Tolita, how'd it go for you, Ben? So as for me, I was supported. I was originally supposed to through hike with my boyfriend and my dog, but like a week before we were supposed to start, he got a new job and had to go down to Baltimore to do training, but only like two weeks after I was hiking. So for the first few weeks, he would drive out to me every weekend and meet me wherever and he would resupply me. And when he wasn't around, I basically used these buckets and I would hang them from trees at different road crossings or he would leave them for me in the trees. And it would say like where they were located, my trail name Wolf Mama, it would say what date that I was supposed to arrive to be picking it up. And we would basically like there hanging it from a tree and that's how I would resupply. And also for Nala's food too, like she eats a very specific, she has a very specific diet. She eats a kibble that is very high and tangerine and glucose meat is just for her joints. But anyway, so I had to make sure that she was eating the right food the whole time. So instead of like going into town and buying like just random dog brands of food, I was like, how am I gonna do this? So I basically just had like hung up bags of her food in the trees and it was just there waiting for us all throughout the trail. Tom and Rockhopper, did you have family bringing food for you along the way? With the, since we section hiked together, whether we had our full supply with us, the last section we did was I think 65. So we didn't want mail drop there. We spent one night at Airbnb and we had a food shipped to the Airbnb. The first hike, I had a package sent to Manchester and we picked it up there. But I occasionally would have friends join me on the hike and I knew ahead of time who was going to join me and where. So I would, I gave them food to give me drops. So it all worked out pretty well. And they did some organization, but it worked out beautifully. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like a lot of the folks we have on the panel had family or friends join them for different sections. So we definitely recommend, you know, inviting your friends to come along for a hike with you. But secretly you just want them to bring you food. Very good strategy. Mail drops are difficult because you don't have, you're not going through many towns or close to many towns. So it's difficult. You really have to get off the trail to pick up your mail drop. Yeah. Yeah. Chose offices can be tricky. John, do you mind if I address a question in the Q&A? So Brian asked a little bit about how resupply could be affected by COVID and it's kind of what Mike talked about. You know, it's pretty unlikely that you'll be able to get a hitchhiking ride. Shuttles might not be running this year. I know that a number of shuttles are closed already. They're anticipating being closed. And then, as Tom said, the lawnshed does not go through towns. So you've got much longer walks into towns. So considering the ways that you can have friends or local acquaintances in Vermont support you, so before you get to a road crossing, give them a call, have them come get your food and you keep on going or walking. You know, the least that you have to get off the trail and the least that you have to have reliance on other things, the better. Lauren, thank you. All right, so we talked a little bit about getting to the trail and around it. Once you're on the trail, how often did your plans change? And when they did, how did you respond, Belita? So for me, plans change pretty much daily. Basically, I just would look at what terrain I was coming up on and how long it would take me to do whatever, however many miles with the elevation gain. So in the beginning, I had planned out every day exactly where I would sleep. But I ended up realizing that the trail was a lot more rugged than I thought. So my miles were lower than I expected and I also had to listen to my dog and how she was doing and what she needed. So I basically would call too. I would just call my support, my boyfriend and I would just be like, hey, help me out. This is what's going on, where should I go? How far should I go? That's how plans change for me. Anyone else? We kind of went into it with a very loose plan maybe it'll take us three weeks. The kids moved a lot faster than I thought they would. But yeah, I always just brought two full days of extra food, as I said, I overpacked on food but that's like the mom. So then we could just totally be flexible. And I had a cell phone so then I could just say where we were gonna show up. But it, we always changed plans. We just went with the flow. Yeah. Anyone else? Have your plans changed or did everything go smoothly? My plans changed quite a bit. I planned out pretty specifically the shelters I wanted to go to, but generally the people I was hiking with would be, most of them were actually faster than I thought. So we ended up getting to places faster than I was expecting, that was nice. And Tom, with doing section hikes, did you find it easier to plan out and execute on what your itinerary was or did your plan still change along the way? I don't think our plans ever changed on this section hike or on my true hike or just how we calculated things out. I guess I got lucky, but with the weather as well. So no plans to change very much at all. Well, great. Cool. So switching gear a little bit, talk about some of the hazards of the trail. I know bugs came up earlier, some forms of mosquitoes making things difficult for folks. What did you do to protect yourself from mosquitoes and ticks on the trail? For me, I had Nala use her tick. She had a tick collar that helped a lot. I didn't really have any big issues with ticks, but bugs and mosquitoes, oh my God. I feel like no matter how much bugs for me I use, it didn't make a difference because there was flies and mosquitoes and just bugs swarming me all day, every single day. But I did hike in July too. So that's like bug season. That'll do it. We had bug nets that went around our faces and that was nicer at camp at night, but usually like if you keep on walking, like it's not too bad, but if you stop, it's really horrible, usually. That's maybe why we moved so fast. We had, I mean, we hiked in June, which supposedly would have been bad, but it really was not bad. It was only the hot and muggy days, there was a few days. The other thing we did is we treated like our socks, a lot of our clothing with some sort of, I forget what, that goes on like bug repellent clothing. So we bought this and we treated our clothing before we left, I don't know if it helped. And that was supposed to help with ticks too. And we only had one tick between the four of us because I also had a third kid in the beginning throughout the whole time. I don't, bugs weren't really an issue for me that much. And so I only used bug spray when I encountered a bunch of bugs. I carried like a small container of Sawyer Picker IDIN. I tried to schedule late July and August for most of the hiking and the bugs, because the bugs were less during those times, but I hiked many miles along the trail with a little first switch kind of slipping back both sides of my neck just to annoy them and keep them away. Cool, good strategy is there. And what did you do when the weather got bad? I know some of you probably just kept hiking. Others maybe hunkered down for the night. I have one story about that. So I was pretty lucky for me, it was sunny almost every day. I only got like two or three rainy days. One of those rainy days though was like, this was one of the times where my plans really changed on me. It was right before I was gonna hit that area called Ladder Ravine, which is where everyone was all like, oh my God, how are you gonna do that with your dog? And so I was planning on walking to Montclair Shelter, which is, it's right to the south of Camelson, right before you climb. And that's where I was planning on sleeping that night. But I got to the shelter before it was Cowles Cove Shelter, and it was like a three walled shelter. I was only gonna have lunch there, but I got there so late and it was gonna start raining soon. And when I got there, there was a sign that was like, do not cross Ladder's Ravine in the dark or when it's raining, like it's very dangerous. And it was supposed to rain the whole next day, which is when I was supposed to be crossing that area. And I freaked out. I was like, oh my God, what am I gonna do? I ended up calling my friends, like calling my boyfriend asking for advice. And that was when I ended up taking my zero day. I just stay put for a whole day. I waited the rain out, and then the next day was super sunny. And I ended up crossing Ladder's Ravine and climbing Camelson then, yeah. But what a nice place to spend a zero day. Yeah. Anyone else? One day we had like, the beginning of the day was fine. And but my mom was all worried the whole day because she was like, it's going to rain and we're gonna like be going over like a mile. No, I was like a huge storm is coming. And we didn't listen. So we were stuck and it was like downpouring and the river was just like, I mean, the trail was a river and we were like running through it. It was like lightning thunder. That was Belvedere Mountain. We didn't do that side trail, but it was actually, it was pretty scary. Like I had, we assumed the lightning position because we were coming across that edge running. And thankfully they're able to run, but then it was just all around us. And then Elliot, like there was like a log that was like going across the top of the trail and my brother Elliot, he just ran right to it and banged his head and we all freaked out because it was like pouring rain. It was like lightning and stuff and we were like super scared. And we thought like he would have a horrible headache but he just got back up. He was like, oh, that was cool. And he kept on going, but we were, it was like still never acting. It was pretty intense. We covered a lot of miles that day in running for our lives. Niels, did you have any bad weather events on your journey? I did. I had a bunch of thunderstorms. Usually I just hiked through them. I would, if we were coming up on elevation, I would like stay put in a shelter or at lower elevation till the storm would pass. And then I usually got really warm in my shell while I was hiking. So I'd stick my arms through the pit vents kind of vent off my arms, but yeah. Cyrus, do you have any crazy weather out there? We had one really rainy day. That was our day before the BNB. But it was actually pretty nice because it kept us cool and we didn't overheat at all. So we just hiked through it. And you were gonna be spending the night in the BNB. Makes it. Cool. And that's great. Lauren, do we have any new questions popping up? Yeah, there's a couple that might be good. Some thoughts about water quality and water, the amount of water at places. Essentially, if you're hiking on the trail and there is water in the trail, then there's probably gonna be water at the water sources that you're trying to go to. But some do run drier earlier than others and other folks on the trail can tell you that. The lawn trail guy can tell you that. The GMC's visitor center can tell you also which ones are drier or not. We keep track of that. So I just answered that right away because I figured it'd be pretty easy. Let's see, what else? Oh, can you all speak about, this has been a really popular question. What was the weight of your packs? So I didn't actually weigh my pack, but it was huge. So I would say it was probably 35 to 45 pounds. So my goal was to go as lightweight as possible. So the kids, like we carried nothing. In fact, Ava was just saying, can we tell them we didn't even need our rain jacket? So we only, you know, one extra pair of socks, like one cup, one bowl for the three of us. It made it a lot easier because there was three of us to distribute weight. And then also, you know, like Ava could carry 10 pounds. Elliot carried 15 and then I would carry 20. Or as the day went on, if somebody was tired, we could swap weight back and forth. But the average weight of our packs was under 20 pounds. We really carried nothing. Jesse, was there a thing that you sacrificed that got you down to that low base weight? You have to sacrifice a lot of things. Yeah, the kids, I was like, no, no, no, no. I mean, everything you could think of, like toothbrushes, underwear, extra clothing. Yeah, we'd one underwear. Not a lot, yeah. One underwear for all three of you. Yeah, it really helps to have three people because then you're carrying one stove and we all crammed into one really lightweight tent. We had the quilts, we had the lightweight sleeping pads, but no books, no nothing. We did carry a pack of cards. That's a good thing to bring. Yeah, so we had a luxury item. Yes, everybody was allowed a luxury item. But it allowed us to just, it felt more enjoyable for other people. I would have been carrying 40 pounds, which would have been hard. Cool, thanks. I like to keep my pack around 25 pounds if I can. When Rockhopper and I started the trial, he was only six-year-old, so I did carry most of the weight, so that was a little heavier, closer to 35 or so. But every chance I got, I'd unload weight onto him every year so that I was kind of building him up. So that by the end, he was carrying quite a bit of the weight and I was back down around 30 pounds. My pack was around like 19, 20 pounds the whole time. I usually split the tent and stove and stuff with the person I was hiking with. That's smart. That's the bulk of the ones, John, I think there's some other stuff in there that I can work on. Yeah, well, we're getting on to 7.30 now, so maybe we can, I know it's gone by pretty quickly, but we made it through all the questions that for the most part that we had lined up, so plans that out pretty well, I suppose. So we're gonna transition now to finishing up the panel. What we're gonna do is ask the panelists a couple of questions and while they're thinking about their answers, we'll do a quick poll with everyone, all the attendees, then we'll hear their responses and then we'll finish with a photo slide show from pictures that all these folks generously agreed to share with you all. So panelists, what was your biggest obstacle along the way? That's question one. And then question two is if you could only give someone one piece of advice about how can the long trail, what would it be? So we'll do a poll now of all the attendees. Oh, great, great. And we'll let folks think about that. So this question for a couple of minutes here. Did this virtual answer end panel? Thanks, Alina. There we go. Also, everybody be true there. We're able to take whatever you say. John, we have 65%. Yeah. Oh yeah, I can probably, we could probably stop that. For those of you who said somewhat helpful, you know, would be certainly interested in taking your feedback. This is the first time we've posted an end to end or panel like this. So, you know, it's certainly a learning experience for all of us trying to figure this out. Yeah, and if I might add to that, there's a lot of questions that did come in that we maybe weren't able to get to everybody's. I tried to do the ones that are the most, the most that were similar. The GMC is always available to answer those as well. So reach on out. So, panelists, what was your biggest obstacle along the way? We'll start with Jesse. Well, mine was after like the first few days, you start to run out of things to talk about. So just like new things always come up, but it can get a little boring at times to just get by that and just keep going. And then new things come up to talk about and there's new things to do. My biggest obstacle was, I guess, my third child getting injured a couple of days in and getting him out of the woods. My biggest obstacle was sleep. Cause, I mean, some nights I would fall asleep, but a lot of nights I had a hard time sleeping, which was, and if I didn't sleep well then the next day I would just be tired then. Yeah. My biggest obstacle I'd say was when I was three days in and now it's like a big poop and there was a tapeworm in there. So I had to like figure out where I could get meds for her, which vet was accessible and all this and that and the vet I usually take her to, they asked for a school sample. So obviously I couldn't do that. So my boyfriend actually went to a vet in Rutland and told them the scenario and what was going on that she's a trail dog and the vet was like, oh yeah, that happens all the time. It's tapeworm, here's the meds. And they just gave me the meds and I started to give them to her on trail and she was fine. And this was Eastwood Animal Clinic in Rutland, Vermont. Let me shout out. Tom? Well, Rockhopper really liked to tell stories along the trail and he liked for me to tell stories. So my biggest obstacle was coming up with enough ideas and enough stories to keep him going. He was great to hike with, but we talked a lot. Rockhopper? My biggest obstacle was some spots. It was when I first started out, it was hard having very short legs because then you can't get over puddles and that kind of stuff, so he said. Missing his mother and father. Meals? My biggest obstacle was getting my hiking partners into my routine. They always wanted to sleep in. Great, and if you could give one piece of advice to everyone listening, what would it be? Start with you, Niels. I'd say like plan it out very thoroughly. Yeah, plan your through-hike very thoroughly. Gezi? Elliot? Well, to enjoy all the nice spots like the summits and stuff. There's a few times we'd maybe like come up to a summit, look around for like 30 seconds and then keep going. And then we'd have our lunch 20 minutes later in the middle of the woods when it's just important to enjoy the nice places and take advantage of it. It's kind of related, but I would just say I was a little hesitant about just being a female and being alone out there with my kids and just that I found it really safe and felt safe and a welcoming environment as a woman. Ava and I kept a tally of every night how many men versus women were in our campsites. Definitely it was male dominated, but there was, but we made a difference. So we liked the fact that if we weren't there a lot of nights there would have been no women. So there was two of us. So if you're a female and you're hesitant or you're a mother and you're hesitant, just go for it. It's a super safe, kind of secret society up there. Oh, Ava? Bring, I mean, we'll try to bring like a hard map, like a map map, not like a digital map because it's really fun to just like lie in your tent at night and you can like look at like the topography topography and you can like look at the map and that helps you like see if there are any like pretty lakes or lookouts that you're gonna miss if you're just looking at like straight up like map like only the long Trinani side trails. Yeah. Thanks. Rockhopper, what do you think? Um, I'd say keep a journal because it's fun to go back and read about what you've done. That's a great tip, Tom. Well, hiking with my grandson, I would say, not trying to put too many miles in in a day so that we had time to enjoy our campsite or stop and take a swim or play cards or talk to other people. We tried to keep it at a little bit of a relaxed pace and for us, it didn't need to be a marathon and I think if you can do that, if you want to do that, it's important to plan it into your schedule. You don't have to finish it in a pace. You can take 25, 30, 25, 30. Tolita? So I'd also agree with having a journal, you know, even if it's just like real quick at the end of the day, just write down a few notes about how your day was because that's definitely something you'll be looking back on and also just like having fun and enjoying the moment, you know, it's not always you get an opportunity to do something like this and it's definitely something I will never forget. So just like enjoy it and just be present and take it all in while you're out there. Thanks, Tolita. Good parting words. Well, I realize we're a couple of minutes over here, but we're gonna finish up with a slideshow with some photos from the panelists and then we'll wrap things up after that. That's great. Here's a slideshow. I'm gonna crack it with this. Yeah. There's one. Oh, the back garden. Oh. Oh, there's Nils next time. There's me and you now. All right. Thank you, everyone. And thanks for coming. Thank you to all the wonderful panelists who joined us here tonight. You all had some great experiences to share and everyone really appreciates your time committing to this and sharing your experience. Please to all the attendees, be sure to check out greenmountainclub.org for updates on the trail and upcoming events. We have a ton of stuff going on, like Lauren mentioned. Every week we host nature story time for kids on Fridays at 10 a.m. Every other week we host outdoor trivia on Thursday nights at seven. And in addition, next week we have an outdoor adventure, moth style storytelling night on Tuesday. Thursday we have iNaturalist and Northeast Alpine Flower Watch citizen science training. And Friday night is hiking 101. So thank you again for coming. Hope everyone stays healthy and safe and has a great year. All right. Good job, John. Thank you, everyone. Bye. Bye, everyone. John, I'm gonna hang out because I like seeing the number dwindle a little bit. Thank you, Tom and Tolita and Nils. Oh, look at this. Nils, we're hanging out again. Oh, XO. Tolita, that was great. Thank you. Bye, thank you. Yeah. Chris Mala. She's been sleeping this whole time. There you go. Good. That's a good thing. No, come here. Come here. All right, what are you doing? I'm already done. All right, bye-bye. Bye. She did 50 miles. There you go. You've only got 220 left then. You got it. You could be an end-to-endor panelist in no time at all. By the end of the summer. There you go, yeah. How are you all doing? Good, how are you? Pretty good. This was great. This went really well. Yeah, I thought it went great. Yeah. It's always tough to think about putting everything online, but that was nice. Yeah, yeah, I definitely liked the format. And I thought the polls were cool too. Cool. Hey, John. I'm talking to Niels. Everyone else left, besides the 21 attendees that are listening to Niels and I talk. Yeah, I'll talk to you later. Okay. All right, bye. Bye, everyone else that's hanging on. I'm gonna kick you off.