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Everything is awful, I really want to not have to have a job (medicaid for all, where are you, if I didn't have to pay for health insurance I could go part-time and actually breathe), and somebody needs to talk me out of using up a bunch of my leave and going on a solo backpacking trip this spring.

(Current nebulous plan: Get someone to drop me around the 100-mile marker on the C&O Canal Towpath Trail; hike downhill. 40 miles in there's a train station where I can take the train home; 60 miles in there's another train station where I can take the train home; 100 miles in is the last train home.

Which means I don't have to commit to walking a hundred miles or call home in shame, I can just make a decision at each train station. And the terrain's good, so it's hard for me to imagine not being able to do at least forty miles in a week, even if all the worst happens.

It's not a wilderness trail, so I wouldn't be out of civilization for any very long stretches, which means I could go very light on things like food, and do a few hotel/restaurant stops if I wanted. And there's supposed to be potable water every five miles or so, so I shouldn't need to worry too much about carrying/filtering water.

The only tricky bit is that there's nowhere to sleep in the last 20 miles, and the very last stretch is through the city, so when I got to that last train station I'd have to be very sure I could do 20 miles in a day, and still not miss the last train. But I could stop before then if I didn't think that was doable.

I'd need to make sure my camping hammock was functional enough, and decide if I want to try to stick with a vintage Sterno stove or finally get the backpacking stove I've been lusting over, and figure out my cell phone charging strategy, but other than that I could probably just mark up some maps, pack a bag, and then go.

I've wanted to do this specific trip since high school, so, why not now?

And then once I've done a 100-mile solo trip it'll be a lot easier to convince myself I can do more ambitious ones.)

(Also convince me that if I do it, I shouldn't try to do it in period-appropriate cosplay.)

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ALL THE HUGS

*hugs*

Or, you know, I could just walk off into the mountains and NEVER COME BACK TO CIVILIZATION, that sounds very good some days... I have enough in savings that if I lived like a mountain hermit I could probably make it a very long time (as long as I never needed health insurance...)

(as long as I never needed health insurance...)

Aye, there's the rub!

Also convince me that if I do it, I shouldn't try to do it in period-appropriate cosplay.

Hee!

(I'm sorry everything is awful, though. That sucks! :-(

I mean, it could be worse, it's only my job, and I still really like the actual work, just. the wage labor system, man. fuck the wage labor system. and very specifically, the higher-ups at at my job. (Maybe if 90% of the employees have quit since you hired their new manager, you should be factoring that into the manager's future: a proposal.)

Ugh! I remember before my sister left her last job, she was citing an article entitled, "People don't quit jobs; they quit managers." She might have even shown it to her manager...

So much yes.

Don’t get me started! Anytime there’s that level of turnover, admin ought to at least _express some curiosity and concern_ about what’s causing it...

IIRC we work in the same field so I know those feels very specifically.

I don't see why you shouldn't do it. The hiking, I mean, not quitting. Do the hike first and that will give you time to sort your head out and decide if you need to quit the job.

Period cosplay is fucking heavy and I've never done more than...oh, I think about eight or nine miles? in it, and that was for the Women's March so I was in a mood.

I wouldn't go all-out with the hoopskirts and stuff, or punctilious accuracy, and I would probably be leaning closer to the end of the period than the beginning. It would be closet cosplay and I would be cosplaying as "lower-class, unfashionable person who is walking a hundred miles."

Or possibly trying to copy the tramping outfits in my Outdoor Girls books, which are in period!

I have been to several marches in multiple layers of long skirts and underthings and a cloak, though (I did the women's march that way not for costume reasons but because warm.) And I've done two-week camping trips in medieval peasant women's costume several times. To some extent you can cut weight because parts of your clothing are also part of your camping gear.

And I can't do the trip in clothes that don't cover every square inch of skin either way, because, mosquitoes.

What period? Be specific, so we know how bad/awesome an idea it is.

I was gonna say, please describe the cosplay!

Probably linen shirt (or one and a spare, if I'm feeling fancy,) linen drawers, at least one petticoat, a wide cotton calico skirt, an apron, a bonnet and period straw hat, and then what I brought for outerwear would depend on the weather predictions.... (And good leather hiking boots, obvs.)

That sounds amazing and I fully support.

It's the towpath of a canal that was operational from 1831 to 1924, and there's lots of historical sites along it from those periods, obviously! I would probably just be doing a generic 19th/early 20th century countrywoman outfit, tbh, and not go for anything too specific or punctiliously accurate, no hoop skirts or bustles - but long skirts and bloomers and linen and wool are great for hiking in, as long as you don't have to scramble.

Both the stoves I might take are more-or-less in period for the later part, and I have some canteens that are really mid-century Boy Scout but would look close enough! And the food I'd bring would probably be, like, oatmeal and dried fruit sorts of things anyway, that's always been just as easy as prepackaged camping food. My sleeping gear wouldn't be, though, because nope too heavy. And I'd have to think hard about how hard I cared about a matching pack!

(Someday I wanna walk from here to Pennsic War in full SCA-period medieval garb, though, but that's after I no longer have to have a job...)

Edited 2019-03-07 04:04 (UTC)

I have a 1910s camping manual that includes a section on appropriate dress for women, if that would help!

Oooh. It might! I should see what I have in the way of old camping manuals.

I have looked up the first description of the tramping clothing in the Outdoor Girls, and I had forgotten that it mainly consisted of them going "IT HAS POCKETS! :D" to each other.

“Properly dressed for the woods, and not overburdened, the average woman can keep up anywhere with the average man; but in a tight or draggy skirt she is simply hopeless. For real wilderness travel riding breeches, cut full at the knee, are far better than a skirt. A buttoned skirt that can be slipped on readily may be worn over them on occasion, as when approaching some village or camp where people are not yet civilized enough to approve common sense in a woman’s costume. Alice MacGowan was fairly driven out of a mountain county in Kentucky because she wore riding breeches, and yet many’s the time I have seen a mountain woman riding astride a man’s saddle in an undivided long skirt. O Modesty, what crimes have been committed in thy name!”

That sounds like someone with a clothing reform agenda! :D

Honestly a tight or draggy skirt is hopeless anywhere, but an ankle-to-mid-calf one with some volume is fine in my experience (plus peeing is easier), right up to real bushwhacking or bouldering! (at that point, I want pants.)

I would probably be aiming toward Kentucky mountain woman anyway...

You should do it and post pictures! And a review of the experience.

Hiking the towpath sounds like fun, and not actually all that hard. 20 miles in a day on that kind of terrain is very reasonable, as long as you're in shape for it; I would make sure you've walked around enough with your pack that you're comfortable doing it for days on end. I say go for it! Or come out here this summer and hike in the mountains with me.

I mean, I'm not in shape for it, but maybe by the end of a week I might be? (or completely incapable of walking and already on the train home. It seems like it'd probably be one or the other. And if I can't do the 40 miles to the first train station in a week... well, I will have learned something.)

The last time I backpacked I had my weight down to about 15 pounds dry, including clothes and shoes. It would probably have to be a little heavier on this trip, but still under 20 pounds, and I wouldn't have to carry more than a few pounds of water. I would not be comfortable and would hate it by about the second hour of the first day, but so far my pack experience has been that the only way through is through, and I've done pretty substantial city walking with packs that weight that were all books. :D

This sounds like fun, so I see no reason why you shouldn't go for a walk for your holiday.

Also, you know, walking holidays in many parts of the UK or Europe would solve all these logistical problems, as it's so densely settled that good places to stop are less than a day's walk apart with no need for camping unless you like it or want to save money. And whenever you are sick of walking more often than not there will be a bus you can take.

Yeah, I've been thinking of this trail as more like a European walking holiday! There are a few multi-mile stretches through the woods, and most of the modern towns/hotels would still be a mile or two off the trail, which I think is still less convenient than what I've read about rambling around, say, England, but it would be a far, far cry from something like the Pacific Crest Trail. (Another one on my long list is the Buckeye Trail, which is a 1400 mile/2200 km loop, also through mostly towns and settled areas. The downside there is that there aren't backpacker campsites, so you have to do hotels - which I think is more like Europe, too. C&O is kind of unique around here for having free campsites but not being wilderness.)

When I was in South Wales last autumn I did not walk from hostel to hostel, but just did day trip hiking on sections of the Coastal Path (I dislike carrying my stuff and also have never been camping). However I met a ton of people who walked the Wales coastal path and several who were camping when there weren't hostels, because they found Bed&Breakfasts too expensive. But Wales has been a popular tourist spot pretty much ever since modern tourism started, so tourist infrastructure of all kinds is very good.

Even without camping I only had to stay in a hotel once, because for some reason there wasn't any hostel in Swansea and the budget hotel was cheaper than most Bed&Breakfasts (I don't do Airbnb or such on principle because I think they worsen rental prices and find the whole principle anxiety inducing besides).

And while hostels aren't as cheap as they used to be (otoh not as bare bones either), that's definitely cheaper than hotels and often more fun too. (In case you haven't stayed in hostels often, at least in the ones I've stayed here in Europe you usually get a good mix of ages and demographics, though a few cater exclusively to young adults, but normally it's a mix from students to retirees.) Anyway, I can highly recommend that option for anyone who is not super fussy. (I mean, most hostels I've stayed have been clean, safe and fellow guests are usually considerate, but you do share facilities and have to deal with others, so it's not for people who get grossed out as soon as they see a stray hair in a sink and wake up at the slightest noise.)

You should DEFINITELY do it in cosplay, oh my god yes.

I can pretend I'm the heroine of an American Girl novel or something!!

Ugh, work.

The backpacking trip does sound kind of amazing, though.

I just want to. Not have anything to do at all but literally put one foot in front of the other. That sounds really good right now.

It sounds from here like one option would be to sleep at mile 80ish, start walking toward the last train station the next day, and somewhere around mile eight decide whether you could get to the 100-mile station in time. If not, turn around and walk back to where you'd slept the night before, and then take a couple of days to walk back to the sixty-mile train station.

Would it feel like a failure if you got to the second train station, walked twenty miles, slept, and then turned around if you had doubts about walking to the final train station in one day to catch the last train? If that would still feel like "good hike" rather than "ugh, I had to retrace my path and scramble uphill some," something like this might work:

Taking a few days to walk between the drop-off and the first train station. Then it's a couple of days from there to the second train station and deciding whether to get on the train then or keep going. If you keep going, give yourself a day or two to walk to the last place to sleep, and then deciding when you woke up. And the decision would then be "turn back to the train station at mile 60, or head onward and decide around mile 88 whether to turn back or keep going through the city.

With regard to cosplay, I can think of two possible arguments against it, which are "things to consider" rather than "don't do it."

1) Would your ouit be adequately waterproof without causing you to overheat? (I don't know whether there are period-appropriate umbrellas that are waterproof enough for a long walk/hike in the rain.)

2) If you'd be visiting any museums on the way, you might have to explain "sorry, I don't work here" to other museum visitors. And cosplay might encourage possibly-intrusive conversation from people at restaurants, hotels, etc.

It sounds from here like one option would be to sleep at mile 80ish, start walking toward the last train station the next day, and somewhere around mile eight decide whether you could get to that station in time, and if not turn around to where you'd slept the night before, and then take a couple of days to walk back to the sixty-mile station.

Would it feel like a failure if you got to the second train station, walked twenty miles, slept, and then turned around if you had doubts about walking to the final train station in one day to catch the last train? If that would still feel like "good hike" rather than "ugh, I had to retrace my path," something like this might work:

Taking a few days to walk between the drop-off and the first train station. Then it's a couple of days from there to the second train station and deciding whether to get on the train then or keep going. If you keep going, give yourself a day or two to walk to the last place to sleep, and then deciding when you woke up. And the decision would then be "turn back to the train station at mile 60, or head onward and decide around mile 88 whether to turn back or keep going through the city.

If that would n't be failure but "I took a hike along the old towpath and then then took a train home" in the same way as just stopping at the second train station,

I think the timing there wouldn't work out unless I took more than a week - either I'm walking fast enough that I can probably do one long 20 mile day when I have to, or I'll be far enough behind that I wouldn't have the time cushion to backtrack for several days. (Unless I took more than a week off! I have the leave! It would suck for my co-workers, but the part of the problem is that I don't have any coworkers left.)

I vote for cosplay but all white so you look like a ghost and give rise to stories of a woman haunting the trail.

I could just wear all white linens! not sure how well the pack would fit though. and they wouldn't be white for very long :D

Just going to echo everybody else and say that you should totally do the hike of your dreams in the clothes you want. Having a job that makes it more tempting just makes it an even better time to go.

(AKA hahahaha nobody is going to talk you out of this, we're pretty much ready to offer supplies and planning help as needed.)

Is so tempting! I think I will be putting in for the leave, at least. I'll have "no job" to look forward too even if I chicken out on the rest.

That trip sounds fabulous and should absolutely be done in cosplay, sorry

So long as you can be safe and comfortable and all that, I'm enamored of the thought of random hikers passing you on the trail: a mysterious, self-sufficient, solitary anachronism. Think of the stories you'd inspire!

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