To say that the last 30 hours have been amazing would be an enormous understatement. My heart is so incredibly full. I am so intensely grateful that I get to have this experience, and that I get to share it with my mother. I am humbled by the hugeness and the beauty of it all, and it makes me feel insignificant in such a positive and powerful way that it’s hard to describe. Like I’m so unimportant, so small, so trivial that my very existence is nothing short of pure magic and it would be a shame to let any part of this go to waste. I just want to soak it all up, drink it all in, and make it part of me.

But I digress, and as the post title indicates, I’ve learned some stuff along the way today. And now I’m going to share it with you!

1. “Partly Cloudy” can still mean an amazing sunrise. If we had believed the weather predictions, we would have missed it. The forecast called for rain and clouds through the morning. But we got up early enough to look outside and see clear-ish skies to the east, and the silhouette of the moon, and we all but sprinted bleary-eyed for the car and drove to the nearest east-facing outlook. From Skyland, that is Thorofare Mountain Overlook, 1.3 miles north on Skyline Drive. We got there just as the sky began to light up and the next 25 minutes were absolutely stunning. I’m just going to put the pictures here and let them speak for themselves. (You probably know this but you can click one of the pics and pull up a bigger gallery.)

It’s really awe-inspiring to be looking down on the clouds. I’m not exaggerating when I say I shed an actual tear. It’s also really difficult to pick just a few out of about a million photos, but I did!

2. Trekking poles are the bomb. Seriously, they are worth every dime I spent and I’m SO happy with my purchase. Every feature I took into consideration paid off on the two hikes we did today. I learned that my hands absolutely sweat when I hike, and cork handles are great. I really like the quick-release style of the mechanism that lets you change how tall they are. At their most compact, they don’t fit into my backpack but they easily attach to the outside with a carabiner so I don’t have to hold them if I don’t want to. And for actual hiking, they are as useful on the downhill as they are on the uphill, and for scrambling over any sort of rocky surface. At one point I looked down and it looked like the tips of my poles were… melting? That didn’t seem right – so I took a closer look and learned that there’s a protective cover on the tips that’s meant to come off before you use them. Smart gal, I am!

I know that I could hang my poles differently, or clip them to the side of the pack, but in this arrangement they don’t hit me in the face, they don’t hit me in the legs, the don’t swing in ways that are irritating, and I can reach back and grab them to start extending them when I see a need for them coming up on the trail. My mom had some with a different kind of release mechanism and they were much harder to adjust, so I’m really glad I have the quick-release feature. These poles will last a long time – I can’t imagine I’ll need anything else unless we start backpacking in a way that weight and compactability become real issues.

3. Socks are… ok. A necessary item, and I’m grateful for them, but I’m not sure we’ll ever be on better than terms than “mutually respectful.” I wore the Darn Tough ones for hiking today, and they were good. They didn’t ride up or slouch down or get too tight on my toes. The cuffs were a little tight on my ankles but I didn’t lose circulation. I did feel like I was walking on sand but that’s a function of my feet and not the socks themselves, and while my feet got hot and sweaty and the socks were damp when I took them off, I didn’t have blisters or waterlogging. So in all of those areas, they were a win. I also used the Balegas for casual walking later, and they were good too. More comfortable for daily use I think, and I can see why people like them for running but I’m not sure they’re the best hiking choice. Don’t worry, I’ll be trying a lot of things and I’m sure you’ll get to hear all about it.

4. AllTrails+ is all I’ll ever need in an app. I mean, OK, we are one park in and my experience is pretty limited, but this app is absolutely worth what you pay for it and they sure as heck aren’t paying me to say that.

I’m a map geek. I love maps. I get giddy about them. I hate bad maps, or incomplete maps, or maps that are not *gasp* TO SCALE. And the maps on this app are awesome. I actually used it as my main navigation tool. You can easily find a trail and even see what the elevation changes will be along your path. It keeps track of where you are in real time so you can see at a glance how much longer this godforsaken rocky path hike will last.

Here are some screenshots from our afternoon hike at different zoom levels. And when you’re done with a hike, if you want you can post a review or add photos or whatever you want, and I found the reviews other people had left to be really helpful as well.

OK, I’ll stop geeking out about the map app. But really, it’s great.

5. There’s some gear I’ll want to add or upgrade a little bit. There are, unsurprisingly, a few things I don’t have that I should, like a whistle. And bear spray? I’m going to keep questing for socks. I definitely haven’t found the Perfect Day Hike Backpack yet – the one I have is good but lacks deep water bottle pockets so I worry my Owala water bottle will go for its own little hike without me, and the other one I have has great water bottle pockets but no good place to attach hiking poles, for instance. I need some dedicated sunglasses (to live in my pack) that are expensive enough to be good quality but not expensive enough to cry over if they get smushed. Those kinds of things.

6. This adventure is one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Having kids is right up there, if for no other reason that they can come on this adventure with me! (Joking. My kids are generally amazing.) But so far I love everything about this. Shenandoah is proving to be an absolutely perfect starting place. Going with my mom on the first leg was an absolutely perfect choice. I’m learning how to navigate, how to plan, what kinds of things I’ll need along the way. I’m going out of my comfort zone but not so far that I feel endangered.

I’m already excited to see what comes next, and I haven’t even left here yet.