Intros

I'm Ashley, my friends often call me Ashes, and I'm planning to attempt a 2017 northbound (NOBO) thruhike of the Appalachian Trail! I'm going to use this blog throughout my adventure to let people follow along as i go!

A bit about me. I'm 23 and I just graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago last May (2016). I didn't graduate with a major, one of the many wonderful things about this school. I department jumped and learned a number of things.

I am a costume maker and an artist. I have a small buisness called Pocket Wolf. I make all sorts of things but I mainly work with fake fur.
You can check out my etsy store here:
Etsy.com/shop/pocketwolfshop

I am a volunteer at the Field Museum of Natural History. I work in mammal collections doing all sorts of interesting things like dititalizing old safari slides, skinning specimins, taking organ samples,  cleaning and numbering bones, stuffing animals for study skins, labeling specimins for installation into the collection, and helping scientists prepare to head out into the field!

I additionally volunteer at the Anti-cruelty society to help care for the dogs when i have the time.

Right now I'm living in Chicago with 3 cats, a bearded dragon, a gargoyle gecko, an axolotl, snail, a woma python, and 4 ball pythons. I have a handful of wonderful people helping me care for my animals while I'm gone.

I leave for the tail in March starting in Amicalola Falls State Park. I will be using drop boxes as my primary source of food. My mom will be responsible for sending those to me. I will be hiking solo. My mom and my boyfriend may join me for a week somewhere in the middle of my hike. I hope to make a lot of friends along the way and possibly hike with others.

My main concern about this hike isn't actually about the trail it's about missing my cats back home. That'll be rough, they are really close to me.

Tics and bears are my other concerns. The idea of getting tics horrifies me along with concerns of lymes disease and just having them on me. I've had them before, those were not fun experiences. I've never camped or hiked in bear territory before. Using a bear bag is new to me. I'm sure it'll all go well but it's still a concern I've never had to deal with before.

I'm so very excited!