Plan B

I should have realized Plan A never quite materializes for me.

Instead of tomorrow, I'll be hitting the Trail next Saturday, on March 27th. Which coincidentally is 1 year to the day of my starting date last year.

That's what I like to call a Sign.

Plans

Other than large amounts of time spent waiting, the dental thing went pretty well the other day. Several of my teeth are in rough shape and are going to need a considerable amount of dentist’s attention. Which comes as no real shock to me. Per my customary habit of procrastination, I’ve avoided anything resembling a dentist for quite a number of years. But a lifetime of poor brushing & flossing habits, an overly sugary diet (damn those tasty soft drinks), 15 years of smoking cigarettes, and a long genetic history of brittle teeth (thanks Dad) have finally taken their toll.

It’s going to be a bit before I can get anything done though. They’re booked until mid-May and I can’t get an appointment any earlier. Of course if something happens like another toothache or infection before May, then they can work me in earlier. But otherwise it’ll be roughly 2 months before I go back. There’s no way around it though, I’ve avoided my toothy problems for far too long. Which adds a rather large twist to my previous plan.

Initially I had intended to get dropped off at Max Patch and continue my trek of the AT this Spring-Summer. I briefly thought about starting the whole thing over again from Springer Mtn in Georgia, but that thought didn’t last very long. The 250 miles I’ve already done aren’t much in the entire 2,200-ish mile length of the AT, but I’d rather not do them again right now. That technically makes me a section-hiker at this point, but I’m cool with that. Hike your own Hike, and all. But I now have 3 dental appointments scheduled from May 18th-June15th that can’t be skipped…so the hiking logistics require a bit more than a “start here and go north for as far as I can” strategy.

With all three appointments spaced out like they are, I’ll be off the Trail for about 3-4 weeks. The first two appointments are within days of each other but there’s a 2½ week span of time between the last two. I figure I’ll want a few days of recovery time after all the toothwork, so that leaves me with roughly 2 weeks of lost hiking time. Two weeks that I’d rather not lose. Since I’m lucky enough to live within an hour’s drive of several places where the AT crosses roads, I came up with a tentatively modified plan:

Instead of starting where I stopped last year at Max Patch, I’m going to skip ahead 75 miles or so to a little place called Spivey Gap, near Erwin, TN, and start there. I’ll go as far as I can from this Saturday ‘til just before my first appointment in mid-May, and then head back home. Then in the 2 weeks I have between appointments, I’ll do the stretch from Max Patch to Spivey Gap and head back home again. Once the final appointment is over I’ll hop back on where I stopped initially and continue from there.

So for a timeline of sorts:

• Springer to Max Patch…Last Year
• Max Patch to Spivey Gap…skip for now
• Spivey Gap to “As Far As I Can Go”…March 20, 2010 to Mid-May, 2010
• ---Icky dental stuff happens here---
• Max Patch to Spivey Gap…2 week downtime
• ---More icky dental stuff---
• “As Far As I Went Before” to Katahdin…Early June 2010 to whenever

It makes it kind of a hodge-podge hike instead of a single straight shot, but it’ll add an unusual spin to things. And I tend to like things on the unusual side anyway.

Slotting 2 weeks to do the 75 mile stretch from Max Patch to Spivey Gap may seem like a generous estimate but there are several factors involved in that time frame.

1. I’m a “smell the roses” type of hiker, so I tend to go slower than the usual AT-autobahn that many hikers seem to be on (not that there’s anything wrong with that…Hike your own Hike).
2. The stretch of the AT between Hot Springs and Erwin is notorious for being on the strenuous side. Quite a few of the books and journals I’ve read cite Erwin, TN as a place where many hopeful AT hikes come to an end due to injuries. I want to be able to take my time and not hurt any body part I may need later. I don’t want this year to end like last year.
3. After all the initial dental work I may not feel like doing much besides resting anyway.

So slotting 2 weeks for it seems like a good idea to me.

AT Link

Below is the link to my online trail journal that I'll be updating as I'm on the Appalachian Trail. I thought about just using this blog as my journal, but the site below is used by a large majority of the long-distance hiking community and by having a presence there it'll make it easier for other hikers to find me, if they need to for some reason. Plus it does cool things like automatically tracking my miles.

My Trail Journal:
http://www.trailjournals.com/greent

I may pop in occasionally to put some updates here, but the plan right now is to keep the journal site as my active blog for the time that I'm in the woods.

AT

I've decided to attempt the Appalachian Trail this year instead of putting off til 2011 like I previously said. I was ok with waiting a couple more years to do it when I made that decision, but things kept pointing me in the Trail's direction this year and once I started seriously considering it, everything just sort of fell into place. So 2009 it is.

I have the majority of my gear together and only have a few small odds 'n ends to pick up then I'll be all set to start. I'm planning on beginning the adventure on the 26th of March, so two weeks from today I should be in the woods.

Check out this Wikipedia page to get some good, basic info on it and what it is.

I seem to be getting a lot of the same questions from everyone when I tell them about it, so here are a few of my responses:

Yeah, I'm planning on walking the entire thing...from Georgia to Maine (roughly 2,175 miles, or about 5 million footsteps)

Should take 4-6 months to do it.

I'll be eating mostly dried, just-add-water kind of foods (oatmeal, pasta, etc).

It passes through, or close to, enough towns that I'll only need to carry 3-5 days worth of food at a time. I'll restock food, do laundry, check my mail-drops (friends are mailing me some supplies via post offices) when I get to those towns.

Yup, that means 3-5 days or more between showers too.

There are about 200 shelters that were made for hikers to stay in, but I'll be taking my own setup (hammock, tarp, warm cozy sleeping bag) so I can avoid them for the most part.

When it rains, I'll just get wet. I'm carrying rain-gear, but there's not much that will keep you dry when you're walking in the rain for 4-6 hours at a time.

Nope, not afraid of getting lost at all. There are around 165,000 trail markers (called blazes) along the way to keep you on track. Plus it's extremely well-traveled so the trail is easy to follow.

Apart from a pocket knife and a spork I will not be carrying a weapon. The majority of the AT is on National Park land, where guns aren't allowed anyway.

I actually want to see a bear (hopefully lots of them), and I'm not really too concerned about it. Keep your head and stay calm and everything will be ok.

Same goes for snakes, moose, and other wildlife (including the serial killers and "crazy people just waiting to attack you" that my mother seems to think inhabit the woods).

Yup, had to quit my job. Moving out of the apartment too.

And yeah, it's the craziest thing I've ever done. The scariest too. But that just makes the adventure that much more exciting!

I'll be keeping a journal online so people can keep up with what's going on. I can email my entries using the new toy (the Blackberry) and keep everything updated. There will be places where I won't have a cell signal but overall I'll be able to post pretty regularly. I'll be putting up a link here to the journal and a few other cool things once I get started on the hike.

Hammocks

I've been reading a lot recently about hammock camping, and it sounds extremely cool. Instead of using a tent for camping in, you hang a hammock and use that as a shelter instead.

The hammock's completely enclosed and is lightweight and portable so it can be used almost anywhere. Once you put a tarp above it, you're protected completely from the elements and it's apparently a much more comfortable sleep than lying on the ground. Since you're not touching the ground you're not limited to flat areas free of roots and rocks or designated camping sites. All you need is two trees and you're set. Here's a set up using a tarp:


(pic courtesy of Wikipedia at the link listed above)

Very cool.

The AT

I decided this weekend to set a date for my Appalachian Trail attempt. I've been talking a lot about it for a while now and even made a half-hearted attempt a few years back. And I'm using the word "attempt" pretty loosely there, all I really did was claim I was going to do it the following spring and that's as far as anything really went. I did some preliminary planning but there wasn't any follow through with anything and it didn't happen. My typical "I need/want to do it NOW NOW NOW" thought process without actually considering the enormity of what it entailed. It didn't diminish my desire to do it though, it only delayed it a bit.

Shortly after that The Shelbster was diagnosed with diabetes and Cushing's Syndrome, and that effectively postponed the trip for the next two years. The daily shots were bad enough on her, not to mention the periods when she spent days at a time on IVs at the vet. There was no way I could abandon her for 6 months and ask someone else to care for her. She would have loved walking it with me but without her insulin and other care she wouldn't have made it far, and I had no desire to watch her die like that.

I was seriously considering an attempt next Spring but I'm thinking that the health stuff I've had happen this year is more than enough reason to reconsider and wait a bit longer (and it's a good thing that I didn't try it those years ago given my health, I probably wouldn't have survived it). There's no rush on this and I definitely don't need to push myself right now. Slow 'n steady, and all that jazz. The wait will just make me savor it all the more when it finally does happen.

So the date I set this weekend was for the Spring of 2011. It sounds like a long way away, but it's only a little over 2 years from now. One of those annoying things that life teaches is that time really does seem to move a lot quicker on this end of the candle. That old saying that youth is wasted on the young is true. Two years will disappear in a flash.

Max Patch

I went on a bit of an outing this morning. A friend and I drove up to Max Patch. It was my first time on a "bald" (grass-covered treeless peak) and also my first time setting foot on the Appalachian Trail, but it will not be my last.

The place is simply stunning. A complete 360° view from the top, and the morning was crystal clear and crisp and that made the view even better. It's been described as a "Sound of Music" type place and that fits it perfectly. A twirling Julie Andrews singing to the hills would not have been out of place at all.



The pics I took of the trip can be found here.

Anyone who is ever close to it should definitely take the time to stop and see it. The parking area is at the base of the bald and it's just a short walk to the top; not strenuous by any means. I can't wait to go back.