Date: 2004-12-23
To: Im goin Im goin 
Miles today: 0.0

Yes! I have set up my schedule and it looks like 2005 is my year. Bad news turned good. Well as you may or may not have read last year i was a truck driver who did a section hike with my friend andy. Well my truck broke down and i went bankrupt! YES! Now i can go hiking. I have early April somewhere between 1st and 10th tentatively scheduled. I am now working on setting up some individual and corporate sponsorships to earn money for some charities i wish to donate money to. If you would like to donate or would like further information on which charities i will be giving monies to please contact me at darynhemerson@yahoo.com . Anyway i am very eager to get started if you would like to see any of my photos from my brief legacy on a section hike last year see Lonesome dove's journal or my friend either andy hough or david hough i'm not sure which he goes by on this site. Is anyone else headed out around this time frame? would not mind sharing a ride or something. I now live just north of San Francisco. There are some wonderful trails in this area and i have already begun practicing to get my body hopefully in shape so that i can get 20 miles per day as soon as i hit the trail. I think i may start at Neel's Gap this year since i did the first section last year. but i may just start at the trail's beginning its not much anyway. For anyone parking at Amicalola i suggest getting a lift to the trailhead unless you are already in good shape and an expoerienced hiker. The first few miles before you get to the actual trail were some of the most difficult i experienced in my brief forray last year. I feel you should probably build your body up a lil before adding the mental strain of hiking the falls which are not even part of the trail. Amicalola does offer great parking arrangements for through hikers though. a couple of bucks and you can leave your car the entire hike. Anyway i hope to hear from any hikers who may be going at the same time as me. I would go sooner but now i am a poker dealer and travel with the big poker tournaments all over the place. It gives me exactly what i need lots of time and good money. I just got back from St. Maarten and am off to Tunica, MS. for the month of January to work at a WPT event. That's World Poker Tour which airs on the Travel Channel. maybe they will let me deal the final table in which case you will see me on TV. Anyways after that i have a cruise in February aboard Royal Caribbean Feb. 6th-13th. Off a few weeks then Card Player Cruise in march and a Poker Tourney in Pendleton,OR. at the end of March. Then its off to the AT. I will have to be at the World Series of Poker but that won't be til late June or Early July. I may then leave the trail for a couple of weeks and finish off what i missed when i return. Anyway i look forward to chatting and meeting new friends soon. See you on the trail. Also my email is listed above if you need to get ahold of me or want to ride together or maybe get a discount airfare for 2 people or need a good site for building a coke can stove, drop me an email. See you on the trail soon. Plus if you ever want the best job a hiker can have let me know.