Date: 2005-03-15
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Oak Park, Illinois.   March 15th 2005Beware the Ides of March!I washed my sleeping bag yesterday. This is the second time that I have washed it, so I did not have the same sense of impending doom when I saw my down bag reduced to a lumpy soggy heavy ball of ooze after the wash cycle. It is so engendered in me not to get my sleeping bag wet that I had genuine panic the first time that I washed it. It took forever ¢ well 3 hours ¢ to get it all dried out and fluffed up again, adding those tennis balls to the dryer realy helped. So now I have a clean, and fluffy, sleeping bag once again.   I have also decided on my ¢Day of Departure¢. I plan on leaving home on March 29th, so I will stay here for Easter with my family and hopefully be on the trail by April Fools Day ¢ how appropriate. I have started to tell everyone that I am heading back to the trail and that I hope to complete the saga this year. I told the guys at the Oak Park Athletic Club, where I work out. My friend, the Dentist, says I should not call myself a hiker, but rather a mountain climber, since the trail is through the mountains. That title, to me, summons up images of ropes and pitons and belays and flag planting on summits, so I think that I will stick with ¢hiker¢ for now. I have also said goodbye to all of the people in my Yoga class. My instructor advises me to keep my spirit in harmony with the journey. By saying goodbye to all of these people and by telling them that I am leaving at the end of the month and that I hope to complete the trail this year, somehow cements the deal. Rather like washing the sleeping bag the die has now been cast, and I have to go, because I have told so many people that I am going to do it, that I would be ashamed if I did not. It may also add another impetus to keep me going in the bad times on the trail. I believe that the same technique is used to get suicide bombers to go through with their missions, and properly for very similar reasons!   I have decided to use a lot of drop boxes this year, approx one every 10 ¢ 14 days to keep the pack weight down, and to use a bounce box also. I have not used a bounce box up to now, but it seems like a good idea. I am still planning on taking it slow and easy with frequent zero days. I hope that the through hikers who are leaving Springer now, will catch me before I finish.   As they were last year, my postings here on Trailjournals will be, not few, but far between, and when I do post I will post for a long section. I use a hand written journal on the trail, and only post when I have access to this site and lots of log-on time. I expect that the first major posting after I leave, will be in mid-may.   I am actually looking forward to this years hike. I think that I may well have made it through the physical, and even most of the mental, stages of the hike. I hope that I may even be beginning on the final spiritual aspects of my journey. I was thinking again recently as to ¢What is this journey all about?¢ so I must share with you a question that my wife has embroidered on a towel that she got for her birthday;   ¢What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it¢s all about?¢