Date: 2010-02-11
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hello, trail journal readers. Yes, I know... it's been a while. I have been laying low. VERY low. I still have an irrational fear that writing about my trip will jinx me. That being said, if all goes well I leave for GA in about 60 days... so I may as well bite the bullet and get back in the trailjournal saddle again. "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." This sums up my life right now pretty succinctly (nice work, Thoreau). The castles are there... I think everyone on trailjournals knows what it is like to build these castles. (I have mixed feelings about Thoreau but I have to give him credit; the man could craft a pretty sentence. As for the foundations...I finally wrote out a definitive gear list and have been weighing my gear for the trip and setting it aside from all of my other backpacking possessions. In other words... there is now a giant messy pile of gear on the floor of my bedroom that is separate from the other giant messy pile of gear shoved in my closet.I've called my insurance guy and will be taking my car off the road in April. I made my final pre-hike appointments with doctor and dentist. I'm getting custom orthotics made (affordable ones - very exciting stuff!). And I have suckered... I mean, convinced... my lovely mother into tentatively agreeing to an April road trip down to Georgia! I think my depiction of encounters with rustic banjo strumming albinos is what really sealed the deal for her. Whatever works, right?I also signed up for 2 months of a conditioning program at the gym - yes, this is a little last-minute of me, but totally worth it. I tried to work out on my own all winter... and either slept in or was lazy and shortchanged myself on my workouts. Minus the 5 am wake up, this program has been awesome and the price was extremely reasonable. Basically... every muscle group that I had previously neglected is now being worked. My knee pain has subsided but I need conditioning. When I did a week-long section on the AT this summer I had some definite inflammation, to the point where on the descents every step became painful, even with a knee brace. It's pretty clear to me that the tendinitis is still there... it just remains to be seen how well I can manage it. I laid off the running and think that if I ease into things with lower mileage it will be ok. I really enjoy doing big mileage and pushing my body to its limit... but that is not a realistic mentality I can bring to this hike. My body is going to be pushed to its limit on a thru-hike regardless of how fast and far I go each day. I need to take it easy, go slow and not get carried away by my inner mileage monster. In other news: I'm very excited that my friend Karen (known to many as Loon) has agreed to transcribe my journal entries while I hike! She did an incredible job on her own trail journal and I loved following along.I also really need to figure out if I can get used to a hammock. Theoretically, it could be amazing. But as a horribly restless sleeper... the reality could be less than amazing. I test out my second model tonight. I'm not much for methodical planning (I typically prefer the fly by the seat of my pants approach)so I suppose this is the extent of my foundation building! There are minor details left, but essentially I'm going to harass all of my thru-hiker friends for as much information as possible... and then pack my bag and head to Georgia.