Date: 2010-02-07
From: Home - Prep 1

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Miles today: 0.0

I.        CAM - (Corrections/Additions/Modifications to previous reports) I¢m modifying the format for this year¢s journal. Section I will continue to be CAM. One change is that I will not be including definitions in this year¢s journal; you¢ll need to check last year¢s entry or a hiker¢s dictionary if you find a term you don¢t understand.II.        QOD ¢ question of the day. I¢ll try to answer questions I receive from various sources: calls, on trail, e-mails or log book entries. Several people have asked: Tic, what are your plans for hiking in 2010?            See answer in next section.III.        Report - I¢ll continue to use this section to report significant activities for the day¢s hike. Presently, I have developed Plan A for this year¢s hike. As you may recall from last year¢s effort, I ended up in Plan D or E: hiking with Lumpy, hiking solo, off trail to be with Libra Lady, back on trail, broken ribs/off trail, then finally an injury setback and end of 2009 hiking. Although, I did visit Springer Mtn near Christmas and see again 4 hikers from Maine: TNT, Miss Step (nee Fluffy Bunny), Chomp and Half Full.Currently, I¢m getting in shape (see next section) and planning to visit Lumpy late Feb for annual Utah skiing trip (can¢t believe I¢ve been doing this for 20 years now!!) and then a photo safari trip out West, heading East to Big Bend and ending up in Austin.2010 Plan A: current thinking is to arrive in DC area early April, visit friends, finish acquiring supplies and then head NOBO from Harpers Ferry on/about April 11, and hopefully arrive at Katahdin by late June/early July. Then flip back to DC and maybe catch a Capitol Fourth (there are few events as spectacular as being on Capitol West Lawn for July 4th celebration!!). Plan A Prime may be returning to HF to complete SOBO thru-hike in one year. However, since I completed VA last year, Plan A is to flip down to Damascus to continue SOBO. This should allow me to be at Springer by August and I could attend PP#1 4th birthday. I recognize these are ¢push¢ schedule plans and I wouldn¢t be surprised if the dates slip a bit; but, I¢m cursed by my NASA launch manifest schedule experience.Several people have expressed interest in hiking with me. Miss P&B has planned to be with me at the start (Note: she is considering adopting a trail name, uncertain at this time, but Ms Raspberry is under consideration.) Miss Step has talked about hiking Penn, as have Truckie, and AstroGuy. I¢ve lost contact with the elementary class following me, so if anyone knows the whereabouts of Ethan, Ethan R. or James, please have them contact me. I may also try to find Mr T, Mary B1 or RR Baron in Penn. Maybe see Bugsy and Burley Girl in New Joisey. Don¢t know anyone from NY to NH; but, may run into Red Hat. Maine offers Lobster, Nurse Kim, Harky, O. M. River, Ole Man, Chomp and Half Full (or should it be All Full now?). SOBO from Damascus in July may allow visits with Book Lady, AardvarkNav, Tennessee Tom, Silver Antelope or PDoyle, and TNT has talked about hiking the Smokies again.I have a new toy ¢ an Iphone that I really enjoy. I¢ll continue to use the journal to record detailed events/photos of the hike and may use my Facebook account for real time status/location reports. Naturally, all this is dependent on cell coverage. Also, I¢ll send out an e-mail later to those who signed my log book last year to notify them of 2010 Plan A.IV.        POD ¢ person of the day. (However, I don¢t know if I¢ll recognize a person every day.) The person for today is D¢trix. Her fulll name is D**-*-**-trix. However, since I have youthful readers, some may think her full name is too mature for young readers. I met D¢trix thru Duck Hunter. He had badgered me for years to try her bootcamp exercise class.   I was initially reluctant to join for a number of reasons, e.g. schedule conflicts, senior citizen status, ability to keep up with the younger jocks and jockettes, etc.         In the beginning I was concerned about overexerting myself and wore a heart rate monitor.   Ha¢¦ the first day my heart rate was 1 beat over theoretical maximum. Then the second day it got up to 2 over the maximum. Never wore the monitor again. (FWIW, after hiking about 2 weeks with Lumpy, I could predict within about 5 beats what his heart rate was on the trail). Anyway, I enjoy the class and work out at an intensity level I would never achieve on my own, as well exercise various muscle groups I would never challenge (and some groups I rarely know or didn¢t know existed until nest day after workout.). So, thanks D¢trix; and I¢d highly recommend her classes to anyone interested in improving their physical fitness.