Date: 2007-09-14
From: MD 17 (Wolfsville Rd)

To: Harper's Ferry
Miles today: 31.0
Weather: Clouds

Today I made it to the psychological half-way point, for NOBOs that is. For SOBOs, its quite a bit further than half and in fact, in a few short miles tomorrow I'll be at the 'less than 1000 mile' mark. Hard to believe.Also, today my parents are stopping by on their way to Vermont. Woohoo!! We're staying at the Hilltop Hotel and are simply enjoying each other's company. Tomorrow I'll do all the town chores (Post Office, groceries, outfitters, etc) with them and then be on my way. Oh, and least I forget, got to do the ATC thing. Yep, picture in front of the building, register, and the whole nine yards. btw, I was number 32. Hate to get too negative on such a great day, but I did notice several people who registered before me whom I had passed by in Penn or even earlier. Oh well, never ends does it? Not in the mood to go there today. Today is happy Harper's Ferry day, ¢¦ why I think I hear blue birds in the distance, ¢¦ and there's thumper and bambi and the whole chipmonk gang. Nope, not going to get me down today.Several people have asked how I enter my journals (Jo P, are you out there?). Bottom line is that there are many good ways to do it and I think it depends a lot on what you want to accomplish.When TJ started in 98, one good reason for journaling was to pass along your trail adventures and experience gained (gear, what works, etc) to others who might be interested, which is good. But also, there were others who wanted to post ASAP to let family and friends know they were OK and/or their current location. This is also cool. No doubt there are a multitude of other good reasons to journal, but these are two broad categories, for me at least. Well the emphasis you place on one facet or the other or one of your own, makes a huge difference as to what method you use to make entries.Faster is good if you want up-to-date info. Pocketmail, tons of other electronic devices, some of which even have Sat-Com, will get your notes, thoughts, etc online the quickest way possible. Downside for me is that most have small keyboards or worse, keypads which make it difficult at best to type in long meaningful journals without errors (typos, grammar, punctuation, etc). Believe me, I'm not dinging those methods, but you can clearly recognize some of the journalists who use these devices because their 'style' has not been edited. Again, no problem with that. They should be writing for themselves, not the public. If their goal is to convey information rapidly, the data stream doesn't have to be pretty.Slower (10 day to 2 week lag) normally means that the journalist is probably using the PO. In my case, I hand write all journals, mail them home, and someone (Dad for me) transcribes and loads onto TJ, including pictures. The transcriber decides on the pic of the day, which often reflects the mood of the entry. If the job is done correctly, he will check for errors, accuracies (mileage, local street names, spelling, etc) and other pertinent info to make the journal entry complete and sometimes more coherent.Finally, one decision I made early on is that I was determined NOT to write a journal which described every foot step every minute. That is: "woke up, ate oatmeal, walked, hurt something, went up, went down, -- arggggh ". This is strictly a personal choice for me. However, from the responses to date, it appears that others might agree.Also, I wanted to express feelings that I experienced at the time and place I was being affected. No easy task. I challenge anyone to do the same. If you are true to yourself, you may be quite surprised at what comes out. No doubt, hiking the AT, and all the interrelationships which WILL occur, influence the sensitivity of your emotions. They are heightened to a degree which is sometimes scary (crying one minute, mad the next, happy beyond belief the next). But it's also a life-time event that alters your perception of the world around you. You WILL be affected by the AT experience. I think for the better.I certainly don't want to offend other people with what I write, but I also want to have the freedom to express what I think is going on, especially in terms of social encounters. Most of my trail memories are very pleasant, some are downright outrageously pleasant.   However, a few of the hiker / hiker interactions I have observed are simply amazing, ¢¦ why, it's almost like the illusionary-pretentious-politically correct 'real' world we all thought we left behind for a few months. No, correction, it's exactly the same, just temporarily covered up with different packaging. Sorry to pop that bubble.Don't know if this is making any sense, but it's the two minute version of my philosophy for journaling. Hope it helps in some small way.Frankly, I'm looking forward to an excellent day tomorrow, and so should you.Thanks for reading.   ~ Dr Jekyll (Obie)PS: Yep I'm feeling the urge to go to warp drive.PSS:   "but cap'n, she's givin you all she's got,¢¦" PSSS:   "Scotty, just a little more -- please"