Date: 2008-04-01
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Finally I have date when I can leave work and hike north!!! I am planning on leaving on May 30th and starting in Damascus, VA. I will hike north until I feel I may need to go to Maine and hike south. After I finish up that end I will come back to Damascus and hike the rest of the trail south. It will be a bit chopped up but then I am up for a challenge and like to live on the edge. I am just so happy that I will be able to hike that I don't care about the logistics. I am so ready mentally and have all my gear ready and food.   I am trying to get in better shape so I can hike a lot easier than my last hike when I started out of shape. The trail has a way of getting you in shape but it is aways easier if you start out in a semi-ready state. So between now and the day I leave I am going to hike a lot and exercise every chance I get. It is hard with my job as it is so stressful and when I get home there is a tendency to just vegetate and try to unwind from the day. But I think once I get in the habit of hiking every night it will relieve that stress a lot better and I will be healthier for it. We all deal with stress in different ways and I am finding my way is just not healthy for me in the long run. I have put on pounds and have gotten to the point where the trail is a must for me to be able to gain back my physical and mental healthy state of mind. Those who know me may say that there is no such thing for me but oh well, I will prove them wrong.   On a side note, the other day I was walking from one building to the other here in the middle of the woods and when I opened the door to go outside, there on the sidewalk lay a small snake all coiled up and when I moved forward, he decided to strike. A very sassy little guy. Looking closely, I thought it looked like a copperhead. We have kids all around camp so that was not a good place for him to stay. A program director and myself set out to capture him and release him in a better place. At my place of work we believe that we should not kill things in nature and so we set out to capture him. He put up a huge fight striking all the time. He hit the guys shoe several times and then we finally got him into a small trash can that I ran into the director's office and grabbed. While in the can the snake continued to strike at the sides of it. I took him way into the woods and let him go free. Hopefully he will stay out of harms way by not getting closer to civilizaion. I don't uasally mess with poisonous snakes, just the non poisonous varieties, but I didn't want anything to happen to the little guy so I went ahead with the capture. I do love reptiles and amphibians and think they are the most interesting of creatures. I plan to study them at length while on the trail and document my findings in pictures and note taking.. Who knows, maybe there is a book in my future! Or maybe I can be another snake person with a T.V. show... Now I am dreaming. I really need to get out on the trail. Being cooped up with tons of paperwork has taken it's toll. Soon, I can hang on until then.   I will doing some lessons for my students while on the trail. I want to do one about Audi Murphy when I get to that point and several other interesting places. I will be doing some lessons on using maps and a compass, also taking some pictures for a few studies on my own.It should be a fun filled hike and I can't wait to get out there.   So stay tuned and hopefully you will enjoy going along on my hike with me.