Date: 2012-12-08
To: Northbound in 2013
Miles today: 0.0

The plan thus farNext year is the year I break out of suburban New Jersey life - at least for a little while. I have reached the point where I should reach beyond thinking about things, and start doing things. Part of that includes creating more of an online presence around this adventure. Now I will be able to point people at something when they want to know more about my walk, instead of telling them that I have more information coming soon or hoping they reach out to me for further details.Documentary along the trailI'm a bit more ambitious than just walking north for a couple thousand miles. Over the last few years, I have found a passion for photography. I can't complain too much about having a steady job, but that has prevented me from really attempting to pursue photography as more than a hobby. The corporate world is not one in which I thrive, and I want to see if photography is something in which I can realize a more fulfilling future. By walking the Appalachian Trail, I will probably wind up without a job, and with plenty of photographic equipment to put to greater use!I plan to start trying to employ myself with photography while I am on the trail. The plan I have is to shoot photos of other hikers and, using a sound recorder, ask them for a bit of their story. After I finish walking I hope to follow up with these people for anything they'd like to add, and for permission to put the most interesting tales to print. I hope the result is a book containing many stories from many hikers along the trail, as well as some of my own story along the trail. Through the words of others, my own words, my camera, I hope to capture a snapshot of the trail in 2013 that does it greater justice than I could with just my camera or my words. I feel like everyone on the trail has a story which has brought them there, and I want to see what I can learn about the folks I encounter!Lots of folk dancingA new pastime I have found myself really enjoying ever since I started last year is folk dancing. Most of the dancing I take part in in contra dance - a traditional American folk dance and social dance. I don't plan to stop dancing while I'm on the trail, as there are dances held all over the place. (There's even a contra dance at Trail Days, which definitely I plan to attend!) The contra dance community is not unlike the backpacking and couchsurfing communities in the hospitality present there.Part of my planning includes plotting where there are dances near the trail, and when they are held. Once I determine a dance is close enough to the trail, I mark it in my trail guide at the crossroad that will most easily bring me to that dance. I am getting in touch with the coordinators through email, and with the dancers through each dance's facebook page where applicable. I hope to assemble contacts from every one of these dances. If I am passing through the area of a dance community on one of the days it has a dance scheduled, I hope to contact somebody to pick me up from the trailhead, so I can clean myself up, attend the dance, maybe sleep on someone's couch, and be back on my way the next day.Logistics 'n stuffThis is the part which is probably the most important, but which I am least concerned about. From some shorter trial backpacking trips, I have an idea of what works and doesn't work in my kit. Recently I replaced my little Eureka solo tent with a Hennessy hammock tent - makes worlds of difference in setup and breakdown! As a result, I am going to need a sleeping pad to insulate my back in cool weather. I was feeling a little chilled in my 40-degree sleeping bag on a breezy 50-degree night!My old hiking pack is also probably due for replacement. It's an old Cabelas bag I purchased when I first started out taking long trips, whether those were backpacking or anything else. It's been chewed up a bit by airlines, and on a 45-mile walk in hot weather, the padding proved to be inadequate. For overnight trips and photography, I have a Lowepro Pro Trekker 300 AW, which is incredibly comfortable even when fully loaded. Hopefully I can find something for the AT that rides as comfortably as that pack.The only other thing I need to really change with my kit is more serious cold-weather gear. I haven't made any cold-weather backpacking trips that were more than overnight trips, so my limited, bulky cold-weather clothing was not an issue. On a longer trip to Iceland in March, I struggled to bring adequate clothing with me. Good cold-weather gear is something I haven't seriously found myself in want of, but I should probably get some for the start and end of my time on the AT.As far as feeding myself, I hope to reach out to friends to participate in my hike by supporting me off-trail. I plan to put together an ideal mail drop kit, and to work out ahead of time who will be helping me with this. Some time over the winter I will also try putting together one of these kits, and seeing how long I can sustain myself with it.Well, that's that for nowReally excited to feel this all coming together, at last!Peace,