Date: 2005-02-12
To: the saga of the hiking partner
Miles today: 0.0

At some point back in the fall, I posted on an internet hiking forum about the possibility of finding either a hiking partner or just someone to go on a few practice hikes with. It was pretty simple and to the point: 23 year old girl in Boston area with camping but no long-distance backpacking experience seeks partner for training hikes or Trail. Blah blah blah.The first responses weren¢t too promising:¢hey saw ur posting call me netime 555-5555¢¢Dear [insert name here into what is very obviously a form letter], my name is Speedy Speedster and my hike is a sponsored fundraiser for Speedsters Anonymous. As im sure you know these hikes aren¢t cheap. Based on your profile and extensive spelunking experience I am confident that we are a physical match and can keep pace with each other while we blow through the trail and finish by mid-June. Call me netime 666-6666.¢Just a tip, for all you industrious, would-be form-letter writers out there: Unless you are soliciting favors of the non-platonic variety, DO NOT TELL A STRANGER THAT YOU AND SHE ARE A PHYSICAL MATCH. THIS IS CREEPY. And IF you are soliciting said non-platonic favors, really, try a different forum, genius. I corresponded briefly with a girl who seemed normal and reasonable and intelligent and fun, and it seemed like we were going to hike together, but then she dropped off the face of the earth. I haven¢t heard from her since November. So either she is no longer hiking, or I scared her away with an extended meditation on my reasons for wanting to hike. I concede: this is likely. (Perhaps we will run into each other on the trail and she will pretend not to know me. That would be odd, but also kind of funny.)So it was a very nice development when I started corresponding with Mike, who is my age and a recent college graduate from Chicago, who is also starting his thru-hike on March 13th, and who is, at least from electronic evidence, funny and relatively normal and not, you know, a homicidal maniac. We both have arthritic dogs who think they¢re still puppies; we both have somewhat limited backpacking experience but are stubborn as hell; and I knew things were promising when he said, ¢I¢m sensing a sick and demented sarcastic side to you, which I am famous for.¢ So Mike Shine and I will be setting off in company, and figuring the beginning of this Trail thing out together, and taking it from there. The only nagging concern I have (you¢ll have to stay tuned for updates) is that in the 2 snapshots I¢ve seen of him, the boy is at least a head taller than everyone else in his photos. And maybe his friends are all legitimate midgets (though I guess it would be pretty hard to be an illegitimate midget), or maybe dude is just really, really tall. And I like tall people and all, but they, uh, tend to have longer strides than yours truly, who was perhaps excessively excited to reach five feet two and three quarters inches. I talk about my height the way kindergarteners talk about their ages: ¢I¢m five and a half but Johnny¢s only four and three quarters!¢¢ So yeah, while we¢re both down with taking it slow at first, that might still mean different things to each of us. Didn¢t really think that part through. That¢s what the first week¢s for, though, right? Also to see whether he¢s put off by the fact that I am too uncoordinated to walk down stairs or step off trains. (I like to think of it as ¢getting the klutziness out of my system.¢ Heh. Yeah, right)Last week:Mike: ¢so have you told your parents yet that you¢re hiking with a sick and demented guy you met on the internet?¢Me: ¢yeah, that¢ll go over real well¢It went over marginally well. My mother demanded to see a picture, saying, ¢I need to see if he¢s a homicidal maniac. Also, my first impressions are usually wrong.¢ Uh, ok. Maybe HIS mother should be worried. I do, after all, cut a highly threatening figure. All sixty-two inches of me.