Date: 2007-03-05
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Greetings,   With under a week to go until I start my hike, I wanted to send out one final email to all those who are close to me. I decided to go ahead and put it up here for your viewing pleasure. Hopefully there are not too many typo's and grammatical errors in it, but who knows. Not too much else to say right now. I just can't wait to get out on the trail and start this adventure. Take care.Hello All,            As many of you already know, I will be attempting a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail this spring/summer. I just wanted to try and get more and more people involved in my adventure. Although hiking with me is probably out of the question for most of you, there are still many other ways that you can be involved in my hike. I guess I will first just start with a brief overview of what exactly I will be doing.            The Appalachian Trail runs from northern Georgia (Springer Mountain) up to central Maine (Mount Katahdin). Although the distance of the trail changes every year due to re-routing of the trail and other variables, the recognized distance is usually around 2,175 miles. What I will be attempting to do is hike from Georgia all the way to Maine in one continuous hike. Although the amount of people who attempt to do this varies from year to year it is usually around 1,500 people with no more than 20% of hikers actually finishing the trail. A majority of these hikers begin in Georgia in early Spring and hiked Northward, this is what I will be doing, we are termed NOBO¢s standing for Northbounders.            I will start hiking on Sunday 11 March 2007 from Amicalola State Park and begin my trek. A funny side note is that the Appalachian Trail (AT) does not actually start in Amicalola State Park but starts at the summit of Springer Mountain and there is a ~9 mile hike to get there. You may be wondering how long it will take to hike ~2200 miles, and that all depends on the individual hiker. I have attached my trip itinerary and I have come up with 115 hiking days. This brings me to an average of 18 miles per day actually hiking. As you can imagine while hiking over this long of a distance there will more than likely be a need to take a rest at some point and just spend a day relaxing my body.             So how can you be involved in this hike? Well there are many of ways to be involved. In order to document my hike as well as keep in touch with the outside world, I have started an online journal that I will be updating with daily journal entries describing life on the trail. The website for this is www.trailjournals.com/bowser , and I would be honored if you were to check this page out to keep tabs on me while I am away. There are already several entries that have been describing my preparation and my thoughts leading up until now. This site is not just a journal though; it has many other features as well. One of the more interesting things is the Gear section where you can look at the gear I will be using for my hike as well as my personal review of it (maybe not interesting to all, but I think its cool that everything I will be using to live for 4ish months is on one webpage as well as my back). It may even make you think about what you would take with you. I have been through many shake down hikes where I have learned what I need and do not need to keep my weight down. After all, there is no reason to carry gear for 2,200 miles if you don¢t use it. Anyway, I will be posting on this website from time to time while on the trail with journal entries and entries in the guest book, so feel free to check it out.            Another way to get involved with my hike is to send me your mailing address and I can send you post cards from the trail (so that you know I have not been consumed by a bear). Although I cannot promise regular mailings I will still try to make every effort to keep everyone updated via mail that would like to receive a letter or post-card. One more way to be involved in my hike is to send me stuff! On my itinerary there is a list of the towns where I will be checking the local post offices for mail. Another nice feature of the trailjournals website is that I was able to post the addresses of the post offices I will be checking, these are under the Mail Drops section of my webpage. Along with the address I have also posted my expected arrival date in that town. The general format for addressing the packages/letters is as follows:Curtis HauserGeneral DeliveryCity, State, Zip CodePlease Hold for Thru-hikerEstimated Arrival Date            Letters of encouragement will be greatly appreciated while I am hiking as I am sure there will be sometimes when I get upset. One thing that I have learned is to never trust a decision made while hiking uphill, but letters would still be nice. Other than letters, food would be greatly appreciated, few things will make me happier than receiving a package filled with high calorie/low weight foods.             I guess that is all I have. I hope to hear from all of you before I depart. If you have any questions about the trail feel free to ask me before I leave. Take care all.Sincerely,Curtis Hauser