Date: 2005-09-04
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Hey ya friends and journal followers. Time for a short up-date to let everyone know what is happening as far as my AT hike is concerned. First, I am still going to start back on trail at Hot Springs N.C. on October 3rd. I am all healed up, been training some, getting my gear and food ready and dreaming alot about how great it will be to get back ' on trail ' again. For those of you who love the outdoors and have hiked, you know what I mean. For the rest of you, it would be like me trying to explain what the ' Grand Canyon ' looks like. It is just mostly indescribable and has to be experienced to fully understand. Anyway, to add to my excitement, Tim from Ohio, who was my hiking partner for the first month on the trail, e-mailed me that he is ready to get back on trail with me again and hike along till we get to where ever we get to. So we have coordinated that my friend Ray, who I work with, and I will stop over in Ohio and pick Tim up on the way down to Hot Springs on Sunday October 2nd. Then my friend Ray will drive my car back to Indiana and Tim and I will start out on the trail the next morning to continue the adventure pretty much exactly where we left off last spring. So for all of you who have been worrying about me going back on trail in the wilderness all alone can find something else to worry about now. This will be Tims fifth time on this section of trail so there should be little to surprise him as far as terrain goes.....although the trail will look totally different this time of year from how it looked in the spring. YES, we realize that we will be hiking during hunting season will wear BRIGHT ORANGE so as not to be mistaken for any four legged woodsy creatures, all though after a while we will most definately smell like them !   So there you have it. RIC's Appalachian Trail adventure is about to continue. Since I have a little experience now, the journal should be a little better and I should have more and better photos to share.Speaking of the journal, now would be a good time to tell you what my friend Ray has done for me with my journal. He has taken every page and every picture and made a great ringed binder out of it all for me. It turned out really terrific. His intention was to have it all done for me upon my return from Maine after I had completed my thru hike. Well, since that didn't happen he decided to make a ringed binder for each time I go out on trail for any extended period. So the first binder is ' chapter one ' and this next trip will be ' chapter two ' and then next spring when I finish the last half of the trail, will be ' chapter three '. Probably worked out somewhat better doing it this way since ' chapter one ' turned out to be huge after we added all the pictures. Which means ' chapter two ' promises to be even bigger since I plan to be out twice as long this trip ( two months ). ' Chapter one ' is at work for any of you there who want to look at it. Just ask Ray for it. He is a great friend and has contributed greatly to the enjoyment of my Appalachian Trail adventure not only for me but for everyone who will see these great binders for many years to come. Someone, somewhere, once said that a measure of a persons life is by how many great firends a person has. I am truely blessed with the friends that I have had in my lifetime. Hope you all know just how much I appreciate all of you now and into the future. Will continue to make updates occasionaly right up till Tim and I hit the trail October 3rd., then I'll make regular contributions just like before via my little pocketmail device whenever I come across a phone along the trail.VITAMAN