Date: 2008-06-24
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

The day before I was to leave I headed to a local bar with some friends for a send off party. There I ran into a childhood friend who I began telling about the adventure I was to take on. I jokingly offered an invitation and he touched his chin like in deep thought and said ¢I can¢t see why not.¢ Although I like the idea, Danny may not be the best person to bring on this voyage and stories kept coming in on why not to bring him. We decided to go back to his house to talk more about the journey and his mother was still up. I apologized that I may have convinced her son to partake in this adventure and to my surprise she was all for it. I filled her in on some details and she headed to bed while we went into Danny¢s basement to talk about it. Ten minutes later his mother opened the door to the top of the stairs and said, ¢guys¢¦..you remember what happened last time you went hiking right?¢ We all had a good laugh. The last time Danny and I went hiking was in middle school, we came out of the woods to find the elementary school. We thought it would be a good idea to hop in an open window and raid teachers candy supplies. We were caught and assigned to trash pick up at the school for the rest of the year.My friend Adam who was living in New Mexico had Danny as a roommate for a short stay and asked him to take the dog for a walk around the block. After a short walk Danny turned around and realized he had no clue where he was, luckily the dog led him back to the house. My father had Danny¢s older brother John as a boy scout and always tells the following story. ¢John was walking ahead of me with a sloppy pack, things hanging off it, his boots dangling low and hitting him in the rear. Eventually a shoelace came loose and a boot fell off without him noticing so I picked it up and continued hiking. The second boot came loose and John continued on with no wonder as to why he was no longer being kicked by his boots. Next to go was his sleeping pad which completely unrolled and he dragged for several yards before it too fell off.¢ Now my father had his arms full with Johns gear and John had a skip in his step as his pack never felt so light. Danny¢s younger brother Tommy decided he would go for a run on the Suffield mountain, which is more of hill than anything else. It turned dark and Tommy lost the clean trail and ended up in the dense forest. There is a cliff to the West and roads to the North and West, along with houses along the trail. But instead of walking in these directions to find his way out, Tommy¢s boy scout training kicked in. He decided to stop where he was and build a lean-to. A search party found him in his lean-to at 3am. Now sure some of you may think he did the right thing by staying put but then again is one truly lost if they can hear sounds of cars?Danny entered my house for the second day of planning with a disgruntled look on his face. ¢whats up?¢ I asked. Earlier he had called work to tell them he had sprained his ankle and couldn¢t come in. ¢Work just called,¢ he said, ¢they told me to just come in till 3 and just ice it a lot.¢ -danny¢Seems reasonable, what¢d you say?¢ -me¢I said no and quite frankly I¢m pissed they would even ask that, I¢d be even more pissed if my ankle was actually sprained.¢ -dannyDanny may not be the ideal hiking companion but his sense of humor will be worth every mile. And now I don¢t have to worry about bears attacking me as I am much faster than Danny.If you have read a walk in the woods...I'm bringing katz times 2We leave Thursday...will start hiking Friday morning...if i can get Danny up.