Date: 2015-10-14
To: Nowhere yet
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Call me Spaghetti Legs. You have found the journal of my attempted 2016 thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. In the real world I am a 35 year old civil engineer from the Chicago area. My backpacking experience is brief but beautiful. Without further ado, I will start by telling you the story of my first and only backpacking trip that I took in the fall.Wednesday, 10/14/2015Today began at the Super-8 motel in Whitewater, WI. My wife agreed to travel up with me last night and drop me off at the start of my 4-day, 3-night hike through Waukesha County, WI. As part of our arrangement, she would be dropping me off by 6:30am to allow her enough time to get back to work.So after the final additions were made to my pack, we enjoyed a small breakfast. We reached the trail start point shortly after that, took a photo, and said our goodbyes. Being a first-time overnight backpacker, I was carrying about 4 liters of water, and I believe my pack weighted around 42 pounds. That's a little misleading because due to the change in weather forecast: Clear but much colder, and active hunting seasons (small game and archery) I brought my bright orange heavy sweatshirt. This added weight as well.The path was well maintained. Unfortunately as I was climbing up a hill not more than a mile into my trip, I kept following the well maintained wide path, and completely missed the narrow path that intersected to the left. Fortunately, I hadn't gone more than 5 minutes in the wrong direction when I checked google maps, and confirmed my error.The rest of the morning was quiet. I passed some scenic overlooks and a peaceful forest area that I stopped to take a photo of. I saw the "stone elephant" which is just a large erratic if I remember my geomorphology correctly. Around 9:45am, I took a break at an overlook and enjoyed a chocolate chip granola bar. I passed the horseriders camp, and kept walking... and walking. I had expected to reach the ranger station by mid morning, and it was around this time that it dawned on me that I had started at the wrong location! Through later internet research, I found out I did pretty much all of the Blue-Spring segment of the Ice-Age Trail, and additional 7 miles! By the time I reached the ranger station, I was just about spent. It was around 1:00pm, and I still had 7.5 more miles to go. I completely filled my Camelbak with water, and fortunately the trail was a lot flatter.Around 3:15pm I almost stepped on a snake. It looked like a baby massasouga rattlesnake which is endangered, but I am not a snake expert, and I did not hear a rattle. It was only a foot long, but it was thick, like it had just eaten a mouse.The remainder of the afternoon was spent in a state of heightened concern that I would not reach Shelter #1 in time. I was sure it was going to be right around the next corner for an hour. I finally was concerned enough that I put down my pack and got out the map which confirmed I hadn't reached it yet, and gave the the highway number to look for. After crossing that highway, it was a serious effort to make it up Spy Glass Hill. I finally saw the shelter at 5:45pm, managed to make my first camp dinner by 6:15pm, and settled in to sleep by 7:00pm.