Date: 2003-02-26
To: T-minus one week
Miles today: 0.0

After graduating from Providence College in May of 2002, I decided to take a year "Off" before beginning Medical School at Brown University. I volunteered for five months at the Angkor Children's Hospital in Cambodia. I decided to use what time I had after that to hike the Appalachian Trail. I'm using this website to publish notes and photos from my journey, as well as a way to keep in touch with everyone during my five-million-step hike.February 26, 2003: T-minus one week and I'm flying back to the States from Cambodia. Still have a few loose ends to tie up but I'm excited about being on the trail. Areas of concern at this point in order of importance 1) getting down to the trailhead 2) early injury 3) gear and food 4) adjusting to the gut gremlins of the West 5) keeping motivated enough to stay on schedule. When I hit the trail I'll be going by the name "Headstart", both because I'll be meeting with Munko half way through and, well, I sometimes get on philosophical tangents... I suspect I will be asking myself many times- when I peer out of my sleeping bag in a frost-covered tent and instinctively recoil from the early morning cold, when it has been raining for 5 straight days and I haven't been dry for a week and the blisters are agony at each step, when the stove won't start and I've been on the trail 12 hours and haven't seen a soul in two days, when I've walked 500 miles and am convinced that I have already seen every natural variation possible that I will on the trail- Why? Why would anyone want to put one foot in front of the other 5 million times just to come back to where they began? I'm not sure right now, but I know that the answer will determine my success. I guess the intent to hike the AT started with my love of the outdoors- the highlight of each month always used to be the Boy Scout campout. I loved the leaves and finding things- paths, bugs under rocks, new sounds, and new knowledge. Nature has always been solitary to me- best appreciated by oneself and by eliminating the effect one has on his/her surroundings. I had wanted to be a camp counselor but, when I was old enough to actually be one, I was too involved in summer sports. I continued lacrosse in college and could never get out to the trail enough. I thought being a hut master would be a good experience but did not have the trail time or credentials to get a position. When the Scouts were over in college I started doing winter camping each year with friends Munko and Dale- that was a lot more technically challenging than anything that I'd done before. I decided that if I was to choose to go to medical school in Providence, the same city that I had gone to for Jr. High (St. Augustine School), High School (LaSalle Academy) and College (Providence College), that I would take a year off and see the rest of the world. The first part of that involved getting as far away from Providence as possible without coming back the other side of the world- that landed me in a children's hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia (which does, in fact, have a 12 hour time difference). After I set on coming to Cambodia, the numbers just worked out- come back in early March and I'd have 5 months before Brown Med orientation, enough time to do the trail in its entirety. So I read a bunch of books and people's web pages on the Appalachian Trail and set my mind on doing it. Time will tell if that answer suffices. The, Plan is: 1) Depart Siem Reap, Cambodia Tuesday, March 4, 2003 2) Arrive Newark, NJ Stateside March 5th 3) Hang out with old friend Cardente and old roommate Costa for the day 4) Hop a Greyhound for Providence 8 AM March 6 5) March 6 & 7 at home, running around like a chicken with its head cut off 6) March 8 get in a U-Haul with a bunch of PC kids going to Georgia to hike for Spring Break 7) March 9 start the trail at Springer Mountain, GA 8) August 20 finish atop Khatadin in Baxter State Park, Maine. It'll be interesting to see how it actually works out...