Date: 2004-09-23
To: Itinerary planning begins
Miles today: 0.0

At the time of our trip to Harpers Ferry in 2003, our trip seemed a long way off--a year and a half. It was difficult to even think about planning something so far into the future except to read and read whatever we could get our hands on and to read journal entries in trailjournals. But when March of this year rolled around and we realized that in a year we would be on the trail we started to think about planning our itinerary and our mail drops. Our mail drops are post offices or businesses along the way where we plan to stop to pick up our supplies that we will have sent to us. Also we can receive mail from our friends and family. Most of the places that we have picked so far have been places near the trail and where we plan to get off to stay either at a hostel or a motel. We do not want to have to go far off the trail just to pick up our supply box unless there is no other choice. However, when we get further north into New England it seems to be a little more difficult to find a mail drop close to the trail when we need one. We want to try for a mail drop about every 7-8 days so that we do not have to carry more food than we have to. Many times we will be able to stop at a restaurant close to the trail for a meal or pick up supplies to hold us over until we get to the next mail drop. Of course, it is only a guess as to how far we will be able to hike each day and how long it will take to hike between mail drops. The weather, whether it be snow in the southern mountains or severe thunderstorms, will determine whether we take a an unexpected day off--changing our timing to the next mail drop. By following the progress of hikers on the trail that we think are near our age helps us to determine what we might be able to do. But one thing we want to do is enjoy the hike and not be bound by any strict time constraints. Some days we will no doubt be able to do more miles than we had thought and others we will find that the terrain or the weather will not allow us do as much as we had thought. Many hikers have mentioned that the profile maps are not always an indicator of how tough the hike for a particular section will be. For instance, one section may look as though it is fairly easy with not a lot of ascents and descents or that the ups and downs may look fairly difficult and challenging when just opposite may be true. One thing we know is that in the beginning we will not try to do more than 8 or 10 miles per day. If we do more--great! But we know that our bodies will need time to adjust to the trail. All along the trail we have decided to take frequent rest stops--even if it is for only 10 minutes. From all the reading we have done we have realized that that can make a big difference in how we will feel at the end of the day. As of now, we have our trip pretty much planned and it will take us about 6-7 months. We're hoping that as our bodies get stronger we will be able to hike some 15-20 mile days.I have entered our first mail drop here on this site (see mail drops to your left). More will be added soon, especially the ones for the lower half of the hike. So watch for them and hopefully we will hear from some of our friends that are keeping up with our journey. We will need encouragement to keep focused on our goal--Mt. Katahdin in Maine.