Date: 2010-03-16
To: Rain Practice.
Miles today: 0.0

¢Be prepared¢ is one motto. ¢Fail to plan and plan to fail¢ is another. Shakedown hikes, quick overnighters, there¢s lots of ways to get ready for a long-distance hike. Some of our preparing is quite fun and silly. As a stranger to tents and their set up routine after years in metropolis, I once slept a full week in mine, each night setting it up, each morning striking ¢camp,¢ only this was in my living room. The linens on my king didn¢t see a wrinkle that whole week. I don¢t think I¢m the only one to pioneer that either.I read in other journals how many head out on a shakedown hike to see how the gear works, which translated actually means, to see if they know what the hell they¢re doing before diving into the deep end ¢ smart. Others join a health club to start shaking the sofa fluff off their mid-sections and give the legs fair warning that life is going to radically change soon ¢ a common practice of mine too. I actually read about the most absurd entry recently where they claimed the AT was poorly marked! Poorly marked? You mean 84,000 painted white blazes, about one every twelve steps and a well-worn path in the forest wasn¢t clear enough? Jeez, I guess you can¢t please everyone ¢ suppose all the other trails they practiced on had velvet ropes lining the pathway? There are Interstate Highway¢s not as well marked as the Appalachian Trail. In fact, at just about any point over fourteen States, one can stop and look either north or south and see a blaze, yea, poorly marked.Before evolving to my little alcohol/ solid fuel stove, I first bought one of those heavier white gas camp stoves with the small fuel cup at the bottom. During one of my first practice cooks, seems I started a small white gas fire on my lofts hardwood floors with too much white gas. Calmly I lifted the blazing stove and fuel container into my stainless steel sink while my dumbstruck guest nearly lost her cookies in panic as the white gas puddle burned on the floor before I got it out ¢ Great memories in hiking acclimation. This just goes to prove that you may start your hike as a numb-nut, but it won¢t take long before you¢re a Master of the Wilderness. One thing I don¢t think to many practice is dealing with rain? More a nuisance, rain comes in the occasional sprinkle or mist, to the cats and dogs deluge that can actually make you laugh for being out in such ridiculous weather. Dealing with rain has its stages. The first stage is fretting you¢ll get caught by it and will throw on all your gear to combat it. The second stage has you dancing, dodging and weaving the puddles hoping to maintain a degree of shoe dryness. The last stage is when you completely surrender to it, knowing full well you¢re soaked and that¢s when you power your way through the puddles with nary a fret ¢ that¢s the liberating stage when you let go and embrace the texture of it. A task all the easier when you can arrive at a dry shelter or a motel, etc. And you¢ve taken all the precautionary steps with your sleeping bag and all on the inside of your pack does make it easier to find the brighter side of a moist day.When I know that a weather front is coming in ¢ usually in the afternoon as the calendar moves forward ¢ I always hike with purpose throughout the day. More times than not, I¢ve got my twenty-miles done and am in camp before the nastiness. To be fare though, I¢ve also been wetter than most tuna in the ocean on other days. Practicing for the inconvenience of rain is difficult; you just sort of wade in and adjust. Of course, I suppose you can try walking around with your feet in water buckets? The worst part in my eyes is slipping on those same wet clothes the next chilly morning. That may be the tougher than the actual miles in some cases, fortunately our high-tech fabrics warm up quickly once on. Well, here¢s to drier days with sunshine and warmth and miles that click by without consequence. The sun will come out tom¢¦err¢¦eventually.