Date: 2006-11-21
To: High waters
Miles today: 0.0

It has been a very busy couple weeks. Some friends from Alaska stopped for a visit on their way south and we spent some time talking about fish that didn't get into the boat and other such tales of adventure. It was great fun. As they moved on south, they left their snow storms from the north here. As the snow piled up in the mountains, I started up the snow thrower and made a pass out the driveway. That was a mistake, because the snow turned to rain and melted all the snow. I can live with snow, in fact I like snow, but melted snow and rain created all sorts of flooding. Weather folks claim this was a 100 year flood, I know the creek was as high as I have ever seen it. Good news, we are on the high ground so we watched the water rising from the deck. Bad news, our water well is in a low spot and flooded. This storm and flooding defined my life for the last couple weeks--pumping water, cleaning pipes, draining reservoirs, disinfecting, taking water samples and such. I am the part owner and chairperson of a community water system and we needed to bring the system back up on line. The good news is that the other owners of the system are very understanding and took it all in stride. This is the first storm that has caused this problem, hopefully it will be the last. I submitted the final water sample (I hope) yesterday and hopefully it will pass the standards. If so, we can again drink from the sink.My training has been suffering, or maybe it has switched to some different muscles groups. Anyhow, I am back to hiking the loop out back and it does not seem like I have lost too much with the layoff or maybe I didn't have much to lose. My new boots are getting well broken in and I have not found any more leaks--this is good. I have been playing all sorts of mental games about my hike. While I have some experience with the first sections, I keep thinking about where I would like to stop that I did not visit last trip. So many things to do and so little time already. If I spend all my time on the southern sections, that will not leave enough time for finishing the hike. Decisions, decisions.At this time, the year I was planning the first attempt, I was fretting over gear and trying to determine the best options and combinations of gear. This year, there is not too much of that to do. But, I find myself looking at other gear that I did not take along. I keep thinking a cell phone or pocket mail would be a nice addition, maybe an ipod. Then I think, too much weight, but then I think but its only a couple ounces. So it goes. I can rationalize that I don't know much about high tech and more than one is overload so maybe I ought to opt for one thing that can do it all--smart phone maybe. I have time to figure this out--but my brain may not tolerate such confusion.Thanksgiving is coming and I wish a happy celebration to all. This will be one of the occasions to practice stuffing one's self in preparation for hiking towns and all-you-can-eat buffets.......After thanksgiving, I will be in a good mood to put together my first cut at my hiking menu. I am thinking I will plan about ten different days and then just recycle thru those as I hike along. I am thinking I will change from hot to cold food about mid Virginia to Vermont and then go to a mixture of hot and cold from Vermont to Maine. Just tentative thinking, but need some where to start. I like the planned mail drop box method of resupply as it makes for more time to visit sites on town days. Three Feathers, Brian Warren my hiking partner in 05' has decided to work rather than hike--how bad is that! He already retired once and thru hiked the AT. I think he needs a better set of decision making tools--something he should know a great deal about as it is the subject of part of his consulting business. So, my plan is to start this adventure solo and just let the community of friends form as we all hike north.