Date: 2009-05-12
To: Almost there....
Miles today: 0.0

Ok, we officially are leaving on a bus for Georgia on Friday May 15th, 2009. The bus leaves Boston around 10am Fri and arrives in Gainesville, GA around 10am Sat.  So, we will be starting our hike around noon on the 16th in a 30% chance of rain kinda day. We haven't figured out how we're getting to Amicalola Falls, AKA the southern terminus of the AT, yet but we're hoping that Survivor Dave is available to shuttle us that morning. His services are recommended through the guidebooks and the ATC website. I plan on giving him a call this evening, as a matter of fact. I have all of my gear ready to go, I just have to throw it all together. I still need to do a little bit of grocery shopping, to fill up my food bag for the first 5 days or so on the trail. My good friends Tim and his other half, Jenna have miraculously purchased/acquired/fabricated all their gear in the last two weeks or so. I am amazed at how quickly they got into gear for the trail, did their research, and are (at least I believe) totally ready to do this thing... this wonderful, once in a lifetime kinda thing we're about to experience. I've been researching, mentally preparing, collecting gear, doing alot of hiking and preparing for this over the last 5 years. Now, saving the money required to do it is a whole other story, but let's just say I'm on a strict budget. The three of us are all going to be doing this with getting by as inexpensively as possible in mind. Tim and I were talking about this last night, over a few beers and from inside our tents in his backyard; the fact that there's three of us hiking as a group, we will be able to save a lot of money in the long run. By sharing the same washing machine & dryer to wash all our clothes, food & fuel, and share the same bounce box. This will add up to hundreds of dollars saved in the 5 months (and only 5 months!!!) that we'll be hiking. Yeah, Tim and I were both messing around with gear this morning. His Mom is being very generous by hemming me up a new footprint for my tent, that we cut out of some good durable vinyl tent material. Thanks Tim's mom! I still don't know your name, but I'm sure I will soon... Tim has made a sling, for propelling rocks at high velocities, out of some thin rope and a piece of leather. He thinks that we will be able to use this ancient hunting method to add some real variety to our trail diets... LMAO! I don't doubt him and indeed, I will be joining him because it challenging and fun, but we'll see what happens is all I'm going to say. I think I got a trailname for Tim: ROCKSLINGER! It sounds cool, doesn't it? If that doesn't work , maybe Slingman, Caveman, or Slingman the Caveman... haha!Jenna is getting a bounce box ready for us and has being doing alot of busywork with the planning and details of what's to come. She's been great. She is done with college, just celebrated her 23rd birthday, and has a dance performance on Thursday. After that, she's ready to go! I can't wait to get her a trail name, too!My mother has been extremely helpful in helping me gather some of the foodstuffs and other things I'll be eating/using along the trail and she is going to help with sending me this stuff in drop boxes. I have a pretty good store of snacks, batteries, and toiletry items ready to go. I recently decided to leave my MSR PocketRocket lightweight camp stove that runs off of isobutane/propane mix canisters, at home and will be making an even lighter, more efficient alcohol stove. They are very easy to replace and finding fuel (denatured alcohol or similar)should never be a problem, which was a concern with bringing my other stove. So, actually... right now I'm off to make my stove and then maybe meet up with Tim for a hike and overnight stay in the woods somewhere to try out the new stoves If I'm not motivated to write again over the next few days before we leave, then maybe the next journal entry will be from out on the trail!!! yeeeha!Can't wait!!! I've been anticipating this for such a long time and I just want to get my ass out there and enjoy what comes my way... with my friends =D