Date: 2004-02-18
To: Times of Change
Miles today: 0.0

Ok. In something vaguely resembling seriousness...Back in 89 when I first believed I was setting out to do the AT, it was largely a journey of the unknown. There was little to inform me what it was truly going to be like on the trail, nor what it was actually like to be a thru-hiker. That was 1989, recall - a medieval period before the digital informational renaissance began. There may have been an internet at that time, but trust you me - it was not something you'd use "Internet Explorer" to idly surf through. There was no Google, and I'm sure there were hundreds of people setting out that year to make The Great Trek. They just had no way of communicating with each other. The communities and the potentials of such massive and interesting sharing were then still just dreams - their destinies then not even a twinkle in any coder's eyes. No, in 1989 you did it the old way, and that involved index boxes and other arcane forms of research - usually at the library. The internet is a wonderful thing. And it's getting so it's difficult to imagine life without it. Me'n Moxie are forever ending up at restaurants or coffeeshops, jabbering about whatever, and we'll end up being presented with questions. Who was such-and-such in that movie that was out last year? or What year was it again that the Mayan calendar was supposed to run out on? or whatever hundreds of questions that can be evoked by idle curiosity. And instead of being able to quickly google the answers out, we have to sit on our curiosity (I guess I'd better get used to this on the trail, eh?). For the purposes of researching this trip, the internet has been especially indispensible. Being able to read people's accounts of their gear and how it actually held out on the AT? This is amazing stuff. Not to mention how one is able to become part of a community and more actively seek information, or situations (trail partners, or what-have-you), or, say, good trail recipes. I have been so appreciative of what so many have shared. There is such spectacular information to be found. I can only hope to offer one umpteenth of a percentage point back in times to come...It's kind of funny, but while I am grateful to dive into people's sites, or forums or message boards, I have been utterly resistant to reading any number of the available books on the Appalachian Trail. My girlfriend's been through a bunch of them, but I just haven't wanted to.I guess I just want to have it make its own impression on me. Perhaps I just don't want my impression to be coloured or otherwise shaped by the feelings or experiences of others like they could be from a book. I want to approach it all with an open heart and mind, and when I hike up to Insert-Name-Here Pass for the first time, I don't want the inkling of a thought along the lines of "Chales Theramin in his book says this place is breathtakingly beautiful! I'd better get my camera out!".I know others won't share this opinion, and, frankly, I'd be surprised if too many did.I just figure that there'll be time for diving into the type of diversion offered by a full book on this subject after I've walked my 4 million-odd steps from Georgia to Maine. Perhaps I'll be slightly less informed than the others who have read any of the many books available. But in this regards, I am fine with that.- Whoa