Date: 2006-01-19
To: It's About Time!
Miles today: 0.0

Well it is about time I get caught up with everyone for the ¢06¢ season. How are you? If you are anywhere as excited as I am you have spent many nights sleepless and wide-awake planning and preparing. I will be so glad to start so maybe I can calm down some and actually get a good nights rest. My luck that first night on the trail the wind will be howling around 35mph, the down pour will turn into a blizzard as the temperature plummets, and when I roll into camp I realize I left my rain fly drying in the basement from the previous weekends hike. Who cares right, I will finally be on a journey of a lifetime. So the question I have been asked by so many. ¢Why would you want to hike some 2,175 +/- miles with everything on your back?¢ From the people I will get to meet, to the sights that I will get to see, to the blisters, the piece and quite, aces and pains of hikers hobble, and stories I will be able to tell when I¢m done just breaks the ice trying to answer that one. My full answer will be provided in the many upcoming journal entries so stay tuned. A better asked question would be, so why did you finally decide to take off and attempt your goal of a thru-hike? Well a thru hike has always been on that little list of things that I want to accomplish. Every since I could remember I have wanted to hike the AT and finally have the chance. I almost took my last spring and summer at college off to hike but decided to stick it out and try again later. This was due to our tight class scheduling in my department at Auburn. If I would have taken off that summer, it could have been several semesters before getting back into the program to finish. After graduation I took a couple of weeks to rest before the job search and entering the real world. That fall I took a job with a design build company and from then on it has been nothing but the fast lane. Everyone knows how busy you get with work and how you fall into the rut of everyday life. That¢s the way it has been for past 2.5 years, but I never lost focus on hiking. The current project I am working on is scheduled to be complete this spring so that got the old wheel to turning once again. With no wife, no kids, no house payment, free spirited and my project coming to a close it was time. My hopes of hiking started up and the planning was underway. I first had to ask for six months off work. That was no easy task and the first answer I received was a four-letter word followed by NO! Well once the smoke cleared and I explained how much I wanted to do this, things eased up a little. Several big decisions later including turning down a huge project close to home and a lot of help from Randy and Team Gray, I think I have things at work squared away. Back in December with Christmas around the corner I mentioned a few pieces of gear that I really needed and of course a few others that I just wanted, Mom and Dad came through with a little help and Christmas morning was nothing but gear for the hike. Really, I think dad enjoyed shopping for all of it as much as I enjoyed getting it because he had to tell me all the ins and outs of each piece. Thanks guys. Since Christmas I have been reading up about the trail trying to soak in everything, getting gear and food list together, talking sponsorships, testing gear, and trying to finish my project here in Texas so I can head home to unpack and repack. ¢Boy I can¢t wait!¢So, between now and the tentative start date of 3/12 or 3/19, I have a lot to do. In the next two months I have to finish my project here in San Antonio, pack up my apartment for the 900+ mile ride back home, finalize the mail drop list, complete my mail drop packets, round up a few needed pieces of gear, test a few new ideas, and try to squeeze in a workout or two. That should keep me busy.