Date: 2006-02-26
To: getting ready
Miles today: 0.0

Hey ya fellow hikers and hiker followers/supporters. The class of 2006 thru hikers are now getting all nervous/anxious about starting out at Springer in just a few short weeks. I am cheering them all on as I remember the excitement of my start last year. As most know, I came up a little short with my thru hike attempt ( sprained ankle ) and am now a section hiker. But once the AT hiker bug gets ahold of you, it does not let go. We all express it a little differently. I'm not as good as ' break a leg ' is. Jess W. had physical problems also but if you read her journal entries, especially the last one, you will see how a talented person expresses how the bug affects us.My first section hike of this year will start at Damascus Va. on April 24th and take me till the end of May going north, trying to get thru as much of Virginia as I can. My friend/hiking buddy, ' Lucky ' from the Indiana AT club will go along for the first week as we go thru the Mt. Rogers area of the trail. My AT hiking partner ' Tim from Ohio ' is also trying to get away to go along with me for this section of Virginia. I managed to get a couple pictures posted with Tim in them. Many of you AT hikers will recognize him, as he has done 3 1/2 thru hikes already !! Tim tries to keep me out of trouble on the trail, which is pretty much a full time job, and I totally appreciate his patience with me. I am very fortunate to have his hiking/camping/trail expertise to draw from. I have gotten a few new items for this years sections aimed at space/weight reduction and efficiency. A new tent,( Big Agnes, seedhouse 1 )a new sleeping bag, ( MontBell #5 long, 45 degree ) and a new pad, ( Big Agnes air mattress ). All of this new gear will reduce weight from the stuff it replaces by about 2 1/2 pounds but also allow me to use my MountainSmith Specter internal frame pack, which is 3 pounds lighter than my old external frame pack. So I will be hauling around 5 to 6 pounds less weight, which is pretty significant. Add that to the fact that I am in much better physical shape this year and you get a much more enjoyable hiking experience. Hopefully I won't forget my camera this time so I will be taking pictures right from the start. My good friend from work, Ray Folley, is putting together a book of my journal entries and pictures from each section I hike. He has completed 2 great books from my first two sections and is already for the next instalment. My training routine for the next 7 weeks will be to hike 2 to 3 hours a day, 5 days a week with a full pack. Plus getting in a long all day hike at least once a week. I also plan to do a 4 day hike on Indiana's own ' Knobstone Trail ' about mid March to check out all the new equipment.I still have to figure out my mailing schedule for resupply packages and will do that in the next couple weeks. Probably should get the 2006 version of the ' Thru Hikers Handbook ' also, to see if there are any significant changes to the trail over the winter months.If anyone wants to take a week or so vacation from work and hike along with us thru any portion of Virginia, you are surely welcome. Hope to see some of my AT hiking friends from last year on the trail again this year.The adventure continues........