Date: 2003-03-20
To: All the questions you were too shy to ask!
Miles today: 10.5

Carol¢s Canoe partner and our friend Judy Jeanes¢ class wrote us a multitude of letters asking various questions. Thanks to JJ¢s class that wrote us the many encouraging and inquisitive letters. It made our day! Here¢s another saying from JJ, so Carol tells me : ¢Pain is temporary, Pride if forever!¢ We will eat some New England Chowder as advised when we are in that part of the country. Perhaps when we get back we can come visit you at school. You will have to come back to school next year to get our results as we won¢t finish until October 2003. I thought that we could respond to them here and allow others to read the answers they may be too shy to ask. Here they are:Q: How did we become interested in doing the trail?A: It was all Carol¢s idea!!! Ha, ha! Just kidding, I too was interested in doing the quest. I do love a challenge. Then we just started researching it and the excitement grew to a desire to go. Q: How did we prepare for this?A: We mostly researched it and planned and budgeted. We didn¢t do a great amount of physical preparation. Although that is advised, we just weren¢t able to make it happen. So now we are going through the pain of breaking our bodies in. (Yes, I know, Pain is just weakness leaving the body!) People say you can¢t really train for a journey like this¢¦not for the physical demands.Q: Why are we doing this? A: We are doing this for every reason and for no reason. The reasons to continue I think will change as we go along as well. We started because we wanted to live more simply for a time. I wanted time to do some deep thinking. I wanted to learn to trust in what life had to offer. And of all the countries I have been to, I wanted most to know my own country and what better way to get to know America except through its nature and the folks you meet on the path. Getting in shape was another good reason. Living cheaply for a while was another. And then there is the reason to do the trail because it is beyond reason. When the world gets too busy for people, it is time perhaps to retreat or slow the pace of life to reflect. All these reasons are why and more reasons keep confirming our current path.Q: Don¢t you get bored?A: Yes, sometimes I do get tired of focusing on where to put my feet and my hiking poles. Sometimes I crave more stimulus than leaf, leaf, tree, rock, branch. However, 98% of the time I am just fine with it and the tranquility of the forest. We don¢t realize the peace of the forest until we are thrust back into the little towns with trucks, traffic and trains roaring past us. We also get our fill of TV and phones when we pull into the little towns. I don¢t miss cell phones or having to answer a phone. ?Q: Don¢t you spend too many hours together?A: We don¢t always walk right behind each other. We take time apart, that¢s important. Sometimes I tell Carol I will meet her at the bottom of the hill and it gives us the time apart. In general, we enjoy each others¢ company and like seeing more of each other than we normally would if we both had jobs.Q: Don¢t you miss family and friends?A: We sure miss people more than anything. However, through email, phone and snail mail we are keeping in touch. Q: How do you shower?A: We don¢t most of the time. We do the best we can with some cleansing wipes or when we find a stream near a campsite, we try to scrub up. But mostly we wait to get really clean until we can find a shower. So, yes, we stink!!!! More than ever in my life! So bring a clothespin for your nose if you are coming to visit us on the trail. Q: How do you deal with the weather?A: We try to keep up with the latest with my little weather radio and we form our days around the weather. You really can¢t fight Mother Nature. In general we try to camp in the ¢GAPS¢. Gaps are areas between mountains and are usually low-lying area. Other than than, we have great raingear and waterproof items. Our tent has held up pretty well against the rain. The cold is another thing. It has been so cold that sometimes I am wearing every article of clothing I have in my sleeping bag to keep warm. Soon we will be able to lighten our load and send the winter gear home.Q: How many clothes do you bring?A: For now, we each have two sets of long johns (tops and bottoms), two short sleeve shirts, 1 pair of pants, 2 bras, 3 pairs of underwear (plus one we are wearing), two pairs of socks (thin), one pair of thick socks, a fleece, a hat, rain pants, and a rain coat. That¢s it. We usually keep one set of clothes for sleeping only. We also have what is called a ¢bounce box¢ which we mail to ourselves when we get to the next post office. There is one set of clothes in that for us to wear in town. That¢s it¢¦.three sets of clothes in all. Q: Do you mail stuff to yourself?A: We only mail the ¢bounce box¢ to ourselves which is a green plastic container which has stuff to resupply our medical kit, hygene items, and repair items such as alcohol swabs, duct tape, band-aids, foot-powder, toothpaste, etc. Our trusty pit crew of Michele and Anne will mail us our food drops per a schedule which we have set of when we estimate we will be into the next town. We carry between 4 ¢ 10 days of food on our backs at any given time. Q: How do you go to the bathroom?A: Mother nature usually provides for this in the form of a place behind a tree. Sometimes the campsites or shelters have ¢Privies¢¢¦these are outhouses¢¦or outdoor toilets. However, in order to preserve nature, we may use toilet paper but must take it with us until we get to a Privy or to a trash can. The term for low-impact camping is if you ¢Packed it in, then Pack it Out.¢ In other words, anything you take into the woods, take out, leave no trace, leave no trash behind. So far we¢ve been able to find a trash can once every 4 or 5 days, so it is not that heavy to carry. And if you see a packer carrying a bright orange shovel, that¢s for going #2. You should bury your business 6 inches into the earth so no animals dig it up. I knew you wanted to know that one ?Q: How much do we carry?A: Our packs weigh between 30 pounds and 55 pounds depending on days of food and gear. We pretty much carry just food, water, clothing and our tent along with some hygiene products and some first aid equipment. Oh, yeah, we are carrying a travel scrabble game, a travel boggle game and some phase ten cards, plus pen and paper. That¢s about it! ( I was carrying a guitar to begin with, but until I am stronger I have sent it back home in exchange for food..ha, ha.)Q: Aren¢t you afraid?A: Yes, I guess everything that has some adventure in it has some element of fear in it too. We are careful about who we talk with, but in general everyone has been very friendly and there is a great sense of community amongst hikers. People in the small towns have been very helpful. I am most afraid of my first encounter with a bear. But I could go the whole trail and never see one. We hang our food from a tree every night to avoid the bears eating it, but some people think they are still in hibernation. I listen to others advice of dealing with bears and then go forward hoping if I encounter a bear that it will no that I mean it no harm. Q: Where do you sleep?A: About half the time we have slept in our 2 person tent. The other half of the time, due mostly to rain or cold, we have slept in a shelter. These shelters are here and there along the trail and are three-sided structures. They have no doors but sometimes are good protection from wind and rain. Q: What affect will this have on your life?A: That remains to be seen. So far it has had a calming effect. It is empowering to be able to create your own days as you go along, rather than have them so structured like you would have in work or in school. It is a great sense of freedom! It is too soon in the journey to say what the longer term effects will be¢¦..so we shall learn about them together. Q: Will you go back to Georgia after you reach Maine?A: I laughed at that question, but it is a good one. I laughed because I said to people that I may just want to keep walking once I get to Maine. So who knows? Maybe we will go back to Georgia or¢¦¢¦????Q: ARE YOU CRAZY? A: YES! AREN'T WE ALL??? But we sure are having fun!!!