Date: 2010-01-22
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

It's been an unusually mild January up in NW Wisconsin, weather reaching the mid-30's, with some brief and occasional sunshine to boot. Oddly, October was wintery cold, November warm to the point of disgusting the deer hunters, December was appropriately cold and snowy, followed by January with a nice and relatively warm thaw. Weird, but there's something weird every winter in these parts. I'm still tearing up the steps at the Hockey Arena and today I managed to gut it out for 2 hours. A pretty short hiking day, but it is training nonetheless. In the way of progress, there is a more pronouncedspring to my steps than two weeks previous and I'm talking a lot more smack than in preceding months. Talking trash is pretty much a reliable indicator of how I'm feeling, physically, mentally and spiritually in getting ready for any semi-serious endeavor. Lately I've been looking through my old 'Thruhikers Guide' from '05 and figuring out resupply points. I've got it calculated for the first 500 miles and, from a supply perspective, it will be pretty simple (I almost typed 'easy', but there is a big difference between 'easy' and 'simple'), with no need to carry more than 50-60 miles of food at any one time. In '05 I sprained my ankle on the 2nd morning out, climbing down Sassafras Mountain. It was pretty bad and most said I should get off the trail. The benefit of serious trash talking is that it puts you in a situation where you have to put up or shut up. I don't like shutting up, so I had to get by the best I could, hobbling along the rest of that day, setting up my tent by a small stream and awakening the next morning to find my ankle even more swollen. That first post-injury day I continued limping along until I came to the intersection of the AT and a paved mountain road at Woody Gap. Shortly a shuttle van appeared driven by a fellow named 'Pittsburg' who was much more concerned about whether I had 5 bucks for his fee than if I needed help. Since I had the cash, he gave me a ride to the Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega where I treated my ankle for a few days, bringing the swelling down before I started out slack packing for a few more days to test things out. Following this little rehab, I started anew with a full pack, a still tender ankle and a slow, gimpy gait. Why is this important? A couple reasons come to mind: (1) because I say so and this is my journal and (2) I refuse to sprain my ankle again and so I will be able to hike much faster and more proficiently this time around, thus shortening the time between resupply points and increasing the enjoyment of my journey. I fully expect my smack talking to increase exponentially as well and am training that part of my hiking skill set by frequently stopping at Alley Cats Coffee Shop in Spooner, where serious trash talkers gather daily for breakfast.   I won't mention any names, but they know who they are. Now you can see how easy this hiking business really is, in the brief space of one journal entry, I have blazed through 500 miles of Appalachian Trail, covering Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and well into Virginia, kicking all sorts of geographic butt. Much ado about nothing and not nearly so dangerous as confronted by a butcher knife waving Leann Shutt when you ask her for a breakfast sandwich at Alley Cats Coffee Emporium, Bistro and Roasterium, but that's a story for another day.