Date: 2013-04-23
To: hampton, tn. 
Miles today: 0.0

It's the first of May and we're 47 miles from Damascus. We want to be there for Saturday night so we'll be hiking sixteen mile days. We will have hiked over 190 miles without taking a day off, our longest stretch yet. Over the last two days we covered over 27 miles roughly and saw some awesome sites. Last night we set up camp and before long we had six other hikers at the campsite. There are still a lot of people thru hiking that are hiking at a consistent speed and so we end up about the same distance at the end of the day. It is definitely thinning out though as more and more people realize this is not for them or they get sick or injured and go off trail. My biggest issue is missing Alison. I wish she could come out for a short time and hike with me. Maybe when I'm in Virginia and the hiking is a little smoother she'll come hike for a few days. You really can't come out here and start hiking 15 plus mile days from the start. It takes time to work your body into shape trail wise, muscles and cardio, gear issues and everything else you have to deal with. My biggest issue right now is my pants are falling off of me and I have to keep them up with my pack waist belt. I really think I've gone from a forty waist to about a thirty six size. I'll need a whole new wardrobe when I get home. Tonight I'm staying at the Braemer castle hostel in Hampton, Tn. The town is not big and if you blink, you missed it. There is a Walmart about twenty minutes away and Arby's had a nice steak and potato to satisfy my needs. Tomorrow we'll climb over pond mountain and continue about 15 miles or so to keep pace with what we need to make distance wise to see Damascus by days end on Saturday. I'll be looking forward to taking a zero day and celebrating the end of the first leg of my journey north to Maine. My next goal will be to walk the entire distance of Virginia in a month covering more than 550 miles. I think I'll see, before too long, some 20 and 25 mile days and not as many zero days in between. Because I started on the 21 st of March, I built I a cushion of time to acclimate to the trail. I've had eight or nine zero days but I'm still making miles. I wasn't supposed to start until April 1 st so I feel I'm that much more ahead of the game. If I take the roughly 420 miles I've hiked and divide it by 30 days I'm averaging about 14 miles per day which finishes me by the end of September so as I improve my daily miles, that end time frame will lessen. Being that I'm still a long way away from Katahdin, I probably shouldn't worry at this point and just keep hiking. As I get closer to New England, if there's anyone who would like to do a day hike or even a two or three day hike, just let me know by signing my journal and I'll coordinate as needed to get people out here. I recently heard about a hiker that offers wilderness therapy services and takes small groups and even individuals out hiking as a way to provide the help both physically and spiritually that a person may need. I can tell you from experience that you'll not only lose a pant size or two but you'll have a fresh new perspective on the simpler things in life. Hey, Take a hike! :-)