Date: 2019-05-06
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Miles today: 0.0

Its been a couple of weeks since I updated the journal here. This time of the semester is always a bit busy for me and because it is my last semester working, I've been busy cleaning out my office so that I'll be completely done this Wednesday May 8! I leave for the AT on May 15. I'll spend a couple of days with my neice in VA then arrive in Harper's Ferry on May 17. Between now and then will be a whorl wind.I finally registered for my hike with the ATC on April 26. So I'm feeling all official.I completed another blog post that was published. Here is the link to that: https://www.allwomenalltrails.com/packing-my-fears-part-1-the-big-three/ and I just finished yet another that I'll send off tonight.I went to see my nurse practitioner and she gave me a prescription for doxycycline in case of Lyme disease. I thought that would be a good idea and so did she. She also insisted on giving me a prescription for cephalexin in case of UTI or skin infection. I'm probably not going to bring this prescription with me. I've only ever had 1 UTI in my life (though it was recently) and I never get skin infections. If either of those happen, neither is life threatening to start with and I'll have Jim send it along if I need it.I did purchase an Ursack and OpSack odor proof liners. Though originally I thought I'd be hanging a bear bag nightly, I decided to be a bit more smart about it and get something that was bear proof but lighter than my bear canister. There are so many people on the AT now and there are plenty of bears. The adage is "a fed bear is a dead bear" and I don't want a bad bear bag hang of mine to introduce a bear to the joys of raiding camp. It'll also be easier to find a good place to secure the Ursack than fiddling with hanging a bag at night.I stopped at Salvation Army and found a decent pair of shorts to sleep in. They're just an athletic style that are lightweight and polyester so they'll dry fast if I choose to rinse them out in a stream or sink rather than launder them.My friends have been giving me journal books to document my hike. I think I'm up to 5 of them now! My plan is to use them one at a time.. figuring I'll probably fill them fairly quickly as there will be plenty to write about on the trail. I can use those scribblings as fodder for keeping this journal up to date with where I'm at and the highlights of what I've been up to.One friend gave me a 'kit' that included neosporin + pain relief spray in a travel size which is awesome. In that same kit was doTerra deep blue for sore muscles. I'll definitely bring that!I did another hike with the Blaze pack. This time I packed it with my actual sleeping quilt, tent, clothes, kitchen kit, repair kit, first aid... in short just about everything I'm taking with me... plus food and water for the day. Dan and I were going to hike up Kaaterskill High Peak but were stymied when we got to the 'road closed' sign. I guess they close the road for the winter and April 27 was still 'winter' there. So, instead, we walked the escarpment trail at north-south lake. It was a perfect day to view Kaaterskill falls. It did snow on us! and the sun shone!... so a bit of all weather. The pack performed flawlessly for this 7 mile hike. Otherwise, I've been walking 5.25 miles just about every day. Yoga on the off days.  I've also been thinking about electrolytes. I hate gatorade so I did a search to see if I could find a recipe for electrolyte powder and make my own. I did find one that consisted of baking soda, morton's lite salt and epsom salts. I made it up and tried it in water. It's ok but not something I'd go out of my way to drink. So I tried it in a mint tea with honey. Oh my goodness, it had the exact flavor in it that I hate in gatorade. So I learned that it must be the sugar with the salt that turns me off. Then I went online to look at the sodium, potassium and magnesium content in gatorade and pedialyte. I thought I could make up my own concoction. What I came up with is a mix of 1 part each sea salt, Morton's lite salt and epsom salt. Using 1/4 tsp of this in 1 pint to 1 liter of water will give me 229mg sodium, 117mg potassium and 42mg magnesium. I think that's a pretty good suite of electrolytes. The other important one is calcium that I'll be getting with a supplement that I'll be taking. So I'm going to make up some of this powder to take with me and use it to start with.I tried some other products out to see if I like them. Badia brand puts out a dehydrated kale that is terrific! They also make dehydrated honey (which is really a sugar/honey mix). I liked that as well. So my first food supply will include these. I found Starbucks VIA instant coffee and had read that its not bad for instant. I tried it and am happy enough with it to give up bringing the coffee cone that I originally thought I'd bring. That will save having to bring filters and packing out the used grounds.You can see I've been busy. I'll try to keep this journal up more religiously going forward. ...though no guarantees until I'm actually on the trail!