Date: 2008-12-23
To: Let's take care of the basics...
Miles today: 0.0

You¢re doing what?!We¢re hiking the Appalachian Trail from start to finish. It¢s about 2,170 miles, give or take a few, beginning in Maine and ending in Georgia. Unlike 90% of AT thru-hikers, we¢ll be hiking southbound from Maine. On average we¢ll walk 10-20 miles per day. It¢ll take us between 4 and 6 months to complete.Why? Are you crazy?We¢re both nature enthusiasts (obviously) and found the right time and partner for such an undertaking. I¢ll have just graduated from Emory and probably won¢t find a better time to go before graduate school/bills/career/etc take over. I also really love running but have finally accepted that if I keep at it seriously, I¢ll be in permanent pain for the rest of my life due to my knee problems. I really needed to ease my guilty conscience over letting go of my favorite sport, so instead¢¦I¢m planning on walking the equivalent of 82.6 marathons up and down mountains with a heavy backpack. I figure that ought to make up for it. I am a bit crazy. Josh is also. We both like a good challenge and here it is.How will you eat?We will both buy food along the way as we walk through towns and also have food sent to us by our parents. We¢ll pick up the packages at post offices-- feel free to send us goodies!-- as we walk through towns. Some people almost exclusively eat food that they buy along the way, but we¢re both pretty picky eaters (read health-nutty) so we¢re going to have at least half a dozen mail drops.What will you drink?We have a nifty water filter that pumps and cleans water from streams, creeks, lakes, etc.But where are the toilets?There are no toilets.What about showers?Well, Maine has a lot of lakes! We¢ll shower in towns we pass along the way. Most have hiker hostels where you can use a grimy shower for about $5 dollars. If you live anywhere near the AT, please let us use your shower.Won¢t you get eaten by bears? (Or snakes, spiders, etc?)Not likely. Black bears usually run away from humans. They¢re pretty much only after our food, which we hang in a tree (along with our stove, eating utensils, and trash) away from our tent every night. That way, if they want our food, they can (and will) climb up the tree but not up our tent. We hope that we won¢t be eaten by any other wildlife or hillbillies. In the event that something goes very wrong, we can get off the trail via one of the logging roads that intersect it often. We¢ll also carry a satellite phone with us for emergencies.But isn¢t Anya allergic to everything? What we thought was an allergy is actually a genetic autoimmune disorder. It's currently under control with the right medicine. Hopefully it won¢t crop up bad enough that we have to pull off the trail. If there is a serious episode though, we¢ll camp by a water source and chill out for a while or hike into town and take a ¢zero¢ day or two at hotel. There's also the Epipen. Never go out of reach of a hospital without one! Better to be safe than sorry/dead. How can I keep in touch?We¢ll be updating this trailjournal often, so bookmark this page and check back every few days. Both of us will take some good ol¢ notebook paper and write along the way. When we hit towns, we¢ll either send the letters to our parents, who will transcribe them onto the internet, or update the journal ourselves at internet cafes, librarys, hostels, etc. That'll happen once or twice a week depending on the length of trail between towns. Pictures will also be posted regularly. To contact us, you can write in the guestbook or email either one of us (we'll check our mail at the same time we update our journal). Thanks for reading and sharing this adventure with us!And don't forget to sign our guestbook! Anya