Date: 2010-03-11
From: Fontana Dam

To: Fontana Dam
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

On the road again goin' places that I've never beenSeein' things that I may never see againAnd I can't wait to get on the road again-        Willie NelsonSubstitute the word ¢Trail¢ for the word ¢road¢ above and you¢ll have the way I feel.After all the driving/riding I¢ve done in the last week and a half I feel like I¢ve seen enough of the road for now.   1,106 miles from Atlanta to Tampa, to Orlando, to Tampa, then back to Atlanta. That was to join my husband for a couple of different business meetings he attended. Then, after a flight from Atlanta to Champaign, IL, I drove 2,050 miles (round trip) from Illinois to New Hampshire to pick up our dog and bring her back. It was good to see my daughter, Ellen, who joined me for the trip from Rochester, NY to New Hampshire and back to NY. It was good to see my in-laws who had been dogsitting. It was nice to see the AT as I drove by it just east of Bennington, VT. It was even good to see that ridiculous creature we call our dog. Driving a total of over 3,000 miles I could have done without.However, I still have more than 2,000 miles to walk. I¢m hoping to get back on the trail soon. I¢m dealing with a couple of issues at home, but I¢m guessing they¢ll take less than a week to resolve, and then I can head back out.It sounds like the conditions in the Smokies have improved but are still difficult ¢ with feet of snow left at the higher elevations. Therefore I¢ve decided that I am likely to go ahead and figure I probably won¢t finish on Katahdin but will hike an alternative itinerary instead. Hyway gave me the name for this particular scheme ¢ the Cool Freeze plan. (A play on the Cool Breeze plan of hiking the middle third of the trail first, then the northern third, and finally the southern third.) So I¢m, thinking to skip north, maybe to Erwin or just north of Roan Mountain in Tennessee and hike to Maine and then come back and finish the missing part, finishing at Fontana Dam.I doubt that the final step of the trail at Fontana Dam will be as dramatic as if I would finish at the sign at the summit, but I¢m more concerned with just finishing at all. I¢m afraid if I wait and then pick back up by going through the Smokies that I might not get to Maine until too late to finish before winter weather sets in. I¢m also hoping to miss some of the heat and humidity of the mid-Atlantic since I simply wilt in the heat.While the hiking in February was certainly difficult, I¢m very glad I did it. I learned quite a bit. While ¢enjoyable¢ and ¢fun¢ are not words I¢d be likely to use to describe the experience, ¢educational,¢ ¢adventurous¢ and ¢worthwhile¢ are. At this point in time, if I were to plan another hike, I would still choose to start very early. I¢m not saying that I recommend it for other people ¢ it was hard and more risky ¢ but I understand the attraction for starting early. And in other years the weather might not be quite so uncooperative.The early start required me to be more flexible in my plans, but gave me a wonderful sense of accomplishment. The mechanics of hiking were more complicated (keeping boots and water from freezing, for example), but I got to revel in the solitude to be had on the Trail in February. I got to the point I didn¢t want to see any more snow, but I did get to see a beautiful side of the Trail I hadn¢t seen before.And I can¢t wait to get on the Trail again.