Date: 2010-07-29
From: High Point state park

To: High Point country inn
Miles today: 0.0

7/29Zero day at high point country innMotelI'm having a leisurely day. A little reading, a little packing, a little tv. Trying to plan a bear-free hike out of NJ. I'm doing that by checking my references for which shelters are known to have high bear activity. I may stay at a couple more inns if they're handy. I was planning to stay at Anton's On the Lake in NY but Little Aspen gave it an extremely negative review so now I'm planning to pass it by unless the weather is horrible. On tv I watched a little bit about life in the universe and had a sudden, stunning change of opinion (not due to the show). I had always felt that in a place so diverse, the conditions for life MUST be occurring contemporaneously in other places. Now I think that is the life part is still true, but that there is probably a huge span of time between one form of life evolving in one place versus another. I.e. we will probably never meet aliens. There's a good chance that material evidence of their existence wouldn't even exist anymore by the time we got there. A few billion years can change a lot. I bet radio or light signals might still be found though. It makes me feel a little lonely on behalf of my planet. On the other hand we have such a diversity of life here that other company may be superfluous. Bismark urged me this morning to jump north up the trail so I could finish at Katahdin this year, and do missing middle sections later. I haven't ruled it out. I'd still like to condition myself more first. Maine should take me about a month so I have about two weeks to make that decision, and I'd need to coordinate with JD to get some cold weather gear back.  (Assuming I were doing the entire state of Maine. Heck, I could fly up and do the last twenty miles for that matter. But the idea is unsatisfying. )I wrote the following in response to JC Dill's questions about my phone. Reporting here in case others are interested. "I'm using an iPhone. I have it in airplane mode most of the time. Using the screen and having it on the network are the two biggest power draws so I try to minimize them. I turn off the screen whenever possible. Also I almost never turn on 3G networking. I check messages probably ten times a day - text, not voice. I'm not a big phone talker. I'm more likely to use network capabilities in town because it's easier to recharge. I have no special app to set low power mode. On the trail I recharge nightly using a 3G Juice external battery. It used to be every other day but the phone goes through energy faster now, which I think is a combination of an old battery and the latest OS update. I carry a cable and wall plug for the battery. I carry a different cable and wall plug for the phone itself. The phone charges in about an hour. The Juice takes several hours to recharge. Depending on my daily usage (I typically listen to audiobooks all day but have cut back a little recently due to power issues) I can go about five days before I need to find an outlet to recharge my electronics. Conveniently, that's about how much food I carry and how often I start feeling the need for a shower, a night in a bed, and hot food. So it works out well. "My big exciting news for the day is I saw Felix and Pilot! I knew they were hiking far north of me and wasn't expecting to see them. Felix had some ankle trouble so they got off the trail a little early. Bummer for them but excellent for me because they tracked me down at the motel for a visit. I was so happy to see them!  They couldn't stay too long as it's a lengthy drive home, but we got to chat for an hour or so. Best surprise in a long time!