Date: 2003-04-04
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Miles today: 0.0

"I met a fool in the forest, A motley fool."-William Shakespeare "As You Like It", Act 1 scene 7**************************************I had a nightmare once.I found myself in a strip poker game -- near-naked, shivering, and down to one last article of clothing¢¦my left sock.I looked around. Everyone else was fully clothed and giddy with laughter. ..yucking it up at my expense.A beautiful lady swiveled slowly towards me and looked at me up and down, then sneered, "Tip your hand, FOOL, and you prove to all that you not only play poorly at poker, you play poorly at life."There were solemn nods of agreement. Then laughter and catcalls, "FOOL! Village IDIOT!"Flash forward to April, 2003...and the nightmare becomes reality. Here I am, about to tip my hand...show my cards. My naked motivations, egregiously flaunted before all. I guess that makes me the Village Idiot.It¢s bad enough that I¢ve told family and friends that I hope to thru-hike the AT this summer. But now here I go, spewing off at the mouth, announcing this intention to the whole damn rest of the world, courtesy of "TrailJournals.com" and the global Internet.Oh, jeez¢¦. why did I just go and do what I think I just did?Maybe VILLAGE Idiot is too mild a pejorative. Considering the widespread audience for this web site, make that the GLOBAL Idiot.Course, if there¢s any consolation, it¢s that ¢ unlike my nightmare -- I¢m not the only fool around these parts who¢s gone and tipped his (or her) hand. In fact, and this is hard to believe, but just on this website alone, there are almost 200 other wannabes who¢ve proclaimed their intention to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail this year. And on "trailplace.com" another 80 wannabes have tossed their hat into the ring. And that¢s just for the year 2003.Already 24 others have announced their intention to thru-hike the A.T. in 2004.Okay, I know it's getting a bit crowded on the trail, but heck, now it¢s getting crowded and claustrophobic before you even show up at the starting gate! Shoot, I might as well go ahead now, and sign up a couple of my yet-to-be-born grandkids for 2027. Help them get a leg up on everybody else¢¦Now that I¢ve given you this background, consider the following fact: Less than 10% of all these wannabe thru-hikers will actually finish the A.T. this year. What you will witness this summer on this web site is a massacre of ambition of widescale proportion as one by one, thru-hikers abandon their quest.Why then, do we paint a big fat red bulls-eye target on ourselves by announcing to the world that we intend to hike the A.T. this year when most of us are just setting ourselves up for eventual disappointment and humiliation? Why not just slink quietly and anonymously off into the woods¢¦and defer any announcements for at least the first 2,000 miles?William Heat Least Moon, in his book, River Horse, provides us with a little insight. On April 19, 1994, though wracked with self-doubt as he was about to embark on a trans-continental river voyage across the United States, he nevertheless granted an interview to a New York Times reporter*. As a result, his intention to voyage by boat across the United States was proclaimed the next day on page one of the Times , in bold-faced type no less, even though Heat Least Moon realized he¢d be mortified if he failed -- which was the likely outcome. Still worse, was the possibility that the trip might end very prematurely, perhaps on day one -- even before the world sat down to read, over coffee and burnt toast, of his intended voyage. And the possibility of such premature and public failure was worse than mortifying to Heat Least Moon, it was profoundly humiliating. All the more reason, then, for him to plunge ahead. "I realized, while I might lack the nerve to undertake the trip, I was certain I didn¢t have the courage to tell friends I was backing out; with an audience below, once you¢re up on the high diving board you must at least jump."And so here I am, up on the high diving board with lots of company, our toes collectively curved over the edge. Below, friends, family, strangers and the merely curious, stare up at us with expectant faces.Time to jump¢¦___________________________________* That same day, a separate Times reporter interviewed and biked with me and my four kids down the length of Manhattan, as my two sons, ages 8 and 13 set off to bike across America. The next day, our article ran side-by-side with that on Heat Least Moon. And yes, the subjects of both articles successfully completed their quests¢¦so perhaps fear of public failure is one of the secrets of success.