still on the fence...

so i haven't updated in a while, but that doesn't mean i haven't been reading and researching and wasting time online looking and dreaming about gear and routes and mail drops and shelters and whatnot. i actually found a website that lets you organize all your favorite websites. it's called pearltree and i like it. here's my hiking pearltree... http://pear.ly/M9n5

i wound up losing four of my toenails on the foothills trail! =) the first two came off within a week or two, but the other two didn't come off until just last week. i had no idea the last two were even injured. i kinda consider myself a badass now. 

i bought my pack for the AT last night!!! :) i'm so excited! i was at wal-mart a few weeks ago and i was just perusing through the camping section and i noticed that they carried actual backpacks. i picked up a coleman max and it looked like a decent enough pack. i didn't buy it, but i made a mental note to google it when i got home. i never did, and then just last night i ran across a review on whiteblaze that actually said it was a really good starter pack. i googled it, and all the reviews gave it 5 *s. i tried to find it on wal-mart's website, and they said that they no longer carried it, so i got in my truck and ran to wal-mart to see if they still had it. lo and behold, i got the very last one. :) it didn't even have any of the tags on it so i couldn't see what the features and specs on it are, and when i got it home i was very pleasantly surprised to see that it even comes with its own pack cover! here's a video review of it i found, and i even learned more about the shoulder straps (cause they don't fit exactly right w/the hip belt and i just figured i'd have to deal with it - turns out - ajustableeee).

things really seem to be coming together for me to hike this trail. i still need to sell my truck; the two guys who've looked at it have fallen through. maybe i need to drop the price. i dunno. anyway, a friend of mine's boyfriend was deployed to afghanistan this weekend and he said i could borrow his jeep for the month of march while i figure out what the heck i'm doing. so i don't have to sell my truck and then rush into buying a piece of crap that'll get me to springer. i can just sell my truck and get out from under that note, and then use a car that i can give back in a month. how awesome is thattt... plus my landlord might buy my washer & dryer, so that'll give me extra cash money for the trail. 

nick is going to wind up taking jolie i believe, but i'll still have to hike with swayze. which will be fine, i'm sure. i just know i couldn't handle hiking with two dogs on the trail, and jolie wouldn't be able to make it anyway. with her short little boxer nose, she just overheats way too fast in the summertime. swayze, though, is gonna love it. i'll need to take her to the vet and get her UTD on all of her vacs before i head out; it'll be a little early (i don't think she's due til the end of may), but it's better than having to find a random vet while we're on the trail. 

basically, i'm so frickin' frackin' excited. i think this is going to be one of those very last-minute, pack your shit and go things if it does happen, though. my finances are the absolute only thing holding me back from this journey. if i won a million dollar lottery tomorrow, i wouldn't go to italy or vegas (i don't think you could pay me to go to vegas?) or cancun or anywhere other than springer mountain. it's extremely weird to know that your heart is someplace it's never been before.

also, as a side note, i renewed my subscription to equimax last week. i don't think i hate the horse world. i think i'm just tired of shitty employers, and there are a lot of shitty employers in the horse industry. i'd actually love to get back into the western discipline. wear my boots and be a cowgirl again. if the AT falls through, i'll hopefully wind up on a reining farm. :) 

staying put

my move back to bristol has been canceled due to not being able to find anywhere that would let me have my dogs. the AT will remain hundreds of miles away. =( 

that's okay, though. i can always drive back and do day hikes with friends and maybe take a long weekend and do a section to mt. rogers. 

i still have to figure out what the heck i'm doing come february... whether i'll stay here in charleston and hike with my cousin next year, or whether i'll set off this spring on my own. 

decisions, decisions.

something new every day...

so i bought a new book today. =) backpacker magazine's "everyday wisdom." i bought it because i don't have any trail common sense - yet. when i first looked into hiking the AT, it never dawned on me that you might want to bear bag & cable your stuff. i would have been eaten the first night, had i not done any research. i'd never thought about taking hiking poles. i was pretty naive.

anyways... so i bought this new book and it should wisen me up. i also bought a backpacking magazine, but i bought it mainly for the ads in the back so i can go online and get a few more catalogs sent to me. :)

i still don't know about taking the dogs with me. a lot of people on the wb forums seem against taking a dog on a thru-hike. most of them are concerned about the health of the dog, while the rest of them seem to just be anti-dog.

i don't know what i would do with them for six months if i didn't take them with me. i hate to say this, but the thought actually crossed my mind of just taking swayze and leaving jolie behind. i don't like to think that's playing favorites... but swayze *is* my firstborn. o.O plus, jolie is a boxer and would overheat really quickly. who knows?

i did start a discussion on a whiteblaze forum today regarding dogs and water supply etiquette. i don't want people on the trail to hate me, so i asked everybody else what they thought of letting your dog(s) swim and play in rivers/streams as long as they were downstream from the main collection site. i just don't understand why some people would get upset about that! bears and raccoons and all the other wildlife POOP AND PEE in the same rivers and streams that we're getting our water from! that's what water purification systems are for, people. i don't know... i just don't understand some people's logic. if they can see the animal playing in the water, they have a conniption fit, but if a bear craps upstream around the bend, it's outta sight, outta mind.

i'm still on the fence about whether to go or not. i'd really, really like to and it's the only thing i've been able to think about lately. i just don't know what i would do with all of my bills and whatnot.

if i could keep my truck until february and then just sell it off, that would be awesome. daddy did mention buying my truck, and that would be the perfect scenario, but i don't want him to feel obligated to buy *my* truck just because he's looking for another truck of his own.

so i wouldn't have rent or electric or cable to pay. i wouldn't have insurance or gas to pay on my truck (maybe just the actual note). i would have to buy my food. i would call the student loan people and get another six-month deferment. i would still have a cell phone bill. i would still have a minimum monthly payment due on the credit card, should i start using it again.

maybe i just need to buy another lottery ticket tomorrow. =)

planning?

so i'm planning my thru-hike. =) i have two options... one, i can go this march and do it relatively solo (since you're never truly alone on the trail), or i can wait until 2012 and go at it with my uncle and cousin. they're thru-hiking when she graduates college.

i wouldn't necessarily be all alone. i'd rather take my dogs. i will be heavily weighing this option as the months progress.

i don't have a trail name as of yet, but i came up with two options this morning on my drive to work... dorothy/dot, in honor of my grandmother, and because while i'll be having fun in the hypothetical land of oz, there's still "no place like home." my other possible trail name is max because unless something drastic happens in the next few months, maxing out my credit card will be exactly how i finance my thru-hike. =)