my time in chucktown is winding down...

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dear springer mountain, 

i will see you friday, april 15th. 

your secret admirer, 

angie (who, i suppose, is not so secret anymore)

this is so surreal. i've got less than forty-eight hours left in charleston, sc. i'm going to pack up my things and haul them back to mississippi and then one of my friends will drive me to georgia and drop me off at the foot of a mountain and then i'll walk to maine. i'll walk to maine? that doesn't even seem halfway realistic to me. which is why it's so awesome. :) 

i bought my stove yesterday... it basically looks like the coleman equivalent to the msr pocket rocket, except that it may be a bit larger and it doesn't come with its own cool plastic carrying case. i also bought an emergency blanket and hand warmers. just in case. and because they were on clearance. i figured it was smarter to buy a pack of hand warmers, which came with 3 sets, for $1.50 than it was to buy just a single pair of foot warmers for the same price. i figured if my feet really get all that cold, i can substitute out hand warmers for feet warmers. tomayto, tomahto. i still have to buy a poop shovel. 

what else have i bought recently? oh! i swung by the military surplus store and bought a fleece. he cut me a deal on it. $25 instead of $40. it doesn't have pit zips, but i've worn kelly's and it's super comfy. if anything, i can use it at a pillow if it gets too warm to wear in camp at night. i also bought antibacterial hand junk and a sponge for the condensation for the tent. 

i've gone out the last two nights in a row with really awesome people each time. when my friends have introduced me to people these past couple of days, i've been "the person who is going to hike the appalachian trail," like i'm some sort of awesome or something? my friend josh said he's been telling people that his friend is going to hike the AT and when they ask, "the whole thing?", he replied, "yeah, you think i'd be friends with somebody who'd just hike half of it?" i know this sounds so mushy and crap, but it makes me and my heart so happy to know that all of these people have so much faith in me and my abilities. it's so amazing that i have so many people who are so dad-gum so supportive. :)

i will definitely miss everybody here. i sort of feel like i've just started really turning over new leaves in charleston as of recently. i think i can honestly say i will miss chucktown. the people more than the place, but it's the thought that counts, right? too bad i can't afford to live here. otherwise, i just might come back. maybe. 

tomorrow (today) is my last day at work. i've gotta be at work in three hours, forty-five minutes. then i'll work until 3:30 and then kelly and i will go pick up the van and load my stuff into it. i really just need her help for the washer & dryer since it's so God-awful heavy. i can load the rest of the stuff by myself. it just might take a while. i can't believe i'll be heading home to mississippi in just over twenty-four hours. 

i will miss everybody.

p.s. swayze loves her backpack. 

p.s.s. swayze loves powdered donuts more. 

jitterbug...

my pre-trail jitters are kicking in. i think my last day of work will be next sunday. i keep thinking, "am i really prepared for this? do i really know enough?" but then i think to myself, "hell, grandma gatewood hiked the trail with a rucksack and pair of keds... quit overanalyzing everything!"

on one hand, i think that it's just really simple to get out and hike and that we've overcomplicated things with technology and everything. then on the other hand, i think that people used to ride around without seatbelts and thought they were fine. maybe that's apples to oranges, though.

i'm extremely excited, though, because i learned how to tie the knot to secure securely tie out my rainfly last night. :) i think i might go make a drysack purchase today and go practice bear bagging in the backyard.

big sigh. still in shock. :)

i'd really like to sleep in the backyard, please...

so my tent has yet to come in! :( maybe tomorrow will be my lucky day and i'll get to sleep in the backyard tomorrow night. ew... or maybe not. i forget i have to be at work at 530 saturday morning. pfft. i picked up nikole's boyfriend's jeep today. this is so crazy and amazes me so much that this is all really coming together for me. i really thank God for that everyday. it's crazy to me that i'm gonna hike the appalachian trail. with my dog. i'm almost apprehensive/nervous about it... but not so much in the "i can't do this" way, but moreso in the "am i really ready for this? people prepare for this for years and i don't even have my sleeping bag" way. i still don't have adequate clothing or any stuff sacks or a water purification system or a blanket or pack for swayze or... hell... what all else do i need? i don't even know. i'm not even sure what i'm gonna do with my cell phone. i reckon i could just turn it off. so many thoughts all floating through my head... i wish i could catch them and stick them all together and organize them like a pearltree.

shelterrr

i bought my tent tonight!! =D i'm so excited! i got an msr hubba hubba AND its footprint for $225 shipped from rei. a guy on BPL replied to my post on the used gear forums and told me that i could get last year's hh on clearance for $170. i called the store in asheville and they didn't have any in stock. i had to call all the way out to california to find a store that had the clearance tent in stock, but i should have it here in the next week! =)

so i've got two out of the big three: pack and shelter. now i just need a bag. =) i'm heavily leaning towards the campmor down 20+ bag, but we'll see how everything goes here in the next little bit. perhaps i can buy a better quality used bag for about the same price. 

if i were my dog, i'd have an excitement pee right now.

new happenings!

there are new happenings to report! 

i will be pre-gaming the app trail with the foothills trail of north and south carolina in a few weeks. it's a 77-mile trail and some people on whiteblaze have apparently done it in three days. i think that's way optimistic and i took off five days for it. 

i went to half moon outfitters on folly the other day and bought the trail guide to the foothills. i had to get out of there fast, though, because when i walked upstairs and started looking at the packs, i started grinning from ear to ear. i looked at the gregory jade 60, but the price tag on it was $250. i reckon i might be able to get it cheaper on ebay. 

i talked to bill earlier. he said gregory is all he hikes with. he also recommended the msr whisperlite. i figure that's probably the stove i'll wind up getting. i've not really heard anything negative about it. 

i'm gonna start looking up recipes for the trail. =)

so i think i've taken the lazy route and decided that i'm not gonna start up a rigorous workout routine to get myself in shape for the AT. that's not to say i'm going to be sedentary until i hike; it's just that the general consensus is that the only way to condition yourself for the trail is just to get out there and hike.

i finished another book today. "long distance hiking: lessons from the appalachian trail." highly recommended... two thumbs up sort of thing. it was written almost 20 years ago, but it's got a lot of really good information in it. i enjoyed it, anyways.

i think i'm gonna try to make it to virginia next month for a two or three day outing. can we say excitement? =)

rei ... check

so i ordered my first rei catalog today... i'm pretty excited about that. =) i probably won't wind up ordering much from them, but it's always fun to build my wishlists. while i would looove to buy all new stuff for my hike and feel like a kid on the first day of school again, i don't think i can necessarily afford to do that (unless i just want to go ahead and name myself max and stay true to my chosen name).

sigh. march, huh? that's not too far away at all.

i have no idea how to get in shape for a thru-hike. i've been thinking that if i stay here in charleston, doing as much walking on the beaches in the sand as i can might halfway prepare me. charleston's just so flat! that would be the one good thing about moving back to bristol...the AT would pretty much be in my backyard. i also have a treadmill that does inclines that i guess i could start practicing on.

i feel like there's so much to learn! lnt practices and freezer bag boiling and bear cabling, oh my!