oh, those prayers

roarrr. y'all pray for swayze please. her pack is rubbing her and she's really tired. i gave her some pain meds tonight, but i'm out of duct tape and athletic tape just isn't cutting it. maybe i'll trade somebody a few feet of duct tape for a few snickers tomorrow.

happy easter, y'all. today was a gorgeous hiking day. it was hot and i got sunburned but i'll take sunshine over rain anyday. i'm exhausted, though. since swayze's having trouble with her pack, i let her slackpack (go without a pack) a few times on the uphills. i'm sure she loved it, but i weighed MY pack the other day at the hostel and it weighed 43 lbs. adding her pack to mine today probably put me in the neighborhood of 50. needless to say, i'll be knocking myself out with a hydrocodone here in a few minutes. i'm too tired to even eat tonight.

thank all y'all for any prayers y'all are sending our way. you know, it's absolutely amazing, but all of my prayers have been answered on this trip thus far. God rocks. :) in reverse order, i was really prayin' there'd be a trail angel in the parking lot when i came off a mountain today. a trail angel is anyone who helps a hiker out, whether it's food or shelter or a ride into town. swayze and i came down the mountain today and there was a couple sitting in a car. they rolled the windows down and asked if we needed a ride into town, but i don't really need a resupply just yet and i'm still kinda skeptical of hitching (even though just about everybody on the trail does it), so i told them i was fine, thanked them, then swayze and i sat down in the shade to have lunch. right as they were leaving, the lady called out to me and offered me some lemon cookies and half a root beer. yes, ma'am... i'll take that. swayze was a fan as well. :)

one of my absolute pet peeves is a sparsely-marked trail. yesterday we pretty much hiked alone all day, and when we got to the last four miles or so, the blazes became few and far between. i was tired and hungry and all i could think of was, "Lord, just show me a blaze. let me know i'm goin in the right direction." and sure enough, every time i'd ask, there would be a blaze soon after. also last night, i was praying that there'd either be a familiar face or no one at all at the shelter. when i got there, there were two people from our "group" and two new people. i breathed a huge sigh of relief. the same exact thing happened again tonight. when i got to the campsite, it was just me and a guy i haven't seen yet. i specifically asked for someone in our group to show up, and not half an hour later, i heard a familar voice.

there've also been two instances where it's poured down rain at night and i've laid there in my tent and said, "God, just please let it be gone by daylight," and it quits at sunrise. :)

so whatever y'all have been praying, keep doing it 'cause it's working. thank y'all so much. maybe we should start working on a big, fat, juicy hamburger with lettuce and tomato and pickles and ketchup with a really ginormous glass of sweet tea and some salt & vinegar chips. at this point, that'd basically be heaven on earth.

ohhh hostels :)

swayze and i are doing well! i had my first shower today since monday night. good thing, too, 'cause i pretty much smelled like death. a few of us put all our laundry together to make a full load so i've actually got clean clothes to boot! i wasn't real sure how to handle the whole town thing at first, what with swayze and all, but the people here at neels gap have been amazingly dog-friendly.

i can't do the hostel thing too often. it put me out $20 tonight. that'll really add up as i get closer to maine. i just stayed tonight 'cause we've had to deal with rain these last three days and it was actually really cold and windy today as we hiked over blood mountain. i feel so bad for swayze. :( i couldn't find her raincoat before i left for the trail and she hates being cold so i rigged her a raincoat out of the footprint of my tent. i'll have to find her something better, though, soon.

i haven't seen any bears yet, but some coyotes came way too close to our camp the other night.

the group i'm with is pretty awesome. :) they all seem to like swayze and til, a german guy who's section hiking, gave her like half of his bag of beef jerky the other day for lunch. vicky and rich have been extremely nice to me, giving me some of their filtered water and letting me use their cell phone. another guy who's hikin' with us, james, picked up swayze's collar that i'd accidentally dropped halfway up a mountain and didn't realize until we were at the top.

and in other news, i pooped in the woods for the first time ever.

productivity rocks!

there's no other word to describe today other than amazing. i called an eye doctor yesterday and scheduled an appointment for today, so i started the day off with a doctor's appointment. he fussed at me for wearing my contacts at night. oops. i've been wanting a pair of glasses for a few years now, but i'm not the kind of person who can look at a pair and say, "hey, these look good on me." maybe my face is shaped weird. and i don't like the idea of taking my contacts out at night 'cause if a boogie man broke in or the house caught on fire... well... i don't want to have to put my eyeballs in to see things before i can react. shrug.

so after i went to the eye doc, i came home and fed swayze and took her out. then i decided to go to the military surplus store and get my bear bagging rope. i bought 100' of 550 paracord for a little over $8. i'm not sure what i'll do with the other half, since you only need about 50' for bear bagging. then i went to dick's and bought a magnesium fire starter and a carabiner for the rope. then i dropped by starbucks to get my tips and to get breakfast 'cause by then i was starvin' marvin.

and thennnnn blake sent me a text to see what i was doing today, so i called him to see if he wanted to go to west ashley to get swayze fitted for her backpack! except that i forgot that the stove people were coming to fix the oven and that kelly had asked me to be at the house for their appointment so that if the guys came in twos, they wouldn't be all scary 'n' junk. 'cause it'd be a two on two kinda thing. so blake came over to the house while the guy was there fixin' the oven, and then joshua called! he's already in erwin! that gives me hope that i might be able to make it to damascus for trail days. i hope, i hope, i hope.

but then blake and i took swayze to half moon outfitters to see about getting her fitted for her ruffwear approach pack. they only had a small and a large, and she needed a medium. i'd seen a medium at the bike shop over in mt. pleasant a few weeks ago, and it turns out that they're getting out of the whole hiking thing, so the guy told me he'd give me 30% off the dog stuff!! so i got a $75 pack and a $20 leash for $79! deal of the day!!! oh, and i bought my sleeping pad at half moon today, so that's one more thing i can cross of my list. bear bagging, backpacks, and sleeping pads, oh my!

then, since blake works somewhere that sells crocs, we dropped by the store and i figured out which size i will need, and he's going to use his discount to get them for me on friday. :) then we came back to the house and french pressed some casi ceilo. after blake left, kelly fixed supper and i finished adjusting swayze's pack on her. then i semi-demonstrated how to bear bag in the living room using the stair rail as a tree branch.

my mama seems to like the whole "spot" idea. apparently, it offers $100k worth of an insurance policy, should they have to air lift you out of a crevice 'cause you fell down and broke your toe. but blake told me about an app called "everytrail" today, and i think it might be an alright substitute. granted, it won't come with an insurance policy, but it's a gps tracking device and if i keep my phone turned on... who knows. we'll see what happens.

i am so excited!!!!!!!

if this situation were chocolate, it'd be bittersweet...

i no longer own a truck! :)/:( on one hand, i no longer own a truck. :( on the other hand, i won't have to make those God-awful truck payments each month and pay ridiculous amounts of insurance and i will be able to HIKE HIKE HIKE all the way to maine. well, i mean... barring anything horrible happening that would pull me off the trail. 

the guy came down from north carolina last night and had a cashier's check in hand. he drove it around a little bit, played with the 4WD, and then we signed the bill of sale. i was kind of in shock that it happened last night, and when he cranked it up to drive it away, i got all misty-eyed. one day, i'll have another one. 

so i need to get with the program and finish buying my gear and figuring out my timeline for things. i haven't bought all my gear just yet because i wasn't 100% sure if i was going to be able to hike, and i didn't want to put all this money into gear that i wasn't sure i'd be able to use just yet. 

to help myself organize my thoughts, here's a list. things in bold, i've already got. the rest is just general ideas and things that i know i'll need. if anyone has any ideas, please feel free to leave me some hints. i'm not 100% sure what all i'll need for six months in the woods just yet, even if i have done a lot of research on all this...

pack group

• pack: coleman max elate 65L
• pack cover: came with the pack

sleeping gear

• sleeping bag: campmor 20* down bag
• sleeping pad: -
• liner: -
• tent: msr hubba hubba

electronics

• camera
• battery charger
• extra sd card
• extra battery
• transfer cable - bounce box?
• mp3 player? (would have to buy)

kitchen

• stove: currently have the new esbit stove; thinking about getting a msr pocket rocket
• fuel: - ; esbit tabs for now, poss. canisters later
• pot: dimebag ok? haha... jk
• frying pan: do i really need one of these?
• mug: -
• spork: -
• bladder: -
• bladder: -

hygiene/first aid/general group

• bug spray 
• rope
• water purification
• headlight
• knife
• tooth paste
• tooth brush
• soap 
• vitamins
• ibuprofen + acetaminophen
• more powerful painkillers
• benadryl
• pepto tabs
• neosporin
• 2 ace bandages 
• needles
• thread
• 2 4×4  gauze pads
• 5×9 gauze pad
• emergency blanket
• toe/hand warmers 
• whistle 
• alcohol pads 
• toilet paper 
• thru-hiker's companion 
• eye drops
• spare set of contacts
• compact mirror
• tweezers
• face wipes
• dental floss
• trowel

clothing worn

• shoes: merrells
• poles: probably wal-mart poles
• shirt: -
• pants: -
• socks: smartwool hiking socks
• socks: liners?
• underwear: ex-officio?

clothes packed

• socks: smartwool 
• socks:  liners?
• rain jacket: one that i've had for forever
• camp shoes: croc-like 
• base layer: top?
• base layer: bottom?
• base layer: sports bra
• buff x2, bandana
• shirt: - 

swayze stuff

• ruffwear approach pack
• dog food
• kong/peanut butter
• leash/collar/tags
• frontline/heartgard
• rimadyl
• ridgerest sleeping pad

o.O

i slept in the backyard last night. in my tent. and in my 20* bag in 60* weather. it was unzipped, though. swayze slept out there with me on her little ridgerest pad. i figured out that i need a better sleeping pad. i don't have a very good one right now, anyways. the stars were awesome. i watched a lot of csi-type showed before i went outside. it was probably a mistake. i had weird dreams in the middle of the night and dreamed that i got scared enough to go inside, but i ran through a huuuuge spiderweb on my back inside to the house. it was all a dream, though. weird. the neighbor's dog kept barking last night. all in all, i slept well, i just need a better pad. i wish i were on the trail. =/ if i don't sell my truck soon, this will all have to wait until next year. i overdrew my account the other day. i have money in savings that covered the overdrafts, but now i'm eating into my AT savings. i get paid tomorrow, but i still need to sell my truck. sigh.

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.