READY OR NOT
Hi everyone, I’m just 3 days away from starting my approach trail trip at Amicalola Falls, where I’ll start on May 24th and climb about 9 miles to the actual start of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.
POINT OF NO RETURN
I’m at the point of no return when it comes to gear selection, food selection, resupply boxes, is it nice to have or I’ll figure out if I want or need it later. I made my last purchase of a device with a non-return point; buying my third pair of trail shoes. I have become mentally paralyzed choosing shoes and wearing them on my “marking walks.” I have been searching for the perfect fit, but in the end I realized that I would feel some pain somewhere on my body every day and I was trying to prevent foot pain with the best shoes. So I’ll just eat any pain (if there is any in my feet) and move on.
LAST STEPS
Tomorrow I’ll do one more backpack and gear check and then celebrate with friends and family on my wife’s safe HIT THE TRAIL JACK trip. Head to Georgia on Saturday, get a good night’s rest, and hit the trail on Sunday.
A LITTLE QUESTION AND ANSWER (and yes, my answers are genuine Vincenzo Coccotti)
How far am I going to go?: The plan is 1,100 miles and ends at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania. About half the distance of the entire AT
How much does my backpack weigh? The base weight is ~20 pounds and 7 days of food brings the pack weight to ~33 pounds.
Are you on the road all the time? The plan is to go into town every 6-8 days to repair myself and pick up my supply boxes, rest that day (day zero), and then hit the road the next day.
How long are you going to walk? Mathematically (ha ha), with zero days there should be between 100 and 110 days total.
Yes, I will sleep in a tent every night.
I’m eating military MREs the entire trip.
Yes, I will have to poop in the woods when nature literally calls me.
BECAUSE: I don’t really have a good answer for that other than «why not?» I like hiking, I like the challenge and setting goals and pursuing them. I loved the forest as a child and hopefully being fully immersed every day would be lush (while fighting the weather, pain, creatures, etc.). I also heard that girls like hikers, so I did it for myself.
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