Me and the Cisco Kid

I suppose it all started Christmas, 2014. I love to read. My son does too. We exchanged books for Christmas presents. I gave him Robinson Crusoe: The Complete Adventures (Vol.1 - Vol.2), Daniel Defoe. The first volume he'd read and loved before, the second volume most people are unaware that it existed, as was true for him. He gave me Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed and A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson.

I'd read and enjoyed A Walk in the Woods years ago, had recently been hearing about Wild and wanted to read it. I eagerly started in on Wild then went to see the movie that had recently been released. It convinced me that I didn't want to hike the Pacific Crest Trail...too dry, too much water to carry. I'd lived in the southwest and knew what it could be like.

Louisiana has been a home base for the past 20 years, but typically I leave during the summer. Having grown up in western PA and lived in other mountainous states (AR, AZ, CA, CO, KY), I miss the hills and hiking opportunities, and don't much care for the long hot muggy summers of Acadiana. When I return to LA in the fall--that's Louisiana, not Los Angeles--I'd often pick up computer contact work with the same company. This fall that company was gobbled up by another company and contractors and employees alike were being let go. So, my main income stream had evaporated. I had limited funds and felt stressed.

My form of stress relief has often been to head for the hills and walk, something I couldn't so easily do in LA. With those Christmas books, I toyed with the idea of getting out of LA and going on a really long walk, re-visiting places I'd lived. After disregarded the PCT, I considered the American Discovery Trail, and plotted out how long it would take me to trek from Delaware to Colorado. Soon after that I started re-reading A Walk in the Woods. The section about Virginia brought back memories of my time living in Maryland for 8 years and hiking in the area, belonging to PATC, the beauty of the area, especially in the spring. I felt a yearning to go back there and go hiking...maybe a really long hike. Why not? Maybe get into better shape and celebrate a milestone birthday the end of May. That feeling just kept growing and feeling more right.

By mid-January I was sending out feelers, contacting my local hiking club wanting to talk to people who had hiked the AT. With hesitation, I started emailing family and friends telling them of my "tentative" plans and would they like to hike with me or meet up with me on the trail to help me celebrate my birthday. Late April to mid-June, 4 - 6 weeks, 300 - 400 miles through Virginia, likely starting in Perisburg and ending in Harpers Ferry. Several responses came back in the affirmative...and that freaked me out! Now I'd just gone ahead and committed myself! Good grief!

Here it is, now, six weeks later looking like, yes, I really am going to do this!