Troll's 2010 AT Journal

Just thought I would share some random thoughts with all of you.

I am really looking forward to getting out on the Appalachian Trail for this journey. I have wanted to do this for eight years now. I need it more now than ever. I get three weeks of vacation from the company I work for now. I usually take a week at a time and stagger them throughout the year. One week at a time is just not enough to get away and relax and get your mind at ease. It seems just when you start getting comfortable, it is the last day of your vacation. I am looking forward to this hike. I am thinking of it as a vacation, a very long vacation. I need something like this. I think I need to start a list of reasons I want be thru hiking the Appalachian Trail like Ham & Brian Glass have done.

I packed all my gear up in my backpack yesterday to see how well it fit. I have done it before but never with any type of organization or with all my gear that I will be taking on my thru hike. I was very surprised that it all fit in my pack with no problem at all. I even had some extra room.

One of my concerns is getting up in the morning and putting on frozen boots. I mean they will literally be frozen stiff. I don’t know how I am going to deal with that yet. The other concern is staying warm on the days when the temps are in the teens or possibly lower. I know there will be quite a few days like this. I know I can deal with it when the temps are in the 30’s by putting on all my clothes and just keep hiking. Will I be able to do this same think in temps that are in the 20’s or lower, I sure hope so.

I picked up a new cell phone a couple days ago. It is another blackberry. It is an upgrade from what I had. This one has more internal memory and some added features. I got it for the larger internal memory. I have been using it for two days now and it does not seem like the battery lasts as long in this phone as my other one did. The main reason for carrying a blackberry is not for the use of the phone but for journal keeping purposes. The phone may also come in handy once and a while.

I found out that my new gravity feed water filter is in the mail today. I should have it by the end of the week. I am excited. That is the last piece of gear I have been waiting on.

I found another backpack I want to try but I just don’t have another $250 to do it. It looks like I will like it a lot better than the pack I have now, it is 2 lbs light then my starting pack and 1 lb lighter then the summer pack I will switch out to after the Smokey’s. I wish I had the extra $250 to get this pack and try it out. The other problem is that I am only about two months away from my start date and getting another pack now and finding out whether or not I like it will be very close.

I have been going through my guidebook and making notes for myself. I am getting antsy.