Troll's 2010 AT Journal

I just wanted to add and update real quickly about what I have been up to and why I have not made any journal entries.

I have been very busy over the last two months. I took one side of my two bay garage and enclosed it and turned it into an office space and move all my WhiteBlaze equipment and computers into it. This took about three weeks to get done. I have also been working on yard work. This need to get done before the snow came. I got most of it done with the exception of raking the acorns. We got some early snow this year and that made it impossible to get done. That reminds me, I never did get any arrangements made for someone to mow the lawn and do the yardwork while I was thru hiking next year. I will have to depend on my wife to get that done once summer gets here, that is a little scary.

We also had one of my wife’s friends moved into our house and she has two children. She is going through a separation right now. This is a good thing for the time being because my wife will have someone here at the house with her while I am thu hiking. That took about a week or two of rearranging the house also.

For the last month I have been working on new software that was released for the WhiteBlaze web site. I would like to get it installed before I leave for my thru hike. The software is a major upgraded form what was being used in the past. It took some time for me to figure out all the new ins and outs of it. The major problem so fare with it was trying to get it to look like the old layout and colors. I have that pretty close now. I am hoping to install this before the end of December. I would like it on the web site and running for a month or two befoe I leave. I would be a load off my shoulders knowing it was working smoothly before I left.

I am real close to purchasing my tickets for leaving. I decided a couple months ago that I would have all my tickets before Xmass. That’s is only two weeks away now. I will most likely purchase my tickets next week sometime. I priced them a couple of days ago and the bus from Portland to Boston and the Amtrak from Boston to Gainesville will be a total of $194. The total travel time will be about 23 hours.

I will be starting a workout program next week to try to get myself into better shape for the upcoming hike. I have been going to physical therapy for about a month now for a knee injury I received at work. That is almost over with but the guy helping me with my therapy said I could keep going to the place and he would put me on a program to help prepare me for my hike. I am planning on taking advantage of this. I will see him this coming Tuesday and he will set up a schedule for me.

I have all my equipment ready or my upcoming hike with the exception off the new water filter I am waiting for. I want to use a gravity feed water filter to help save on weight. I was told it would be here in January. I will still have my pump home that I can have my wife send me if I am not happy with the gravity feed filter.

Currently that is where I stand. I will try to make an effort to make more journal entries in the future.