Appalachian Trail Journal Entry #11 - My first snag requires a tough decision!
by
, 02-20-2013 at 22:54 (2988 Views)
Today has been a wonderful day for the most part in terms of preparing for the upcoming thru-hike with my two boys. However, we did get some news that shakes things up a little bit. Unfortunately, the State of Florida may not be doing their FCAT test for the school year until April 15, 2013. What does that mean? Despite making straight A's all school year, they must take this test in order to move on to the next grade, even though they are schooling from their computers. This COULD mean that I have to push this until either mid April. I am not sure. I am going to continue talking with the State of Florida to see if there is a way to handle this differently.
If we have to wait until April, I may be forced with a tough decision. That decision will be either to continue with my plan to go NORTH BOUND, or I may need to go South Bound in order to not be shut out of the mountain in October when the deadline hits. If the summit closes up October 15th or so and I do not leave until April 15-20, that doesn't give me a whole lot of time. Granted, this is only a month later than I was going to originally start, but it also only gives me 6 months to get this TREK done. With us being beginners and two of us being children, that may be truly pushing it. It would really suck to get all the way to the end and miss the opportunity to summit.
What do you guys think? What should I do? If I have to wait until mid April, should I just go south bound? The problem with that is that all the hardest parts of the Appalachian Trail are in Maine so it seems. Would it be wise to START OFF with that being inexperienced? Should we go ahead and go North Bound and just risk it, or should we go South?
KING