plans for the trip

We just talked to Brock last night [now] two nights ago - who is going to be joining us in May to finish the trail & decided that we needed to figure out our whereabouts for when he joins us. I discovered the Appalachian Trail Hike 2010 blog [way back when we started planning our trip] and have studied it over and over. Their start date is so similar to ours that we're hoping to mirror their trip, well actually we hope to be a few days ahead of where they were when we come off the trail for Mel's graduation celebration. These guys took a break for their own college graduations, so we figured we could certainly take a break to celebrate Mel & then head back [only after a cruise with the Martins of course...a vacation from our vacation, if you will (:]. Anyway, Mike & I decided that we hope to be in Waynesboro, VA - at the entrance to the Shenandoah National Park [approximately 852.5 miles from the start at Springer Mt., GA]. This means we'll be over 1/3 of the way to Mr. Katahdin [in just 6 weeks!]. 

I am currently working on a list of "Must See" towns ... we're hoping to take "zero days" [aka no hiking days] in about 10 towns along the way. These will have two purposes: rest, obviously -- hopefully somewhere to get clean & wash our clothes & mail drops! I will be posting these towns [with sending instructions] just in case you find it somewhere deep down in your hearts to send us stuff - which we'll greatly appreciate & most likely need! So, if you or any of your family live on or near the trail and would be willing to have us, please let me know! [any time past VA there will be at least 3 of us...really hungry & very stinky!]

Another fun aspect of this trip is going be getting home. You know, since we'll be 2,179 miles from home with no car. We know that flying will be out-of-the-question-too-expensive, so we've decided to hop on a bus from Portland, ME and head to Boston. I've always wanted to see Boston, and since we'll be passin' right by...why not now?! (: [I'll finish the trail even if it's only to see Boston on the way home! haha] Then, we'll catch the train from Boston home - it'll deliver us right to Greenville and we won't have to pay extra for our bags [or what little of a bag we'll be carrying]. Looks like we'll be having an adventure on our way home from our adventure!


On another note - real life - well, the present life we are living - Mike & his Papa leave tomorrow for the mini-trip! I can't wait to hear how it's going to be...they're getting to try out all of our new gear [I'll get to join Friday after work for a weekend escapade!]. Good stuff (:



D day countdown: 47 days