Jmink and Mbrewer are hiking a ways on the Appalachian trail the summer of 2009. Jmink quit her job at Amazon, and mbrewer got a 4 month leave of absence from work. We started in Georgia with the idea of just going as far as we could. Maine was of course an inticing goal.
What an absolutely amazing time! Jess hiked from Georga to Maryland (>1000 miles), I continued on from there and went to the southern border of Massachusetts (>1500 miles).
Along the way we met the nicest people you could possibly imagine. We never had problems getting a hitch into town to buy food. We were invited into people's homes to shower and sleep. We were fed free food just about everywhere we turned. The other people on the trail were also about the most amazing and interesting people you could meet - from absolutly every walk of life. We met professional lute players, bouncers, and people who worked fast food (and that was just one person ;D). To everyone out there who we met along the way, thanks for being amazing!
Really there is very little to say, but we did discover a few things that might really help, so here they are
At some point all of the gory details will hopefully make it onto this site in one form or another. I (mbrewer) will be carrying a camera, but will not be uploading any photos until I return in the fall. If they appear earlier most likely it's because I had to abandon the trail - so hope for tardy updates!
mbrewer: My biggest worry is knee problems. I've been having trouble with my knees for a little while now, but it got a lot worse in the last year. I finally saw a Physical Therapist and apparently the root is that my the muscle in my Butt attached to the Illiotbial band is too weak (how this happened I haven't a clue). As a result my knee position is slightly off causing both ITBS and a small patello-femoral problem. I finally saw a PT though, and I'm doing exercises (YAY), and I've got some straps on order which should help with the patellar tracking
Besides that, it's not like the *gear* side of this is complex. I'm using pretty much the same old gear. I ordered a new pack from ULA, 'cause my old circuit is wearing out and I'd rather not deal with pack-failure. The new pack is also a fair bit lighter and slightly smaller. I'm dropping running tights in favor of silkies. I decided to go with basically winter-gear for the whole trail, I've got a 10F sleepingbag (way overkill I know, it costs me some weight - but I lovers it), a very light sleepingpad from gossamer gear (more insulatory than most though). Due to knee problems I trashed any other thoughts of shoes and went back to my old standby of mesh puma trail-runners. Yeah it's got no arch-support, and the mesh fills with mud and lets seeds in, but if I can walk who cares. They'll only last 1/5'th of the trail anyway. I'm carrying a tarp, alcohol stove, super-minimal groundcloth, one pole for the tarp 'cause I have a hiking pole. I've got a down vest which again is overkill - but this way I should need no gear-changes for the whole trip, and should be pretty safe in the whites. I *am* mailing my henry-shires tarptent to my parents in case I need it - for fear of blackflies in Maine.
The real problem with preparation though is everything else. Health insurence, suspending phone plans, canceling memberships to everything, finishing up work, moving out of my apt and putting my stuff in storage to avoid paying rent, figuring out how to fake an address so my employer doesn't get confused about my residence, etc. All of that has been taking a good chunk of time for about a month now. It's all looking good though! Just about there, and I can't wait to get on the trail.