Plan C

Plan A= 2007 through hike, Georgia to Maine in 7 months. NOT.
Plan B=2008 section hike from Virginia to New York
2009 section hike from New York to Maine. NOT
Plan C=2008 slack pack or day hike as much of the remaining sections as you want to hike. Leave your camping gear in the truck and carry less than 15 pounds.

Maybe then, the weak knee will be able to handle the trail. I have to admit that three doctors and two physical therapists were right. My knee structure will not allow me to carry 40 pounds up hill and down for 2000 miles. After 8 days and 79 miles on the trail it is painfully obvious that the knee will not handle the weight. So here in Pearisburg, Virgina we are calling plan B off. Now we will be day hikers, still trying to hike the trail but hiking from road to road and eating and camping out of the truck.

The decision to make now is if traveling this way is worth passing every white slash which will still take this summer and next to complete or if we should just cherry pick the sweet parts of the trail to day hike and end the hike in Maine in July.

Jen really wants to wear the T-shirt that says, I am a 2000 miler, so we will probably try to keep going north, one section at a time. (tell me, 2007 thru hikers, did anyone get that T-shirt?)

We have some friends from Georgia coming to join us in our trek now. We will have two cars and can drive one ahead and the other to the trail head, and just leap frog them up the trail. It is not the way we would have preferred. But if we are going to get any more of it done, this will have to be the way.

Get In The Game

Flint and Jubilee are back in the game. We may not win at first, but we are at least on the move north once again. When I was in High School we had a period of time each year when you were “in training” for the sport you were playing. When you were “in training” there were certain things you did, and certain things you didn't do. If you were “in training” for basketball for example, you swore off of cokes and candy bars. Well at least you were supposed to. I dont remember a coach ever telling us that, it was just something we all talked about doing.

There is a definite “in training” for hiking. And it is obvious that we are NOT in shape. We are back where we were when we began last year. After 3 ½ days of hiking we have accomplished 33.9 miles. That is just short of our beginning goal of 10 miles per day. I was sure we could do better than that, but not yet. Tonight we are in a motel in Bland, Virginia. Tomorrow will be resupply then on to Pearisburg.

Paul the Apostle said that we should “train” ourselves for godliness. Have you ever stopped to consider what that means? How much spiritual inaction does it take for us to fall out of shape?

The Last We Saw of Giblet

Many of you remember our hiking chicken from last year, Giblet and have asked if he will accompany us on our hike this year. Giblet was very glad to get home from the trail last year, after all, she had to wade naked through chest deep snow in the Smoky Mountains, stand on her head in Tennessee and was upset that we dangled her over the edge of Fontana Dam.

When we started getting ready for the hike this year we decided Giblet must be hiding from us because we couldn't find her anywhere. A little research determined that she was last seen heading south, trying to quack, flapping her wings, and wondering why she wasn't evolving into a duck. After all, who ever heard of a hiking duck?

She needs to be worried though. In the resturant today at the Cabelas store in Nebraska we were sitting out a snow storm. (Entertainment is hard to come by in Sidney, Nebraska.) Jen went by the hot food bar and they had hot wings for sale. They were not labeled buffalo wings, or even chiken wings, they were duck wings. Just to be sure, Jen asked, are those really duck wings? The attendant assured her they were from authentic ducks.

If they start taking their wings, ducks will have to start hiking.