Cocked, Locked, Ready to Walk ... Again

A week from today I'll hop into a rental car, drive to Asheville, NC, and take a shuttle to Franklin, NC. The next morning I'll be at Rock Gap where I'll continue my AT hike.

Ok so, I started in Georgia last year, intending of hiking a traditional northbound thru-hike.  I got into NC, woke up one morning with intense pain in my knee.  I hung out for several days, treating it for tendonitis, but it turned out I had a bursitis, and I came home to have it treated.  In July I hiked southbound from Maine.  I got 540 miles down the trail when I discovered I had an inguinal hernia that the doc said needed surgery ...

With those 644 miles under my feet, I'm going to hike from Rock Gap, NC and finish my AT hike where the trail crosses VT 11/30 in the green Mountains of Vermont.

More after the break:

Got my iguana hole fixed.  Surgeon slapped some chickin wire over it.  The holes he put in my abdomen are healed up, and I'm ready to hump a pack again.

I put up a selection of photos I shot on the trail last year on my Tumbler page.  Enjoy. Last year's trek took its toll on my camera.  I got it fixed and have taken steps to better protect it this year ...

Been pouring over my gear, looking to lighten my load, and I've made some pretty good progress. Primarily with my summer weight gear.  But this Spring ain't like last spring when temps were in the in the 80s.  Recently hikers have been holed up at Fontana Dam, weighing their options while snow was piling up in the Smokies and overnight lows were in the low 20s. Those temps are predicted to rise into the high 20s to low 30s over the next 10 days. But there's no one predicting what the temps will be when I'm hiking into them 2 weeks from today. Making the decision to carry my 15 degree bag, along with 2 sets of base layers, a fleece, a down vest, gloves, and a shell seems prudent ...

And so I'll be setting off with a shoulder-season base weight of 17.7 lb, with 10 lb of food and 2.2 lb of water for just under 30 lb on my back.  Not bad, but with every step I'll be looking forward to swapping into my 14.3 base weight summer gear ...

I choose my start date under the pretext that I could actually time it such that I'll hike into Damascus just in time for Trail Days.  I suspect one way or the other I'll get there in time for the bash.

Then onwards to points north.

I'll be updating these pages along the way.  You can get notified when I do by entering your email address in that block in the right column.  I'll also be posting waypoints on my Appalachian Trail page , also over there in the right column.