Off to Georgia!

Following two very nervous and tentative weeks full of antibiotics and the sniffles, it's off to Georgia to set sights on the approach trail which climbs 8.8 miles from Amicalola Falls State Park to the top of Springer Mountain, the starting point for all Northbounders, AKA "Nobos" among thru-hikers. Then it's 36 hours of final preparation and nailbiting until 8am on Friday when I transition from fleshy computer geek to fleshy Appalachian Trail thru-hiker.

Morale is still very high despite some packing challenges today, but I'll have to work those out before hitting the trail on Friday. I have five days of food, all my gear, cash and traveler's checks and probably the last bit of clean-smelling clothes I'll have for quite some time.

My wife, Aracelis will be joining me that first day to Springer Mountain, share the evening and then walk back to the park the following day. I'll be signing the first of dozens of trail registers that I'll sign throughout my journey and if the weather holds out, it promises to be a wonderful day.

My Blog/Journal entries will be less frequent from now on, but I'll try to make several entries at a time along the way, about every week and a half or so.

To all those following along and actually reading these, I thank you. To those who have donated to the Russell Home, I thank you. To all those who have sent emails of support, I thank you.

Please keep me in your prayers, I'll certainly need as many as I can get.

Ron

Trail Names - I am "Muddy Shoes"

There is a long standing tradition of hikers using trail names instead of their regular names. Part of it is for the mystique and part of it is just to have a name that fits who you are or who you've become as part of your journey.

Traditionally, your trail name is assigned to you by other hikers. You might wake up one morning and put your boot on and squish a frog that somehow jumped into your boot during the night - Your fellow hikers might call you "Frogfoot" from that day on. Or you might accidentally set your tent ablaze doing something stupid with your camp stove. "Firefly" might then be your name for the next 2,000 miles. But it's not entirely necessary to wait for a name.

Some hikers have trail names or nick-names which they have already, and which they carry with them to the trail, or they may choose their own names for some personal reason or as a right of passage. One person I heard of whose name was John fell into a privy one late night. He chose his own name of "Crapper John."

Unless something changes, my chosen trail name will be "Muddy Shoes." This name comes from one of my hobbies called "Geocaching." Geocaching involves hunting hidden 'treasures' using a handheld GPS. You have a description of where the treasure is, what kind of treasure it is and the coordinates which you program into your GPS and then hunt down. When you find this treasure which may be a tupperware box or other container, you take one item from within the container and leave another, signing the logbook inside as part of the process. Then you visit the website, www.geocaching.com and log your finds. It's a fantastic hobby which I highly recommend.

http://www.geocaching.com

Oh...ok, almost forgot...Muddy Shoes.

Well, when hunting geocaches, I always seem to take the hardest route through the woods and swamplands to get to the cache container. While most people would follow a clear path, I somehow always get off track and end up knee deep in mud, soaking my shoes, socks and making a general mess of things - Hence the name, Muddy Shoes.

But on the trail, all kinds of things can happen and my name may change, either by choice or because someone who cared enough to call me something even more embarrassing than Muddy Shoes, wanted me to have a different name.

But for now.. I am Muddy Shoes... intrepid explorer, pathfinder and mountain man.

Ron

100,000 Served

As of today, my site has had over 100,000 page hits, with half of those coming in over the past couple weeks. Thank you all for getting the word out. And to the person who is kind enough to offer me a great price on v1@gra and genuine Rolux watches, each and every day...thanks, but no thanks!

For all those ADHD folks.

About five years ago, while in the pit of my online gaming addiction, playing 6-8 hours a day, I finally broke down and realized it was time to get my act together. I was in the worst shape of my life, physically and mentally. I had spent the last 3 years of my life hiding from all the responsibilities I could hide from and I let my work go to hell and things seemed to be crumbling around me. Aside from regular counseling, I decided to finally get evaluated for ADHD, something I've always felt I've had after a lifetime of unfinished projects, disorganization and lack of focus and purpose.

I searched for a counselor here in Orlando that was familiar with adult ADHD, since ADHD is much more difficult to diagnose in adults. It seems as we get older, we learn to compensate for many of the symptoms associated with ADHD, or we learn to hide them or combine them with other problems. So it had to be someone who was familiar with adult ADHD, and after looking around, I found him. John McDonald, as it turns out, is ADHD himself, so the old adage of 'it takes one to know one' seemed appropriate.

We discussed my life at length, my unfinished projects, my piles of stuff everywhere around my house, my extreme enthusiasm with starting a new project and the eventual lack of interest in it which would eventually ensue adding yet another line item to my list of 'things I'll never finish'. We talked about my lack of ability to focus on things which didn't interest me, my difficulties in school, not with understanding the material, but with trying to stay focused on it. We talked about those occasional days where I have so much stuff to do that I would just sit down in my house, exhausted after contemplating where to start and just feeling completely overwhelmed to the point where I would just shut down for a bit. And we talked about weird things like me seeing a piece of paper on the ground knowing I need to pick it up but just continuing to walk over it for a week. Strange stuff.

By the time we were done talking, he and I could both relate to probably 95% of these things which we had in common, and which, apparently, most adults with ADHD have in common. This epiphany helped me understand many of the shortfalls in my life and almost immediately, years worth of guilt and lack of self-worth and feeling bad about job performance reviews and elementary school teachers notes that said, "Ron is very smart, he just has trouble paying attention and likes to be the class clown" suddenly came into perspective. But where did I go from here?

Having grown up from a long line of pharmacists, medicines in the house were not uncommon. It's just that I never wanted to be dependent on them. I saw how my mother and father in their later years, and how many older folks, have a literal rainbow of pills they take for this or that. Taking meds persistently for a condition was a sign of a chronic sickness or disease. And the thought of having to take meds for my ADHD was not something I was looking forward to. But remember by this time, my life was already in chaos from three years of 'chronic' online gaming. I had to make a change, so I succumbed and tried the meds.

The first day I took my Adderall, I felt focused. I mean really focused. I'm not talking 'hyperfocused' or anything, just focused to the point where I could sit down and actually work on something boring like finances and finish what I was doing without interruption. Typically, someone with ADHD will sit down to do or read something boring and get distracted 18 different ways as the brain flitters from this thought or that and before the person knows it, he's doing something completely different than what he was supposed to be doing. Then, this happens over and over again until the unfinished task is buried among other unfinished tasks.

As you might imagine, a lifetime of this is devastating to one's self esteem; another hallmark of adult ADHD- a lowered self esteem after many years of being haunted by so many unfinished accomplishments.

So there I was, finally seeing what it was like to be 'normal.' To make a list of things to do and actually do them. To see a piece of paper on the ground and pick it up. To open my mail and deal with the contents of it immediately instead of piling it up was something foreign to me, but I liked this new resolve. Adderall, while being a legal methamphetamine, helps a person with ADHD be, well… normal. Someone who doesn't have ADHD and who takes a stimulant like this, will usually be wired. That's one of the ways that a psychiatrist evaluates the effects on someone who is prescribed Adderall or other stimulants. At least that's what I was told by my psychiatrist.

It was shortly after I started taking this medicine that I really looked at all the unfinished things in my life. There was a huge list. I looked at all the symptoms typically associated with adult ADHD, and I fit the bill, not the way a hypochondriac believes he is sick when he's not, but especially with the strange things that ADHD people do and don't do, and with the associations that ADHD people make with their environment. I was devastated, but I was relieved and now to a degree, unburdened.

"So again, where do I go from here," I thought?

That was when I picked the most difficult challenge I could possibly think of. What better way to exonerate myself of the guilt associated with a lifetime of unrealized achievements and tasks undone than to pick something so uncharacteristic of me and amazing, beyond anything I could ever expect of myself? What one thing could I do that would challenge my resolve more than anything I have ever done and really make up for all those difficult things I never finished in my life?

It was around the end of July, 2002 - I had just returned from a trip to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park where I just discovered the Appalachian Trail with my "Calendar a Day" page saying,

"To Learn to See, To Learn to Hear, You Must Do This: Go Into the Wilderness Alone."

It was clear - For me personally, the Pinnacle of achievements after a lifetime of unfulfilled dreams would be to do something that required a tremendous amount of focus and commitment beyond anything I've ever done.

And it was then that I decided that I would hike the Appalachian Trail.

I could have used my diagnosis of ADHD as an excuse, but instead it's helped me understand a lot about myself, and how I perceive the world. Because indeed, people with ADHD see the world differently and with much more apprehension, than people who aren't ADHD. We will often fear new projects, not because of the projects themselves, but because we have conditioned ourselves to the idea that we might not finish them. After all, many of us have long track records of not finishing things.

While not everyone with ADHD sees the world this way, many do. In fact, ADHD can also manifest as ‘hyper-focusing’ where people can be so focused that they have trouble shifting their focus to other things and are not easily affected by stimuli that might cause a normal person to hear a knock at the door or have something catch his eye from the side. Some folks like this actually achieve many great and wonderful things in their lives because of this ability to focus. But intangible things like relationships might suffer as a side effect.

In 5 days I begin my walk, not just for myself or for the Russell Home for Atypical Children. I am also walking for all those other folks with ADHD and who have a lifetime of unfulfilled dreams, to show them that it is possible to break from this cycle and achieve greatness, when often, we doubted it was ever within us. It is within us, all of us, no matter what our handicap or challenge. We just have to start by believing and finding that one person to inspire us to become more than we ever thought possible. I found this quality in people in history that have inspired me and in other hikers who finished the 2,100+ mile Appalachian Trail hike who by all rights, never should have.

Perhaps, if I am lucky, I may even inspire someone else who will go on to achieve greatness in something. Not to sound too cliché, but if I can do that, then that will be even more significant to me than finishing this hike.

To achieve greatness is one thing. But to inspire others to achieve greatness is really the miracle, in my eyes. After all, all I’m doing is going for a walk in the woods.

Ron

After the first month - it's all mental.

In just a few days, the wife and I will be boarding a plane for Atlanta where, when I land, I'll be getting a ride from my brother to Amicalola Falls State Park where my journey begins. The flight lasts about 90 minutes and covers about 600 miles as the crow flies. Now think about that a minute...

In just 90 minutes, I'll cover a distance that will take me over two months to walk, that's over 60 days of trudging with a full pack, through rain, cold weather, sloshy mud and baking sun, alternating on this day and that just to keep me on my toes. That's two months of my short time on this earth walking in the woods, just to get from one point to another. And now, consider that I will be doing this three times, back to back for a total of six months and 2,100 miles.

It's no wonder why most normal people think that long distance hikers are nuts.

To even consider attempting something like this, it really takes a rewiring of your brain. On a daily basis, few of us walk anywhere, really, other than when we make an occasional conscious effort at the mall to park farther away from the entrance for a few extra steps of exercise. Need some milk from the local convenience store? Well, pop in the car and drive down a quarter mile and pick one up. Time for that afternoon gym workout? Well just pop into the car and drive that mile to get there. After all, it's all about saving time, right?

Our brains are programmed to try and acclimate to the daily challenges we face and that includes trying to find ways to make our routines less stressful and more efficient. The very idea of taking something we already do efficiently and making it much less so seems almost foreign and we have to actually stop and consider why we should. For example, 'hoofing' it to work instead of driving one day a week, or taking time to actually watch and read the movie credits at the theater when a show is over.

But doing so almost always provides a benefit of some kind. That extra day of walking to work helps energize you, and loosens up those joints and muscles. The credits you hang out and watch after the movie is over, just might reveal some extra video snippets or some interesting facts about the actors or director. It's those extra unseen benefits that usually make the extra 'wait' all that worthwhile. And now consider, one last time, the extra benefits of taking six months to walk someplace that might take you 5 hours to fly to.

In six months time, I'll see, hear, feel and experience more things in nature than most people probably experience in a lifetime. I'll have a renewed sense of priorities and I'll be in the best health of my life. I'll become part of a loose family of people who have all shared in this common experience for better at times and worse at times. And, when all is said and done, I'll have completed something that only the tiniest fraction of our population has ever dared to have done and completed.

But it all starts with slowing down.

In my head now, I know what kind of mileage lies ahead of me. I know based upon my current fitness level about how difficult this will be, maybe. I know about how many miles I will average at the beginning and how many, once I'm in better shape. I know how many miles I have to average to finish by my tentative summit date of September 15. But in actuality, I am pretty sure I have no clue how far 2,174.9 miles REALLY is. That realization will become more clear with each subsequent step of the estimated 5 million steps I have to take throughout my journey.

The hardest part of this journey is the mental aspect, as seasoned hiker after seasoned hiker has said. The first month and a half it's both, physical conditioning and mental. But the body eventually acclimates to the weight, to the punishing of the feet and the knees and the hips, if none of those are damaged at the beginning. Indeed, many people leave the trail at the beginning because they try to do too much, too soon, too quickly. But after six weeks, it's about what's inside your head that counts. So the goal is slow and steady.

It will be punishing for me at the beginning - I've resigned to that fact. But it's the more insidious mental challenges that I'll face which will keep me on my toes and which will make me or break me. But so far, my life has not been short of mental challenges, to be sure. I've overcome many challenges that others might not have, and in many ways, discomfort has been a way of life at various times. Personally, I'll put my money on me finishing, despite the odds. People don't call me 'mental' for no reason. :)

Ron

Inbox - 40 messages

My e-mail inbox has just 40 messages in it. I haven't had that few since I first got Internet access back in 1991. I have spent the last 2 months removing myself and unsubscribing from as many e-mail subscriptions as possible. It's amazing how much crap we get and how inundated we are with advertising and people wanting us to vote this way or that, or call this congressman or that one or buy this piece of junk or that.

The first month on this hike is going to be an interesting period of Detox as I purge the urges to stay 'connected' from my brain and body. But I suspect it will happen pretty quickly. I've never been too fond of the telephone and we've not had cable TV in many months. The Internet on the other hand, may take a little longer.

I'm looking forward to not being connected, actually. Oh, I'll still check in and update my page during the next six months, but being able to do it only occasionally will hopefully allow me to go back to a simpler time when my journeys did not have to consider whether or not there is a place to plug in my various chargers.

I made a comment to a friend recently who was very much plugged into her Personal Data Assistant (PDA) that those devices are contributing to the breakdown of civility and the art of personal communications. She scoffed at the idea the very same way that addicts deny that they have a problem with their particular drug of choice.

She went on to 'explain' how her cell phone keeps her in contact with her family and clients, and how her Bluetooth headset allows her to do several things at once, and as she spoke, my mind slowly drifted off to a particular part of the Smoky Mountains where you can round a bend a find yourself standing literally, on top of the world, surrounded by the crisp 'Christmasy' scent of pine and where the white billowy wisps of the surrounding clouds dance just below the drop off where you are standing. The afternoon sunlight reflects like little starlets off of the droplets of morning dew which still cling to some of the plants. And just above you in the bright blue sky, a small group of Ravens rides the thermals which intersperse with chilled pockets of air keeping them aloft. Their squawks serve either to warn me that I should not be in the skies where they dance and play, or they are instead welcoming me for having broken free of my sea-level existence. In either case, they are beautiful to behold, and I thank God for having brought me there.

As I snapped back to the present, my friend made one last plea about how she gets so much more done now because she can always have her schedule accessible no matter where she is, and I just nodded as if I agreed with her. Perhaps she is right and her PDA has really made a difference in her life. Personally, I would rather go with the clouds and pretend I was up there soaring majestically with the Ravens.

Ron

On the mend...

Still not 100% yet, but now scheduled to leave Orlando on Wednesday the 29th and starting my hike on Friday the 31st. It's been two weeks since I've worn a pack so I'll try to get in some pack-time between now and when I leave. Just have to remember to take it easy and slow the first week since that is the critical time.

Morale still high, anticipation still high and positive. I have lots of money to raise for the good folks at the Russell Home.

To those of you who have donated time, money or other items, thank you so much for your support!

Ron

Ok world travelers - Where was this pic taken?

I found this picture on a website somewhere - Was curious if I could "triangulate" its location from the signs. Took me a bit, but I'm a bit slow in general. :)

101 Fever - Again...

The irony...

The week before last, a tornado of strep throat swept through the Russell Home and everyone was sick. One of the older children was hospitalized and a couple others were moved off site temporarily while the illnesses ran their course. With my usual good timing, I visited the home and children at just the right time to catch what they had.

I went to the doctor for a dose of antibiotics and things seemed to be ok after a few days. But then a couple days ago, started to get this ringing in my ears again, quite strange in fact, and yesterday checked my temperature to find that my fever was back.

So, I'm back on my antibiotics, trying to take it easy for the next couple days, hoping that I can contain and beat down this illness before I leave. But on the other hand, the last thing I want to do is to start a strenuous hike like this in less than favorable weather conditions and then get pneumonia or something...especially without any health insurance.

So, the next several days I'm going to take it really easy and play it by ear. If I have to push my start date back one more week I'll do so. Better to start a week later healthy than start earlier and then really get sick.

So for now, I'll play it by ear and see how I feel within the next several days.

My Dad...

I'm really missing my dad this morning. He died 5 years ago from emphysema.

It was really only the last 10 years before he passed that we started to get close - You see the males in our family are quite independent and not overtly expressive with our emotions. It wasn't until I was about 30 that I started telling him that I loved him often, and it wasn't until I was about 35 that he started telling me using the words. I never doubted his love for me, or my brother and sister and mom. It's just that when we told him, he would respond with "you too" and a smile. We knew what it meant. But there's something about the words...even from a father.

As a kid, and even today, I'm somewhat rebellious. Heck, it takes someone independent and rebellious to survive in the woods for six months, but even in my jobs, I would sometimes have a problem with authority and get in trouble for speaking my mind. More than once I was told by a boss, "Ron, it's not what you say.. it's HOW you say it." So when I finally grew up and started realizing that my parents weren't saying things to me to nag me, I really came to appreciate their wisdom.

Those of you who know me, know that I dance to the beat of a different drummer. As a result, my worldview on some things might seem a bit strange to some people. But lately, some of life's challenges have been throwing me for a loop. It's times like this that I really, really miss my dad.

When my dad died, I wrote the eulogy for his funeral. Here is what I wrote:

It was raining outside my window that morning, when our father
passed away. While an inconvenience to many, the sign of rain in our
family has always been a sign of hope and good luck. This rain in
fact, was our father’s way of reassuring us that his passing was both a
safe one...and a joyous one. The limits imposed on him by his frail
and weak body were finally gone. It was later that morning that I
started thinking of the words that would soon make up this eulogy.

It was actually quite easy to write about my dad... much easier than it
was for him to teach Ellen and I algebra, or how to balance a
checkbook. To this day, I don’t know how one man could have been
so patient with his children...taking each crazy thing we kids did in
stride. Unfortunately, since I was the third child, he knew all the
tricks of the trade by then from Paul and Ellen and needless to say I
didn’t get away with too much. It was also his patience that instilled
the tremendous love of animals into my brother Paul. And as a wise
man, he knew to simply nod when mom read large sections of the
newspaper to him...again.

It was hard in recent years to watch my father struggle with his
illnesses. Surely a man so kind and honorable is not deserving of the
pains he faced. Yet I have since learned that this was in fact another
lesson of his to us of the importance of friends and family. Knowing
dad, however, he is both happy that we all have joined him here
today out of love and honor, but also sad in that he probably feels
that he inconvenienced us. That’s just the way he was.

If you were to ask a weatherman what causes the rains, he would
surely speak to you of clouds, temperatures and atmospheric
conditions. But I now know that every time it rains, it’s actually a sign
from someone who has passed on telling his family that he is safe
and that he loves them.

===============================

Dad, if you are reading this by chance... I just wanted you to know that I love you and really, miss you.

Ron

All Systems Go...

At present, weather forecast for day 1 is Low of 37, high of 50 and sunny - Perfect!

My brain is scattered, but morale is high. Worried about my feet/boots, but I'll play it by ear. Finalizing my pack contents, meals, mail drop locations and financial arrangements.

At this point, I've bid farewell to my clients so the next 5 days before I leave will be the final days for preparation.

I have to admit, the last couple days I've been a bit scared, while still confident, if that makes any sense. It's not so much being scared for the journey ahead as it is maybe just a realization that this trip I've been planning on for 4 years is finally here. All up until this time I've been able to go to sleep knowing that I will wake up the next morning in my bed and then that day I would go to be knowing I would wake up in the same place the day after.

As a Cancer, astrologically, this trip is everything I should loathe and fear. Cancers, like Hobbits, are content when things in their life are fairly static and comfortable, when you can do something with expected results or not do anything at all. When something or someone comes around to shake up your world view or basically move you out of your protective environment, it becomes very uncomfortable, very quickly. That's where I am now.

I could have been very detailed about my planning, figuring out where I will be approximately when. I could have prepared numerous resupply boxes with needed supplies, medicines, etc. I could have researched every foot of the trail and nearby amenities so that when I near a trail head or trail town, I'd know exactly what to expect. I could have purchased a small GPS and programmed it with every possible place I will see along my way.

But I've not done that...for better or worse.

I am fairly comfortable with my first 300 miles or so of the trail knowing what towns await, but beyond that, I will be reading maps and doing my planning as I go. I know approximately what major points of interest I want to see, but am leaving the rest for chance. The only definites so far are about 4 stops along the way to see people or attend events, and I know I have to summit Kathadin in Maine by October 15. The rest is all tentative.

I am a fairly spiritual person and have a good amount of faith that I will be guided along on my journey and that things will work out. For that reason, I don't have any fears about the vast majority of things that could happen, and I look at each opportunity as a learning experience, be it good or bad. Hopefully though, I will have predominantly good experiences, because bad experiences suck.

I do have a long list already of things that I would have or should have done differently. Perhaps they will be included in some sort of memoir when I return about my journey. But for now, no expectations and no regrets.

I have a long journey ahead, and while I am a bit fearful about the initial stage of my trip, I trust that things will work themselves out.

After all... I will be a Mountain Man soon enough.

Ron

The Waiting...

Tom Petty was right - The waiting is the hardest part.

Each day I'm getting more and more anxious. I'm still recovering from last week's cold but I feel pretty good this morning.

On one hand I'm worried about the ton of stuff I still need to do, wondering how I'm going to get it all done over the next week. On the other, I just want to chuck it all into a big furnace and make it all go away. But this is what I did when I spent 3 years gaming for 6-8 hours a day...I just hid from my problems and that obviously didn't work.

My biggest fear right now is about my boots and custom made inserts which my feet are still adjusting to. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have stuck to my guns and gone with a more lightweight trail runner type shoe. Granted the ones I ended up with fit well, but they are heavier than I'm used to.

Bah. I'm not gonna worry about it too much - I need to remember to go slow and steady. It's not a race and I need to hike my own hike. Adapting is one of my strengths as it is with most adults with ADHD.

There's no turning back now, but then again, I honestly have never wanted to. I just hope it stays that way.

Ron

Trail Magic

There is well-known phenomenon among long distance hikers known as "Trail Magic." Trail magic is what happens at unexpected moments when a hiker most needs some motivation or sign of hope and inspiration to go on. Its almost as if it's a spiritual sign 'from above' to help keep us motivated and 'on the path' as it were.

Trail angels are the good folk that make it all happen and who seemingly appear out of nowhere. They may single-handedly appear on the trail with a pan of brownies for weary hikers, or show up en-masse with refreshments, home-cooked meals or other equally as welcomed offerings for the trail-trodden. They may also provide rides to or from the trail, a place to stay, laundry services or any of countless other services. They are ex-hikers, current hikers, non-hikers and everyone in between. They may show up on the trail, after the trail, or in the case of a local Central Florida News 13 reporter covering my story, before one even begins the trail.

Scott Fais has been covering the Russell Home for some time, although I must confess, I have never seen him before. It seems that Bright House Networks, the company that owns Central Florida News 13, does not offer the local news channel to basic cable subscribers here in Orlando for some reason. But I do get local Chicago news which is
good, because...well, ok, so it's not so good, but I digress.

Without brownies, without occasional soft drinks, or a cheerful smile, or occasional rides to and from town while on the trail, without the news coverage to help increase exposure to one's hike for charity and without the occasional offerings of support in whatever form they take, the lives of a hiker would be much less enjoyable.

I received this email this morning from a Trail Angel in Duncannon, Pennsylvania who came upon Scott Fais' news story by chance:

Hi Ron & Family,

I read about your approaching hike through my google alert for the Appalachian trail. I am a trail angel living in Duncannon,PA. I hope I am not working and get to meet you when you hike into Duncannon. If there is anything I can do for you and/or the hikers that arrive in Duncannon at the same time as you, I will be more than glad to help if I can. If I am lucky you will arrive on a Sunday and I can share my Sunday hiker feed with you.

Good luck with your hike. Enjoy.
See you at trail days, if you are there.

Mary

How amazing is that?

But that is the kind of Trail Magic that abounds on the trail, and which I will look forward to on those cold, rainy, achy days, when the last thing I feel like doing is putting on my wet stinky socks, my mud-soaked boots, my wet and dirty clothes and trod on a mud-soaked path for 13 miles in the middle of nowhere.

Thank you, Trail Angels - You really are angels...

Ron

Leave No Trace ...

Among outdoorsmen, which I now proudly consider myself, there is a repeated mantra known as "Leave No Trace." Leave No Trace is essentially a formalized list of instructions on how to do outdoor things without trashing your environment. The fact that there exists a "Leave No Trace" organization and countless books and teaching programs designed to advanced this philosophy, goes to show just how disconnected we are as a people with our environment.

In generations past, our survival depended upon the health of the environment and the creatures that lived in it. Today, we just synthesize most of what we need and simply take the rest from other people, so preserving the environment is not a priority for many of us. And sadly, this is evidenced by the sheer amount of trash located out in the wilderness where you least wish to see it. Now I'm not just talking a beer can or two thrown into the bushes. I'm talking white trash people who back their trailers up into the woods and unload old washers and dryers, sleeper sofas, urine-stained matresses and every other piece of garbage they've been storing on their property over the past six months.

"Leave No Trace" is an admirable philosophy and should carry over into all areas of our lives. Ever go into a big-box "Mart" retailer on the weekends? It's almost as if the goal for each person was to take one item, preferably two items, from each department, and hide it in another, completely unrelated department. Five pounds of ground beef gets deposited in the women's underwear department, 24-pack of Coke is left in the auto parts aisle, and the 2-pack of mullet hair-styling brushes is left in the meat department...in the ground beef section, just to provide some continuity.

It's sad, really, how little we care.

Since I started preparing for my journey, I have come across the "Leave No Trace" philosophy countless times and it's taught in many outdoor camping and skills training classes. It's mostly common sense, but it's also about learning how one small act or inaction can cause a chain of problems resulting in something much worse happening.

A plastic bottle cap left on the ground, for example, can be eaten by a bird which chokes to death on it. The dead bird begins to decay which can generate a cesspool of bacteria which can be poison to other animals that happen upon it, tainting water supplies leading to other sick and dying animals, etc. Nature eventually takes care of itself, but the process is often not pretty, sweet-smelling or particularly pleasing to the eye when a stinking, fetid corpse of an egret blocks your path while it squirms with a slimy pool of ants and shiny maggots.

So use your common sense, and strive to leave your environment more pristine than when you found it. And as the Leave No Trace philosophy dictates: Take lots of memories, leave only footprints. In actuality though, some would say that even footprints should be left to a minimum.

For more information, check out the official "Leave No Trace" website at http://www.lnt.org

Even their short website URL is helping cut down impact on the environment. :)

Ron

Aracelis...

I would move mountains for my wife if I could. But instead, I'll do the next best thing. Walk through them for a while.

The Loathing...

It's not that I don't like people, you see. It's not that I'm inherently anti-social or anything. With the right group of people or person, I'm quite interesting to get to know. It's just that I don't do well with the standard pleasantries and social graces expected of individuals who get together and who don't know each other. I loathe the standard question of "what do you do" when I am inextricably placed with another individual who is equally as uncomfortable in being there. Rather, I prefer the question, "what kind of person are you?" to me that just opens up much more opportunities to share a meaningful conversation.

Often when meeting new people, I will ask a question or two meant to shock them or at least get them out of their protective stance. It's not to be cruel, exactly, but instead to watch and study their reactions, because the reactions tell you more about them than a boring hour-long conversation about what they do for a living. Some of the following are favorite conversation starters for me:


- Have you ever shoplifted anything?
- If you could choose your method of death, what would it be?
- Can God make a boulder so big that even he can't lift it?
- If you could speak to anyone living or dead, who would it be and why?

They aren't really anything spectacular, but they do quickly evoke some thought from the person you are posing them to, and let you know right away whether the individual is worth spending any time with.

They say that people who are able to spend lots of time by themselves tend to be those who do best on the trail. This is because of the huge amount of time one spends solo while walking, especially after the halfway point when most of those attempting the entire hike have fallen by the wayside.

I wonder how six months of relative solitude will affect my social outlook on life. Will I be more social or even less so? Will I grow to like and appreciate people or will I come to fear and loathe them. Will I adapt faster to new situations and individuals or will I cower and retreat from them?

I guess we'll see, won't we?

Preempted...

Tonight my TV debut was preempted by water that may have been found on one of Saturn's Moons.

Now don't get me wrong, Saturn is cool with those big rings and all. My first pajamas had planet and space ship designs on them. I couldn't have discerned a lunar module from a crawler at that age, but I knew what Saturn was, and Saturn was cool.

But water on one of Saturn's moons? Is that cool? Apparently to one of the scientists mapping out that section of the solar system it is:

"I'm quite excited. Since my interest is in icy satellites, this is a dream that has been a long time in coming," says VIMS scientist, Robert Brown.

And so it is apparently, to the local news which aired the Saturn segment during my spot. So for now, my story is set to air on Sunday at 3:55PM on local Channel 13.

That is of course, unless there is something more compelling to report, like a probe getting stuck on Uranus.

Colds... yucko

Well I found out where my cold came from. Seems that everyone at the Russell Home is sick this week also, and one of the residents, Marilyn, is in the hospital. As you might imagine for children and adults with special medical needs, this is a lot worse for them.

Sadly, this also means that they will not be able to see me off on the first day of my hike. They were originally planning to take their van with some of the children up to Amicalola Falls State Park to meet me that Wednesday morning.

Some of the kids have very severe medical conditions without the colds.

Please keep them in your prayers.

Ron

Fatal Black Bear Attacks

One of the questions I'm often asked is if I am afraid of getting eaten by a bear. Well, it's not the 'eating' part I would be afraid of, because by the time I was actually being consumed, I would probably be far past caring. But still, I found a website that had some statistics on fatal black bear attacks over the past 25 years. Fortunately, the really scary bears, grizzlies, don't range east of the Mississippi.

So for you good folk concerned about fatal bear attacks...well, here you go!

#1 Manitoba - 1982,
#2 Tennessee - May 2000, Female hiker attacked, killed and partially consumed by a female, 112 pound bear and her 40 pound yearling, in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
#3 Quebec - July 2000, bear attacked and killed Mary-Beth Miller, 24, a biathlete while on training run.
#4 Northwest Territories - June 2001, Young male attacked and killed at rural campsite
#5 New Mexico - August 2001, bear breaks into house and is confronted by elderly owner who dies in ensuing attack.
#6 Fallsburg, New York - August 2002, bear grabs 5 month old infant and stroller from porch resulting in death of child.
#7 Quebec - September 2002, A man was attacked and killed in his campsite in the Gaspé region of Northern Quebec.
#8 British Columbia - September 2002, Man attacked and killed at a remote oil rigging site in northeastern B.C.
#9 Ontario - April 17 2003, forestry worker stalked, killed and partially consumed by large, male black bear. No rabies or other illness detected during necropsy.
#10 Northwest Territories - 2005, 71-year-old Merlyn Carter was found dead behind the main cabin of his sport-fishing camp about 300 kilometres northeast of Fort Smith. Family members shot and killed the black bear responsible.
#11 Manitoba - August 26, 2005, A 69-year-old man was fatally mauled by a black bear while out picking plums north of Winnipeg
#12 Ontario - Jacqueline Perry, 30, died in a predatory attack in Missinaibi Lake Provincial Park. Here husband was seriously injured trying to protect her and then her body.

Cold...

17 days to go - This morning, tickle at the back of my throat, heavy eyes, headache, stuffy head. I don't need this, particularly not now. I have too much to do before I go, work to finish for my clients, preparations to do around the house, final planning of mail drops and transportation needs, etc.

Trying to get rest, megadose vitamin C, cold meds.

I don't need this right now...

*sigh*

3 Hours Sleep

I had only 3 hours of sleep last night. I'm tired and cranky.

The pressure to just 'get on with it already' grows with each passing day. Much of what I hoped to have accomplished by the time I leave won't be done, so I just have to accept it and expect those wonderful tasks to await my return in September.

I need a nap.

Drive

What drives us?

What makes a fairly average person devoid of any particular outstanding character, wake up one morning and decide to achieve greatness? And how does another, who seemingly flourishes with potential, always stop short of his goals? Do people inherently have the ability to be one way or the other, or are they conditioned by society and their life experiences?

We all know of folks who lived a life full of insurmountable challenges and who, against all odds, rose to the top to achieve things we never expected of them. And we also know others, who we thought had such potential and drive that we knew someday they would achieve their own level of greatness. But they never did.

How can we tap into that unlimited potential and achieve greatness ourselves? Or, if we have chosen a life of obscurity and medocrity instead, how can we reverse the trend, or is it even possible for some folks?

Ron