Tomorrow is travel day and today is my last day at work for a month. I’ll try to post a picture later today with my hair cut; clean and trimmed; ready to hit the trail. It might be interesting to compare with what I look like after a month on the trail!

Here’s the first 25+ miles of the trail I’ll be doing this week. Three big landmarks are here: Tinker Cliffs, McAfee’s Knob and the Dragon’s Tooth. I start in Daleville, after spending the night at the Super 8. Lambert’s Meadow Shelter is 9 miles; Campbell Shelter is another 6 miles. There are camping restrictions on the trail here, so I’ll have to decide whether to make day #1 an easy day or a hard one. If the weather cooperates, I’ll have an early dinner at Lambert’s Meadow and then do a “second” hike in the evening on to Campbell Shelter. That will likely end in a night hike!

The “Imaginary Trail” is a short-cut that evidently is very hard to find. Besides, if I were to take that route, I would miss Tinker Cliffs as the sun goes down in the west.

Day two will be on to 4 Pines Hostel (either 16 or 10 miles). I have a supply box waiting for me there. The Home Place, which is an all you can eat family style restaurant will be where I go for dinner. [Eat more chikn…]

 “Carry as little as possible, but choose that little with care.” – Earl Shaffer

 “Fall down seven times and stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb

Today, everything seemed to come together. My new hammock finally arrived and to be honest, it’s awesome. Warbonnet has made their light weight double layer hammock with 40D nylon on the outside and a soft comfortable 15D nylon on the inside. It is the lightest most comfortable hammock I’ve seen. I put all my lines and hardware on it today and it’s ready to go. I also am being reimbursed for shipping from USPS and WB because of the shipping delays!

I checked the moon phases and rise/set times today for the next month. There’ll be a full moon mid-hike and for the first half of my hike the moon sets late in the evening. That will make for nice night hiking if that’s in the stars. 😉

Tomorrow is packing day and then it’s off to the AT for my 6th section hike.

“The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.” ― Tahereh Mafi

It’s only 3 days away. Yee ha! The trail is calling.

Equipment is all laid out and I’ve continued to trim down my base weight. Supplies are mailed off and I’ll be heading east in a few days.

The hammock saga continues… The new one from Warbonnet still hasn’t arrived. Even though it was sent “Overnight” Priority Express Mail on Friday, it still hasn’t arrived two days later; probably will arrive tomorrow, with only one day to spare. I did request a refund from the USPS for the shipping and was granted a refund. Interestingly enough, Warbonnet charged my $47 for shipping and the refund was $28 from USPS. Just saying…

Anyway, the trail is calling…

If you go out on the Appalachian Trail, you have to bring so much more equipment – a tent, sleeping bag – but if you go hiking in England, or Europe, generally, towns and villages are near enough together at the end of the day you can always go to a nice little inn and have a hot bath and something to drink. – Bill Bryson

The hammock saga continues. It looks like the repairs won’t be done in time for me to start next Wednesday, so I ordered a new hammock today. The old one will then serve as a spare. I’ll let you know when the new one arrives. It’s supposed to be shipped later today overnight via USPS, although I have little faith that the postal service will get it to me overnight.

The rain is continuing here in St Louis and should be heading east in a few days. Forecast for the trail looks like highs in the upper 70’s, lows about 60 and evening showers every day. 😉

“The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’ll be keeping track of my mileage while hiking using the format below. So far, I’ve covered about 1/3 of the trail, approximately 715 miles total. (Distances are approximate due to changing mileages over the past few years.) I’ll be picking up southbound from Daleville, VA. The goal for the section is to finish Virginia; about 260 additional miles.

• Completed Sections: 715 miles
  • Daleville, VA to Port Clinton, PA: 490 miles
  • Hanover, NH to Great Barrington, MA: 225 miles

AT Thru-Hike Stats (example post)
Section Day #1 (5/9/19)
Start – Daleville, VA Rte 220 (729.7)
End – Lamberts Meadow Shelter (720.3)
Today’s mileage: 9.4
Total section miles: 9.4
Total miles on AT: 725.1
Section avg daily miles: 9.4

“We don’t stop hiking because we grow old –
We grow old because we stop hiking.”
– Finis Mitchel