hiking

The current plan is to have February 27th be my last day at work. I'll then spend a few days getting my gear together and then attend attend DrupalCon in Washington D.C. On the 9th or 10th I'll make my way down to Pilot Mountain N.C. to meet up with my father and together do a little shakedown and last minute prep of our gear.

Then on March 15th, 2009, I'll be on Springer Mountain, GA to start at the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. The goal is to walk approximately 2175 miles to Katahdin mountain in Maine. Roughly 85% of the people who start with this intention don't make it to the other end in the same hiking season.

I've got hiking on the brain. I have an excel spreadsheet that keeps me up at night with the packing list, complete with the weight in hundredths of an ounce of every item I plan on carrying 2175 miles. Currently, with 5 days of food and 2 quarts of water my pack will weigh in at 23.56lbs. Yes, that is absurdly low and I expect it to change as I continue to prepare.

I have another sheet in that same document that lists dozens of likely trail foods, their caloric values, and amount of carbs, protein, and fat included. The goal is to cram between 4000-5000 calories per day into 2 pounds of food that is remotely tasty.

I now own a titanium spork. .5 ounces.

I am ridiculously obsessed. And also detached. I know me, and I know that once I hit that trailhead all bets are off, I'll probably live on raisins and chocolate, but that does not mean that the planning is for naught. This is a big undertaking and if I can put some structure to it before starting the deviation will at least be from a good starting point.

I think the most entertaining aspect of all this has been me testing camp food in my kitchen. It is a miracle I haven't burned the place down yet. My little alcohol burner (1 oz), cooking rice and chorizo. The dehydrator has been running 24/7 stockpiling veggies. And Zip Loc has a neat new line of vacuum bags that beat the pants off of a vacuum sealer.

So, this is all by the way of saying, if you haven't heard from me, if I've been off the radar, if you come across me with a blank distant look on my face, it's likely that I am running weight-shaving scenarios through my head to get rid of half an ounce somewhere.

1 mile = 5280 feet. = 63,360 inches
1 stride = 28 inches
63,360/28 = 2,262.63 strides in a mile
2,262.63*2,175miles = 4,921,220.25 strides in the AT.

4,921,220.25 stries x 1oz. = 4921.220.25 ounces
1 lb = 16 oz.
4,921,220.25/16 = 307,576.07 lbs.
307,576.07/2000 = 153.79 tons carried for every extra ounce taken on the AT.

153 tons. 1 oz. matters.

I'll write the rest of this up later, but while it was fresh on my mind. I went hiking this weekend, and because I missed the train that goes to "Applachian Trail Station" I looked up the closest next station and found it to be only 1.9 miles away so I got a ticket to there and hiked back. However, when I got to the train station... there was no there, there. Nada. I back tracked, I forward tracked, I circled around. I was carrying ~40lbs of crap on my back, and 2 hours of this bumping around Rt.22 was getting old. And while I can be proud in this case I was ready and willing to ask directions, but this was the side of a highway.

Finally caught someone in their front yard and they set me straight, I was off by more than a mile. Or rather, google AND the MTA are both off by more than a mile. They correlate, reality doesn't.

Here is a map from the "Appalachian Trail Station" to "The real Appalachian Trail Station" - sattelite view shows you the pavillion that is the station.

More later - with pictures!

View Larger Map

Came back to the city from Poughkeepsie today. Was up that way for John and Noreen's wedding yesterday. Interesting trip. I'm very happy and hopeful for the new hapy couple, but the trip did a lot to reinforce my own disinclination towards the institution of mairrage.

The ceremony was Roman Catholic (I think). I'm no expert on anything religion outside of books, but I was surprised to find that my dislike of organized religion has done nothing but grow in my time away from it. There were more than a few parts where a response was expected from the audience?/gathered/congregation?. Besides not knowing the proper response, I also just didn't feel right responding to something I didn't associate with. When it comes down to it, the hapy pair seemed to like the ceremony, and that is really what matters.

The reception was at a nice country club up there. Our table the infamous "table 8" - were, of course, the troublemakers. We started by ordering two bottles of wine to the table and when the waiter (ROBERT!) said he wasn't allowed to do that, we tipped him $20 and got our wine. Before the night was over, Robert(!) had made at least $150 an refused to leave our table to serve other people. Good times.