I probably looked like I was doing a funny walk

So what's the difference between regular backpacking and long distance backpacking?  Town stops.  You don't just have to carry more food and more fuel, you have to carry the things you'll need in town.  Clothes to wear while you wash everything else.  Cords to recharge your gadgets.  Phone cards.  Shampoo.  That sort of thing.

You think by now it'd be second nature to me.  I've done enough long distance hikes by now.  But I don't do them so very often, and I forget.  Also my gear is scattered around the house (inevitably.)  I suppose that I will spend the next few weeks corralling my sarong and my chargers and my this and that.  Like, maps for Vermont and New Hampshire.  I know they're around here somewhere.  Right?

I had to go up and down the stairs at work today.  I had to do that quite a lot.  So I took advantage of the situation.  I went up two at a time to work myself on something a little bit like going up a mountain.  And then I went down two at a time for something like going down a mountain.  That part is much trickier.  Anybody can take a big step up.  Taking a big step down just feels wrong.  I held onto both handrails and still felt unsafe.

Betcha I hurt tomorrow.

I need to pack up a backpack to wear on this weekend's hike with DeLee - both to train for the weight, and to slow me down.  She appreciates it.

I need some rocks to climb on.

I feel like I'm kind of winding down on this blogging thing.  Maybe it's just because there's a new season of Eureka on tv.

I'm gearing up for this year's "long hike", although to me it won't feel that long.  I'm taking off two weeks to hike north on the AT from Woodstock, VT, to wherever I get.  And then a couple of months after that I plan to thruhike Shenandoah.  I should really count it, it'll be nearly two weeks, but it'll be on known territory.  I've lost track of how many times I've hiked some of those pieces of trail.

So, pretty much focusing on the New England hike.  I need to start doing some specific training for it.  In addition to regular walks, weekend hikes, my PT which I'm now doing at my gym, yoga, and horse back riding (whew), I need something to get my big step / climbing muscles engaged.  Not sure what, entirely.  A few trips to the Billy Goat trail will help, but something I can do more regularly would be good too.  Maybe finding a stadium and going up two steps at a time?  Or going up and down the stairs at home two at a time?  I don't know.  I'll figure something out.  Or I'll just suffer a lot on the trail.  Maybe both!

As usual I'm focused on lightening my pack as much as possible.  It's probably futile, as looking at the guidebooks I think I'll have to carry a lot of food once I get past Hanover.  That, or I'm going to be hitching into tiny little towns to get myself some grub.

Actually I'm not sure where, if anywhere, I'm going to take a zero day.  Which means I'll need to wash clothes on the trail and figure out a place to charge my electronics.

The Trail showed up at my house today

This is how my day went.  I didn't notice that I was wearing one boot, one running shoe, until I got to work.  I stopped at the vet's office on the way.  I figure I was wearing the footwear for an hour before I noticed.

I would like to be a morning person.  I've tried.  I'm just not.  I can get up, but I can't be alert.  OBVIOUSLY.  There is a very good chance that any decisions I make before about 10 am (having been up 2-3 hours) will be wrong.   If at all possible, nobody should ask me any questions until after lunch.  Ideally nobody will talk to me at all until my brain has gotten up to speed.  Some kind of minimum coasting is required for conversation.

I am so grateful that today is Friday.  I'm planning to go to bed early and get up late.  And then, if I have somehow recovered from today's somnolence, I'm going to try to get in two complete perimeter loops around the park.  I need a huge calorie deficit so I can go out for dim sum on Sunday without adding a spare tire.

I received two awesome things in the mail today:  My own personal white blaze

Made personally and gifted to me by the creative genius that is Just Blue Skies

And my new tent, a Zpacks Hexamid Plus.  I hope to set it up and seamseal it this weekend so it's ready, but I don't intend to use it on my camping trip next weekend, as I want to use a warmer tent.

When it's set up, the Hexamid will look like this:

Very open, very airy, very LIGHT

Whereas next weekend's tent will look like this (unless the forecast changes a lot)

Much more enclosed, although of dubious seamsealing now that I think of it.

And that's all my scattered brain is holding right now.  G'night.

When did we get old?

JD and I both feel old tonight.  Our backs hurt, we're tired.  What the heck?  It's Friday night!  I didn't even want to go next door to hang out with Shirley.  Now that's tired.

I came home and started fooling with my pack.  I took five pounds of food out.  Now I have about 7 - enough to get me to White House Landing with a stop at Abol Bridge for snacks, and some freeze dried meats for the second half of the trip, because meat is heavy.

I ran out of gumption before I got it repacked.  I finally decided on a fleece shirt (vs the slightly lighter down jacket) because if I need warmth while hiking, the down jacket won't do.  I'll sweat through it.  So, fleece it is.  I went upstairs to weigh various fleece shirts, and once again decided on my old, utilitarian grey and black one.  The same one I always take.  Sooner or later the poor thing will wear out,  and then where will I be?

So I guess I'll be running around in the morning getting packed again, because I intend to lug the load around Greenbelt Park.  I'm not feeling particularly enthused, at the moment.  Perhaps after a good night's sleep.

I will say, though, that we had a really excellent dinner.  Turkey bacon, a rustic country bread, leaf lettuce and insanely good tomatoes from the farmer's market.  I put a little greek yogurt on mine in place of mayo, of which I am not a fan.  The whole thing was so juicy that I needed a catch plate.  I'm pretty sure it's the best BLT I've had in my life.  I'm pretty sure we have all the makings to do it again tomorrow, too.  :)

I guess if I were a really good Harry Potter fan I would be at a theatre right now, but I'm not that good of a fan.  I'll try to gather up some girlfriends next weekend, when it's maybe less crowded.  For now I'm going to curl up in the living room with a cat and some True Blood.

This post possibly approved by Dori. I can't be sure.

Man alive I'm tired tonight.  Why I gotta work for a living?

The state department returned my passport to me unchanged.  They lost my photos.  So today JD and I stopped and got more pictures taken, and I'm going to try it again.  Surely they want my money?  If it doesn't work this time I may just decide to stay here.  Machu Picchu can't be that great can it?  Or Stonehenge?  Nah..

I'm wearing my writing hat and the cat is giving me the funniest look.

At this point I can't imagine how I would do Run Amuck tomorrow if my back didn't hurt.  Since I'm currently in a brace and avoiding all things strenuous, it's a moot point.  But if I were running tomorrow I would be pretty worried at the moment.  That, or I'd be asleep.  We were going to get up at oh dark thirty to get there in time.  And that was before I found out my run was at 9:30, not 10.  Instead, tomorrow I hope to get mostly packed up for my trip next weekend.

I'm making a list (which, now that I think about it, I've left at work) of things I need to do or find or pack before I go.  It's getting to be quite the extensive list.  For instance, I needed to buy some more permethrin (check - ordered using my iphone browser today), spray my clothes with it, okay first wash my clothes and then spray them, and let them dry before I touch them.  The point of the permethrin is to bring unpleasant death to ticks and other biting things, preferably before they get their teensy little fangs into me.  Three times with Lyme is plenty, thanks.

I need to figure out my food for six days, as well.  It needs to be fairly compact food so I can actually fit it in my pack.  I normally have shorter sections than that.  Of course, I'll be doing the hundred mile wilderness in a few months so I guess this is good practice in overstuffing the backpack.  I can probably underpack a bit for the first few days because it always takes a while to get the appetite going.  I guess I have a fear of hunger (or hypoglycemia) because I *always* pack too much food.  Well, always except that one trip where I halved everything, including my bagel, and ended up eating some of DeLee's food.  Fortunately she packed too much.  :)

However at the moment that all seems like a lot of trouble to go to.  I'm going to go numb my brain with some TV.  Night all!