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Today I had a client call me and tell me another client had died. Not good. This is not the first time I have left for the Appalachian Trail (AT) and found out someone I really admire had passed. This hike, in part, is for you Tom. I know you are in a better place, no matter where that ends up being.

My friend, Sammy took me to the rental car place this morning. Picked up a little sedan with some excellent gas mileage. Thank you Enterprise. Went home and repacked a few of my bounce boxes. Called ahead to the hostels I was sending them to to make sure they would hold them for a period of time, since my schedule is flexible.

It took all day to repack the bounce boxes. Got to the Omni Pack and Ship just before closing.   I ran home again to finish prep. (Packed two more bounce boxes which I took with me. Didn’t get to call to verify if they would hold them or not or anything. Fingers crossed.) Jason, my boyfriend, stopped by for one last hug and kiss goodbye. I finally left the apartment at 9pm. Of course, I got all neurotic and had to text Jason to make sure my truck was locked when I left. Had to….

I drove all through the night to get to Dawsonville, GA. The traffic was decent. Weather was decent. Drank way too much coffee, but got myself there, again, just in time. The only remarkable thing about the drive was that there was a ton of construction along the way, but because I travelled in the middle of the night mostly, it didn’t hinder my trip too bad.

I finished my itinerary finally. In the morning I was still running around buying supplies, still packing my bags, and still packing the bounce boxes. The day was maddening.

At the last minute I ended up repacking all my bounce boxes which cost me 8 hours of drive time, but well worth it. I was supposed to leave on Tuesday at 8 AM, but instead left Tuesday at 8PM. I did get three boxes out at the Omni Pack and Ship right before closing Monday night. Then ran home to pack the remaining two boxes which I ended up driving with me toward Atlanta.

Greg and Hayley stopped by, so did Jason, my boyfriend. Last minute love before the big trip. I had an interview scheduled for that afternoon with Wink News, but it got cancelled that morning, which was fine with me since I was still in the prep process.

Eventually, my friend Sammy came to my place and picked me up. I spent the night at his place, so in the morning he could drop me off at the car rental and I wouldn’t have my truck out floating around somewhere.

The service of my phone has been sketchy. My solar charger has not been the best. It gives me one charge and that is all. So, I am temporarily at a hostel right now and I have ten minutes to type out what I have to say, then its adios.

Thank you to Ginny from the Live Room (recording studio) for giving me a haircut. If I had all that hair on the trail I would be insane right now. Thank you to Allen Trevitt from Allen International and the Speckled Egg for believing in the cause and coming through with some much needed corporate sponsorship. Thanks also to Don Sherman, my boss, for letting my play hookie this summer and take two months off to do this hike. Thank you to Sammy Elonen for being my go-to Spot Tracker. Also, my brother Jerrold Dietz and my friend who is like a brother, Greg Wilkerson, for being my secondary Spot Trackers. And thank you to my boyfriend Jason Kreider, who I have only been seeing for six months, for not freaking out and letting me go hike alone without giving me grief. Thank you to my customers who generously donated extra tips to help make it all happen.

Without all these people and many others who showed support who I have not named, Thank you, thank you, thank you… This would not have been possible without you all.

I will start updating this tomorrow. My phone has not been functional since I got on the trail.

8AM… Picking up the rental car with the help of my friend Sammy Elonen. Thanks man!

Transportation to the trail, Georgia… I previously contacted one of the suggested shuttle drivers given out by the “2016 Northbound AT Guide”, looking for a ride from Enterprise Car Rental, Dawsonville, GA, to Amicalola Falls State Park, GA, on June 1st. It’s 22 miles according to GPS. After a couple texts back and forth it was determined the driver was unavailable for that day. Being the busy bee at work still, it took a day before I had the chance to start making additional calls. There were two other numbers listed. I called both, neither one answered, but I left a voicemail. Thinking, “Why not exhaust all avenues?” I looked up one of the outfitters from Dawsonville, also listed in the AT Guide. They gave me the number to an additional driver who told me his fee would be $80 minimum, plus more if I wanted the ride during rush hour, more if there were other factors, etc.. I told him I’d call him back. I then got creative and started to do a little more networking. After all that, I secured my ride to Amicalola Falls for the same time I am dropping off my car. BINGO! To be honest, it crossed my mind to just walk it and/or hitchhike. I got two months for Christ sake, but a ride is good.

I’m waiting on making arrangements to get back home from Maine since I have no real idea what the actual date of departure will be. I’m thinking if I find myself somewhat in good standing with my crazy schedule, around 3 weeks out I will make sure as I pass through a town, I make a few calls and get my ride home situated. For now, I’m leaving that end hanging.

I ordered two more pairs of the Dynama pants from Mountain Hardwear last night. I had put it off in order to measure the inseam. When I went to order them online they asked if I wanted to purchase them in short, regular or long. I had previously checked the label of my current pair, but it doesn’t say on the tag or my old receipt from Environeers (Sarasota Outfitter). When I did measure the inseam it came to 31″. Funny… This isn’t even one of the choices. Short is supposed to be 30″, regular is 32″. So, I put them on and measured them again. This time, I came up with a measurement of 30″. I debated whether or not 30″ might just be on the short side for me. I have a tendency of falling in between sizes with most clothes. I thought about it though and went with the 30″ short, because the idea of trudging through miles of potential mud with my pants legs dragging or falling under the back of the heel of my shoe seemed unreasonable. I own one pair of XS in green right now, but they are slightly snug. I’m in the process of attempting to gain weight for the hike. (My ideal weight should be a minimum of 140. I’m around 130). In order to increase the junk in my trunk in a timely fashion, I have taken a liking to eating breakfasts consisting of things like multiple apple turnovers and danishes. I won’t even mention my lunches and dinners. Successfully creeping right along. So, I settled on ordering additional pairs in the medium and small. I anticipate my booty to be large and in charge when I leave, but hiking 17 hours in a single day for days on end will have that changing in no time. So, now I’ve got a few different sizes to choose from depending on where I am at in the hiking process. I also got lucky and Mountain Hardwear had the graphite pants on sale for around $51. The other pair, black, I paid full price for, $70.

I tried vacuum sealing the pears yesterday as a test run to my food storage. For some reason after a few hours, I noticed my vacuum seal had been broken. LAME! So, off to investigate. It turns out I needed to put a paper towel in with the pears, since when I dehydrated the pears they ended up with sharp edges that punctured the bag. So, I started again and put in the paper towel before vacuum sealing the pears in the new bag. So far so good, but I had to make sure I didn’t remove too much air because even with the paper towel in there, I noticed a sharp edge just begging to put a whole in the new bag too. This could prove trickier than I thought it would be. I’ll let the bag sit overnight and see by tomorrow if the air has returned.

Met up with the vitamin people last night. Was hoping for sponsorship, but it turned out to be more of a network marketing thing. The product is good, but I have no time for all that noise right now. Plus, I take multiple vitamins and supplements already. So, not really the sponsorship opportunity I thought it was.

Last night I put on a good show for the neighbors who were hanging about on the dock outside my apartment. Since I got home pretty late from meeting with the vitamin people, I really didn’t feel like heading to the dark stairwells of downtown to exercise. I chose instead to do the stairs directly outside my apartment door. My building is only two floors. So, I put on my pack (small, 20 pounds) and elevation mask (12,000 feet) and walked up one side and down the other, over and over again. I did about 20 reps which took maybe 15 minutes at most. By this time it was well after 11pm, and I just kept thinking to myself I was going to wake up the remaining neighbors, not on the dock, with my breathing like Darth Vadar with the crazy elevation mask on. So, I called it a quick night and went back inside. Better a little work out than no work out.

My box of ProBars  and ProBar chews came today. I should be excited, but there are only 12 in each box, covering me for only 12 days that means. I still have to order more or figure out an alternative. This is probably the last week I can order stuff online and have it here in time before I leave. The clock is ticking.

On the technology front. I was under the impression I had bought a 64GB IPhone6S. Turns out I bought a 16GB phone instead and since April 25th have already used up enough memory to have only 4GB left. WTF??????????? So, I call Sprint and ask them WTF, and they tell me I can still exchange it, but it will be another $100 in order to keep my bill the same. A bill I have not gotten yet and have no idea what the final total is because the yahoo who sold me the lease agreement and phone was a vague ass MF about it and my first bill hasn’t come yet. I AM SO PISSED I COULD TAKE A POOP IN FRONT OF THEIR BUILDING. I have no time or patience to deal with shady MFs at the phone company. And I certainly don’t want to find myself somewhere in the woods miles from anywhere and my phone starts telling me it can’t do what I need it to do. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! So, I’m going to Sprint tomorrow morning and going to give them even more money and hopefully get the 64GB phone I freaking wanted in the first place. UGH!

Have you ever noticed how little crap will just sneak up on you at the last minute?

So, today’s post is actually a bit of a recap from yesterday.

I started the day trying out my new Osprey Exos 58 backpack for the first time. I crossed the pedestrian bridge downtown 4x and did the stairwell 4x. Not a grueling workout, but I got out there none the less. I’m gonna say I love this bag overall. Of course, I didn’t have it weighted down like the bag I have been training with. I usually stuff books and all sorts of heavy items in creating quite the challenge. Since I was on my first run with this bag, I left those items out and packed with the gear I would have on the trail, minus clothes, food, and about half the water. I felt like I could fly. I seriously didn’t realize how heavy books in your backpack really were. Anyway, the fit is great! My only major complaints are I’m going to have to get creative once I do add food and clothes since it seemed pretty snug already and there is an attachment on one of the shoulder straps that kept rubbing my arm. I just kept thinking it is annoying now, but wait until mile 1,830, I’ll have a huge sore where this keeps hitting me. The saving grace? I usually use trekking poles when I hike. So, I’m thinking my arm won’t actually be bothered by it if they are elevated while I use them. If it remains a problem, I can always cut it off. Not the arm. Also, the shoulder straps and waist belt have a mesh fabric lining. I’m assuming this makes them more breathable, but it also left me with some pretty distinctive marks on my stomache and shoulders and rubbed my neck a bit raw. I remedied the neck issue by pulling my t-shirt neckline up in an unnatural position, but I was left wondering how my skin will react to 52 days of hiking and irritation. I may end up adding some fabric to the pack to help cover those areas. I do really love the little pockets on the waste belt and I also love the fact I don’t have to stop hiking to grab items out of the top compartment. Overall, this pack is a huge improvement on my 18 year old pack and much smaller than my other more modern pack, so I think the purchase was well worth it to spite the couple complaints I have.

I added a rain cover to this pack. Ordered a large Osprey (since its the one that was recommended by REI for my pack) It only came in the smokey color. The large works fine once the pack is full, but there is still a lot of wasted material hanging about. When I looked the specs up it says the large is for the 50+ liter. I’m sporting a 55 liter. So, you would think it would be perfect, but I’m still saying its a bit on the large side, but will do. Now when I move clothes and food into the pack, my tarp and maybe some other items will have to be reorganized onto the outer layers of my pack, which in that case it might be useful I have the extra material. Anyway, the new rain cover weighs in at 3.6oz and my old one was 5.7oz. So, it’s lighter. That’s always nice.

I also went into Best Buy yesterday to grab a charging chord for the GoPro Erin Ronsen gave me. It’s basically a little battery port with a cable. Nice thing is it works with my Brunton Ember 2800 solar charger just fine. Got the battery charged up, but then didn’t know how to work the camera. Later in the day I sat down to read the instruction manual, but didn’t have time to get too into detail. So far I know it connects to wifi, I can turn it on and off and I know that when the battery is charged in the port, the light goes off. Aside from that, I’m clueless. I’ll make another attempt today to learn more, but I have the feeling if I want to use it out on the trail, I will have to have access to a computer to download the video. If that’s the case, I might just be better off using my IPhone. Also, I’m guessing here, but I think I need an additional cable of some sort to transfer the data. I hate learning new technology. Wish Erin had all the parts when he gave it to me. I’ve spent like $50 on a battery port and a headset attachment and I’m thinking I still need more in order to run this thing. I might not even use it! What?

Got a new Asics rain jack the other day. It weighs in at 12.8 oz. I’m sure I could have gone lighter, but I really wanted the underarm zippers. Plus, after all, I’m replacing a windbreaker by Sierra Designs and an old rain jacket I got at Walmart. The combo weighed in at 1lb, 11oz, so as far as weight, I’m still saving. I did have the rain jacket packed in my bag when I hiked earlier in the day, just not any of my general use items of clothing.

So, yeah…. Updated and on to another day.

Things are still on target, but winding up loose ends is quite the task. Well aware time is running out.

I have been dehydrating everything under the sun. Well, not literally, but I have a good supply of dried strawberries, pears and bananas so far. Will probably do a second batch of all of them though at some point. Plus, I have plans to start experimenting with some jerky recepes.

I ordered ProBars. Got the Superberry and Greens flavor, but I only got one box and there are only 12 bars in a box. So, a second box or even a third may be in order. I also got a box of the ProBar Energy Chews in the Berry Blast flavor. Again, only 12 come in a box. I would have ordered more, but these babies are like gold, super expensive.

On the more affordable side however, I went to one of my favorite sites, Nuts.com, and ordered a one pound bag each of the dried organic apples, dried organic mango, dried organic coconut chips, and organic trail mix. Everything came to about $45. Love this company! Also, hit REI up again and ordered the Outdoor Research Bug Net Cap and the Platypus Big Zip LP 3 Liter Reservoir. I have two more items I may need from REI before this is over, but I couldn’t add them to the list today since I have to go home and do some investigation of the current gear I have and see if I absolutely need new or not. Going to depend on weight, etc…

Decided to rent a car for the trip to Georgia instead of flying. Glad I did. Enterprise is only charging me $11.32 for this rental. Obviously, I will have to put gas in this beast, but I had to ask three times, if she had the correct amount. She insisted there were no other charges. Go figure! Being that my rental needs to be dropped off in a small town just outside of Amicalola Falls, I still needed to secure a ride into the state park, which happens to be another 22 miles away. So, I called one of the shuttles listed in my AT Guide. Unfortunately, he is booked that day. So, the search continues. I have a couple more shuttle services I can call, so panic is unnecessary at this point.

I need to start calling drop off locations soon and figuring out how long they will hold a package for me. It will be the deciding factor as to whether or not I send one box ahead of me, retrieving it as I travel every two weeks or so, or sending several boxes out to various locations, being more strategic as to what I put in each.

I have section hiked the AT many times over, but never a through hike, nor a hike this extreme. There is really way more to it than just heading out on a walk with a bag on your back. I thank myself for being smart enough for getting an early start on things like I did, but man, many small things you need to think about come creeping up out of nowhere last minute, for sure. Time is of the essence!

What an intense day.

I finally got my second order in from REI. In today’s package I received my new Osprey Exos 58 backpack. (Small, 55 liters.) I think I am in love, but I will tell you for sure once I get it home and fill it with stuff. Other items in this package included a spare pair of Solomon Speedtracker 3 women’s trail runners, the Duece of Spades trowel by TentLab, and an Osprey raincover. In a separate order through Amazon, I purchased some oxygen absorbers for the vacuum sealed dehydrated food I’m packaging and bringing with me. It felt like Christmas, I tell ya.

I started this blog earlier today. It felt great to step outside of my technical comfort zone and learn how to create a page for myself. There was a fee, of course. The total came out of my account for all three years up front, but I’m happy with the purchase. It does what I need it to do so far. I have to spend time tomorrow figuring out what links I can post, how video can be uploaded, what will download from my phone and will it be efficient, or will I feel like pulling out eyelashes while I painfully wait. Tests, tests, tests…

Erin Ronsen gave me a GoPro tonight, but it’s missing an attachment and he didn’t know where the charging cable was for it. I figure I’ll head to Best Buy tomorrow and see what they have to maybe attach it to a selfie stick or a hat. I’ll weigh it in and test it out. I’m trying to keep my pack as light as possible and I already have a phone and the Spot Tracker coming with me.

A seriously thrilling event today was when I Facebooked Heather Anderson , the current world record holder for the fastest self-supported Appalachian Trail hike. I was hoping for a response, but wasn’t expecting it or any time soon, but I got one and on the same day!!! Freaking awesome!!! I let her know of my intention to try for the world record myself, but I have to say this girl is hard core. It won’t be easy to beat the time she has set into place. (54 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes)

Please check out Heather Anderson’s Tedx Talk, it’s pretty inspiring.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgDeh2XDNY4)

I think I should try and take some time and do a little research on bear mace. I had customers that had hunted in the Upstate New York to Maine areas and they said moose and bears can be trouble at times, although, down south I have run into bears only once in the last 18 years. It happened to be the only time I had ever gone without a bear bell attached to my pack.

Heading into Walmart at the moment. Pears, peaches or mangos for tonight’s dehydration?