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?
I tracked Anish very closely last summer. I look forward to watching you try to beat her time. Good luck! Maybe we’ll see you on the trail.
It will not be easy. She pretty much rocked it.