Still Testing....

I'm sending this blog entry on February 23rd, but if everything works as
expected, it shouldn't show up on my blog until shortly after midnight on
February 24th. I'll be checking back then to make sure it worked as
expected! =)

-- Ryan

More Blog Work....

As most of you know, my last long walk was the Florida Trail. One of the
major reasons I chose that particular trail was because it was relatively
accessible from populated areas. There would be very frequent trail towns,
many road crossings, yadda, yadda, yadda. If something went wrong with Atlas
Quest, I'd probably know about it within a few days in most cases, and
getting off the trail to a computer to fix problems would be relatively
quick.

The Pacific Crest Trail, however, is far more remote. I might go for a week
or more without any contact with the outside world. Getting on or off the
trail to handle problems would be considerably more difficult. I'm
considerably more confident leaving AQ unattended this time around, however.
Wassa--despite his reputation--does a remarkable job of getting AQ back up
when things go wrong. Atlas Quest is also a lot more stable than it was when
I hiked the Florida Trail. I remember that first week when I was hiking and
AQ suddenly kept hanging for unknown reasons. (It would be well over a year
before I finally figured out that issue.) Oh, I worried. I worried a lot.
Wassa was smart, but he was still fairly new to how AQ was set up. I
definitely didn't want to be more than a day or two out of touch--at least
early on in my hike.

This accessibility affected my blog as well. I was usually able to post blog
entries every two or three days--if not daily along certain sections. That
won't be the case along most of the PCT. There will likely be times when I
won't be able to post blog entries for a week or more at a time. Unless I
did something, you'll wind up reading an avalanche of a dozen or more blog
entries in one or two days, then hear nothing from me for a week or more
until the next avalanche when I get back into town again.

So I've been thinking about how to space out the blog entries into a more
regular posting schedule. =) I'm working on that system now.

This is how it works: Each of my blog entries, which I type in on a
PocketMail device, will be e-mailed to a special e-mail address I created on
Atlas Quest. I've set up Atlas Quest to automatically check this e-mail
address periodically, and pull the messages into a special table in the
database for storage. Then, once each day, Atlas Quest will check from this
pool of blog entries, pick up the oldest one, and forward it on to my blog
for all you readers. Basically, it gives some of my blog posts a "time
delay" of sorts, to even out the posting schedule.

And the reason I'm telling you about all this.... is because I needed a post
to test the system. =) Yes, this long post is a test. Nothing but a test.

My expectation is that once I get into my hike, the blog entries will likely
get posted to my blog about one to two weeks after I originally write them.
On average. But you could expect to consistently get a new blog entry every
single day (or pretty darned close to it). They'll post shortly after
midnight, Pacific time, giving you something new to look forward to reading
every morning while drinking your morning coffee. =) Or save it for later in
the day.

Anyhow, I'm still hard at work preparing for my hike--which also includes
preparing my blogging system for you all to enjoy! =)

Where in the World...?

Nothing new to report about my hike, but I did update this blog since my last post with a new color scheme and photo. Nice photo, don't you think? I took it myself. The question for you is.... where is it? Any guesses? =) Who are those strange people in the photo?

PCT Frequently Asked Questions

Well, you've guys certainly are anxious to hear more about my upcoming hike. =)

A quick summary--I expect to start at the Mexican border the weekend of April 23-25. I'll attempt to slip through all the illegal immigrants and border agents, face off with rattlesnakes and the Mojave Desert. I'll be hiking alone, as usual, although there will likely be hundreds of other prospective thru-hikers also beginning their trek that same weekend. I'm going alone, but I won't necessarily BE alone.

After a month or two of that, I'll head into the High Sierras, including a slight detour to head up Mount Whitney--the highest point in the continental US at over 14,000' above sea level. I'll likely hit lots of snow in this section. =)

Then I'll meander close to Lake Tahoe, through Lassen National Park, eventually landing along the Cascade Range through Oregon and Washington which will take me past Crater Lake, Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, and lots of pretty other mountains.

And finally end up at the Canadian border, about 2,650 miles from where I started. From there, the quickest way "out" back to civilization is to actually hike through the border and into Canada another seven or eight miles until I reach Manning Park, at which point I can find transportation to Vancouver, BC, and back to the United States.

Last Saturday, Amanda and I had lunch with Wildflower--for those of you who read my AT adventures, you might remember her from there. That was where I first met her and we hiked through much of New York together. I wanted to quiz her with a few questions I had about the PCT since she had hiked it several years ago, figuring out what sort of gear I might need for the snow in the Sierra Nevadas. (She recommended the MicroSpikes and an ice axe.) These are sorts of issues I've never had to concern myself with on previous hikes. =) Bear canisters are also required in some parts of the Sierras, which is an item I've never bothered to make use of in the past. I'll be needing all sorts of new gear for this hike. =)

Many sections of the trail require permits to camp in or hike through, from a variety of land managers, but the Pacific Crest Trail Association has been thoughtful enough to provide a "super permit" of sorts for anyone hiking more than 500 miles of the trail that is good for any section of the trail--or the entire thing. Saves a lot of effort of having to pick up permits for all the areas I go through separately.

It's Alive!

I've gone and done it--I bought a new domain name. This one, as you can see, is called AnotherLongWalk.com. I used to have FloridaTrail2008.com that I blogged to while thru-hiking the Florida Trail, but after that hike ended, it seemed kind of useless to keep the old domain name and I let it expire. (Last time I looked, it appears someone hawking drugs bought it. Go figure.)

Anyhow, I've started preparing for a another long hike—this time, the Pacific Crest Trail, from Mexico to Canada. About 2,650 miles of adventuring. I'd need a new blog, and a new domain name. Rather than buy pct2010.com, I decided to go with the more generic name so I can reuse the blog over and over again. =)

I'm still tweaking this new blog to make it look like I want. For a hiking blog, I need more earth tones in it. A few PCT photos. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

This afternoon, I filled out the paperwork to get all the permits I'd need for my hike. The biggie is the permit from the PCTA that allows me to legally walk the entire length of the trail from start to finish. I filled that one out and mailed it off this afternoon.

The second piece of paperwork I filled out was an application to enter Canada on the PCT. They want to know all about me, my passport, any crimes I've committed, an explanation of why I'm going into Canada (I thought that was self-explanatory?), and include a photocopy of my ID. I haven't mailed that yet--I didn't have the right postage for mailing it to Canada. I'll go into the post office tomorrow and get it mailed off properly.

And the third piece of paperwork is a fire permit. That was the easiest of the bunch. Basically, you print out an online form, put in your name, and sign it. Presto! You're done. Put it in your wallet and get on the trail. I don't actually have to mail this one anywhere. I'll probably lose it before I start the trail, though, so I'll probably have to print it out again. =)

Good times! =)

Reentry

I've been bad, I know, neglecting all the stories that happened immediately after reaching Springer Mountain. I hiked down to Amicalola Falls, tried stalking Alton Brown (alas, he was out of town, but I did spend the night at his place with the rest of his family), and played what I call Airline Roulette. Before we took off from Las Vegas, they warned us we would land either in Bakersfield, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, or possibly just fly back to Las Vegas, but they wouldn't know until after we were already in the air for an hour.

Good times! =)

But I did finally make it to San Luis, and one of my first tasks was to "blend in" with the locals. Which did not include looking like a homeless person, a survivalist, or even an "Are you Amish?" as one person asked me while I was boarding my flight. It was finally time to take off the whiskers.


That's a lot of hair on me, and cutting it would be a big job. My mom, I'm happy to report, is a professional hair stylist, and was willing to do the job for free. For a big job like this, we decided to start with the hedge trimmers.

Okay, I'll fess up. That's a joke photo. We picked up a bunch of the hair that had already been cut off and staged the photo. We had a good time with the prank photo! =)

But seriously, for my first look, I wanted to try on a "respectable" beard. I call it my businessman look. Looks like I could be working out a multi-million dollar deal, don't you think?

What a difference a few hairs less did! I call this my child molester look. Sideburns, I decided are not for me.
This is my intellectual, "I'm wise because I have facial hair," look. Or maybe a, "I'm out on parole," look. I'm not sure which is closer. =)

This is my biker look. I don't have a motorcycle, and don't have any interest in acquiring one, but I do own some stock in Harley Davidson, so I'm very supportive of the biker movement. *nodding*
I'm not sure what this look is supposed to be, but I think it makes me look stuck-up. Or maybe a homosexual cowboy if you added a ten-gallon hat. =) But seriously.... no, I don't think a mustache fits me very well.

Yeah, that's me. That's what I'm supposed to look like. Actually, I was surprised it didn't look more like me. It looks like me, but more in an identical twin type of way, and it took me a few minutes to figure out why. I lost weight! My face was distinctly thinner than the last time I remember seeing it.

Speaking of which, I did weigh myself upon my triumphant return and came in at about 155 pounds--a weight loss of about 25 pounds. I was actually surprised I'd lost that much. I was down to 150 pounds when I finished the Appalachian Trail, a 30 pound loss, and I looked absolutely skeletal when I finished. I definitely looked thin finishing my hike this year, but nowhere near my concentration camp survivor look from finishing the AT. I'm not sure how I can look pleasantly thin at 155 pounds and look dangerously bulimic at 150 pounds.

And for you number folks, when I arrived at Amicalola Falls SP, there is a scale for hikers to weigh their pack on. When I started my Appalachian Trail thru-hike, my pack weighed in at 40 pounds. I knew it would be a lot less upon my arrival from Key West. First, I was getting off the trail, so I wasn't loaded down with lots of food and water. I had enough food left to last me another day or day and a half in the backcountry--about three or four pounds worth. Additionally, I finished off the last of my water minutes before my arrival, so my pack had no water in it. Total pack weight when I arrived: 22 pounds. I then took out all of the food from my pack to get just the base pack weight: 18 pounds.

I don't claim to have the lightest pack in the world--I had a number of luxury items including a book, a PocketMail device, and what might be the heaviest pot ever for a successful solo thru-hiker. I also had an abnormally large amount of cold weather gear, a necessary precaution given the fact that it snowed on me two days earlier! And despite all that, my base pack weight was 18 pounds.

I expect this to be my last post to this particular blog. Before I sign off, I'd just like to thank everyone who read my writings and left often amusing and uplifting comments. You have no idea how much I would look forward to those whenever I got into a trail town. =)

-- Green Tortuga, signing off

The End and a Beginning

Summit Day. Who wouldn't feel escatic on Summit Day? The morning was bitterly cold, but I didn't care. The snow during the night melted upon hitting my tarp, then froze by morning, leaving a thin layer of ice which I crushed and broke apart as best I could while packing it. The ice that was left would melt during the afternoon, I knew, and eventually I'd have to pull out the tarp for drying and long term storage. If all went well, I would no longer need it. =)

Springer Mountain was about 12 miles away, but the Appalachian Trail was a mere five or six miles away. The Benton MacKaye trail, I knew, would intersect the Appalachian Trail several times those last few miles.

Shortly before the first intersection with the AT, I started slowing down, looking for the intersection ahead rather than blindly running into it. It probably sounds strange, but I wanted to savor the moment I stepped onto the AT. At that point, I will have walked the complete distance from Key West to Maine.

Not to mention that I have a soft spot in my heart for the Appalachian Trail. I spent half a year of my life hiking that trail, and had never come back to visit since I finished.

So I crept up the trail, looking for those famous white blazes, a signpost, or an intersection. I wanted to take a picture of the footstep that would combine my two big hikes.

And I saw it. The trail I followed reached a T-intersection, and a signpost had been erected that read, "Appalachian Trail" with arrows pointing in both directions.

It was an emotional moment for me, and a rather anti-climatic location for it. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about this intersection, and in fact I didn't even recognize or remember it when I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail five years before. My eyes started tearing up, and I felt like a sap for it. I didn't expect this particular intersection to affect me as much as it did, and I was glad no one was around to witness my sentimentality. =)

I took out my camera and took pictures of my feet as I stepped that last footstep connecting my two hikes, and touched the sign marking the Appalachian Trail.

After a short rest, I continued south on the Appalachian Trail and on to Springer Mountain. The Benton MacKaye followed the AT for about a mile, then would veer off on its own, intersecting the AT a couple of more times before ending near Springer Mountain.

So for a mile, I got to hike on the Appalachian Trail, and I was positively giddy about it. =) I hoped I would bump into some thru-hikers heading north--a very real possibility at this time of year.

I only crossed paths with one other hiker, a section hiker from Florida using the trailname Back In the Day. He was a firefighter and hiking with three other younger co-workers, and I guess he always made references to how things were 'back in the day.'

They were out for a few days, but Back In the Day left the Springer Mountain shelter before his companions and was waiting for them to catch up, so we chat for the better part of an hour. It was the first hiker I'd seen since Mortis in Dalton, and I liked the company. =)

I continued on, noting a sign that showed Springer Mountain being 4.1 miles ahead. I was still following the Benton MacKaye trail, however, which my notes showed required a six mile hike to Springer.

Kind of ironic, I thought, since I always considered the AT an incredibily windy path that rarely went anywhere fast. Who knew there was another trail that was even worse?!

When the AT and Benton MacKaye split, I was torn. I wanted to continue following the AT. It was calling to me, but I followed the Benton MacKaye instead with a twinge of guilt and regret in my heart. I was anxious to reach the next intersection with the AT. =)

At the next intersection, I found four prospective thru-hikers taking a short break nearby and practically pounced on them to get their stories. =) There were three girls and a guy--an unusual sight on the trail and a very lucky guy! ;o)

They were all planning to go to Maine, and I automatically started sizing them up trying to guess which ones would be most likely to make it. Their packs looked respectable. Not extremely light, perhaps, but not shockingly heavy either. The guy seemed a bit heavy, but I'd seen people who overweight than him make it to Katahdin. And they all seemed young, strong, and healthy.

I suspected they were all physically capable of making it the whole distance. If any of them quit, it would be because they were tired of the hike. I didn't tell them that, however, and encouraged them in their hike.

When I told them about hiking in from Key West, one of them shyly said they felt a bit 'inadequite' compared to me, which I thought was amusing. "Not to worry," I told them, "you'll get there! I just got a head start! You'll be looking like me in no time."

Thinking about my thick, crazy beard, "Well, maybe not EXACTLY like me," I told the girls as I stroked my beard. "I hope not, at least!" =)

We eventually parted ways, and I headed up the Benton MacKaye once again.

The trail intersected the AT one last time, but I didn't see any hikers at this one, and finally dead-ended at the AT 0.2 miles from Springer Mountain. I'd reached the end of the Benton MacKaye. Now I could stay on the AT, which is where I wanted to be anyhow.

I started creeping up the trail again, like I did when I first reached the AT, wanting to savor that moment when I reached Springer Mountain and the plaque that marks the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

It wasn't nearly as emotional for me as that first intersection with the AT, however, although I expected it to be. I reached the summit after three and a half months of hiking, nearly 1,900 miles from Key West, with this point as my goal. My hike was officially over.

It was a beautiful day for a summit. Not a cloud in the sky with views that extended for what seemed like a hundred miles.

The only witness to my finish was a caretaker at the top. He held a little yellow notepad where he kept track of the thru-hikers leaving for Katahdin, but made a note of my arrival from Key West. He told me this was his third year as a caretaker, and I asked him how many others he'd met who had hiked in from Key West.

"None."

It didn't surprise me, but the answer did remind me at how utterly lonely most of my hike had been.

But I made it and was escatic--positively jubilant. My hike was over.