Random Musings

Right now, I’m about a mile shy of the campsite I’m targeting today, May 31st, but this won’t be my usual recap. Instead, as I was hiking along, I started sort of collecting my thoughts on a few things that I’d like to share or offer an update on, so I pulled over to record some thoughts. I want to have some updates and posts now and then that aren’t necessarily directly tied to my daily goings-on but that I think might be relevant nonetheless. So here we go.

The extraordinary editor of this blog — and more importantly, my awesome wife — is going to be picking me up tomorrow a little bit south of Rockfish Gap. My original goal was to make it to Rockfish Gap by June 1, but as you know, I had two sick days at home, so I'm two hiking days behind that goal, unfortunately. But I’ll have the opportunity to slack pack those final 30 miles into Rockfish Gap over the next couple of days. The main reason I'm coming home is for my wife and I to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary and just spend some time together. So that's going to be wonderful. I mean, I know that technically, we just spent some time together when I came home with my friend Charlie, but I wasn’t fully myself for that visit. I’m feeling strong and back to normal now, so this will be much nicer for us both, I think.

Also, and I know I've thanked a lot of people already, but I just want to make sure that people know how grateful I am that they've been reading the blog and commenting on it. I really enjoy reading the comments when I have enough internet power to pull up the blog on the trail. And I'm not too ashamed to admit that I really don't know how to reply to comments, which seems rather ironic, given that I set up the site.

But I mean, thank you all very much for your continued... what’s the best word? Attention? Support? Interest, maybe? I really appreciate it, whatever the word is, and it’s kind of humbling sometimes to think that people feel invested in some way in what I’m doing. [Wife note: I really appreciate it, too!]

I'm also thankful for all the kind of “back channel” communications I've had with a lot of you through various platforms. I've been getting weather reports and advice about health issues and lots of other forms of support. So, thank you. I am very, very grateful for it all. I feel very supported out on the trail, and it’s like I'm taking all of you with me on my hike, which is a good feeling.

This brief period between the last time I was home and my going home tomorrow has been a good opportunity for me to experiment with some of my gear. When I was hiking with Charlie, the weather was quite warm, and my sleep setup was still the one I started with in Georgia over two months ago. And that’s geared toward much cooler weather. It was working for me fine when I was waking up early on with ice on my tent and all that. But when I was with Charlie, I roasted like a chicken in a rotisserie oven at night, so I was like, you know, I’ve got to change this up a little bit.

I ended up buying a sleeping bag liner, which is basically just made out of t-shirt material, and I purchased a smaller air mattress that is lighter and has a lower R value, so it’s not supposed to retain or radiate back body heat so much. [Wife note: According to REI, “A sleeping pad's R-value measures its capacity to resist heat flow through it.... The higher a pad's R-value, the better it will insulate you from cold surfaces. Sleeping pad R-values range from less than 2 (minimally insulated) to 5.5 or more (very well insulated).”]

Little did I know, though, that as soon as I’d switched those pieces out, we’d somehow go through a cold snap, and it would be in the 40s at night. So I've been freezing the past couple nights. When I was in Glasgow, I actually resorted to buying myself a $10 throw at Dollar General. And last night, it was definitely helpful, but when I told S. about it, she started laughing and said she was picturing me as a little old lady, huddled in my tent and sipping tea with my throw around my shoulders.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about all that, because it's bound to keep getting warmer. But there’s actually another problem with my sleeping pad, too. If any of you have seen Christmas Vacation and remember the scene where Clark (Chevy Chase) greases up his sled with some sort of ultra slippery material, well, it seems like someone used the same stuff to coat the surface of my new sleeping pad. If I lay on it on a perfectly level surface, everything's fine. But finding a level surface like that at a campsite out here is very rare, so it takes about 3 seconds for me to slip off the pad when I'm trying to sleep. So all night, I have to keep adjusting the pad. Even though it's cooler, which is good for the summer, I'll probably switch back to my other pad that's warmer and see if I can figure out how to deal with that.

Also, I've been using a bowl that flattens out. So it's a flat piece of plastic, but then you can snap it together to make it into a bowl. And it's been great to eat granola out of in the morning, but it's a bear to clean — though it's hard to keep anything clean out on the trail. But I'm not sure what to do about that.

Oh, and lastly, I'll be using a brand new tent starting next week, which is great as far as staying dry in the rain and keeping the bugs out and all. But I need, you know, to determine how to reconcile that with my trail name, now that the reason behind my trail name won’t be in play anymore.

I guess that's it. I really just wanted to let people know that I'll getting off the trail for a few days to celebrate my anniversary and that I’m eternally grateful for all of your support. And I wanted to give a quick update on some gear changes. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming of how my hike is going!