Fourteen days from yesterday, my dad & I will fly to Atlanta.   We leave Boston at 3 pm, landing in Atlanta at 6.  We'll rent a car, likely spending the night in the city.  Those who know me are aware that I'm a huge Coca-Cola buff, so my hopes are that we go visit the Coca-Cola bottling plant and museum while we're in Atlanta.  I've never been, and I'm beyond excited for this potential visit.  Thursday afternoon we'll drive up to the Chattahoochee National Forest, the home to Springer Mountain, where the A.T. begins.  An early start Friday morning should allow us to both hike up to the peak of Springer where I'll be able to sign the log book to mark my joining the "Appalachian Trail Class of 2014" as it's known to the hiking masses.   We'll take a few photos together, and he'll head back to the Atlanta airport to fly back to Boston... alone... and I'll be standing at the beginning of an epic journey up the Eastern seaboard.  In the interest of full disclosure, I booked myself a round trip ticket, just in case I get to the base of that mountain and decide that I'm truly batshit crazy, and decide to go home.  If I know myself well enough, however, I'll be spending the night of April 4th 50 yards off the trail somewhere in northern Georgia.  What an incredibly exciting and slightly horrifying thought.

Right below this sentence is a map of where Springer Mountain is.  Not sure how this will embed for all you fancy e-mail subscription people, but on the web it's nicely placed below this line of text.   That little red map dot seems to be quite a ways from Maine.

The big things on my plate have been managing my travel with work and getting everything together.  My massive order of gear showed up while I was in Dallas last week,  and I had a blast last Friday getting it all together.  Lots of new technical equipment, general camp stuff, and some great wicking base layers from the NB Lightning Dry collection (thanks Kim!) The single most important piece of information that came from this joyous gear-Christmas was a rough idea of my total "pack weight".  This is a number that hikers stress over in an unbelievable way.  While it may not seem like a big deal, 1-2 pounds can really change your opinion over the course of a few thousand miles.  My pack weight comes in at 16.2 pounds with everything loaded in (save for clothes I'll be wearing, and my hiking poles).  Food will be another 8-10 pounds for 4-5 days on the trail.  Almost 2 pounds of that is my Canon dSLR, a non-negotiable item.

I also took a step towards picking a massively important piece of gear, a step that I've put off for many months now, and that is footwear.  In the decades since hiking took to the mainstream, the 2 pound leather combat boots many wore have been replaced by lighter GoreTex boots, which have been challenged by the new generation of "trail runners".  These light weight sneaker-type shoes come with great grip for off-pavement excursions, and are often times exceptionally breathable (vs the old boots that were known for causing trench-foot type infections due to sealed-in moisture).  The average hiker who completes the A.T. will take around 5-million steps from Georgia to Maine... imagine lifting 2 extra pounds over 5,000,000 times!  Hence my desire to go with a trail runner.  Due to my work with New Balance, I've been able to talk to a guy (thanks Brendan) who specializes in running, and was able to get some very specific questions answered in regards to what was best for my undertaking.  I was pointed towards the NB 910 and NB MT1210  series trail-runners, with the 1210 being the most recommended of the two.  I've read some great reviews of these online, including Appalachian Trail focused forums like WhiteBlaze, but have not heard of anyone thru-hiking (the A.T. phrase for walking Georgia to Maine in one year) with them.  Perhaps I can be the first!  I'm really looking forward to getting these on and testing them out.

So that's it for me.  I'm back in Orlando this week and am enjoying a change to my 18th floor emergency exit stairway training (see blog post #3) due to the stairs being outside the hotel! This place not only encompasses heat, humidity, and staircases, but also views of the outdoors... the most realistic stair training yet, and a pleasant surprise compared to the normal concrete stairwells.

Time is simultaneously flying by and taking forever to pass.  At this point, I'm ready to be in the woods.


*Afterthought- missing from the photo are my medical kit, LED headlamp, and towel.