Visit Granddaughter (and family)... then Finish the Hike

I am very excited about heading out to Oregon bright and early next Tuesday morning to visit my new granddaughter Eliza Mae, her brother Austin, and her parents Phil and Andrea.  You know from my last post picture that Eliza and Austin are beautiful people.  Eliza has no idea yet how excited her Grandpa and Grandma are to see and hold her!

The plans for finishing the Appalachian Trail hike are nearly complete.  I had the chance during Matt and Stephanie's wedding weekend to spend some time with son Kevin, who will be joining me for the final ascent up Mt. Katahdin.  I actually took my entire pack up with me to Michigan to go through it with Kevin and show him what I was taking.  He made a list of a few things he needs to pick up before joining me.  We have our flight plans made and our meeting point and date selected.  Having Kevin experience the finish with me is going to be very special.

I have arranged my mail drops, with Anne's help.  They are pretty much boxed up and ready to go, with dates and locations for each already selected.


Boxed supplies - mostly food - for mail drops

When we finish our visit to Oregon, I will be flying from Portland, OR to Boston.  Anne's sister Mary and her husband George are being true trail angels and inviting me to spend a night with them to recover from my red-eye flight and then driving me to New Hampshire so I can pick up the hike where I left off at the end of July.

After carefully considering whether I wanted to spend hundreds of dollars to reduce my tent weight by two pounds, my backpack weight by one pound and my thermarest weight be half a pound, I decided - influenced of course by the Swede in me from Dad's side - that I've carried all the heavier versions 82% of the way so I can certainly go the rest of the way with them and save the money.  I did purchase a Jet Boil Java Flash cooking system.  It is a compact, integrated system that will allow me to prepare hot foods again and, importantly, my morning Java.  The good news when I stepped onto the scale with my fully equipped pack yesterday was that I had basically held my weight where it was, despite adding the cold weather gear back.  I did it by going through my pack when I first got back and discarding anything that I hadn't used.  I had gone overboard on toiletries and first aid items.  My pack weight including five days of food supply, but no water, is 32 lbs.

I have studied both of my guide books, the AWOL AT Guide and the AT Thru-Hiker's Companion intently for the remaining section of my hike.  It is hard to believe that those things that seemed so distant early this year - the New Hampshire White Mountains, the bogs and river fords in Maine, and finally Mt. Katahdin - are now seeming to be within reach. I can't honestly say I am feeling confident.  I look back and realize that in the first portion of my hike - through most of Virginia prior to my injury - I averaged 13.6 net miles per day including all the zero days I took.  In the second part I averaged 15.6, never having taken a full zero day, but a couple of very near zero days.  It seems that many of my fellow thru-hikers were getting stronger during those "middle miles" while I was weakening.  To finish the hike in the time I have planned, I will need to average 13.4 miles per day... over a section that includes many of the toughest miles on the AT.  Will I be able to make it?  I am hoping that this time off for rest and healing will put me in shape to do it.

It has been an interesting balancing act thus far on my time off.  I'm trying to allow some healing to take place, yet I want to exercise so that I don't get out of shape for the rest of the hike.  In the first couple of weeks, I have to say I have leaned toward the rest and heal side.  I have been doing some easy weight lifting and some walking, but the first day I set out to jog my knees clearly said "not yet".  I hope to increase my walking/jogging mileage considerably over the next three weeks before resuming the hike.  I feel a little closer to "normal" each day... and for the most part, that is good.  The dings, bruises and sore knees are getting better.  The swelling in my feet is gradually going down.  I also feel like my feet are "softening" somehow. Towards the end of the last hike my feet were becoming almost blister proof.  I hope I am not undoing that.

Stay tuned.  I'll try to get another couple of posts up before resuming the hike.