Planning

I'm starting to do some actual planning now. I spend hours poring over the Long Trail Guide and trying to figure out my first section. Part of the problem is that although it takes the average person 3 weeks to hike the LT., I suspect that it might take me a bit longer. I think I will keep my first trip down to just an overnight, perhaps 10 miles. Just to get my legs as it were.

So, I'll hopefully do my first section in June. Black flies are bad then. Need mosquito nets.

Took my kids to the camping store today. My daughter, 11, asks "What is it with you and camping anyway?". I try to explain the attraction of silence and nature and beauty and she just looks at me. Like this:






When I was her age I was Forbidden from playing in the woods by myself. No kidding. My mom was afraid I'd get kidnapped or break an ankle or something. I used to go anyway. Never broke an ankle. I look back on it with a mother's eyes and I shudder actually--I could have broken an ankle and gone a good long time before I was found because of that. It would have been wiser if she's asked me precisly where I was going and known exactly when to expect me. Funny, she used those rules when I started dating.

Isn't it strange the things people consider dangerous? Last spring when I went dogsledding, my father was very worried. He acted as though I was proposing a six month stint in Antarctica rather than a week in Maine. I've gotten a similiar reaction to my current plan from other people. I've heard about the two women who were killed on the Appalachian Trail a number of times. And yet, statistically, women are still more in danger in their own homes than anywhere else in the world. And what about the suicide -machines most of us drive to work every day? I'm much more likely to roll my car off the road than I am to be axed by some crazed hiker.

I am a fairly careful person in reality. I'm told I look adventurous, but I don't feel it. I feel more of a plodder and a planner. I like to do these things but with minimum of risk and a maximum of comfort. I want to see pretty scenery and feel the wind in the trees and listen to the night sounds of the woods, not become part of a survival story.

Toward that end:
I will leave a very detailed trip plan with my husband or a good friend if my husband is with me. I will also post it here.
I will take an extensive first aid kit, including items that may be specific to myself and my companion.
I will talk to as many people who have hiked the LT to get the benefit of their experience.
I will check the weather before I go out.
I will not be afraid to put off a planned section hike if the weather or my physical condition look too dicey.
I will plan for reasonable distances.
I will do my solo section at the peak of the season so that there will be lots of traffic on the trail.