[at-l] January start.

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 09:49 AM 1/10/2004 -0500, Amber wrote:
>Woke to a cool temperatures on the Suncoast today. Put the heat on for an
>hour to take the chill off. Hard to believe I'll be beaching it this
>afternoon.
>Anyway, January 14, 2005 is my planned departure date to head north from
>Springer and I'm wondering if there is any statistic of the number of folks
>who venture out on a thru-hike this early? I see references to mid to late
>March starts but not many (if any) for January.
>Five years ago in early June, I met a thru-hiker who had started on January
>1st. He had just arrived at Shaws and was going through his mail drop. I
>asked him if he was the first for the year and he said some trail runner had
>passed him a week or so before so he was the second person to Monson.
>Go Pats and Colts. Amber.

Why Jan. 14th? Do you like winter camping? A start that early will not only 
mean that you spend the first several weeks in winter but you will arrive 
in New England in time to *enjoy* pretty much all of black fly season.