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[at-l] Hitting the Trail!

Dear Friends:

As many of you know I'm heading out onto the Appalachian Trail soon for the
hike of a lifetime. I expect to be on the trail from late March until about
October 1. The trail will take me 2,160 miles from Springer Mountain in
Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

I've worked up this communication system to enable friends to chart my
progress, send messages to me and to fill me in on what you're up to.

Regular Mail
These are the Post Offices I'll stop by along the way. I'll probably visit
a whole lot more POs in order to send cards and letters but these 7 are
ones I'll look for your mail.

Mail should be addressed to:
Arthur Gaudet
C/O General Delivery
city, state, zip

In the bottom left hand corner please write "Hold for AT Thru Hiker".
			Last day to
City	State	Zip 	Send By:

Hot Springs	NC	28743	April 28
Pearisburg	VA	24134	May 26
Harpers Ferry	W VA	25425	June 25
Delaware Water Gap	PA	18327	July 12
Kent	CT	06757	July 28
Glencliff	NH	03238	August 22
Monson	ME	04464	Sept 11

IF you send mail to me by these dates, and IF I'm on schedule then I'll
connect with your mail. The Post Office will hold mail for awhile so feel
free to mail a week or two earlier, but not after the date above.

I can't promise to answer all mail, and I'm not begging for uplifting
letters to help the miles go quicker (I suspect I'll want them to go slower
anyway). I'll be enjoying the trail, exploring new friendships with other
hikers, learning a lot about the 3 National Parks, 11 National Forests,
numerous State Parks that I'll traverse, and about the local populations in
these 14 states. Yes, it'll be tough and if I think I'm going to quit I
have several friends to call who have done this. I expect they'll be able
to snap me back into a rational frame of mind, allowing me to continue. I
also promise to listen to their advice about quitting even if I think I
should go on!

I would, however, love to hear about what YOU are doing during the Spring,
Summer and early Fall!

Email:
For those who have email continue to send to me at agaudet@bbn.com. If this
email account gets closed out there will be an automatic reply indicating
where to send future mail. As you might expect there are very few places
along the AT to access email . They are mostly kind hearted folks along the
way that will let me log in, or a cybercafe or two in the larger towns or
cities. I'll dive in when I can though and I hope to have something OTHER
THAN SPAM! <smile>

Web Access:
I know, I know.... stop the nerd comments <grin>. I've been very lucky in
getting the opportunity to place a DAILY JOURNAL on the Internet (I'm one
of 16 being hosted). This site is maintained by the Center for Appalachian
Trail Studies in Hot Springs, North Carolina.

The Main Page is located at:
	http://trailplace.com/
You can find me at:
	http://trailplace.com/archives/classof97/c97index.htm#JOURNALS

The posted journal will be my daily writings about what's going on while
I'm on the trail. Since these entries are snail mailed to Hot Springs you
should expect to be reading about 2 weeks behind what I'm actually doing.
I'm very grateful to Dan "Wingfoot" Bruce for allowing me to be a part of
the Class of '97.

By the way, the Web site contains a wonderful collection about the AT
including Trail Register entries with a clickable map, info on email lists,
etc. Dan is a real enthusiast for the AT, having hiked it 7 times! He's
adopted the WWW as a tool for sharing info about the AT, and teaching the
public about the AT.

Updates:
Dave Wood has graciously accepted the job of keeping track of me for
everyone else! So if you want to know if I'm on schedule please give him a
call. He can be reached at his home in Cambridge until late Spring, and
then at his Summer home in Kingston, MA.
Cambridge, MA 1-617-864-9640
Kingston, MA 1-617-585-2279

"Trails are not dust and pebbles on a hill,
Nor even grass and wild buds by a lake;
Trails are adventure and a hand to still
The restless pulse of life when men would break
Their minds with weight of thinking. Trails are peace,
The call to dreams, the challenge to ascent;
Trails are the brisk unfolding of release
From bitterness and from discouragement.
Trails are the random writing on the wall
That tells how every man, grown tired at heart
Of things correct and ordered, comes to scrawl
His happy hour down--then goes to start
Life over with new eagerness and zest.
Who builds a trail finds labor that is rest!" --Helen Frazee-Bower

" AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
   Healthy, free, the world before me,
   The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose."

Song of the Open Road --Walt Whitman


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