[at-l] Re: AT99 First 47 days - Springer to Atkins, VA

[Tim Hewitt <thewitt@fairchildsemi.com>]

Brian Simon wrote:
> 
> I have my first 30-40 days planned out as well.  Are you going to try to
> plan the whole trip on a day-by-day basis?  I'm kindof figuring that what
> I've planned so far is tentative, at best, and that by the time I finish
> that first month I'll have a very different approach to the trail than I do
> now.

Yes, I am making a rough plan of the entire trail. Notice I say rough plan. My
principal food source will be mail drops - I've been packaging and drying food
for months...

There is nothing that will actually force me, or keep me on this schedule
though. If I make it to a mail drop later than planned, I'll have to buy food
somewhere or go hungry. If I get there sooner than planned, I'll have extra food
to leave in a "Hiker Box" of feed someone like me in the first case :).

If I blow off a mail drop completely, I'll miss the mail from my kids, have to
buy food for a week, and be really annoyed at myself - so I'll probably not blow
by any mail drop stops completely - though it could happen. 

I'll not be a slave to my schedule, though it will be nice to know if I'm on
target to finish by early August as planned. My son is joining me when school
lets out to hike from there to Katahdin, so it will be nice to be roughly on
track.  If I'm too far behind, he will miss the opportunity to summit Katahdin
with me and that would be a shame.
 
> At this point, I'm figuring on ~180 miles between food drops, which I
> should reach every 14 days.  Thats assuming 6 days hiking out of each 7, at
> a 15mpd pace.  Like Tim, my pace for the first 3-4 weeks is below the 15mpd
> goal.

Does this mean you are carrying 14 days of food (at 2 pounds day for 28
pounds!). I've not yet gone past 9 days in order to keep my total pack weight
under 50 pounds at all times (it's 30 pounds without food).

-Paddler
http://wcha.org/hike
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