[at-l] Introduction to my hike

[markusmc@hom.net]

Hi, my name is Mark Pearce.  I'm not much on intruductions and its not me I
want comments about anyway, so lets just skip to the hike info.

My hike will consist of hiking from Springer Mt to Mt Katahdin and then
back to Springer Mt along the AT.  My starting date will be 7 Feb 2000 and
my ending date..... well I just hope to be back home in Sparta GA by
Christmas of 2000. 

The way I "want" to do my hike is this; 
I am starting at the end of winter and want to end in the beginning of the
next winter. 
I want the changing of the seasons and the length of the days to be my
clock and calendar. 
I dont intend to take a watch or a calendar.
I dont want to have daily mileage goals, I want to hike at a comfortable
pace and enjoy the scenery and the wildlife around me. 
No maildrops or bounce boxes. (although I will have to mail myself a
resupply box to Katahdin)
No hitch hiking.
All nights will be spent in the woods.

I have tried to keep all of my resupply points limited to towns that are
actually on the AT.  Unfortunatly this is not possible(desirable) in some
places because of the distance between trail towns, and would require me to
carry more poundage in food than even I am willing to carry, but in those
cases I have limited resupply to towns that are less than 5 miles from the
trail.  The longest stretch between resupply is 156.1 miles between
Cheshire, MA and Hanover, NH. On this stretch I may actually have to pay
attention to mileage, but I'm hoping by the time I've gone this far I'll
pretty much be in tune to my mileage/fuel consumption rate and that it will
still be a nonissue.  Since Hanover is an ontrail town, that is probably
where I will put together a resupply box to mail to the Ranger Station at
Katahdin since there is no resupply point anywhere near there for the trip
back down.

This all may be pretty sketchy data right now though.  All I have for info
is the 99 AT Thru-Hikers Companion put out by ALDHA and the NPS AT map (the
one that has the whole AT on one long slender piece of paper) I didnt know
the actual mileages between towns until a kind gentleman posted his
proposed mail drop schedule with the mileages intact. Dont remember if I
found that in the archives of this list or the ATML, but what a stroke of
luck that was. Thanks. I'll have a better idea maybe when I get the 2000
version of WF's handbook or the ATC data book.  But for now this will have
to do for planning purposes.

I'm trying to make the logistics of this trip as carefree and simple as
possible.  I want to make this as much like simply a long walk in the woods
as possible. The beginning symbolized by the coming on of spring and the
end symbolized by the coming on of winter.

Any comments or suggestions in keeping with these goals are welcome.

Mark Pearce
Sparta GA
2000 yoyo

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