See You Later

JoshMcMadMac

JoshMcMadMac

Dedicated LVC Member
Joined
May 3, 2004
Messages
3,428
Reaction score
33
Location
Waynesboro, PA
[font=Verdana, Arial] Hey guys & gals, I just wanted to say goodbye, for now. I am leaving on Wednesday to go hiking. I am going to through-hike the Appalachian Trail with my father. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Appalachian trail runs from Georgia to Maine, a course of 2,160 miles. I'll most likely be gone until the end of August. I'm sure you'll all be here when I get back, and I will try to stop in whenever I can get internet access and drop a line. I am in the process of putting my "loose" itinerary into a spreadsheet and will host it for everyone to see once I get it finished.[/font]
 
Josh, have a great time on your hike and if you think about it take pictures. :cool:
 
hay, mabey ill cya there, im trying to get to do the VA portion of the trail in june. Youll probabily be past there by then tho. Good luck dude. Thats what you call commitment. :wave
 
Isn't it the case that some people have done the trail, and never come out? ... when you get to NY and stop at the 44/55 Rte Intersection... look at the 5 mph hairpin turn on the mountain side... Hottweelz did it at 35 with a Dodge Aries....
 
Codewise, I have been on the board very little lately. I have been doing quite a bit to be prepared for my six month leave.

Pepperman, we have a digital camera, lots of batteries, and lots of memory. Pictures will abound!

Mr. Wilson, We will be past VA in June. Like I stated, I will be posting a tentative itinerary soon, so if you are available feel free to look us up!

Mespock, we will only be in West Virginia for about a day. ;)

Hotweelz, I can honestly say that I've never heard of anyone disappearing while through-hiking.
 
Have a blast Josh. What a great lifetime experience and to do it with the 'ol man makes it even better.
 
JoshMcMadMac said:
Mespock, we will only be in West Virginia for about a day. ;)
QUOTE]

I can not say that I blame ya there.....if you spend any more time there than that you may end up some hillbillies bride.......

Good luck and have fun on your journey. Must be nice to take that much time off to yourself.......Enjoy your time spent with your father. :Beer
Click to expand...
 
I have the itinerary hosted here: http://www.freewebs.com/markviibullitt/Itinerary.xls and a great map of the entire Appalachian Trail here: http://www.freewebs.com/markviibullitt/Appalachian Trail.pdf

On the itinerary I have listed mail locations. There are two types: maildrops and post offices. Each are treated differently. When mailing to a post office you must specify "general delivery" on the mail. Also, remember that UPS and Fed-Ex cannot deliver "general delivery" packages. Maildrops are locations where the business owner is kind enough to hold mail for hikers until they get there. Here is an example of what to do on the label:

Joshua McAlister
c/o the business (or general delivery for a P.O.)
City/State/Zip
Please hold for Thru-hiker
(estimated date of arrival)

I cannot assure you that anything mailed will make it to me. There is little reason for it not to, but you never know. Certain post offices may be hidden or off the beaten trail, but other than that I should get everything and will be sure to show my gratituted for it!
 
Wow - Great experience your gonna have.. :) If you have a chance, be sure to check in with us once in awhile!~
 
Sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Enjoy the journey.
 
Hey all! I've been gone a week now. It seems like time is really moving by quick. I know that I'm still a long way from the end, but this past week has been a blast. We've completed about 50 miles so far, and the itinerary has already been changed quite a bit. We pulled into the town of Hiawassee earlier than planned yesterday. We are taking the day off, then hiking 16 miles tomorrow and getting back into it full boar. This is the first chance I have had to get to email since I left, as we are at a public library now.

The weather was beautiful the first two days, but then a cold front blew in. It snowed on us the past few nights, but we've managed to stay warm and relatively dry. We've started hiking with a great crew of guys going about the same pace as us, and they've really made the trip more fun. Both my father and I are hurting a little, but that is to be expected. My knees started getting bad on the third day. Once we got into Walasi-Yi I had to pick up knee braces as well as hiking poles. Both have helped immensely. Soon we will walk a little farther into town to get groceries as well as ankle braces, and an ace wrap just in case.

I hope you are all doing well. This is certainly a great adventure, and one that I will be telling you about much more over the following months. Feel free to email as you please; just remember that my internet access is very sporadic. I hope to talk to you all again soon.

Regards,
-Joshua
 
Josh you're a real trooper! If you had a GPRS Phone you could have :V at any time while hiking!
 
Are the legs holding up any better?
 
Hello from Pearisburg! We pulled in here yesterday around 14:00, now 620 miles into our journey; we are over ¼ of the way done! The trail has been a bit easier, and we are fairing pretty well. The weather has been very nice, although it does become hot at times. We have only had rain to worry about one day, as we tried our best to outrun a thunderstorm and get off of the ridge-line. We've been doing between 17-20 miles each day, except for yesterday which was only 10 to get into town.

The new gear is working out pretty well for me, which is quite a relief. My new shoes broke in very nice after about three days. However, dad's boot began hurting his right ankle, bad enough to bruise the outside of the ankle! We stopped several times in one morning hoping to find a more relieving way to lace his boots, but nothing was working out well for him. I offered him my shoe, and that worked much better for him. We hiked the rest of the day, over 13 miles, wearing mis-matched shoes. Still, it worked out well for him and he is now wearing my shoes. From now on I think I will be the one buying his shoes for him. ;-) Other than that small incident all is well and we are moving along great. Two days ago we did 20.4 trail miles, and that was on top of going ½ mile down a road to a small grocery/deli and the ½ mile out, as well as an additional ½ mile at the end of a day to make it to a hostel. It was a long pull, but made for a great day.

Here is a picture of me doing my best "backpacker crossing the road" impression: http://jmcalister.bravehost.com/Road Xing.jpg that was taken a few days ago when we did the 20+ miler. I hope you are all doing well, and hope to hear from you soon. Some of you are graduating soon or have just recently, and I want to make sure you know that I am proud of you and glad to know that you have made it!

Regards,
-MacGyver
GA -->ME
 
"Remote linking of images not allowed." :(

So are you still on track on your itinerary?

Glad things are going well. This is an experience of a lifetime for you and your father. It's really awesome to think about it.
 
We made it to Troutville, VA, and we're doing good with 715 miles behind us. We've really been moving along since Pearisburg. We did 20 miles out of town, then 18.5, then 22.5, 16.5 yesterday and 15.5 into town today. Needless to say we are more than ready to take tomorrow off! We were planning on stopping yesterday at a hostel, but it has closed down this year, so we went on to Troutville instead. The trail has been very rocky and tough on the feet, with the exception of today. Still, we've been pushing through and fairing pretty well. The weather has been treating us well, albeit hot in the afternoon most days. Nothing to complain about, though, as we've dodged the rain for over a week. Friday we will break 725 miles, the 1/3 of the way mark!

We went into the town of Cawtaba yesterday, less than 1/2 a mile off the trail to grab lunch and a days' worth of groceries. We got to the Cawtaba Grocery at 12:30 and ordered a BBQ sandwich each, and a pizza. There was no seating inside, so we sat out front on the sidewalk. A girl came and talked to us about our hike, gave us her phone number, offered to do anything for us we needed, and even offered us a place to stay. We called her today and took her up on her offer! Mandie and her fiance Scott live off in the farm-lands near the Trail and are planning on starting a hostel soon. Scott is a Thru-Hiker from 2001, and they are both two of the most gracious individuals I've ever met. They are lodging us in their home, which is practically brand new, and Mandie is hell-bent on feeding us and giving us anything our hearts desire. The people out here never cease to amaze me. We have also been coming across a lot of Trail Magic; mostly in the form of sodas in a cooler along the trail, or cooled in a stream. We came across Trail Magic twice on Sunday, twice on Monday, and once yesterday! Seeing things like that really boost your spirits out here, especially after a tough section of trail.

I assure you that we are doing great, and are very happy to be relaxing and clean! I hope all is well with you, and hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
-MacGyver
GA -->ME
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 115 (members: 0, guests: 115)
Back
Top