Bummer.

Well all my gear is here, and ready. I tested it up at bear mountain a couple days ago and I was kept warm even in the low 20's. Everything is comfortable and works well! I am very excited.

However, the past couple weeks have been tough. My roomate is leaving which means my girlfriend Hannah and I need to figure out a new living situation. We were contemplating moving to a smaller place for just us and started looking around but everything was terribly small and run down for the price we could afford. So we are going to have to find a new roomate. Chances are it won't be someone in school as it's mid-year. I just hope we don't get anyone weird and creepy. That being said, I won't be able to do the full trip this season. I will probably just do a month of it. It's a bummer because part of the reason I wanted to do the AT was to finish it. Since my flight and transportation is all set up, I am going to have to live with the fact I can't finish. A month will probably get me into the middle of Virginia.

On the plus side, my transportation from the airport to the trail is a guy named "survivor" Dave. Turns out he was an executive chef for 25 years and since I want to go into the food industry, we will have a nice hour long convo about food and hiking. He is planning another thru-hike for 2010. Hopefully I will be able to replan a thru-hike sometime then too (once school is finished.)

Anyway, thats all of the updates for now. I've been asked to talk at my little brothers school because the theme of the 2nd grade class is expeditions and Louis and Clark type stuff and word got around that I am hiking (now part) of the AT and they thought that would be along the lines of their theme. So I will probably be doing that in the next few weeks.

So the bummer is I can't do my planned 4 month thru-hike, but the plus side is I will be able to prepare and practice for it one day. Next post will be the day I leave!