Summer Plans

Just updating you all that everything went well with my Mom and she is in good spirits...all good news!  I will be in State College for the 4th of July and the weekend of Artsfest.  I'll be around at home if you need to get a hold of me for anything.  I'm leaving for Colorado in the beginning of August and will be out there for sure by August 9th when I start my job at Snow Mountain Ranch, right next to Winter Park Ski Resort and Grandby, CO.  So until then I plan to just enjoy the time I have in PA.  Hope you all are having a good summer.

Photos Uploaded

I have uploaded a few of my photos to the site, which can be found on the right hand side in the photo album "Appalachian Trail".  I have just posted a few but will be sure to add some more later.  It's been wierd adjusting to life off the trail, especially being able to take showers everyday (which I still don't think is necessary).  I did however have some of the best sushi last night, something I had been craving since the first few days on the trail.  For all you who haven't seen me, here are the before, after, and post shaving photos of me.

The photo with Crazy was taken the day Dave and Jeff drove me down to Georgia, the one with the crazy look in my eyes was taken on my last day on the trail, and the one where I look like im twelve was taken the day after I got home.

Back in Pennsylvania

As many of you know I am back home in Pennsylvania.  I left the trail to be with my family, due to some very unfortunate news.  I will be posting pictures tomorrow as soon as I find a place where I can get high speed internet.  Please keep my Mom in your thoughts during these next few months.  All the best to those on and off the trail.

Trail Music

Life on the trail is full of days where you will spend many hours not pondering the meaning of life, but the meaning of those lyrics that have been stuck in your head since Neels Gap, GA.  That one or two songs that repeat themselves in your head with out fail.  It could be a simple beat, rhythm, or song that you heard on the local radio station or a classic rock song you heard five years ago.  It doesn't matter where the song came from, all that matters is that it is mostly likely driving you insane mile after mile.  One way to combat these symptoms is to bombard your ears with worthwhile music in great quanity while in a trail town.  Many times this music comes in the form of live jams played by talented muscians of the trail, on guitars, fiddles, and other fine instruments.  Here is a list in no particular order of some of the tunes we have been missing while on the trail.

Hendrix: Instrumental bold as Love, Album: live at Berkley

Grateful dead: Working man's dead

Don's favorite song: Miles Davis, Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
Cowboy junkies: riverwaltz

--ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra)
--Grace Jeff Buckley
-- Keb 'Mo

Floyd: Animals, Meddle
Flaming lips: yoshimi battles the pink robot
Black keys; thickfreakness
Ben harper: fight for your mind, album: pleasure and pain
Blackalicious: blazing arrow
Xavier rudd
Sashamon
On second thought
Tilly & the Wall
Feeling Left Out
Widespread panic: Panic in the streets
String cheese incident
Assembly of dust
Deep banana blackout
Percy hill
Stevie wonder: songs in the key of life
Lucinda Williams: righteously
Hot buttered rum string band
Citizen cope
Death cab for cutie: Plans
Leo kottke
Devotchka
Queens of the stone age: Songs for the deaf, lullabies to paralyze
Radiohead: amnesiac, kid A, the bends
Southbounders soundtrack
Leftover salmon
Dntel
Kevin Federline: Popozau
Willy Mason: "Oxygen"
Ray LaMontagne

"0" DAY

Hello again, I am taking a "0" (zero) Day today which means there will be no hiking for me today.  I am going to relax, recover, and do all those things I can't do while I'm out on the trail...i.e. watch Super Troopers, listen to Jimmy Buffet in the morning, sit on comfy couches, drink tall glasses of Southern Comfort, and hitting up the internet.  The list goes n and on, and I'll try and add to it later today if I can find the time (I have plenty of it) to do so.  I am also picking up my pictures from Wally World so hopefully I can post some of them on here.

As I hike my last few hundred miles, I am just beginning to understand the magnitude of such a trek and how it changes you for the better.  Hiker or not I hope you someday get to enjoy such an experience.  Greetings to all who read:)

Miss Beckah's Hostel

Just got into Pearisburg this afternoon with Rain Maker and I am staying at the Miss Beckahs Hostel down the road with Prana, GasTank, TI-85, and I-ROC.  We just did 160 miles in 8 days which isn't that bad if you have ever done any hiking on the AT.  I hope that everyone back home is safe and well, as I am.  I miss many of you and can't wait to be back.  I hope to be back in PA by June 23rd and back in State College, before July 4th. 

I am sorry that I titled that last post "I'm back!" I didn't mean to get your hopes up.  The picture above is just one of the many views that I see through out the day, following that infamous white blaze.

I am announcing also that Prana and I-ROC are now engaged to be married and will be concimating their love on April 1st, 2007.  I hope that you all attend, as it will be open bar for all alumni thru-hikers.