How Blogging is Going to Work on the Trail

 I feel like this post might be a tad early, I thought about waiting a few weeks to post it, but I'm typing it now so might as well post it now.

 First off I like to say I'm not a professional writer (although you may have figured that out already) so my posts will be far from perfect 98% of the time especially when being wet, tired, and miserable. I will try and post every night I will be hiking, it is very likely I may not get service so posts might occasionally be a few hours late. I will be using my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy SIII, wish I had the 4) for writing posts and taking all my pictures, its actually not half bad. Because of using an android I can buy additional batteries, so I will be bringing 3, 1 in my phone and 2 on standby. In towns, or wherever there is an outlet I will charge all my batteries completely with my charger and hope they last me to the next outlet. My daily posts will generally be about a paragraph long (shorter than this post) and describe in moderate detail what I did, elaborating on the interesting stuff. I'm a picture person and when reviewing past AT blogs the ones with a lot of pictures I found the most interesting. Because of this I want to include multiple pictures in each post, once again service may not be spectacular so it might take awhile. I'm also debating the idea of giving a trail update in video form about every few hundred miles or so (but no promises).

Update 2: Three More Months!

     It's hard to believe that in only 3 months (probably less-than half the time it will take to complete the AT itself ) I will be standing on Springer ready to walk the gazillion steps to Katahdin. I still haven't thought of an exact start date yet but it will be within the first week of March (leaning towards the 5th). In a few weeks my first semester of college will be done and I will start working full time to help fund the trip. Admittedly this is not the best dissension and if I were smart I would wait a few years until I finished college like a majority of those that hike the AT, but I cant. My obsession with the AT is too strong and if I were to put it on hold I could risk the possibly of never hiking it or just going insane. When I say I cant wait to get on the trail I'm beyond serious, I have had countless dreams where I would be chilling by campfire at a shelter, arriving at Amicalola Falls State Park, or just hiking through the seasons. (kind of sad...)

     Since my last update I bought a new air mattress; the neoair xlite (which is awesome), a few stuff sacks which are probably not even the right size, and not a whole lot more. I'm hoping to get the majority of the rest of my gear for Christmas which include my quilt (Enlightend Equipment Revelation X 20*) and clothing.

     Before I set foot at Amicalola Falls I need at least some physical training. As of now I would probably make it to Neels Gap and then most likely have my legs fall off. I'm planning to start using my unused gym membership more often and attempt a few practice hikes in February to at least be a little more prepared. The best training for hiking weeks on end is to hike weeks on end which can't exactly be done the weeks leading up to the A.T. I expect the first few weeks to be painful and then hopefully get my trail legs where I can crank out 20 plus miles a day and not feel a thing (yeah right). Can't wait to get on the trail...seriously!

13 Reasons Why You Should Take Time Off Of College to Thru-Hike the Appalachian Trail

Saw this article today on Appalachian Trails, been looking for something like this since I started my planning.