Snap to reality

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy ...

Well, it’s the night before zero hour. I’m posting this from the Hiker Hostel in Dahlonega, GA, and I’m feeling like the cowboy on top of the bull, just waiting for that bell. I’m so so so tired of sitting and thinking and planning; so glad to be out there tomorrow.

Started the day with breakfast with my brother in Florida, said goodbye to the nephews, then Tina drove me up to Orlando for my flight to Atlanta. Took the train as far as it took me, then got picked up by the good folks that run the hostel.

In the morning, they'll drop me off at Amicalola Falls. From there, it’s ten miles uphill to the top of Springer Mountain, the official start of the AT. I don’t even actually plan on making that in one day; I’ll camp after about 7 miles or so, and make the summit Friday midmorning. It seems a bit lame to take over a day doing the approach trail, but one of the bits of advice I’ve gotten from every single thru-hiker I’ve talked to or read is the importance of starting slow. People who try to do fifteen miles a day right out of the gate tend to go home after two weeks with stress fractures or shin splints or aching knees or …

I’m taking the advice. Especially since one of the things I really dropped the ball on has been my physical prep. I was doing pretty good with the workouts this fall, but the Christmas hit, then I worked doubles in January, then had surgery in Feb … bottom line, I haven’t been in the gym more than a dozen days in the last 3 months, and I’m hitting the trail as a 240-pound tub of goo. Not the fattest, though; I read about a guy who started from Springer over three bills and finished, so if he did it …

Reminds me of a conversation I had last March with a guy doing a thru. We were stopped at nice spot with a view, discussing the psychology involved in keeping oneself going, and I said that when discouraged, one could always think of all the people who’d done it before: fat guys, little kids hiking with their parents, Emma Gatewood (woman in her 70s), and Bill Irwin (blind). If all of those people finished, how hard can it really be?

“That’s one way of looking at it,” he said. “Another way is that people have died trying this.”

Yes, well, there is that. I also remember the quote from Emma Gatewood that they have in her Wikipedia entry: "I thought it would be a nice lark," she said, adding, "It wasn't."

Not that any of that matters at this point; I’m finished reading about other people’s hikes for awhile. I aim to make Neel’s Gap by Tuesday, and Blood Mountain’s in the way.

So here I go it’s my shot,
Feet fail me not.