Rough Itinerary

Well, I finally got around to buying my plane ticket to Atlanta. My flight leaves at 9:15 am on Tuesday March 20th. With a layover of about an hour in Philadelphia I'll be arriving in Atlanta at roughly 2:15 pm. Then I just have to take an hour and a half shuttle to the base of Springer Mountain and walk home. Seems like it shouldn't be a huge problem. It does an interesting job of putting things in perspective when it is a four hour flight down and a four to six month walk back. Crazy technology of air travel.

There has been a lot of requests for some sort of list of supply points along the trail so people can send me packages of goodies. I did my best to put together a rough itinerary of the trip. None of the stops in this list are completely guaranteed. That being said if someone contacts me in some way and says they mailed me something at any of the post offices on this list I will make an honest attempt to get the package. There are other post offices along the trail but packages left at those are far less likely to get to me. These destinations are by no means set in stone. I assume that some of these supply points will be skipped since some of them are not that far apart. If you do send something to a Post Office not on this list please look at the distance from trail when deciding where to send stuff. The closer to the trail the more likely I will get whatever is sent. To send things to Post Offices for me along the trail just ship the package using the USPS general delivery. Much like this...


ARLEN FINSETH
GENERAL DELIVERY
ANYTOWN NY 12345-9999


I should get at least one more post up before I leave detailing the gear that I will be taking with me and a bit about how I plan on changing out gear along the way. Just 20 days to go. I cannot wait!!

Arlen

Mile	Name of Supply Point	Miles Since Last Supply	Distance from Trail
0	Visitors Center, Amicalola Falls State Park	0	On Trail
76.3	Dicks Creek Gap	76.3	11 Miles West
171.4	Fontana Dam, NC, PO 28733	95.1	1.8 Miles West
247.2	Waterville School Road	75.8	.2 Miles West
280.6	Hot Springs, NC, PO 28743	33.4	On Trail
348.7	Erwin, TN, PO 37650	68.1	3.8 Miles West
431.5	Hampton, TN, PO 37658	82.8	2.6 Miles West
473.2	Damascus, VA, PO 24236	41.7	On Trail
548.5	Atkins, VA, PO 24311	75.3	3.2 Miles West
636	Pearisburg, VA, PO 24134	87.5	1 Mile East
728.7	Daleville, VA, PO 24063	92.7	1 Mile West
823.6	Montebello, VA, 24464	94.9	2.5 Miles West
862.8	Rockfish Gap	39.2	4.5 Miles West
950.8	Elkwallow Gap	88	.1 Mile East
1,041.2	Boonsboro, MD, PO 21713	90.4	2.3 Miles West
1,111.1	Hunters Run Road	69.9	.2 Miles East
1,182.7	Swatara Gap	71.6	2 Miles East
1,278.5	Wind Gap, PA, 18091	95.8	1 Mile East
1,322.5	Culvers Gap	44	On Trail
1,409.6	US RTE 9	87.1	On Trail
1,467.2	Kent, CT, PO 06757	57.6	.8 Miles East
1,570.1	Dalton, MA, PO 01226	102.9	.3 Miles West
1,638.4	Stratton Mountain	68.3	1.7 Miles East
1,727.1	South Pomfret, VT, PO 05091	88.7	.9 Miles East
1,738.2	West Hartford, VT, PO 05084	11.1	.3 Miles East
1,817.1	Franconia Notch, US RTE 3	78.9	2.2 Miles East
1,891.9	Gorham, NH, PO 03581	74.8	3.6 Miles West
1,969.8	Rangeley, ME, PO 04970	77.9	9 Miles West
2,002	Stratton, ME, PO 04982	32.2	5 Miles West
2,072	Monson, ME, PO 04464	70	2 Miles East
2,174.7	Abol Bridge	102.7	On Trail

The beginning

Why did I decide to attempt to hike the Appalachian trail? I'm sure some people would like to believe that it holds some bigger meaning or it has always been a life goal. Something of great life significance and meaning. Sadly, I can not claim such things to be true with any sort of honesty. This last summer I had a lot of free time on my hands and nothing to do with it so I decided... why not start hiking a lot. It was never something I had done a large amount of in the past despite enjoying the little I had done. It also fit my decision to just run with random ideas that would pop into my head and see where they would take me. As I started meeting AT thru-hikers while out on the trails I started to think that it could be fun to try and hike the AT.

The more I thought about it the fewer reasons I could come up with not do it. I had come to enjoy hiking, I had no attachments or commitments that would make a six month absence problematic and it took the random idea of hiking a lot and ran with it. I started making some basic plans to ensure such an endeavor would succeed. I decided to get my seasonal position with LL Beans back since it fit into my schedule almost perfectly, running from September to February, and the employee discount would make acquiring gear less daunting. Conveniently, I also got a part time job working at Pasta'z two nights a week. This meant that the financial part of my trip should be taken care of. After the concern of money was basically removed from the equation I knew, it was happening.

Once I started spreading the word that I was going to attempt the AT it became clear that I should have some sort of method to get news and updates out to people that would be interested in such things. Since I will be carrying my iPhone with me along the trail and I assume I should get at least intermittent cell signal along the way writing a blog seemed like the easiest method of communication. Over the coming weeks I plan on making a few posts detailing a bit more of the planning process that I have gone through, including a rough trip itinerary as well as complete gear list. This should serve the dual purpose of informing people a bit more about what went into making the trip possible as well as getting me some practice writing blog posts before I am doing it on my tiny iPhone keyboard in the middle of the woods.

Hopefully this blog will provide the people that want it a relatively frequent line of communication with me while I am on the trail as well as provide me a sort of virtual journal about my trip. If you have any ideas for features or information that you feel should be on the blog let me know over the next couple weeks and I will see what I can do. Feel free to share this blog with anyone you know that might be interested.

Arlen