AT '09 wrap-ups, new blog look

I like me a good blizzard. Maryland is getting so much snow so fast that even the plow trucks are grounded. My car is parked in a downtown parking garage [made free by the city] for the rest of the week maybe. I hope to get out just to get out and be in the shit later. Before that, though, I'm updating the look of this blog.

You'll notice a new gadget on the side of the blog that groups posts by category, mostly by state.

I've also tweaked my profile.

I'm taking down the "Other hikers I knows' blogs" from hikers I met on my WV -> ME '09 hike in order to clear up room for the new class. Soon I'll put up blogs that make sense to link to here.

I'm going to give you excerpts from the last entries on these '09 blogs, which should inspire anyone who has adventure on his or her mind. They certainly inspire me.

Enjoy:

-Chance, on summitting Katahdin in the dark, early Sept.:

We finally reached the top around 5:45 am just a few minutes before the sun came up over the horizon. It was one of the most beautiful sunrises i've ever seen. I can't believe the amazing weather that we've had the past few days. The sky was perfectly clear for our summit and we could see for miles. Rocket, Union Break, and Daddy Longs Legs were all at the top with me. It was such an amazing feeling. I think that in days to come i will be sad that the trail is over, but at the summit i was just exstatic and filled with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Five and a half months of walking and i've finally reached my goal. There was only a time or two i thought i might not make it, but Katahdin was always so far away that it wasn't even something to think about. Here it is now and I just climbed it.

-Katchup, on coming home after finishing the trail:

On Thursday my mom planned a day of pampering for the both of us. After breakfast we headed down to the spa for manicures and pedicures. I laughed when she told me because I was immediately reminded of a conversation myself and the divas had somewhere in New York about getting a pedicure by a small Vietnamese women. "No help for you" we joked about our calloused, dirty feet. Yet there I was soaking my feet in some kind of mineral bath, relaxing in a massage chair as this little Vietnamese woman worked her wonders. The callouses are still there, but my toes are clean and pretty :)

After our manicures and pedicures we headed off to do the next obvious pampering event; getting ourselves stabbed a million times with a needle. Yep that's right, my mom and I went and got tattoos together. Never in a million years would I have thought that this is what I would be doing when returning home from the trail. And not only was I getting a tattoo with my mom but she helped me design mine. I would have thought that it was all a dream but the million needle stabs in my arm were way to realistic.

-Zipper, reflecting on her flipflop hike after completion:

December 19, 2009
I’ve been home for a month – so now I have a little bit of perspective on this fantastic experience. So what are the big take aways? People have asked me how this experience has changed me, and that’s a really good question. It’s so strange how I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz – did this crazy journey actually happen now that I’m back in my own bed in Kansas – or New Orleans? It’s good to be home and I’m happy in my familiar world – so what’s changed?

...I have a lot more faith that things will work out. Or that I can handle what happens. Granted, I think I had an easy relatively uneventful hike in terms of things that were scary. I never thought I was going to die. That first day in Maine was pretty scary for a couple of hours, but I never went for a long period of time being frightened or physically deprived. I was healthy and safe, for the most part. But that’s true for many of us most of the time and we still can be pretty good at worrying. I come from a long line of worriers, and I did worry plenty on the trail, but I also kept going and didn’t let worries stop me. So hopefully I’ve reinforced something I already knew – as Mark Twain said, most of the worst things in my life never actually happened. And whatever does happen, even if it’s difficult or scary, we deal with it one step at a time.

-Early Bear has launched an impressive new photography Web site. Yours truly makes two appearances, including one from the first really really hard day on the trail.

Happy trails!