February 2006

February 2, 2006 - Ah!, it's February, and Groundhogs Day at that. I don't know what Punxsutawney Phil's forecast is but it's time to turn my thoughts to hiking. I would like it to be more than my thoughts. I would like to be starting tomorrow but the horrible "R" word, "responsibilities ", keep cropping up. Let's see, I'm not doing much in February but I have to go to Washington DC in March and I've agreed to help with a Boy Scout Training in March and another in April. Then there is Round Table in February, March, and April. May is the month of our Round Table picnic but I guess I can miss that. The city I work for has to get its budget set up and have the appropriate public hearings. Since I keep and provide most of their data I should stay here for that but it should all be wrapped up by the April 25 City meeting.

So it looks like, I will be free and clear to leave Louisville sometime after April 25. April 27 sounds like a good date. A little later than I would like but perhaps it will get past the bad snow and heavy rains that linger for days. I plan to start where I left off, or perhaps at a Damascus. I've already been to Damascus and starting from there means I will cover about 50 miles that I have already done but I don't mind that too much. It just depends on how transportation works out.

Since I was roughly on schedule when I stopped in 2005, I didn't have to do to much tweaking to bring it up to date for this year.

My only regret about stopping is losing the edge on physical conditioning. In 2005, I started hiking low mileage days and gradually built up to where 12- 15 miles days were comfortable and 15+ mile days were possible. It was an ego boost for me to think myself capable of hiking like that. At this point, I think that I will be doing well to maintain a 10 mile a day average for the first few weeks. Hiking 10 miles in a day is not too difficult but getting up and doing it day after day does put wear and tear on the body. It's going to take some getting used to again.