Final Preparations

4-17-12

It's the last night before I fly to Atlanta and meet my shuttle, get a bunk, a breakfast and another shuttle to a parking lot about a mile from the top of Springer Mountain. All that for $75 is the thru-hiker special at the Hiker Hostel.

I still have too much food but I don't really know what I'll want to eat, or even how much I'll eat. I shipped most of my gear ahead to the Hiker Hostel. I didn't want to risk TSA taking or the airline breaking my gear but now I can't make sure everything fits inside my pack, so that will happen at the hostel. I didn't want to pay $25 to check a bag so I'm only taking a carry-on and a personal item. In them I'm taking Ziplocs of dried and powdered foods plus honey sticks and garlic capsules. I am already prepared to enjoy my strip search tomorrow morning.

I finally treated my clothes, shoes and socks with permetherin today. That will keep the ticks away, until it wears off in five to six weeks. I have repellent and netting, too. I would love to not get any diseases from bug bites and I know of many hikers who have, so I'll try to block them as much as is reasonable.

I still have a lot of computer stuff to do like make and email contact lists for my petsitters, clearing off some flash drives and SD cards by backing them up onto the external hard drive, and things like that. I expect to be up all night. My stomach is in knots of anticipation. I almost felt sick to my stomach until I played a video game where I died a few times and then most of my nerves were gone. I guess I'd better stop writing and get busy. 5:00AM comes too early, especially for night owls like me.