Reconnecting

I've been reading some journals of backpackers who hiked long distance trails that I'm interested in, including the North Country Trail, 4600 miles from the NY/VT border to well into North Dakota.  Some parts of it are well maintained and completed, whereas other sections are not.  

Back in the mid 1990's I became interested in backpacking and started looking at gear and reading all the info I could find on the subject.   AOL had a hiking/camping chat room at the time and I got a lot of different information and viewpoints and met some really great folks.   I joined a hiking club in the Washington, D.C. area and spent just about every Saturday or Sunday hiking with them, sometimes in the Shenandoah, and often in places closer to D.C.  I met a man on one of these walks and found out that he had completed several of the trails I was interested in, including the Appalachian Trail.   We began hiking together, often on the C&O Canal towpath which was easy to access from D.C. and fairly level - I wanted to become comfortable walking long distances on a trail or pathway (unpaved), and I learned a lot from this guy about hiking, organizing a pack, etc.

I saw a reference to him a few days ago on a site related to the North Country Trail, and included was his email address, so I emailed him to say hi but thinking he wouldn't remember who I was.  He wrote back right away and we have chatted on the phone a couple of times since.  It's nice to reconnect with someone from years back.   We lost contact when I started actually backpacking with other groups of people and we both went on to other endeavors.   I sure wish I could even consider a long distance hike, but it's doubtful I could ever do it again. 

Since today is Arianna's actual birthday Jeannie and her family spent the day together.   It would normally have been a gym day for us so I decided I'd go on my own, knowing I will miss Friday as I'll be camping.  I ended up going to the gym just a couple of blocks from my house and doing a short workout.  I'm so used to the other location and don't care for the layout of the nearest one.  It worked though and I didn't have to drive the extra distance.

Getting things out and ready for camping I came across my old Swiss Army knife, and sharpened up the main blade.  The other blades and doo-dads are a pure waste as I can't seem to pull them out of the base so they are useless to me.  If I ever decided to try backpacking again I will need to buy a decent pocket knife - a model with one blade only.  I don't remember ever using it all that often and it probably isn't worth carrying the weight except when car camping.

You may remember that I bought 4 chocolate eclairs last week, which I ate in 4 days.  That took some real will power to ration them.  Yesterday I bought two more and finished off the second one today.   I could get really hooked - I wonder if I could already be hooked!