I've never fainted before, but I haven't eaten much in the last twelves hours and I feel light headed and nauseous. I imagine this is what it would feel like before one faints.

I want to etablish credit, so I'm getting a student credit card. I'm not going to use it much and definitely not until I'm working again. I filled out the application online today and literally two minutes after I had submitted it, I got a call to verify information.

I've applied all over town for a part time job. A few days a week at Lowes or Home Depot or Kirkland Village or St. Lukes and a couple a deja would be nice. I don't really want to do full time though.

I'm (maybe) going to Boston next weekend, so hiking is post-poned a bit. It'll nice to not need winter clothes, my pack should be significantly lighter. And I won't be bleeping freezing if I sleep in my hammock.

I'm not sure if I can do a show at WDIY about the Appalachain Trail with my limited experience. I might try to pitch a show on my terribly interesting life, but I would need to arrange an interesting life then. We'll see.

So, change in plans, I have to come back home and do some paper work (prom season, tax season, and college entering season have all hit), so stretch of the trail in Pennsylvania will be delayed. I might try the week after next.
I've been writing my account of running down a mountain in a thunder storm, so as soon as thats finished it'll be posted. I started a new story, I'm not sure about the old one, I'll try to add on, but I think my goal of fifty chapters might be changed to fifty chapters of anything. I'll set a goal of before school started, but we'll see.
Shippensburg is about eight times larger than Hiawassee not counting student population, so I plan to have a look around the town today. Everyone is telling me theres nothing going on here, but my post-being-in-the-woods-for-a-week mind set is still excited about all the streets and cars and stuff.

I asked people on the Appalachian Trail why they were doing it and nobody had a real answer. I'm starting to realize I don't have reasons for doing much of what I do. Or maybe I have too many reasons to be able to explain them all coming together.

I've walked the width of the Appalachian Trail.

Andrew

From the Trail Pt. 2

My friends,

New adventure. I was leaving my motel (the Hiawassee Inn) this morning to hitch to a town to catch a bus and all of the employees came out and started giving me advice and wishing me well. They supplied me with sign making materials (apparently its important when hitch hiking to make your destination clear) and while I was spelling out "Gainesville" in large bold letters the manager arranged to get me a ride to Atlanta tomorrow with other tenants.
I'm skipping ahead up to Pennsylvania where my buddy Brett has been kind enough to offer me his couch for a few days for my feet to heal up. I don't want to blow enough money for a week at the motel. The trail runs just west of his school, Shippensburg University, so I plan to hop on again there and walk back home.
I like hiking. I don't want to do it for months on end. I have time and a bit of money so I'll take another trip or two before I try to find a flexible job this summer (maybe I can pick up a couple days at Deja as well?). I'll do some section hiking, maybe meet up with some of my hiking group when they're coming through Pennsylvania.
Stories to come!

-Andrew "Mittens" Atkinson

From the Trail

Its been an experience. Good and Bad. Miserable and Fun. Tiring and Envigorating. The hiking has been harder than imagined and the people more friendly and helpful than I could have hoped for.
My mind set has drifted. I find looking at five to six months to thru-hike (any previous estimates were much too optimistic) to be too daunting of a task. A task that will be mentially and finantially draining beyond my means. Hiking has not given me the relaxation or time for comtemplation that I had imagined. I think I had romanticized it in my preparations. After eight days of trail life, I think I'll manage three more weeks. I'll re-group and set up some short term adventures with my money and supplies.
I have kept up with the best of them. Of the twelve or thirteen people I met the first night only three or four are ahead of me. I have passed a dozen more. This has cost me several layers of skin on both my heels. I have sores resembling the Hawaiian Islands on my left foot and a giant blister the size of Texas on my right. My feet are slowing me down and I will be hopping from shelter to shelter for the next week to give them a break.
Tomorrow I will spend my first "zero day" (a day where I hike zero miles) here in Hiawassee, Georgia. I will hopefully make it to the library to type up a few specific stories and descriptions of my time.

Special Thanks to Louisa, Jeff, Laura, Tom, Jon, Mom and Dad for setting me off with the needed gifts and support.