Kind of.  I found it fascinating to experience what happened when I closed my eyes – the brain was relieved of an incredible amount.  And, surely, that part of the brain so taken up with storing visual data (remember “my whole life”?) – each blade of grass, each leaf, each rock or pebble, a little […]

Mon, Feb 22, 2016 I have no recall at all about what time I got up that first day waking on the trail but it was probably close to the hiker’s routine: down and up with the sun.  “Hikers’ midnight” is 8:00 p.m. in the summer.  It was sooner in the winter when the days […]

Mounting the falls was the first of what would be many successes in the months to come.  All obstacles not yet encountered loom in the imagination and take on a life of their own.  The reports of their character might be overstated by some fearful soul marching onward in mild dread or by a southbounder […]

Sun, Feb 21, 2016 Got up.  Had breakfast with a full house now, paid and packed up for departure.  Was I going to Springer or to Amicalola Falls for the 8.8-mile (per AWOL) approach trail?  Josh was getting the shuttle rides in order and would go to Springer first and then on to the falls, […]

Sat, Feb 20, 2016 I decided not to rush off to the trail the day after my arrival at Hiker Hostel.  I had too much to figure out.  Which keyboard, the rubber, waterproof one which rolled up or the hard one which folded in the middle?  I set up my Galaxy S2 Tablet on its […]

Dressed and packed, I headed for the car with Theo, our packs and my trekking poles.  My wife accompanied us to say good-bye and wish us well.  I brought an old sheet for the back seat where Theo would be and a bag of bluetooth keyboards, bills, camera, cords and stuff to sort through at […]

Thu, Feb 18, 2016 Pack backpack inside: section of work-out pad for Theo against back of pack and, from bottom to top, down booties; quilt for Theo; 32̊ down sleeping bag; Thermarest ProLite Regular, tapered, somewhat self-inflating sleeping pad; stove pot with homemade Coke-can alcohol stove, matches, steel/flint lighter, bic lighter, spoon, and windshield all […]

[The text for the next 257 days was written in 2017.  During my first year off the trail, I wrote almost every day what I did on the trail the year before.  To refresh my recollection, I referred to brief notations I had made in my AWOL Guide Book and to the nearly 23,000 photos […]

I then take down the tent and pack it in a long, outside pocket where it is readily accessible in a rainstorm. Then I fill the water bottles and call Theo. He was once reluctant to sit for his saddlebag placement but now, I pick up his bag and he comes instantly, eager to hit […]

I was born in Manhattan and raised in New England and have spent a lot of time in the snow and cold. But I don’t want to be foolish. Hiking and camping out in near-0 temperatures can be dangerous. I have spent a good bit of time getting prepared with the right gear for me […]