Hi- I don't think hardly anyone is reading this any more since I haven't posted much, but just in case, and to give me some accountability, I'm going to post a bit about preparations for the August hike.

I've managed to save enough money so that I can afford to do this. Yeah!

I'm working on the planning. This trip needs real planning because we will do the western section in the Adirondacks. This will connect our High Peaks trip (1996) hopefully all the way to Fort Stanwix at Rome, NY. I'm working on the itinerary to see if we really can do all of this. It's 150 miles.

It's been 3 years since we really did a backpacking trip so I'm getting in shape. So far I'm carrying 37 pounds for 30 minutes each day. Need to bump that up pretty rapidly, but I have a month to work on it, so I should be ok.

We (Marie and I) will get to hike a portion of the new proposed route through the Adirondacks. This includes one serious bushwack, so I'm trying to find out as much info as I can about it ahead of time. The NCTA HQ has some GPS units that they were given for volunteers to use to report trail coordinates, so I'm going to be taking one of those with the info they have pre-loaded. That should be some help... I'm a map and compass girl, but having the GPS will give me a lot of practice, and will be a nice safety net.