Contact Deportivo

Hello dearests.

Here are many(!) points of interest regarding contact information. You will have to bear with me, as until recently I did not think I would be relegated to the “primary planner” role on this excursion. However, considering that I do not really believe in plans, but instead favor loose outlining, we are managing alright. In related non-technical news, there is a thought I had the other day tacked on at the end of this very long post. Those thoughts are more my style anyways. This planning business just makes the left half of my brain hurt. It too requires pre-hike conditioning, apparently. Grand.

Now then.

#1: You can always leave me voicemails, which I will check when I reach town(s). Let me know if you don’t have/would like the number.

#2: I have compiled a list of post offices that we will probably be stopping at, or ones that we will be very close to in our travels without straying too far out of the way (multitudinous extra miles = not desirable.) Should you wish to send some love my way (or Pat‘s way!), it can best be addressed as follows:

Sarah Wetherbee
c/o General Delivery
[Town Name, Zip Code]

…Also, best to write “Hold for AT Thru-hiker” somewhere off to the side. They will understand. They do this a lot. The magical world of General Delivery allows one to receive mail without actually having a local address or P.O. Box: a spectacular practice for a roving lifestyle. Also #2: try to let me know if you ship something along, so we make sure to grab it.

We will be stopping at or near the post offices of:
Franklin, NC 28734
Fontana Dam, NC 28733
Gatlinburg, TN*
*c/o The Happy Hiker, 453 Brookside Village Way, Gatlinburg, TN 37738 [don’t write ‘General Delivery’ if you’re sending something here… it won’t leave the post office.]
Hot Springs, NC 28743
Damascus, VA 24236
Troutdale, VA 24378
Pearisburg, VA 24134
Glasgow, VA 24555
Waynesboro, VA 22980
Harper’s Ferry, WV 25425
And, if you are a procrastinator, and/or you are optimistic that we’ll make it past the half-way point:
Duncannon, PA 17020
Port Clinton, PA 19549
Pawling, NY 12564
[here, if all my limbs are still intact, I will be taking a sweet vacation home in Boston] ...And then on to:
Hanover, NH 03755
Goreham, NH 03581
Rangeley, ME 04970
Monson, ME 04464
…And then on to Baxter State Park, via the “100-mile Wilderness” where there are no post offices. And hopefully Mount Katahdin.

My, it all looks so short in list form, no? Right.

So loves! If you’d like to send letters/cards/postcards, etc, that would be spectacular. Really. I mean this with the entirety of my heart: if you write, whatever you write, I will not think that it is weird. Please, I am the manifestation of weird and awkward. I would love and appreciate the gesture. I am undertaking this project for myself, but am not immune to loneliness, of course. The lengthy severance from loved ones will be particularly difficult. My personality is normally comprised of equal parts Loner and Socializer. The shift away from this balance might be the challenge that most intimidates me. I will miss my friends dearly.

If you are feeling especially motivated and could tackle an entire package, we could use things like: crush-resistant snacks, small bottles of Dr. Bronner’s, drink mixes, travel-sized contact solution, candy bars, travel-sized toothpaste, postage stamps, updates on events of interest, ziplock bags, you (see #4), brownies that cannot possibly have any more chocolate stuffed into them, general loving including rainbows, kitties, puppies, ponies, etc.

If you have way too much time on your hands and would like to attempt a project in food dehydration, you might be my new best friend. Details here: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry.html. These are the foods that we carry… no water = less weight. We re-hydrate them with the backpacking stove. Basically, it’s dinner: with all the moisture sucked out. Foods can be dehydrated in an oven on the lowest setting also, sans dehydrator.

#3) If you would like a postcard, please make sure I have your address before I go!

#4) And if you would like to send yourself!:
If you are the Hiking & Camping type: come trek for a few days. Although, fair warning- this will require quite a bit of equipment if you do not already have it.
If you’re the Dinner & Drinks type: I will make you a deal-- you come take us off the trail, and we will amaze you with a display of consumption the likes if which you have never seen. It is called “hiker hunger.” (i.e. Town Dinners: Option 1- Right half of menu. Option 2- Left half of menu.)

For any visit, and/or general stalking, these are helpful websites:
This one is an overall Google Map-ish look at the A.T., with reference to roads, state lines, etc.
This one will tell you the nearest road crossing from any gap on the trail. (Gap = low spot in a ridge, like a valley or where a river cuts, through, etc.) In the “AT Road” box, make a selection (they are listed South to North, which is our intended direction). It also has maps, etc, by state.
This one lists the nearest parking areas to the A.T., by state.
If you are bored at work, and/or you have actual interest in these things, here is a PDF with some general information about the AT. Also this site has just about everything, and has been tremendously helpful to me throughout my preparations. It has prep stuff, maps, tips, data & numbers, discussion boards, blogs, links, pictures-- things of that nature.

And, now, having waded through (or gingerly skimmed over), all of the above- ::cue theme music:: you have arrived at my little Nugget of the Day! I tumbled over this while traipsing through the Blue Hills Reservation, as I am wont to do when residual winter weather prohibits hiking more challenging for altitude gain, if not for distance:

When climbing, the common drops away. The only bits of settlement visible from atop a mountain are the tributes to something more- steeples on churches built in homage to the maker; water towers storing the elixir of life. In reverence, we build skyward; we look skyward. They say ‘the trail is life.’ On it, one has the opportunity to elevate oneself.

Happy trails, friends.

Peace and Much Love!
Bee