The BackWoods Drifter

The dog days of summer. When you hear those words, what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Heat would most likely be the most popular answer. A large reason for that is because dog day’s occur right at the end of July through most of August. The hottest days of summer is during that time in the northern hemisphere.

The Romans believed that the extra heat and humidity during the July thru August time frame was a result of the dog star, Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky during the winter months. In the summer, however, it rises with the sun. The Romans believed because Sirius was so bright it helped to heat the Earth. During dog days the Sun and Sirius reach their pinnacle together. So, obviously, in their thinking it was so hot because they had the Sun and Sirius the “dog star” beating down on them at the same time. Thus was born the dog days of summer.

In hillbilly lore the dog days of summer are a little more ominous. It was a time of certain dangers learned from years of living in the mountains. The first danger we all know is the heat. August is when everybody starts thinking about how much they can’t wait for Fall. Unless your a hunter in which case you wait for Fall year round. But anyway, the heat is the first danger during dog days. You have to be really careful doing any outdoor activity and be sure to drink plenty of fluids. Preferably the ones containing electrolytes.

The second danger is the danger of infection from swimming. During dog days the air is so still that bodies of water can become somewhat stagnant due to the heat and the stillness of the air. Obviously this would be less severe in very large bodies of water and moving water. But even on large lakes, the water in the coves and places like that can become stagnant very easily. I’m not saying don’t go swimming in the hottest part of summer. But if you have an unhealed cut or anything that could possibly get infected then I would suggest limiting your swimming to the pool. Either that or make sure to cover it well and use added protection.

The final danger, in some states anyway, is the copperhead. During dog days the copperhead is usually going through it’s second shedding of the year. The first time they shed is during late winter close to the end of their hibernation period. I’m not sure how long it takes the snake to shed but during that time they are for the most part blind and extremely dangerous. Normally you would have to nearly step on a copperhead to get it to strike. During dog days, however, the blind snake will strike at anything within it’s range. Simply because it can’t see and it will try to protect itself from unknown enemies.

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During dog days, heat is the danger that most of us face. Young children and elderly individuals can be the most affected by the heat and humidity. Be careful outside during this time. If you have to be outside then familiarize yourself with the signs of heat related illnesses. The main one being heat stroke. A definite tell tell sign that you are on your way to a heat stroke is when you just suddenly stop sweating. If that happens then find a cool place to be and find it quickly. Drink plenty of fluids with electrolyte if available, or just plain water. Drink it slowly to begin with. You will want desperately to just gulp but take my word for it that will only make it worse. That will just add a nauseated stomach to an already bad situation. The idea is to keep the fluids inside your body and drinking slowly will help with that. Getting fluids back in your body is the most important thing you can do and doing so will probably save your life.
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I’ve always been a trader. I absolutely love to just trade things. Doesn’t really matter what it is either. My friend Ronnie was the same way. We had been trading, basically, junk back and forth since childhood. When I say trading, just in case someone doesn’t know, it would be like, for example, I’ll give you my Superman comic book for your two baseball cards. As we got older, obviously we didn’t trade baseball cards but just about everything else from watches to guns. What always made it fun was trying to burn each other while trying not to get burnt. A good example of burning the other trader is to have a windup watch that would only run for about 15 minutes at a time. It was during that fifteen minutes that you would want to trade the watch off for something that worked correctly thus burning the recipient of the watch.

There was a point when Ronnie and I were drinking buddies. He was with me and a few other friends on nearly every alcohol induced expedition in the International Scout. This story, that I will eventually get to, happened a few years after the scout and I was actually living in Ohio but had come to West Virginia for vacation. Ronnie, myself and his girlfriend had, for lack of a better description, a lets get drunk reunion. Sometime during that party Ronnie asked me if I wanted to trade my car for his truck. I had a pretty decent white 1990 Pontiac Bonneville, I don’t remember the year of his truck but it was a Chevy S-10 4×4. It was a decent looking truck. But I think, after he got a little trashed, he forgot I heard it run. It was a six cylinder that sounded like it was running on four of those if it was lucky. There was no way I would trade my car for it no matter how trashed I was.

I thought it was funny that Ronnie was so blatantly trying to burn me. That truck would be lucky to make it out of the county let alone all the way back to Ohio. After playing along for most of the evening I finally let him off the hook and told him there was no way he was getting my car. He acted like his feelings were hurt when he asked why I wouldn’t trade. That’s when I told him about his truck being unable to leave the county under it’s own steam. He got a big kick out of that but quickly recovered a straight face as he tells me how good it runs. I told him, “let’s take it up the mountain and I’ll show you how good it runs.” He lived in the head of Peachtree so it was just a matter of getting in it and going to the mountains. This, my friends, was mistake number one. The second mistake quickly followed on the heels of the first when Ronnie let me drive. I’m gonna flat out tell you. If I’ve been drinking DO NOT put me behind the wheel of a four wheel drive. Especially with permission to put it to the test. I will get to the top of the nearest mountain if I have to blaze a trail. That might sound funny but I did just that in the old scout, but that’s a story for another day.

To be honest I didn’t think the S-10 had what it took to go any distance up the mountain. At any rate, off we go. I kept to the roads. I was very surprised the truck made it even on roads. I had it locked in four wheel low. The truck was really struggling. By this time Ronnie had given up on trying to pass the truck off as a good running truck but somewhere we adopted a new mission. We were going to take the truck until we ran out of road or blew the engine up whichever came first. The time was somewhere around midnight. I don’t know why it didn’t cross our minds that we had already came up the mountain about five miles from the nearest house. Then again, I do know why, we were having a blast and still had cold beer in the cooler.

We are a pretty good distance up the mountain when the road takes a sharp turn uphill and back to our left. As soon as we rounded the curve we saw the first of about six very huge dirt piles that the gas company had obviously put there to block the road. They were spaced about a hundred yards apart with the first one being the tallest mound. At it’s center, I would say it was about ten feet high with a twenty foot base. Facing it with the truck the valley was on our right and the mountain on our left. It was where the mountain and the pile of dirt met that we decided to go over. Even at that low point on the dirt pile it was all the truck could handle. We did make it over but thats when I regained some of my senses and decided that we probably shouldn’t go any further.

I pull up to the next mound and the road is just wide enough for me to turn the truck around. That was scary because as I was turning around, when the truck was sideways in the road the headlights pierced nothing but blackness. The nose of the truck that close to the very deep hollow. When I did get it turned around, I was so relieved, I decided to take a break. I parked the truck on the hill. I would say the grade was somewhere around 25 degrees. The truck’s emergency brake didn’t work and it was a standard shift. I left the truck in four low, in first gear and with the tires pointed towards the mountain. That was my third mistake, leaving the truck parked unattended on the hill. We were drinking a couple beers. I had walked on up the road just to take a look at some of the dirt mounds. Ronnie was pretty trashed. His girlfriend who had come with us on this trip was also pretty trashed. I had started back towards them when I heard Ronnie say something about a cigarette and go staggering off towards the truck. I didn’t think anything about it. That high on the mountain the stars kind of had my attention. They have a way of doing that regardless of my state of mind. At any rate, I’m standing there not paying attention when I hear the truck door shut then hear Ronnie calmly say, “my truck.” Just as I turn towards him he yells, “there goes my truck!!!” Sure enough it was going down the road with nobody in it.

At this point I didn’t know what to do besides watch it go and hope it stayed on the road long enough to reach the tall dirt pile, but it didn’t. After about fifty yards of smoothly going right down the middle of the road it suddenly turns to the right and right down in the hollow it went. When we got to where it went over I was still speechless. It had went about sixty feet down into the ravine and stopped in a briar patch. The big problem was, that was where it was going to stay. It would take a wrecker to get it out of there. I had to scramble down the bank and get the keys out of the truck. It took us about an hour and half to stagger back to the bottom of the mountain on the road. Ronnie was so trashed he could barely walk. After we got to where I thought I could bring my car to, I had Ronnie and his girlfriend sit and wait while I went to get the car. It was easier that way. We did finally make it back to his house in one piece but that was one hell of a night.

We joked about that forever afterwards always pointing the finger at each other as being the blame. I’m not sure but I can guess that what actually happened is when Ronnie got his cigarettes out of the truck he accidentally knocked the transmission out of gear. Since it was in four wheel low it didn’t just take off but started out moving real slow. It may have even not started moving till he shut the door. It was a good thing he was outside the truck.

The S-10 ended up staying in that hollow for about three months before Ronnie found someone that had a wrecker that could get to it. I never did see it again. Ronnie told me the wreck didn’t kill it but the wrecker tore it to pieces just trying to pull it back up the mountain. It was hauled away for junk.

Mission accomplished. We took it till it could go no further, ever…

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The last post and a comment I made started me thinking about my friend Ronnie. He was one of my friends from childhood. I was fortunate to have two best buddies during my childhood. The first was Mark, I talked about him in the post The Biggest Fish Ever. My other best buddy was Ronnie.

Ronnie was unique in that he was born with a speech impediment. He was smart but sometimes he was hard to understand. Naturally growing up like that made him the butt end of a lot of cruel jokes from the bullies. I can tell you this, not while I was around. There is nothing that would piss me off faster. Ronnie only lived about a mile from my house so it was natural that we were friends at home as well as school.

You know, I can see where this post is going so I am just going to stop the narration. Suffice it to say that Ronnie was a true friend. The type of person that would literally give you the shirt off his back asking for nothing in return. In a couple of posts I mention being homeless a few years ago. Well right before that I was helping to take care of Ronnie. He was swiftly dying of cancer. I felt so bad for him. If there ever was an injustice that was it.

Ronnie died from cancer Dec 23, 2004 at the young age of 42.

I have a lot of good stories that stretch back through the years that Ronnie was a big part of. I think I’m going to tell those stories because friends should be remembered.

Tomorrow’s post is going to be one of those stories. The title… There Goes My Truck!!!

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Not far from where I live now is a hollow called Sand Lick. This used to be the place we would go hunting the first day of deer season. A couple of years ago, a friend that I grew up with died from cancer. It was with him and his dad that I used to go to this hollow hunting the first day. His dad is the one that I talked about in an earlier post about getting shot in the face with a shotgun. This story happened while hunting with them. I had never shot a deer and both of them had multiple trophies so they were on a mission to help me drop my first deer. On one of those trips I had settled into the bed of a hollow about a half hour walk from camp. I was using a single shot Rossi shotgun with slugs. That old shotgun was probably the best squirrel gun I have ever had the pleasure of hunting with. Anyway, on that morning I was going to try to kill a deer with it. I was sitting beside an old downed tree. The log was aiming down the hill. I was sitting in a V, where the first big branch came off the tree. I had been sitting there all morning and hadn’t seen any sign of a deer. I was just about ready to get up and go back to the camp for lunch when I saw the biggest red squirrel I had ever lay my eyes on. He was on the ground and coming up the hollow towards me and the old tree. I watched this squirrel come all the way to the log. He jumped up on the end about fifteen feet from where I sat. I’m not sure at what point I decided to try and take the squirrel but when I did I had a slug in the gun. The squirrel was on the log and I very slowly took the slug out of the gun and put in a shot shell. I definitely didn’t want to obliterate the squirrel with the slug and even with the shot shell, at fifteen feet, I would do to much damage to the squirrel. Sitting there for just a bit I tried to think of how I could take the squirrel without completely destroying him. I didn’t want to shoot him for the hell of it but instead could only think of the squirrel gravy that my friends wife was so good at making.

After some quick thinking I thought that maybe if I jumped up real fast the squirrel would head up the closest tree. Initiating my plan, I quickly rose up from the ground and the squirrel did exactly what I predicted. He went to the top of a tree that was about ten feet from the base of the old log. Doing that put him at a good distance and I could take him without tearing him to pieces. One shot was all it took to bring the old red squirrel out of the tree. He was a big one and a buck. This squirrel had a pair, if you know what I mean. Back then we would take a small stout rope with us into the woods to help drag any deer out that we may shoot. Since this squirrel was a buck I tied my rope to his hind legs and used it to drag him into camp. “I got my buck,” I told my friends. They got a big kick out of seeing me drag this squirrel into camp as if it were a deer. I wouldn’t get a real deer that year but I did get a very cool memory that I will have forever.

It was just a hunting trip or two later with the old Rossi that I did end up shooting a slug through the gun and ruining it forever. It was a good squirrel gun but couldn’t handle a slug. One shot and the end of the barrel swelled making it useless as a squirrel gun.

After years of hunting with my two friends I finally did get a deer. My friend that was dying of cancer had always wanted to see me take one. In an earlier post I told about shooting the four point with a 22 magnum. I was staying with my friend trying to help him out as his sickness slowly overwhelmed him. He finally got to see me kill a deer. He died from the cancer about three weeks later.

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Years ago I used to hunt with my grandfather from my mothers side. I learn a lot from him in the seemingly short time he was around. One thing I learned was the different things growing in and around the mountains a person could use for nourishment if they needed. I bring this up because on one of those days we happened upon a stand of small birch trees. I had been getting pretty hungry. He takes out his pocket knife and carefully strips the bark from a small branch of the birch. “Chew on this,” he said. “It will make your hunger subside until we get home.” I put the piece of bark in my mouth and was delighted to find that it actually taste pretty good. It’s kind of chewy with a mint taste. “Don’t swallow the bark,” he had said. The juice was all I wanted to use. And it did work. I don’t know that it actually satisfied my hunger but it did make me quit thinking about it.

Now when I go to the woods and feel the need for a refreshing taste. I’ll find a birch, strip off a little bark and can’t help but think about my grandfather. If you have never tasted the bark from a birch tree I would suggest trying it. You may be surprised. If you do though, you want to take the bark from the small dark branches or water sprouts. The new growth in other words. The bark from the main tree holds very little of the refreshing taste. In the photo below you can see the branch I’m talking about. It’s the shoot with the dark bark.

The leaves and trunk are very similar to that of the beech tree except that the tree bark of the birch will be split with long horizontal lines whereas the beech is fairly smooth. Also the birch tree is a lot smaller. If you find one and are unsure just strip a little bark from a branch and smell it. You will know right away if it is a sweet birch.

The photo and the following from Wikipedia…

Sweet Birch (Betula lenta), also known as Black Birch, Cherry Birch, Mahogany Birch, River Birch, or Spice Birch is a species of birch native to eastern North America, from southern Maine west to southernmost Ontario and southern Michigan, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.

Sweet Birch was used commercially in the past for production of oil of wintergreen before modern industrial synthesis; the tree’s name reflects this scent of the shoots.

The sap flows about a month later than maple sap, and much faster. The trees can be tapped in a similar fashion, but must be gathered about three times more often. Birch sap can be boiled the same as maple sap, but its syrup is stronger (like molasses).

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This post has been re-edited. Originally I said that my grandfather was part Cherokee. This turned out to be false and I’m not sure why I thought that all these years. As it was though he had no Indian in him but my grandmother was part Cherokee.
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For as long as I can remember I have loved to watch a guitar player work their magic on the fretboard. One of my all time favorite players is David Gilmore from Pink Floyd. I could sit and watch him play his guitar for hours without any regard to the passage of time. I think if I had to say that I was inspired to play by any one guitarist he would be the one. When I was a teenager I had a friend that had a clubhouse type of building by his house. The walls were lined with blacklight posters with Pink Floyd blaring from an old turntable more often than not. We never did drugs but I always got high from listening to the music.

When I first started playing guitar Shine On You Crazy Diamond was my top priority. I had to learn it note for note and I wasn’t happy till I had it right. Back then I had a very big problem with alcohol. David Gilmore, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and a guitar brought me away from a self destructive path. I wanted to drink but I wanted to play guitar even more. The thing about it though is if I was drinking I couldn’t hit two consecutive notes if my life depended on it. So I had a decision to make, keep drinking or give it up for the guitar. I gave up drinking and have never regretted that decision. For about the first 3 or 4 years I practiced relentlessly. Literally hours every single day. I had been used to drinking every day so I had to practice guitar to fill up the time I would have been partying. In the years since I got pretty good at it, or so my friends tell me.

This song was written in 1974 as a tribute to one of Pink Floyd’s founding members, Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett.

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My friend MightyMorgan who authors The Process of A Miracle a 30 Day Experiment has been very generous and sent some link luv my way. The luv was passed to her from Kissing the Dogwood who in turn received it from Revellian. I totally don’t know what I’m doing so I hope I can get this right. I think everybody would like a higher Technorati rating and this will help with that. You don’t have to participate. If you don’t, consider it a free link. If you do though it will help your technorati rating. I hope I don’t screw this up too bad

So this is how it all works……..

1.Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog (preferably the post url like I did at the top with Morgan’s blog, there is a link below to her blog so the one above should be to the post to avoid redundancy) that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra link back.

2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.

3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.

4. Add at least 1 new blog that you KNOW is using the DO FOLLOW plugin to the list in the “My Adds” section. (Add no more than 5!) Let the people you’ve added know, so that they can keep the list going!

My Adds:

Two Write Hands
About Every Little Thing
Outdoor Bloggers Summit
Marian’s Hunting Stories, etc, etc, etc

Originals:

A GreatPleasure Little world of thoughts Renisphere mott’s island Kev’s Walkabout iBubbs woof Down Memory Lanes Woof & Arf Lovely Mummy Bubba Stuff Mommibee Moments in My Life Rambling Moo All about Zara & Zaria Hip n cool momma Random Thoughts of a Blur Mommy Mylittleanelqianyi Bits & Pieces De’moments chinneeq Giddy Tiger Huei Rabbit Rinnah Simple America Niceheart Ethel Sanna The Queer Chef Shoshana Leahgina> Haze GheeNeng aka Sirena Angelo Ju aka The Border aka Juana of Femjo Tina Keep the Faith jsonvlog Suncoast Scribe Blogging Kenneth My 2 Centavos Worth Manila Mom 3 Dogs, 3 Pigs and A Family Cafe Romanza Earn Global Credit Ability Macuha Flee the Cube MomReviews.net Fellow Eskimo Pajama Mommy Amanita.net WebStyle Meredith’s Weight Loss Blog Pink Blog Tricia’s Musings Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot Midlife Musings Utterly Geek Whatever I Feel Like My Dandelion Patch Surviving NJ GeekySpeaky Simple Kind Of Life 3DayMom BuyMeBlog The Hockey Dad Mariuca This is a Miracle Revellian d bImBo Secret of Mind Rightly Epitomised Random Magus Disjointed Intelligence WalksFarWoman FeedGet Wits End The Tall Poppy Man About the House Phattitudes Perpetual Expressions Ultimate MMA Video Blog
Backwoods Drifter Sir Paul McCartney & The Beatles guest band purplemelon

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Don’t copy this part, I just wanted to jump in here and say how completely inept I am at things like this. I have no clue if I got it right. If I have added you and you would like to participate I would suggest going backwards through the blogs and eventually you will be as lost as I was. If you have any questions I’m afraid I’m not the guy to ask.

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The information in this post gathered from multiple sources. Photos used from the public domain.

Dandelions are not only a part of West Virginia’s floral but can actually be found world wide. Most people that come in contact with this plant are looking for a way to get rid of it. But did you know that Dandelions are excellent in salads. They have a high nutritional value and all parts of the dandelion are edible.

* Dandelion root can be roasted as a coffee-substitute, or boiled and stir-fried as a cooked vegetable.
* Dandelion flower can be made into a wine, or boiled and stir-fried as a cooked vegetable.
* Dandelion greens (i.e., the leaves) can be boiled, as you would spinach, and used as a cooked vegetable, in sandwiches or as a salad green with some “bite.”

Dandelions support digestion, reduce swelling and inflammation, and treat viruses, jaundice, edema, gout, eczema and acne. This sunflower relative boasts potent medicinal properties with laxative and diuretic properties (its French name, pissenlit, wet the bed, aptly names its effectiveness).

General use from here - http://www.answers.com/topic/dandelion?cat=health

General Use

Dandelion has a long history of folk use. Early colonists brought the herb to North America. The native people soon recognized the value of the herb and sought it out for its medical and nutritious benefits. The entire plant is important as a general tonic, particularly as a liver tonic. It may be taken as an infusion of the leaf, a juice extraction, a root decoction, or a tincture. Fresh leaves may be added to salads or cooked as a potherb. The juice extracted from the stem and leaf is the most potent part of the plant for medicinal purposes. It has been used to eradicate warts and soothe calluses, bee stings, or sores. Infusions of dandelion blossoms have been used as a beautifying facial, refreshing the skin.

Dandelion is a nutritive herb rich in potassium, calicum, and lecithin, with iron, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, proteins, silicon, boron, and zinc. Dandelion provides several B vitamins along with vitamins C and E as well as vitamin P. Chemical constituents in the leaf include bitter glycosides, carotenoids, terpenoids, choline, potassium salts, iron, and other minerals. The root also has bitter glycosides, tannins, triterpenes, sterols, volatile oil, choline, asparagin, and inulin.

Many herbalists regard the dandelion as an effective treatment for liver disease, useful even in such extreme cases as cirrhosis. It cleanses the bloodstream and increases bile production, and is a good remedy for gall bladder problems as well. The herb is also a boon to such other internal organs as the pancreas, kidneys, stomach, and spleen. The dried leaf, taken as a tea, is used as a mild laxative to relieve constipation. Dandelion leaf is also a good natural source of potassium, and will replenish any potassium that may be lost due to the herb’s diuretic action on the kidneys. This characteristic makes dandelion a safe diuretic in cases of water retention due to heart problems. The herb is useful in cases of anemia and hepatitis, and may lower elevated blood pressure. Dandelion may also provide relief for rheumatism and arthritis. Dandelion therapy, consisting of therapeutic doses of dandelion preparations taken over time, may help reduce stiffness and increase mobility in situations of chronic degenerative joint disease. The root, dried and minced, can be used as a coffee substitute, sometimes combined with roasted acorns and rye.

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Dandelion wine recipes can be found here: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp
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Dandelion/Fruit Salad

1/4 cup herb vinegar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon canola or olive oil
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 clove garlic, minced
5 cups loosely packed, torn dandelion greens
5 cups loosely packed, torn red leaf lettuce
2-3/4 cups coarsely chopped, unpeeled apple (such as
Red Delicious)
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh orange sections
2 tablespoons chopped, toasted almonds

Combine vinegar and next five ingredients; stir with a wire whisk until well blended. Set aside. Combine dandelions and lettuce, apple and orange in a large bowl; toss gently. Add vinegar mixture, tossing gently to coat. Sprinkle with almonds. Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1-1/2cups).

It seems like since the accident the Backwoods Drifter doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going. For the time being I’ve been given a temporary reprieve. I don’t know for how long but I think I’m just going to ride the wave and see where it takes me. I’m really hoping everything comes together as it should. Nobody said it was going to be easy and it has sure proven not to be easy up to this point. I try to keep a positive attitude but sometimes I get overwhelmed with the wrongness of this entire situation. I guess I feel that, for the most part, it’s just unfair. I didn’t ask to be put in this situation. We all know accidents happen. It’s just that this accident has turned my life upside down and to be honest I feel like I have no control over any aspect of my life at the moment. I think that is what is bothering me the most. I have always been in control of my life and have always had a clear picture of where I want to be and what was required of me to get there, until recently. I still know where I want to be but I am unsure of how to get there.

I used to tell my kids, that in life we make decisions that totally change the direction our lives are headed . Lord knows I’ve made my fair share of life altering decisions. Some I regret while others I don’t. This accident has dramatically changed the direction of my life and for the first time the future is a little unclear. Well, that’s not exactly true. Completely unclear would be closer to the truth. I’m uncomfortable being in this situation. As would, I imagine, anybody. I think the only thing I can truly do is sit back and wait to see what fate has in store for my future. I believe a lot of the reason I want to go on the big trail hike is because it will be kind of like a sabbatical for the Backwoods Drifter. A break from life to determine where I go from here. It will undoubtedly be a life changing experience and to be honest, I’m counting on that.

Adding to this post– I wanted to put a couple of pics here from about two weeks after the accident to show what it is that has my life turned upside down.

I wouldn’t look at these if you have a weak stomach.

Front view
Back view

One thing is for sure you can see why I can no longer play guitar. The table saw injured four of the fingers on my hand taking parts of two of them and rendering the middle finger useless. My thumb escaped injury and my little finger only received minor injury.

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I just want to add that my good friend Morgan over at A process Of A Miracle has really been an inspiration to me. Lately I have been tagged by her and she sent some Technorati Luv my way. Later today I’m going to catch up on a couple of posts and hopefully I can return the favor. Thanks Morgan.
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I’ve been thinking about the AT again. I’m going to move forward with plans to hike the trail in ‘08 and just hope that everything falls in to place before the time arrives. I’ve wanted to hike the trail for quite some time but before now taking that much time off of work was not feasible. I plan to hike the entire length of the trail in one go from Maine to Georgia. I think the thing that really excites me about this adventure is the amount of photos I will have to show for my trip. Another thing I plan to do is post to this blog for the duration of the trip which could be five to six months in completing. Technology and the backwoods combined. I’ve always been into primitive camping and solitude so I imagine this will be a wonderful experience.

The plan is to start the hike somewhere around the beginning of May in Maine which will put me finishing in Georgia sometime in October. That is, of course, if everything goes according to plan. I wonder what the chances of that are? At any rate, the plans are already underway so I should be able to think of most contingencies before the time comes. I’m really excited about the prospect of hiking the trail and I hope I can see it through to fruition. Only time will tell.

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The Appalachian Trail - State by State
http://www.fred.net/kathy/at/atstate.html
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