February 18

At about this time 5 weeks from now, I should be fixing dinner and getting ready to get hunkered down in my tent somewhere on Springer Mnt. for my first night on the trail. Yes, I'll be doing the approach trail, what's another 8.8 'unofficial' miles when you're doing 2184, HA!  Here in the warmth and safety of home, I'm checking the weather channel, and they are calling for 5-8 inches of snow tomorrow.  I guess winter has finally decided to show up.  We got a weird October snowstorm, which really wasn't that bad.  It's been freakishly warm otherwise.  It's making me worried that we're going to get hit with a late winter storm, just as I'm hitting the trail.  I remember reading journals from last year, about 6 feet of snow in the Smokies, and wondering how those poor hikers made it through that.  Well, if anything like that happens this year, it'll just be a part of my journey, and I'll have to try to take it all in stride.  As they say, "no pain, no rain, no Maine".

February 14

Well, this will be my first post for my AT blog.  Still kinda new to this so I'm testing it out before I hit the trail.  Today is significant, not only for being Singles Awareness Day (haha), it also marks the countdown to 2 weeks left in my apartment in Charlottesville, and 4 weeks until my last day of work.  I'll be crashing at some friends house for those 2 weeks in between (thanks Nate and Jenn!), then I plan to spend the last 10 days or so at my parents house to finish up any last minute tasks.  Then my brother is coming up to meet us, and the family is driving down to Georgia on the 23rd of March.  We are going to stop somewhere along the way for the night, so I can start my journey fresh, around noon or so on the 24th.
It hasn't fully hit me yet that I'm really doing this.  There's been a few milestones recently that gave me pause like, dropping off my last rent check, sending in my last car payment (proud owner of my Scion Tc paid off 6 months early!), typing up a letter of resignation, filling out countless change of address forms, etc.  Each one is a small smack in the face of reality, but the full effect hasn't taken hold yet.  I suppose when my butt is in the car, on the way to Springer, it'll really sink in.
With each task completed, it puts me one step closer to the start of my journey.  Gear purchases are done (never really done, but I'm finished buying things for now), and I have enough food to last a week.  I have a tendency to carry too much food, and true to that I'm starting out with way too much, considering I can resupply after the first couple of days.  Oh well.  I figure my "better safe than sorry" mentality with food, and other gear choices, will be quickly purged after a few days of carrying it up and down mountains.
It's exciting to see journals and blogs of other class of 2012ers.  I've been spending a lot of time online lately.  This is going to be ridiculously hard, but I can't wait to be in the mountains, to meet new people, and see what the Trail has to offer!

(packing = no fun)