Reentry

I've been bad, I know, neglecting all the stories that happened immediately after reaching Springer Mountain. I hiked down to Amicalola Falls, tried stalking Alton Brown (alas, he was out of town, but I did spend the night at his place with the rest of his family), and played what I call Airline Roulette. Before we took off from Las Vegas, they warned us we would land either in Bakersfield, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, or possibly just fly back to Las Vegas, but they wouldn't know until after we were already in the air for an hour.

Good times! =)

But I did finally make it to San Luis, and one of my first tasks was to "blend in" with the locals. Which did not include looking like a homeless person, a survivalist, or even an "Are you Amish?" as one person asked me while I was boarding my flight. It was finally time to take off the whiskers.


That's a lot of hair on me, and cutting it would be a big job. My mom, I'm happy to report, is a professional hair stylist, and was willing to do the job for free. For a big job like this, we decided to start with the hedge trimmers.

Okay, I'll fess up. That's a joke photo. We picked up a bunch of the hair that had already been cut off and staged the photo. We had a good time with the prank photo! =)

But seriously, for my first look, I wanted to try on a "respectable" beard. I call it my businessman look. Looks like I could be working out a multi-million dollar deal, don't you think?

What a difference a few hairs less did! I call this my child molester look. Sideburns, I decided are not for me.
This is my intellectual, "I'm wise because I have facial hair," look. Or maybe a, "I'm out on parole," look. I'm not sure which is closer. =)

This is my biker look. I don't have a motorcycle, and don't have any interest in acquiring one, but I do own some stock in Harley Davidson, so I'm very supportive of the biker movement. *nodding*
I'm not sure what this look is supposed to be, but I think it makes me look stuck-up. Or maybe a homosexual cowboy if you added a ten-gallon hat. =) But seriously.... no, I don't think a mustache fits me very well.

Yeah, that's me. That's what I'm supposed to look like. Actually, I was surprised it didn't look more like me. It looks like me, but more in an identical twin type of way, and it took me a few minutes to figure out why. I lost weight! My face was distinctly thinner than the last time I remember seeing it.

Speaking of which, I did weigh myself upon my triumphant return and came in at about 155 pounds--a weight loss of about 25 pounds. I was actually surprised I'd lost that much. I was down to 150 pounds when I finished the Appalachian Trail, a 30 pound loss, and I looked absolutely skeletal when I finished. I definitely looked thin finishing my hike this year, but nowhere near my concentration camp survivor look from finishing the AT. I'm not sure how I can look pleasantly thin at 155 pounds and look dangerously bulimic at 150 pounds.

And for you number folks, when I arrived at Amicalola Falls SP, there is a scale for hikers to weigh their pack on. When I started my Appalachian Trail thru-hike, my pack weighed in at 40 pounds. I knew it would be a lot less upon my arrival from Key West. First, I was getting off the trail, so I wasn't loaded down with lots of food and water. I had enough food left to last me another day or day and a half in the backcountry--about three or four pounds worth. Additionally, I finished off the last of my water minutes before my arrival, so my pack had no water in it. Total pack weight when I arrived: 22 pounds. I then took out all of the food from my pack to get just the base pack weight: 18 pounds.

I don't claim to have the lightest pack in the world--I had a number of luxury items including a book, a PocketMail device, and what might be the heaviest pot ever for a successful solo thru-hiker. I also had an abnormally large amount of cold weather gear, a necessary precaution given the fact that it snowed on me two days earlier! And despite all that, my base pack weight was 18 pounds.

I expect this to be my last post to this particular blog. Before I sign off, I'd just like to thank everyone who read my writings and left often amusing and uplifting comments. You have no idea how much I would look forward to those whenever I got into a trail town. =)

-- Green Tortuga, signing off