A Double Feature!

Yes, I realize this blog is falling more and more out of date from "real time," but it's not really a conspiracy to hide my whereabouts on the trail. The real reason is much more mundane than that: It's just not easy getting online to keep these posts up-to-date. I might get online long enough to post only every few weeks, so I take a zero day, then spend the whole day just catching up with blog posts.

I don't really want to post a blizzard of a dozen or more posts in one day, then leave you with nothing for weeks at a time, so I schedule the posts to post automatically whether I'm online or not every couple of days. I want to develop a backlog of posts on top of that, in case a particularly long stretch of time goes by when I'm unable to post. So, for each day I'm on the trail, I have this blog post every other day.

As I type this now, it's June 14th. It's scheduled to post in about six weeks--August 1st. I'm preparing to head into the Sierra Nevadas, and I hope I don't die, because wouldn't it be awkward for everyone to be reading my posts from the grave? Ha--awkward for you, at least. =) Don't worry, however. I don't plan to get myself killed!

But that's the reason for the time delay on my posts--to even out the posts. Eventually, I'd like to have the posts going every day, but I'm finding it very difficult to type these up as fast as the days pass. I might keep it posting every other day until I've actually finished the trail, then when I'm working on a computer again every day, start it posting every day. By then, however, the posts might be as long as three months out of date. You might be reading this blog through the end of December!

Today, however, you get a rare "double feature"--two days in one post! Mostly because the two days had so little to report....

June 10: I took a zero day in Kernville, spending the whole day typing up blog posts and uploading photos. Exciting stuff! Not really. We ate out at an Italian restaurant in Kernville, then watched Young Frankenstein on a DVD that Amanda brought. Amanda was shocked (shocked!) when she had learned I never saw that movie--a discussion that arose after she heard about Abby Normal (which is where his trail name comes from). It was a funny movie, but even then, I was working on the photos for this blog during the movie. Never a moment's rest! (Okay, I did step away from the computer while eating at the Italian restaurant.) Amanda and Gwen spent the afternoon looking for letterboxes. Which was probably a lot more fun than I had. =)

June 11: I took another zero. Never a dull moment on the trail, eh? Well, off the trail is another matter. I continued to spend the whole day catching up on blog entries, padding them out through the end of July. When Amanda and Gwen left to go letterboxing, they came back late in the afternoon with five different varieties of apples. Why? So I could try ripping them apart with my bare hands. =)

Amanda had heard the apple story involving Charmin and Tradja, and I tried it myself with a granny smith apple and failed miserably. Maybe it was the type of apple? Admittedly, when I hike with apples, I usually choose a granny smith because they are so hard and seem less likely to bruise in my pack. So Amanda and Gwen went by Vons and picked one of each type of apple they had: red delicious, fuji, gala, golden delicious, and the granny smith.

When asked about the selection of apples, Amanda told the clerk that it was for a "taste test." A complete and total lie, but she said it would raise fewer eyebrows than the truth--a "rip apart with one's bare hands" test. The truth is the kind of thing that they might call you in as a "person of interest."

"Yes, officer," the clerk would say. "There were a couple of shady characters lurking around right when that car was robbed...."

So Amanda lied and told the clerk the apples were for a taste test.

Back at the house, I checked out the apples, and managed to break the gala apart with my bare hands. Very manly. Very cool.

I started with the fuji, and Amanda was encouraged when she heard a cracking sound coming from the apple, but I had to disappoint her and tell her that it was my knuckles cracking that she heard--not the apple that foiled my attempts to break it in two.

So then I tried the gala, in which I did succeed. But it was a jagged rip with two decidedly unequal halves. Nothing like the clean cuts Charmin and Tradja had managed to create. So the gala was technically a success, but not one that satisfied me.

The other apples, I set aside for another day. I didn't have to rip them all in half at once! (In fact, my fingers were quite tired after ripping the gala in half. They needed a rest before I tackled another one.)

And that covers my adventures for June 10th and 11th. Exciting times!

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Starting today, and continuing all month, I'll be participating with Amanda in the Washington Trail Association's Hike-a-Thon. If you haven't already, please consider sponsoring us. (Especially me!) The folks do great work helping to fix up and maintain trails such as the Pacific Crest Trail and help make thru-hikes such as mine possible. If you enjoy reading this blog, consider giving something back to the trails that make it possible. Thanks!