Three Weeks To Go

I’m just back from a trip down to Southern California to visit my sister and brother and their spouses. Nancy and I had a great time and it was good to see them all. Toward the end of our stay, it seems a little of our Pacific NW weather drifted down for a rainy and cool visit of its own.

I also got a chance to do a short hike with my friend Dan, who I met on the AT. Dan and his wife Hannah are serious day hikers who seem to be out hiking most days. He writes a blog, over60hiker.wordpress.com, about their hikes and often is a commenter on my blog. We ended our hike with coffee at a MacD’s as that is the establishment where we met in Lee, MA. Fun times.

Now, Nancy and I drove down to So. Cal. on I-5, but decided to go back along the coast on Highway 101 to avoid the snow that was falling in the higher elevations of northern California and Oregon. We had an uneventful trip back stopping for one night in Eureka, CA. We stayed at the historic Eureka Inn. Built in 1922, it is a grand old hotel with all the accoutrements of that era. Through the years, it has hosted dignitaries and celebrities of all stripes. Winston, Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Shirley Temple, Humphrey Bogart… it was a great place to stay.

As for my Ouachita Trail hike, it begins in almost exactly 3 weeks, which is alarming to me. But, I am increasing my training hikes, both in frequency and distance and today I went out shopping for groceries to put together meals for my trip. I still need to package it all up and then mail out my resupply boxes. I think I have all the logistic arrangements set up like hotel and transportation. So that’s all done. I just hope I’m in good enough shape and that the weather cooperates so that I can hike this trail. We will see.

Anyway, I will be back in the space with an update in about two weeks. Until then happy trails…