The first step is the hardest step……

Today is the first day of my journey. I have everything packed and ready to go. I have two gallons of water just in case. It is going to be extremely hot and muggy. The forecast high is 92 degrees. I went through my pack again this morning to make sure everything is there. I have been walking many miles everyday in preparation. I even tested my water filter this morning to make sure everything was working okay and it was.

I checked all my food to make sure I have enough for the trip. I have 6 clif energy bars as well in my favorite flavor, peanut butter. I cannot wait to try the freeze dried spaghetti and meat sauce for supper and the freeze dried apple crisp. I hope they taste good. Freeze dried technology has come leaps and bounds compared to what it used to taste like.

I looked at my map to make sure there are several streams. Water is crucial on a hot and humid trip like this. I will be sweating buckets. No water = big trouble. That is why I am carrying so much; sixteen pounds of it. I also want to stop and go fishing if the streams are big enough.

I just hope the kudzu has not covered the tracks like it does in the summer. Kudzu is an Asian plant that was introduced in the early part of this century to fight soil erosion in the south. I didn’t do as they intended. It is a vine that covers and smothers everything. Even the trees get covered and look like one huge mass of kudzu. Kudzu across the tracks is a good way to get snake bitten and it is too hot to wear my gaiters. Personally, I am not afraid of snakes and have caught many in my youth, even poisonous ones. I just don’t want to get bitten 30 miles in the middle of nowhere without a hospital. I have my snake bite kit but I don’t quite trust it to keep me alive if I am bitten by a rattlesnake.

I hope to see some relics of the railroads days gone by. I would love to find old equipment laying along side the right of way. An old steam locomotive would be awesome to find. Those are lofty expectations though and just some cool right of way signs would suffice.

My father has to work today because of his trip to San Diego tomorrow so my brother is helping me out. I am going to follow him to Lafayette and park my grandmother’s car at the county courthouse and then he will drive me the thirty minutes to the small dead town of Cusseta Alabama. If my calculations are correct, that will be a twenty six mile hike on the tracks. I need to close. Be good and be well and enjoy the start to your workweek. I will fill you all in on my exploits when I return in about two to three days.