The Journey Begins

Day 1 – Thursday Night - 8/18/2005 – mile 5 – 9:20 PM

I am writing this by the candle light of my candle lantern as I lie on my side in my tent upon my sleeping bag. The crackling and popping of my dying fire can be heard outside it. I was anxious to make it out of town this evening and managed to hike 5 miles before it got too dark to continue. I quickly found a place off from the railroad tracks to make camp and pitched my tent. I feel like your traditional hobo from the depression era. So far, only one freight train has passed by this evening, but I am sure many will pass through during the night and awaken me.

I can’t describe how damned hot it was this afternoon hiking on the rails. I didn’t have any shade on the rail line and the heat beat down upon me relentlessly. Sweat just poured and dripped off my face and made my eyes burn relentlessly. I finally tied together and wrapped two cotton handkerchiefs around my head to try and stop the sweat from getting into my eyes. I will be glad when I hit the county roads around Cusseta where the shade of the side of the road will protect me. Did I mention my neck, arms, and legs got pretty sunburned as well? I will have a thousand new freckles in a few days. The heat of my sunburn will make for uncomfortable sleeping tonight.

Water conservation is the key on a hike like this in the heat. You sweat out just about as much as you can drink and you only come across so many creeks and bodies of water. Water constitutes the majority of the weight in my backpack second only to food. I was feeling lazy about cooking and brought along enough heavy, self-heating MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat) to last me this trip.

How isolated I am kind of dawned on me as I write this. A coyote yelped and made me feel so alone. If something were to happen to me, I would be miles away from help or human habitation. I saw several large snakes today and if I were to get bitten by some of the more poisonous kinds then I would be shit out of luck. I do have a snake bite kit in my backpack, but I wouldn’t trust it with my life.

Well, I need to try and sleep. I have my alarm set for 5 AM. It will take a good two hours for me to cook my coffee and breakfast and then to break camp in the morning. I hope to be in Cusseta by tomorrow afternoon and out of this god forsaken sun. I made a bad decision by taking the rail lines and not using the country roads. I was just damned determined to see some trains as I hiked and have seen few; just my luck. Good night.