Maybe later...

I tend to be fairly obsessive about carrying my plans to fruition. I am open to flexibility, but when I have set my mind of something, usually it happens. It's not necessarily a good characteristic, to be so stubbornly directed in life, but it has allowed me to experience and accomplish quite a lot.

That said, my plan to raft the Neuse River is on hold. For a while. It was a good and exciting idea, due in part to its appeal as a bold and semi-disgusting proposition (being somewhat the Love Canal of North Carolina, full of leached pig-farm shit and industrial and agricultural refuse from upstream). But it was a bad idea, because for now, I am happy spending time with other people and in asphalt/concrete settings: wide frames around the copious parks and lakes of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am working part-time and saving money to travel around Southeast Asia for a couple of months, beginning in January.

I am still more than willing to share my experiences on the MST with anyone who is interested in my trips, or in hiking it themselves. I added a bunch of daily entries, which are labeled by the date when they were handwritten in my journal, in addition to the summary blog entries I left while I was hiking. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions (my email address is on my profile page).

Raft Scheming

I am sitting here in Durham eating spicy, gingery homemade sauerkraut and planning the next section of my Mountains-to-Sea Trail trip. As I somewhat described last year, I have a few remaining sections of the trail corridor to complete: the 200+ mile section between the Falls Lake dam and the Neuse River ferry crossing, the trail sections that I missed while biking (in Bur-Mil Park, the Sauratown Trail, the Pilot Mountain region and maybe trail near Hanging Rock?), a 20 mile section of the BRP that Grizzly drove me through, and the last 90 miles to Clingman's Dome.

I have ideas for how to complete three of those this fall, although I have yet to figure out how to patch together those trail sections across the western Piedmont. My first plan is to raft down the Neuse River from Falls Lake to New Bern. I am trying to plan for low water sections of the river and raft design. I want to use mostly recycled materials to build the raft. While my trip will be a lot different from those described in these links, I am swooning over their sexy raft designs:

YOUTUBE Markus Erikson
The Plastiki
Floating Neutrinos
JUNK

Set to launch in September (hurricane season!). I will post updates as I begin to garner supplies and construct the little vessel.

Eno River Festival

The FMST was at the Eno River Festival, in the thick of the local music, art, and outdoor festival. I stole away from the booth a couple of times, to visit with a surprise friend who wandered past and to talk to Frog Hollow Outdoors at their booth, culling advice about rafting the Neuse River. This photo is of the booth, with Katherine and Brian of the group.

Yes, still here.

Just a note to say that: yes, I will still be finishing the trail.

Someday.

Today & tomorrow, I have different plans.

Although, as my broinlaw loves to point out,

I don't even know what I am doing tomorrow.

NOW GET YER BOOTY OUTSIDE AND GO HIKE.