Pouring over the maps and the guide books

The more I read in the walking guides to the trail, the more I realise how amazing this journey is going to be. Here are some of the things that have stuck in my mind.

When we are walking the trail in New York State, you can actually see the skyscrapers of Manhatten in the distance. There is a railway station ON the trail - the train only stops on weekends and public holidays at this station - and you can catch a train right into the heart of New York at Grand Central Station. We could go in and catch a Broadway Show!

Mobile phones are able to work on a lot of the trail. One of the services available is Dial a Pizza. When the trail crosses a highway near a town, it is possible to ring up and have a pizza delivered. You can also ring hostels and motels who have special hiking packages where they will pick you up from the trail, take you back to the town, dirve you to the supermarket, the bushwalking outfitter, the laundromat, etc - you stay the night and they take you back to the trail the following morning. Great customer service.

In South West Virginia, a researcher studying deer in the forest in the early 1980s, stumbled across an old log cabin, abandoned in the forest, close to the Appalachian Trail. He was able to buy the cabin, and established a hostel for Appalachian hikers. He died in 1987 and then his wife continued to run it after his death until her death in the early 2000s, when their children took it over and now run it. I want to stay there, but Digby says according to our schedule we arrive there at 11.00am in the morning and can't waste the afternoon by not walking. We'll see......

The philanthropy is amazing, with many families donating large parcels of land to the national park organisations to enable the forest to be maintained. The ribbon of land which the trail follows becomes wider and wider with more acquisitions. In the 1930s south west Virginia mountains were completely denuded from logging, and the state bought the land and replanted forest using depression labour. These forests are now 80 years old and extend for miles and miles on both sides of the trail. The locals still hunt bear and deer in this forest and during the hunting season (Oct-Nov) hikers have to wear bright yellow safety jackets so they won't be mistaken as prey!

In the Shenandoah National Park, they estimate that the black bear population is now 1-2 bears per square mile. In the 1930s the bears were completely shot out of the area. Gradually since that time they have migrated back to the area from mountains in the west. We really might meet a bear.