NCT Wb Mock Hiker About 80% Complete

- I finished routing my mock hiker written simulation of the North Country Trail from it's new eastern terminus at the Appalachian Trail to Mile 21.7 of the Kekebabic Trail Club in Minnesota.  The last time that I tallied up where I was with this was for Mellon, Wisconsin and that was over 3,300 miles of about 4,806.  Considering that I just got through the Superior Hiking Trail tonight, I could probably have the westbound mock hiker done tomorrow?

- I've decided that I'm only going to route the eastbound mock hiker to Stockport Section, current day Point 7/ Whipple Section, current day Point 24 - Buckeye/ North Country Trail in SE Ohio. 

- At a rate of 24 and 18 miles per day depending on the terrain and taking a zero day once every 21 days generally, I've determined that a thru hike of the North Country Trail is impossible to complete within a 210 day window.  By my independent review of the trail, North Country's length exceeds that window of execution by about 1,500 miles.  I did hear that this may be the case, but I wanted to test it myself.  Regardless, I'm familiarizing myself with the trail in hopes that I can one day anticipate North Country hiker's arrivals in SE Ohio.  I won't know this until I complete this project, but roughly, off the top of my head, it may be possible for those hikers to start at either terminus and end on Road Fork or Whipple Sections - BT/ NCT?

- What I think North Country needs is a 10 miler study.  But after this project, I'm on to doing some GIS research for American Discovery trail.

Buckeye Trail Thru Hiker 10/21/2017

I'm tracking the progress of Mei Ling Liber, who may become the 2nd person to complete a hike of the Buckeye Trail's circuit this year.  And I'm attempting to coordinate her completion day.  If memory serves me correctly, she'll be the first Asian to complete the trail.  As of tomorrow, she'll have 23 of 26 sections complete.

I'll be a coffee shop that's near the end point on the day of her completion doing any coordinating that might needed.  I might do some shuttling then?  But, I think that I even need to wait until it's closer to that day in order to make that firm?

Buckeye Trail Talk and Thru Hiker Update 09/19/2017

Tomfoolery arrived in Marietta to give a presentation at the Buckeye Trail Talk, which was held on the second floor of the Marietta Adventure Company.  There were about 20 people there and the room was a perfect size.  Before today, I can count how many supporters were in this area on two hands.  Now, I probably need a third.  I'm trying to start a chapter here, so the more, the merrier.

I do know the location of Warrior Expedition #2.

Health Issues and Thru Hikers

I've been sleeping with the Nicoderm CQ 21mg patch on.  Today, I forgot to change it.  The current patch is probably depleted, so there is some vascular improvement in my left wrist, but for the most part, not necessarily my right, yet.  If Monday morning, I remove the patch from the night before, the patch's residue would wear off when I sweat.

The whirlpool at my gym is being rebuilt and won't be available until the middle of this month.  I'll have to rely on stretching.

Aside from the vascular issues, I still have a lower back problem.  After I do anything strenuous, like about 6 miles of weed whacking (perhaps accumulative?), I have back pains on the morning after when I get out of bed and bending over.  This was from the 54 mile mixed mode hike/bike that I did 3 years ago on The Wilderness Loop of the Buckeye Trail.  But I'm not ready to heave over and die yet.

I really haven't complained much.  But something's going on with my body and I really don't know what it is?  I keep forgetting to make a doctors appointment.

Right now, the plan is to continue Whipple's Maintenance will probably be on, or maybe after the 17th.  I have Preston H. as possibly being 33 days from The Wilderness Loop with M L trailing him by about 24 hours currently, both those numbers are give and take.  What they'll actually be depends on monitoring them.  Preston is set for his hike on the Road Fork and Whipple Sections.  I think the only thing that I'll have to do is give him the location of grocers, the bar and restaurant.  Which means that it's just about time to plan for M L's resupply if she'll need it?

The Heat Is On

The heat in on the Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail.  The engine in my car is running like it should.  Thru hiker Andrew P is approaching the three way Buckeye Trail intersection in Belle Valley of Noble County tomorrow.  I still have a parking brake cable to install and I'd really like to pick him up and shuttle him to a campsite from about present day Road Fork Section, Pt. 06.

Between campsites, it's 19.9 miles from the one at Wolf Run SP to the camp shelter near present day RF 10.  This is in SE Ohio.  RF's roads are known to be the most strenuous on the circuit.  Aside from being a Whipple Section Supervisor, I wear another "hat" and that is being a trail promoter and it's organizer in SE Ohio (these are separate).  And getting a new private camp host NE of Caldwell of Noble County is on the list of things to do.

Thru Hike Difficulties & Proposial - North Country Trail

The North Country Trail is 4,600 miles long.  And without having done a mock hiker document depicting the daily mileages of an average thru hiker, it's hard to tell if it could be routed to miss winter conditions on either end.  From what I'm told, the answer is "no."  If that's the case, then I believe that the NCTA and it's following needs to come up with a new plan.  From what I know here in Ohio, the vast majority of hikers don't like the winter.

So, I'm going to take the next week or so and finish merging the NCTA's GIS tracks into it's chapter's spans so I can write the mock hiker.  It's of interest to me as the section supervisor of the Whipple Section - Buckeye/ North Country Trail.  After I get that document written, I can then suggest a course of action if any is needed.

I ready know that SE Ohio needs a chapter for resupply reasons.  And that in NCT trail promotion, the Buckeye Trail takes up 83% of Distance Hiking Ohio.  The beneficiaries of it's trail promotion is self contained.  Meaning that it's not contributing to North Country's whole.  But North Country chapters work in such a way that they're trail promotion not only contributes to themselves, but elsewhere as well.  In Ohio, we're missing North Country trail promotion in 3 quarters of the state.  So, what Whipple is getting is probably anemic. The course of action that I can think of is to make this a chapter with multiple loyalties.

It needs to elevate the importance of the NCT - Ohio patch.  But what I think might need to happen probably won't take place with the NCTA.  In fact, I think it's very grass routes.  There are two audiences when it comes to thru hiking.  There's those who come immediately from the Appalachian Trail.  Some of them come with their minds made up of what hiking is and I doubt they'd be able to change their notions anytime soon.  But there's the internal, hikers that North Country already has and those that they get as a result of local trail promotion in the future.

They might need to legitimize a slight step down from thru hiking.  My idea is to complete 30 hiking days at a thru hike rate ahead of time, then hike the rest in mass using transportation to bypass what they already did.  If they did that, this hiker could miss winter conditions in Vermont, New York and North Dakota. The question that would have to be put to North Country's followers is are they going to support it?

I wouldn't really regard it as a full "2nd place."  It's more "1b." 1a is a full thru.  1b is

Fearing and Salem Townships - 3/29/2017

To the residents of Fearing and Salem Townships of Washington County, Ohio, thank you for being so welcoming to the on-road Buckeye Trail hikers on 3/25 - 26/ 2017.  The Buckeye Trail is a 1,440 mile circle within the four corners of Ohio.  Our part of the trail is known as the 58 mile "Whipple Section" of the Buckeye/ North Country Trail.  It's routed from the Scenic River Trailhead on C9 in Independence Township of Washington County to just south of the AEP Recreation Land in Morgan County.

What you may have saw was the "Circuit Hike" program which allows hikers to hike one weekend a month to piece the trail together to eventually earn the covenant "Circuit Hike Patch."  As I understand, the program is on it's "second lease" and it takes about 5 years for the program to fully cycle.  They get in to an area and park, then shuttle to another parking site so that they can put as much distance one way and make the most progress down trail.

Buckeye Trail hikers are usually what we refer to as "day," or "multi-day hikers." meaning that they come in to cover not much more than a segment and then leave to go home.  But thru hikers are rare.  The BT usually has one annually (that I know of), but some years there might be none, while the most exceptional year that I know of was 5.

If all goes well, we should be having a thru hiker on the Whipple Section in the next week.  It's extremely rare to have these almost back to back.