Virginia Blues

Apparently Tom has the Virginia blues ie; state with most trail miles "550 or so" and a high dropout rate. He seems to be fighting them and sounded upbeat when we spoke to him last night, after not hearing from him for three whole days, which made us somewhat anxious. He has met back up with some pals that he thought were to far ahead and now they are trying to catch up with others that are ahead. He knows who is still hiking and when then they went through an area by looking at the logbooks at each shelter. He is coming up on 700 miles, a little less then a third of the way and the enormity of the undertaking is bearing down on him full force. He is actively trying to lighten his pack down to the barest essentials. He is shedding his hammock and midweight sleeping bag. We are sending him a ultralight TARP for shelter when shelters are out of range and a ultralight summer sleeping bag. The first lady to hike the trail used a shower curtain for coverage! "Grandma Gatewood hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1955 at the age of 67, wearing Keds sneakers and carrying an army blanket, a raincoat, and a plastic shower curtain which she carried in a homemade bag slung over one shoulder"   Hank