Hiking panoramas!

As promised in a recent post about my hiking on the AT, here are a couple photos from my AT hike. Specifically, panoramas from atop Blood Mountain, Georgia:

What is kind of interesting is that they are essentially the exact same shot, taken from the exact same position, seconds apart. The only difference is that the first one was taken with the camera in a vertical (rotated 90 degrees) position, while the second one was taken with the camera in standard position. Relatively little difference, though I actually expected a little more.

Hiking and biking

Got back from a four day backpacking trip on the AT [insert obligatory Argentinian mistress joke here] on Sunday, and am now scurrying to catch up. Pictures to follow. The hiking itself was okay: very physically strenuous, as the Georgia section of the AT is basically constant uphill then downhill then repeat. They call these "gaps" in the north Georgia mountains. I call them calf destroying masochism. One very good thing came out of it: I got out of my system the desire I'd had since I was about 13 to thru-hike the entire AT. I'll probably keep going out for a few days to a week at a time, but the AT itself is kind of annoying, largely because of the human subculture it's populated by. I met about 50 people in four days, and liked about two of them.

Yesterday I ordered my new bike, which I'm super extremely excited about: a Surly Long Haul Trucker, one of the premier touring bicycles out there, especially the price point:


It should come in to our excellent local bike shop, Outback Bikes, in Little Five Points, on Friday, and be built and ready to go by Saturday or Monday. Woo woo woo! I'll certainly be blogging more about it soon, and am already planning a shakedown tour to Savannah.

Wind, and a pile of random updates

About fifteen minutes ago, I went out to the balcony to take a series of pictures to try to make a panorama (yes, yes, it's coming!) The wind is sustained at around 22mph, with gusts above 30, and presumably they don't measure these things on the 11th floor of a mostly unprotected highrise condo building.

Actually, the more interesting thing about the wind is how it's making the condo creak and crackle like a 100 year old house, rather than the 8 year old building it is.

Ran a little 5k this morning, and walked another several miles. It was mostly for entertainment value, and to see if it would help work out the sore right hamstring I've been irritated by for almost a week. Oddly enough, so far, it did. (But it might also have been the extensive stretching I did before and after the running. Ummmm, yeah. Probably more that.)

We threw a party for around 20 of J's work team on Saturday, and it was a rousing success, ending in good time for me to get to ABC's annual member night, which was also fun.

The Sherwood Forest is drinking beautifully, and the Mittelschmerz is coming along. It really needs another month of cold conditioning, I think. Both received numerous compliments from party attendees (not bad a party throw in mid-afternoon.)

About to knock out some work stuff, and then start setting out hiking equipment, to test weight and bulk, and see if my trusty Arc-Teryx Bora 30 will actually work for several months of long-distance hiking. More on this later!