Progress

A week ago I worried that we would not be ready for this adventure in time.  There is so much to figure out:  What do we do with the house we live in?  How do we get ourselves and the kayaks to Florida?  Fran wants a small RV while I hike, so we need to get it and undoubtedly make mods such as solar panels.  Are our kayaking skills ready?  What all do we need for the kayaking section, where do we buy it, and how do we stuff it all to the boats?  What is the itinerary - where are we actually going to paddle and hike, and what are the dates?

Plans are coming together. Maybe they will come together in time?

SKILLS

We think we are good to go on kayak skills, finishing off with Fran's three-day long excellent training at BCU-week during gale force winds.

ITINERARY

We have an itinerary coming together.  I struggled with that.  The main tension was the time required to hike from Florida to the start of the Appalachian Trail.  There is a big conflict between completing the thru-hike, and lots of other opportunities in an area we might not get back too anytime soon. So the idea is to just bag the nine week connector hike that goes from Florida to the start of the AT, and keep the rest of the thru-hike in place. Thru-paddle Florida, then hike the AT to Halifax. That frees up lots of time, and the connector itself has no attraction other than as part of a thru.

A potential itinerary then might look something like the following, anchoring the dates to have some friends join paddling at Cayo Costa.  Since the itinerary will change many times, I'll make a separate blog page for it and we will update it as we go.

Dec 2-4           Thanksgiving with my Dad

                ... leisurely drive, explore Texas gulf coast, and New Orleans, final paddling logistics

Dec 18             launch at St Marks

                ... paddle, paddle, paddle

Jan 23              join up with other paddlers at Cayo Costa

                ... paddle, paddle, paddle 

Feb 28             arrive Key West

                ... five RV weeks to explore the Keys, Pennecamp, Biscayne, Florida, the south, ...

Apr 6               start AT (Springer Mountain, Georgia)

                ... hike, hike hike  (RV for Fran)

Sep 2               finish AT (Mount Katahdin, Maine)

                ... hike, hike, hike

Oct 15             Halifax

KAYAK PACKING

Still lots to do and figure out.  However, one piece is coming together.  A challenge has been figuring out how to keep our electronic gear charged when we have some long sections away from towns.  The VHF radios, GPS and cell phones are all important safety items, and of course the digital camera is also important!

We have the answer.  I will be beta testing a solar power system for Goal Zero!  It is a good solid system, but a couple of months on the deck of a kayak with seawater washing over it is an extreme situation.  They are providing me a new system (not yet for sale) to test.  Way cool! 

RV

We have some very exciting news there!  I'll let Fran blog on that one!