Hi Ryan,

Your trip does sound ambitious, and fun, and hard! I have also been
working on the idea of the trail for a while... I am probably 5
years out from doing it as a thru hiker.

If you read one book before you go, I'd most highly suggest Ray
Jardine's Beyond backpacking. And I really suggest you look into
carrying a camping hammock instead of a tent. Enough techno talk.

As for the stamps, mail them to yourself at a dozen or a score of
post offices. To :AT Thru Hiker. It's the way to get special
supplies to yourself. Best is to have someone mail them so they
arrive about a week before you arrive at the post office box.

You will find that you can leave email from a lot of libraries in the
towns along the trail that you will no doubt want to visit. An email
to this list would get your clues on the website right away.

As for needing a name, with your real name of Ryan, I believe a great
trail name would be Clancy, or Clancy's Ryan.

Best wishes,

Rick aka Flyfisher

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "rscarpen "
wrote:
> This thread certainly seems to have come out of nowhere! But it
> sounds like a fun discussion, so I'll throw in my two cents for
what
> I will do. Or might do. I still reserve the right to back out at
> any time!
>
> I'm looking into hiking the Appalachian Trail! I only got the idea
a
> couple of weeks back but took to it like a fish in water.
According
> to my "sources", the typical thru-hiker is thinking about the hike
> for ten YEARS before starting the adventure, so I've got some
serious
> catching up to do! But wow, what an adventure! Over 2,000 miles
> from Georgia to Maine and through 12 other states, on foot. They
say
> the elevation gain of all the hills adds up to climbing Mt Everest
> from sea level to the top 16 times!
>
> And I'm thinking of creating a letterboxing series along the entire
> route. The world's longest letterboxing chain. I'm thinking
perhaps
> a letterbox every 20 to 25 miles sounds good (which adds up to
about
> 100 letterboxes!) That might be a little too ambitious, though,
> since I'll probably be too tired to carve a new stamp virtually
every
> day. Unless I can pre-carve most of them before I hit the trail,
but
> that's still a lot of stamps to be carving! And since Internet
> access is limited when you're miles away from the nearest
> civilization, I might not even have a chance to type in all the
clues
> for a hundred boxes along the way. But it's a dream of mine. =)
A
> series that stretches for over 2,000 miles along the east coast.
>
> And if I'm REALLY lucky, I'll finally get a chance to meet a bunch
of
> you east coast folks I've always heard stories about and swap e-
mails
> with all the time!
>
> But gosh, that's my next BIG adventure I'm thinking about. My feet
> are sore just thinking about the trip, but my spirits are high! =)
>
> -- Ryan