My goal was to set up this blog before I left for the trail. I bought a new tablet and a data plan and dreamed of writing entries every day. Friends and family could follow my progress! New acquaintances would be kept apprised of my current location! Life would be bathed in a sweet rosy glow and nothing would ever hurt.

But dreams die.

If you don’t bring the right cable to connect the new camera you don’t really know how to use to the new tablet you also don’t really know how to use,  you can’t upload any photos.

If you do not already know how to make a blog entry, the best time to try to teach yourself is not in a tent at night after you’ve spent 10+ hours dragging a 30+ lb backpack along the trail.

T-Mobile may be the most convenient pay-as-you-go carrier to have if you spend a lot of time outside the US and don’t want a contract, but coverage along the trail in Georgia and North Carolina is almost nonexistent. Even if you possessed the proper photo-uploading technology and the requisite blog-posting knowledge, it’s worthless without a reliable signal.

I started hiking north from Amicalola Falls on April 19 and got off the trail at Clingman’s Dome on May 18 to fly to Oregon for my mother’s surgery. I kept a journal! I took a lot of photographs! I talked to a lot of people! I only fell down six times! Unfortunately, I just didn’t manage to share any of it in realtime.

But I have a new dream! I’d like to upload the entries from that first month before I get back on the trail the first (or maybe second?) week of July and then continue to make regular entries whenever I’ve got a wifi connection. I wouldn’t necessarily bet any real money on that happening yet, but I would definitely bet some internet money.