melannen | My interests are sometimes surprisingly consistent...

Which is to say, it looks like I'm going to be citing both my AP American History final paper and my 3rd Grade scrapbook project in my term paper for 212 this semester. w00t.

And speaking of that (... which is to say, speaking of crawling around in the attic drooling at all of Dad's old hiking maps) -

I hereby resolve that before I graduate from college -

Which hopefully means by the end of this August -

I am going to walk to

stellar_dust's apartment from DC.

The C&O canal trail runs from the middle of DC right to (and beyond) the train station where Sister's been picking me up. That route is about 35 miles from the start of the trail to White's Ferry, which I *ought* to be able to do in three days at *most*, even allowing for disasters, even as horribly out of shape as I am, and most of it is through relatively settled country, too. Then a marked bike path would supposedly take me the rest of the way into Leesburg, so I can show up on her doorstep dirty, tired, and hungry and make her feed me and show me DVDs and put me on the train back home.

Okay, so 40 miles through the suburbs is really kind of pitiful for an epic cross-country trek, but a) I get winded just running up the escalator to catch the train, b) it's uphill all the way! and c) my family would probably be freaked enough just at two days. Sister says I should go with a partner at least the first time, but walking with someone is a *very* different experience than going alone, and especially since I have no idea what my pace would be like, I don't *wanna*.

Anyway. An overnight hike has been on my list of to-do since I was about four and saw Dad's slide collection for the first time. And I'm *finally* going to cross it off this summer. I *will*.