[pct-l] Thru Hike planning around a wedding

[Joshua Pinedo]

Hello friends,

I'm currently planning my '11 thru hike and am trying to gauge how far I'll
be/should be to manage getting off the trail, grabbing a flight, attending a
wedding and returning to the trail with enough time to finish in Manning
Park.  I was thinking of starting towards the last few days of April/first
few days of May, obviously I need firmer dates, but I'm still in the
preliminary stages of my planning.  One of my best friends is getting
married on July 2 weekend in Northern VA (my hometown), therefore the plan
was to hike as far as I could, hitch into town, shower a few times so I
wouldn't crash the plane with my stench, and get on a flight a few days
before the wedding.  I figure I wouldn't have more than 6 days actually in
Northern VA (not including flights, and rides to and fro trail heads) to
spend at home before I got on another flight to the port from which I had
come to pick up where I left off.  I'd say maybe 9 days or so, total? maybe
8?  I also don't want to miss ADZPCTKO.  I have to coordinate this pretty
well so I can buy plane tickets ahead of time, or at least would like to try
to save money by buying them early, and if anything at least give me a
guaranteed flight home since I can't miss this for the world.  I figure it
would also give me sort of a landmark to work towards.  Any advise or
guidance would be very much appreciated.

best,

JP