It’s been about 5-6 weeks since we finished and I’ve been thinking about the journey. A lot of people have asked, “What was the most memorable part of the trail?” That’s easy. The people we met were absolutely amazing. This hike has restored my faith in humanity. There are so many good people out there, both on and off the trail, who touched my heart and I’ll never forget them. Examples are: the great friends made along the trail, the amazing rides when we hitchhiked (people turning around to pick us up and drive us 10 miles out of their way), the trail angel’s free food, anonymous benefactors paying for our meals while we ate in diners, the elderly southern gentleman who came up to us in a diner in Tennessee, introduced himself and very warmly welcomed us to his town. These people all made the trip magical. Of course, the scenery was breathtaking, but you can see most of that on a day-hike, and I highly recommend that if you can’t make the time for a thru hike. However, a day-hike won’t expose you to this kindness. The kindness flows to the thru hikers and they get submerged in it. It’s called magic and I scoffed when I first read about it, but now I believe.
A couple of years ago while we were on holiday in San Antonio, Matthew read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. He really enjoyed it, so Stephanie and I read it and then Matthew and I half-heartedly made plans to "do that some day". It was the kind of statement you make while lying on a beach chair in the sun reading, while wistfully thinking about how cool that would be. Hmmmm... Amazingly, that day will arrive on March 27, 2013. Now, I realize that this is the kind of "some day" that most people will never have the luxury to find. I am (we are) incredibly lucky to have a chance to do this. Our benefactor - my generous wife Stephanie, is supporting us on this journey. She's staying home with Samantha and working, while Matthew and I wander in the woods for half a year. I am the luckiest guy alive and am continually amazed that she puts up with me. Her only condition: If we start it, we have to finish it - all 2160-ish miles of it. I owe her the world.
We're committed. We have been buying equipment, walked some short (10-12 mile) segments of the AT in New York to see what it looks like, and we have our one-way airline tickets to Atlanta. Stephanie and Samantha will be flying down with us to drop us off at the starting point on Springer Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia and they plan to meet up with us a couple of times on the journey when we are near civilization - once again, supporting us all the way. Have I told you how lucky we are?
I am planning to keep track of where we are on this blog using BlogPress and GPS Location. Between these two apps, I'll be able to save drafts of posts with photos and our position even when we're off the cell network. This will allow anyone to see where we are and what we're doing (at least after I get back near enough to civilization and cell service to post the drafts). Ideally these updates will be daily; it will probably be more like weekly. I guess I'll find out how connected one can be from the wilderness. As I write this in February, it's less than six weeks until we're out there.
The first two posts are just a couple of tests from the AT in early January to try out the software. While doing this, I discovered that BlogPress fails to find your location when you are not on the cell network, so I'll be using the GPS Location app to add coordinates to the posts.
Here's a link to the current weather all along the trail.
