Here we go!

"Wow!  That's so awesome, I wish I could do that!"
"Wow!  You are so stupid!  Why would anyone do that?"

These are the two most common responses I get when I tell people that I am planning a hike of the Appalachian Trail, and both are very reasonable reactions.

For those of you that don't know, the Appalachian Trail is a hiking trail that runs through the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern United States.  It is about 2,180 miles long (although the exact distance varies from year to year based on land rights) and it runs from Springer State Park in Georgia up to Baxter State Park in Maine.  It will take between five and six months to slog our way through the mud, over the mountains, across the rivers, and up to the peak of Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminus of the trail. 

Two of my good friends from college, Flip and Skip Burns will be accompanying me on this journey.  Now, Flip and Skip are not any ordinary people, and their combined expertise should aid in this adventure in a serious way.  They are trained professionals in such necessary backpacking skills as finance, wrestling, moshing, sarcasm, off-colored humor, concert-going and conspiracy theories.  With all of these tools in our bag (the skills I mean, not us), I just don't see how anything can go wrong.

Tomorrow I will travel to Boston where the three of us will meet and then catch a plane to Atlanta, Georgia.  In Atlanta, some of Skip's very generous friends from Bike2Build are picking us up, housing us, and driving us to the trailhead on Wednesday morning.  This is the first of what promises to be many encounters with extreme generosity on this trip.  My plan is to journal for myself nightly and when we resupply in a town, I will put some highlights up here to give you all a small glimpse into what we are experiencing.

Now, for the two responses I get to my declaration of walking forever.  People ask me why I would do this, why I would give up a secure job and the comforts of home for living in the woods.  I see your point.  For upwards of five months, I will be walking every day through an endless tunnel of trees and hills.  It will be extremely tiring and we will constantly be hungry.  It is likely that we will lose a combined 26-28 toenails, along with 20-30 lbs each, and, almost assuredly, our patience with each other.  We will miss holidays, weddings, birthdays, parties and our friends and families.  There will be plenty of rainstorms, bug swarms, injuries, blisters and so, so many smelly people.  I can't stress how bad we will smell.

With all that being said, I could not be more excited for this trip than I am.  For many months, I will spend each morning waking up to the sounds of birds, each day seeing new things and meeting new people, and each night enjoying the company of the stars, the forest, and two great friends.  I will suffer great amounts, physically and mentally, of this I have no doubt.  But what I gain from this experience will outweigh that by such a vast amount, there is no question in my mind that I am doing what is right for me.  Leaving many things behind to take on such a challenge can be viewed as selfish or irresponsible, but I choose to view it as necessary.  Not hiking; hiking is not something that everyone enjoys.  Pushing yourself is necessary.  Doing something that will bring you both challenges and joys, something outside of the everyday routine, something that will make you grow and get closer to the person you are supposed to become.  It's difficult to always seek out new challenges and adventures, and there have been plenty of times where I have been much more eager to find a comfortable routine.  I have until this point, however, found this routine style to quickly lose its luster and have been unable to resist the call of something new.  The Appalachian Trail is just the next step, of which I hope there are many, many more, in creating a life of consistent learning, achieving, and most importantly, enjoying.  After all, if life isn't for enjoying, what is it for?

Happy Trails!