We started this blog back in November of 2010 with the intention of it being one part of a journey towards walking the Appalachian Trail. As you can gather from our domain name (walkwithnature2012.com), our original goal was doing it in 2012. Unfortunately, an inability to get our schedules and responsibilities in line to make the six month trip resulted in that not happening. It also didn't happen in 2013, and it won't be happening this year. But next year? That's a different case.
On March 25, 2015, Erin and I will be stepping through the stone archway at Amicalola Falls State Park in the North Georgia Mountains and hiking about 9 miles to the summit of Springer Mountain. From there, we'll start walking the path we find up there 2100 miles or so to Mount Katahdin, Maine. Successfully completing the hike will take about six months and go through 14 states, seven national forests, and six national park units***.
We'll leave some of the "whys" to subsequent posts, as we both have different reasons for wanting to attempt this. However, we both feel that next year will be a good time to do attempt it.
Just getting to the start of the trail next year is going to be a journey of its own. For my part, I still have a great deal of work on the trails and at the dinner table to get myself in a position to even attempt this. There's also the financial aspect, with not only the cost of taking the hike, but also paying the bills, loans, and expenses that we still have to keep up off the trail. And although we both have a large percentage of our equipment, there is still fine tuning and the ever present question of pack weight. In other words, there is going to be plenty to write about over the next year.
If you enjoy our writing and would like to help support our efforts to make this hike (and the book which we will be doing about it****), there are a couple ways to do so. You can help Erin out by donating to her GoFundMe campaign by going to the link under the 'Help Erin Reach Katahdin!' section to the right of this post. We'll be adding additional benefits for the different tiers, so stay tuned for further updates as we go along. In addition, if you are looking to purchase something on Amazon, consider using the search box on the right hand side of our blog. All income we generate from the GoFundMe campaign, our Amazon Affiliate search box, and advertising on the blog (and our other blogs such as Doctor Strangeblog and The Campfire Story Hour) will be going to funding this trip.
In addition, we will be using the uncommon occurrence of our trip***** to help raise funds for a charity. At this time, we are still working out which organization we are going to do this for, and how we are going to do it. Please check back often for more details.
Above all, we just ask for your encouragement and support. This is going to be a heck of a challenge, and we are aware that it will be a tough road between now and next year, let alone the six month hike that will go on afterwards. Even sharing word about our hike through Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and....ok...alright, Google+****** will be helpful. We promise to have plenty of posts and photos to share.
We are very excited about undertaking this hike, and hope you'll come along through our writing and photos, even if not in person.
* Chattahoochee, Nantahala, Cherokee, Pisgah, Jefferson, George Washington, White Mountains
** Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah National Park, Harper's Ferry National Historic Park, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
***Not counting the trail itself, which is a considered a unit of the National Park Service
****We'll have more details about this as we get closer to next year.
***** Although millions of people hike at least a portion of the Appalachian Trail every year, only about 2-3,000 even attempt a through hike. Of that number, about 20-25% complete the trail.
******Making fun of Google's little social network that couldn't is still a thing, right?
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