Trading What I Know For How I Feel

It was exactly two years ago today, on the summer solstice, that I summited Mt. Katahdin in Maine. I remember it as if it were last week, the sky was so clear the air so crisp and clean, the distant mountains and lakes so visibly lush green and deep blue. Mt. Katahdin is the Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail, but I was just beginning my journey that day, I was heading Southbound. With a head full of doubt, I started out by myself on a 2181 mile trek down to Georgia that changed my life forever. I can't imagine NOT having done this now, life is positively different in so many ways because of the experiences and people I met on my 4.5 month journey. It's always scary to change life from what you know to the unknown, but that never stopped me and I'm not looking back...all the sacrifice is worth it!

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Henry David Thoreau

AT Northern Terminus June 21, 2011

Follow the white blazes!

PBR trail magic in Maine.

Starting out with my "light" 34lb pack

It's surreal to think that today, two years later, I'm 2.5 weeks out from starting the CDT!!! This is unbelievable, I never anticipated this when I started the AT. If all goes well, if I finish in November as planned, I will have completed the Triple Crown of hiking in three consecutive years! AT in 2011, PCT in 2012 and CDT in 2013...Surreal!! I'm grateful everyday for knowing how fortunate I am to have my health and be surrounded by positive influences in my life and to be in this position. So grateful!!

Below is a pic of my food resupply boxes that I finally sealed up and drove over to my support team, who will be sending them out to me at designated points along the trail. Thanks Josh & Stephen!!!

25 food resupply boxes ready to go!