The Rainy Season (CT through MA)

New York Just as a quick refresher, the last section of New York was easily the worst maintained part of the entire trail. I remember walking through chest-high weeds/shrubs that covered the trail, scrambling over broken boards, and crawling on all fours (with my pack on) to get under fallen trees; all happening in the

The Beginning of the End

Hello all! Just a quick update before I start finishing up this journey for good. I summited Mt. Katahdin and completed my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail on September 8th. What started with a naive, energetic young lad on March 26th, ended 167 days and 2,193.1 miles later with an exhausted, mountain man with a

A Family of Trail Angels

Before coming out to trail, I never anticipated the amount of family that would reach out to me and want to meet on trail. Fortunately, they were all very enthusiastic about doing trail magic and meeting the AT through-hiker community. The trail became a long term family reunion for me. I started telling other hikers

Northern PA through New York

PENNSYLVANIA After PokéMom left me on the trail, the terrain hit the fan. In the way that God threw a giant boulder into the fan, took the scraps, sprinkled them across the trail, and said “Have Fun!” All the rumors of what was coming came true. Our greatest fears became reality. We hit Rocksylvania. The

Thursday, June 17, 2021 – Monday, June 21, 2021

PENNSYLVANIA (Easy Part) * Today’s post is brought to you by my Mom, “PokéMom.” * Thursday, June 17 Hey, this is “Pokemom.” (Thank you “Maple” for the trail name.) I drove to Gardners, PA, along with our dog Luna, to meet up with Seany (aka Hokey Pokey) and spent a fewdays on trail with him.

The Virginia Blues

The Virginia Blues is a commonly used, and feared, trail term to describe the emotional state as we hike through Virginia. It usually involves the loss of love for the trail, low morale, and lack of motivation to continue the hike. Some people don’t get the Virginia Blues at all, while others are overcome by

Hampton, TN to Damascus, VA (5/5/21-5/16/21)

5/5/21 (9.1 miles, 437.7 cumulative): After spending the night at Boots Off Hostel, I ended up hiking up a few miles to meet back up with some friends. The hike was awesome because I spent the whole morning hiking around Watauga Lake and Dam. The rain did come, and put a damper on some things.

Hot Springs, NC to Hampton, TN (153.7 miles, 428.6 cumulative)

I want to give a shout-out to the Windsor Park Elementary students and staff. Thank you so much for the posters you made with words of support. It was all amazing things to say and definitely helped me get over some real tough mountain climbs. All the other hikers reading them appreciated the support as

Franklin, NC to Hot Springs, NC (4/8-4/22/21) Great Smoky Mountains National Park

165.5 miles – 274.9 cumulative miles Just a heads up, I’ll probably be posting updates more sporadically like this, with not as much details. I feel like trying to write a daily update and worrying about this blog/journal takes away from the experience of being out here at times. Plus it uses up battery on

Dick’s Creek Gap to Franklin, NC (4/4-4/7/21)

4/4/21 (9 miles – 78.2 cumulative): Started the day off by leaving my sunglasses at the hostel. I decided to jog the half mile back to the hostel and get back to hiking. The people camping at Dick’s Creek, who I left my pack with, were so nice they gave me a lunch beer and