Hiking

Why walk 2200 miles? That’s a good question. I guess that it started when my best friend and I went backpacking on the Manitou Islands in northern Lake Michigan back in my teens. Caring your “house” on your back and wandering through the woods seemed like heaven to a city boy like me. Setting up camp on the shores of Lake Michigan, swimming, telling stories and watching a fire weave and dance in the twilight only added to the allure. It was about that time when I heard about a never ending trail that crossed the entire eastern US and of other trails that swept down from Canada almost to Mexico winding their way through the Rocky Mountains. Hearing and reading about these trails stirred a wander lust in me. Since then, I’ve gone on to other things, circling the US on a motorcycle, flying hang gliders and hiking. I’ve done many trails throughout the west and the east but never anything as ambitious as this. I don’t know if I will complete the 5 month, 2200+ miles of the trail or even the first week of the trail but I do know that my life would be less if I don’t give it a try for as Mark Twain said “Your greatest regrets will be the things that you didn’t do not the things that you did do”.