Date: 2003-01-21
To: Welcome!
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Welcome to my AT web page! Come on in, take off your shoes, have a seat and get comfortable. I¢ve found that reading these journals on this website is like reading a good novel. Before you know it you¢re being taken to a distant place with unusual characters and great adventure. My hope is that when you read my story, you will be transported to the wilderness. That those confining office walls will dissolve and you will feel, if only for a fleeting moment, free. I too know what it feels like to be in a place where the only thing to climb is the corporate ladder. Feeling like a fish out of water, you know that there¢s more than this. And you know what?   You¢re right. There is a whole world out there just waiting for you. As Mark Twain so eloquently put it ¢Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn¢t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover.¢ As my start date approaches, I feel ready to take my leap. WAHOOO!!!!HOW DID I LEARNED ABOUT THE AT?This is an interesting story. It all began with my Grandma Cooper. This was a woman I adored. And whether she knew it or not, she inspired me by just being who she was. She gave me encouragement and unconditional love all my life. And my time spent with her on this earth was blissfully sweet. After her funeral in January 2000, I was going through some old letters and postcards of hers. I came across this card with a photograph of the most beautiful coastline I¢d ever seen. There was a big rainbow plunging into the sea, which was filled with icebergs. The inscription below the photograph read, ¢Life on the Arctic Ocean--Barrow, Alaska.¢ That photograph sparked my interest. It was if my Grandma was speaking to me through that card, encouraging me to go to Alaska. I went home quit my job and started researching summer jobs in Alaska. After a series of phone interviews, I decided to work for a company based out of Anchorage as a driver/guide. All of this happened in a matter of months. A few weeks before I was to leave, I had an extremely vivid dream that would leave no question in my mind about whether I should or shouldn¢t go to Alaska. I was in a room and I felt a presence enter so I turned around. To my delight it was my Grandma in a pink dress. We never spoke, but we communicated through our thoughts. I said, ¢Oh, hi Grandma.¢ She quickly got to the point of her visit. She said, ¢Go to Alaska. You¢ll be fine, and I¢ll be with you.¢ And just as quickly as the dream began it ended. I have since learned that our loved ones who have died visit us in our dreams because that is when our skepticism is turned off, and we are open to getting messages from them. There has never been a doubt in my mind that my Grandma¢s spirit visited me that night. Most dreams we forget by the time our feet hit the floor. This dream was as clear and vivid as I am sitting here right now. I have never forgotten this dream. As fate would have it, I would be sitting next to a young lady, named Emma, who had thru-hike the AT in ¢99 on my flight to Alaska. We had a long flight to get to know each other. She told me about the trail, and that she was relocating to the Seattle area to be closer to her fianc© who she had met on the trail. Although I found her thru-hike fascinating, I thought to myself I don¢t think I¢d ever want to do that. I suppose I was just too excited about my upcoming adventure in Alaska. It would be two years later, on a lazy Sunday afternoon in January that the idea of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail would emerge in full bloom.   THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!A trip like this would be so much more difficult without the help of some kind friends and family. I would like to express my gratitude to all who have lent a helping hand. Thank you, Becca, for keeping me sane and grounded when I felt overwhelmed with fear. I¢m so glad you chose to join me on this journey. It wouldn¢t have been right without you! Thank you Mom and Dad for letting Becca and I stay with you rent free for the few months prior to our departure. Thank you for your love and support my entire life. I am forever grateful! Thanks Mom for taking care of my plants, Calico, and Bilbo. Thanks to my sister Julie for letting us store our crap¢ola in your basement. That¢s a huge help. Thank you Tucker for transcribing my journal---I did tell you about that, right? ;) Thank you to Amy and Lane for taking us to Mt. Springer in Georgia. What a great way to start. Thank you to my co-workers Jamie, Susan, and Kimberly for keeping my mind, body, and spirit in tack, as well as all your loving thoughts and understanding. A special thanks to my Grandma Cooper for being a part of my life even after her death and for inspiring me to explore. MANY, MANY, MANY THANKS to the following two ladies. These two get a BIG, FAT SHOUT OUT because without Lizzie (Noid) and Jackie (Yogi) we would be carrying 5000 pound backpacks and doing everything ass backwards. Thank you so much for your advice, encouragement, help, understanding, did I mention advice? Just a side note on these two amazing women. They have both thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail. Next year they will attempt to thru-hike the Continental Divide Trail, and I have no doubt that they will succeed. These are the three longest trails in the U.S. each one is over 2000 miles long. It is an amazing feet to thru-hike one let alone all three. Especially if you are a woman. And to think they live in my hometown. Thank you Lizzie and Yogi for doing what you love. What you were born to do. You are both an inspiration for all to see. Thank you to all my friends who have loved and supported me through it all. Namaste.Namaste--A Hindu salutation meaning, ¢the divine in me honors the divine in you" or "I salute the god/goddess within you.¢ The expression is used as a greeting and a farewell and is usually accompanied by a gesture of holding the palms together in front of the heart. Pronounced NUM-ah-stay.¢It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.¢   Margaret Stortz