Date: 2009-01-09
To: Why I want to thru hike the Appalachian Trail
Miles today: 0.0

There are quite a few reasons as to why I want to hike the AT. It all started probably in my childhood because I loved the outdoors and camping. The Appalachian Trail never crossed my mind until about 1984 while I was in the US Navy station on Guam. I cannot say as to why it crossed my mind but it did. I think it had a lot to do with the love of the outdoors and my dealings with the people I was working with at the time. I think I was looking for a place where I could get away from all the back stabbing people in my life at the time and so the dream of hiking the AT was formed.Another reason why I wanted to do a thru hike was to see if I could go through what our ancestors went through when they discovered America. I am referring to the great adventures that were taken exploring the new world. They would go out for months and years a time not know what lay ahead of them. I know a thru hike on the AT is nothing compared to what they endured but it is probably the closest thing I will get to it.After leaving Guam I still had nine more years of military service to do in order to retire so the dream went on the back burner and I had actually forgotten about it.I retired from the military in 1999 and had to move into the civilian sector and get what I will call a real job. My dream was still forgotten about until a friend asked if I wanted to go backing to a place called Speck Pond overnight. When we made the arrangements to go I had no idea really were it was only that is was Grafton Notch State Park.While on our hike we ran into a guy Dean Jones, who went by the nick name of Moxie. He told us he was looking for a friend that was hiking the Appalachian Trail and he was trying to catch him at the top of Old Speck Mtn. We chatted for a bit and he told use he was going to hike the AT the next year in 2000. After a bit we left and moved on as Moxie descended back to the parking area.As we descended the back side of Old Speck towards Speck Pond I ran into another hiker whose name was Peaceful Warrior. That was it really set in what was actually going on here. This person had actually started in Georgia and had hiked all the way to Maine. That was when my dream came back to me. We talked with Peaceful Warrior for about 20 minutes or so.We made our trip to Speck Pond and met many more thru hikers that night at the lean-to and the next day on our way back out. The dream was planted back in my mind again. We started section hiking parts of Maine together for the next year together. Nothing was actually thought out about actually seriously thru hiking the trail at this time. Section hiking Maine was my only agenda at the time.I did not actually get serious until after I became the owner and one of the administrators on the web site WhiteBlaze.net. To make a long story short rather than explain every detail as to when I actually started putting the plain into place.In 2004 I decided that I had to set a year as a goal when I was going to thru hike the AT. I picked the year 2010 as it would be a year after the last child would out of the house. It would also give me six years to plan ahead and give me what I thought would be plenty of time to set some money aside. Most importantly it gave me plenty of time to do the research and find the gear that would suit me for the hike. In 2006 I actually started putting money aside for the trip.It is less than a year away from my start date and I am very scared and nervous at the same time.