Date: 2013-04-13
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

UPDATE 11/14/13: If you enjoyed following me on TJ, and would like to follow my post-AT blog, it can be found at www.chrishorstman.wordpress.com. Thanks!Hello everyone, and welcome to my journal (do they call it a "blog" nowadays?)!First thing's first - let me clear up any confusion regarding my name as it's shown on trail journals. Depending on who you ask, my name is either Chris, Christopher, or Tophe. My wife Haley has called me "Tophe" for about the last 15 years(she and one of her best friends insisted that I must go by "Tophe", or "Topher", since clearly the second half of my name had been neglected for my entire life), so that's what most of you who I've met in the last decade likely know me by. The rest of you (hi fam and friends from O-Hi-O) know me as Chris. Problem solved.I am 29 and I have wanted to hike the AT for a long time. Until college, I had never really been into hiking or camping ¢ I really didn¢t even know anything about it. But that all changed with one documentary and one legendary summer known only as ¢The Chent¢. The documentary is called Trek, and it tells the story of four friends who hiked the AT together in 2001. It is glorious. ¢The Chent¢ describes the scenario where, because we were poor and worked at the YMCA, two friends and I lived in a tent for one magical summer (it was called the ¢Chent¢ because Chris, Chad and Charlie lived in a tent). My wife (then girlfriend) thankfully didn¢t break up with me, but how could she after she came to visit and realized how AWESOME it was? When you combine Trek and tent living for three months, what you get is an insatiable desire to hike the AT. Until now, an AT thru-hike has always been something of dream as opposed to something tangible. I suspect that many people who are at the same stage as I am now feel the same way. I've been through both undergraduate and graduate school, and have been working for a while now. Like a lot of people who share the goal of hiking the AT, life seems to continually get in the way ("well, I have a good job now", "I don't have enough money to do this", "what do I know about hiking, anyway?"). However, I always knew that there would be a time for this, and that I wouldn¢t wait until I was older - and now is that time! Haley has gotten an excellent new job which requires us to leave Nebraska (Go Big Red!), and we have decided that there¢s no time like to present to tackle the AT. I will thoroughly miss her and all of my great friends and family, but I can¢t wait to get started!Now, some quick info on the AT: The AT is a trail that stretches from Georgia to Maine, covering roughly 2185 miles and 14 states. It takes anywhere from 4-8 months to complete (I¢m planning on 5), depending on your pace. Approximately 2000 people set out each year to thru-hike, and 20-30% make it the whole way. It seems to be a very communal place, and I look forward to all the people I will meet and get to know!Lastly, I have never maintained a blog (journal? whatever.), but I hope to keep it interesting while sharing my experience and being as candid as possible.   I know that I have looked to trail journals for inspiration, and I hope I can offer the same experience for others!