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We had a wonderful walk this morning and reached our goal of 5 laps around the park! We saw a squirrel carrying a baby squirrel in it's mouth which is something none of us have ever seen, totally cool. This will be our morning routine hopefully 6 days a week. I have school backpacks which we will be filling up with things and taking with us until we get all of our gear. I don't know if dogs usually have trail names but we came up with one for Charlie. Her trail name will be "The Sloth." ...

While gathering rain gear, choosing base layers and deciding bear canister or bag, in the back of my mind has been this little voice asking, "What about the food? Do you really want to eat the salty, store bought foil packed stuff?"


I was feeling pretty uncomfortable with the thought of doing something so good as hiking the AT and then nourishing with something not-so-good but very convenient so I did a little snooping and found a fabulous website that told me just ...

Check out this family: http://30millionsteps.wordpress.com/ They have 4 kids and will hike the A.T. in 2013 too.

I have been researching and researching gear choices and there doesn't seem to be to much in the way of kids backpacks. I wonder if I am missing something? I just can't seem to find but 1 or 2 choices that are specifically for children. I am looking at an ultra light store and there is a back pack that I think will work well but it doesn't have a hip belt. Since their packs ...

I am known to be a little grumpy in the morning sometimes. So my youngest jumps in bed with me and tells me that she has figured out my trail name and it's going to be Grizzly Bear. Crazy kid, so I told her that's fine if I'm Grizzly Bear she's gonna be Bear Bait cause all I have to do it run faster then her....lol

So we went ahead and took another walk. At this point we are in just our sneakers. I will buy two pairs of hiking shoes for myself as soon as possible to break them in. But ...

I'm Sully until I get my trail name. I thought about hiking the trail a few years back and decided I didn't want to wait any longer. With that said I have three "partners" that will be coming with me. They are going to be 8, 10 and 12 with my 8 and 10 year old turning 9 and 11 on the trail. I am undecided about bringing Charlie our Golden Retriever so for now she trains with us. My husband will be our support and will be sending our supply boxes etc.

At this point my overall ...