The day after Thanksgiving, Todd Gladfelter fell from his roof and broke 3 vertebrae in his neck. He was paralized over much of his body and now has a rod in his neck, with 9 screws holding it in place. “One day a thriving, strong, successful, agile chainsaw carving artist, the next day, someone has to feed him and wipe his chin,” is how his wife Cindy (AT ’78-79) described how his world changed in the blink of an eye.

Many in the A.T. community may know of Todd’s wife, author Cindy Ross, who met her future husband on his 1980 thru-hike after she had hiked the A.T. herself the two years before. (How they met is chronicled in the book about Cindy’s 2-year A.T. trek in A Woman’s Journey, which has been in print perhaps longer than any other A.T. book.) Together, they have hiked and biked many trails, including the Continental Divide Trail, which they traversed with their young children.
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