About this time last year, a friend of mine told me about his dream of thru-hiking the AT. I didn't know anything about the trail, literally. Over the past year I started thinking about hiking. Nothing serious, but something that would allow me to get outside away from everyday life and enjoy everything that the wild has to offer. I live in Summerville, SC where we have 2 seasons....summer and summer. Anyhow, a couple of other new friends of mine are big in to hiking as well and we were supposed to go on a weekend hiking trip in Mountain Rest, SC back in the spring time, but I couldn't make do to prior obligations. My fire was put out for a little while...that was until I found Paul Stutzman's book Hiking Through in Walmart the other day.
I'm sure this has been brought up before, but this is my first post and I new to the site, so I figured I would share my newly lit flame that I have for hiking...and eventually thru-hiking the AT. If you haven't had the chance to read Paul's story about his journey on the AT, I advise that you take the time to. I am sure there are many books out that are may be a better read, but this one has been special to me. I bought 2 days ago, and I am almost done with it 300+ pages. iBooks has it for $6 or something like that.
I told my wife, that thru-hiking the AT will be a life goal once our kids are out of the house. Whether she joins me or not...Lord willing, I will take the journey.
Thanks for reading my first post. I cannot wait to read and learn more as I prepare for short section hike of the AT come spring.
-out runnin'