"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

C.S. Lewis

On April 15, 2019, John and I will embark on our adventure of attempting a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

When you hike the AT, you follow the white "blazes" painted on the trees and rocks along the trail. As time has gone by trail lingo created other "blazes." Blue blazes head to water, yellow blazes take you down the highway and pink blazing is chasing love on the trail. We decided that since we are both over sixty it was time to coin the phrase "gray blazing" which is hiking the trail when you're a bit more seasoned in life.

We are creating a journal of our trip to share with friends and family who would like to follow our adventures and misadventures on the trail. We are starting with a few posts that attempt to explain our love of this trail and once we are out there we will try to post about once a week. But keep in mind our priority is to simply survive the trip, so documenting might take a back seat. You can sign up below if you would like to get notices when we post anything.

The Seed Is Planted

John & Becky
Feb 10, 2019
1 min read

Several years ago, John and I took a week off just to reconnect after having an extremely hectic season at work and home. We desperately needed time together as well as time to just be still for awhile. Rather than close our eyes and pick a spot on the map, we decided to go with the recommendation of a co-worker. He had given glowing reviews of cabins in the Georgia state park system, so we decided to head for the mountains and found ourselves in a lovely little cabin in Amicalola Falls.

While there, we discovered this northern Georgia park is actually where the approach trail to the beginning of the Appalachian Trail is located. Potential hikers register here and use it as a base camp from which they launch their through hike. Of course, we had no idea at that time what a through hike was or what kind of people actually did such a thing. And then we found out. It is a hike completed within one year with nothing but a backpack from Georgia to Maine – over 2,000 miles! The more we read about the adventure – the more mesmerized we became. At that point; however, the thought of actually doing this ourselves was incomprehensible. But… the seed was planted. We went home totally refreshed from a week of wandering around in the woods but curious to find out more about this “hiking thing.”

#hikinggear #campinggear #hiking #camping

1 Comment

cpack.fbcspearman

Apr 06, 2019

Yipes... you're almost on your way. So much love, admiration, respect & encouragement along with prayers over your every step from me to you, sweet, precious friends. Vaya con Dios!