Why did I decide to attempt to hike the Appalachian trail? I'm sure some people would like to believe that it holds some bigger meaning or it has always been a life goal. Something of great life significance and meaning. Sadly, I can not claim such things to be true with any sort of honesty. This last summer I had a lot of free time on my hands and nothing to do with it so I decided... why not start hiking a lot. It was never something I had done a large amount of in the past despite enjoying the little I had done. It also fit my decision to just run with random ideas that would pop into my head and see where they would take me. As I started meeting AT thru-hikers while out on the trails I started to think that it could be fun to try and hike the AT.
The more I thought about it the fewer reasons I could come up with not do it. I had come to enjoy hiking, I had no attachments or commitments that would make a six month absence problematic and it took the random idea of hiking a lot and ran with it. I started making some basic plans to ensure such an endeavor would succeed. I decided to get my seasonal position with LL Beans back since it fit into my schedule almost perfectly, running from September to February, and the employee discount would make acquiring gear less daunting. Conveniently, I also got a part time job working at Pasta'z two nights a week. This meant that the financial part of my trip should be taken care of. After the concern of money was basically removed from the equation I knew, it was happening.
Once I started spreading the word that I was going to attempt the AT it became clear that I should have some sort of method to get news and updates out to people that would be interested in such things. Since I will be carrying my iPhone with me along the trail and I assume I should get at least intermittent cell signal along the way writing a blog seemed like the easiest method of communication. Over the coming weeks I plan on making a few posts detailing a bit more of the planning process that I have gone through, including a rough trip itinerary as well as complete gear list. This should serve the dual purpose of informing people a bit more about what went into making the trip possible as well as getting me some practice writing blog posts before I am doing it on my tiny iPhone keyboard in the middle of the woods.
Hopefully this blog will provide the people that want it a relatively frequent line of communication with me while I am on the trail as well as provide me a sort of virtual journal about my trip. If you have any ideas for features or information that you feel should be on the blog let me know over the next couple weeks and I will see what I can do. Feel free to share this blog with anyone you know that might be interested.
Arlen
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