A Wander Begins Somewhere

First of all, welcome to our Appalachian Trail blog. From time to time you’ll see a post from both Grace and John—trail names to come eventually—indicated by the AT Trekkers moniker seen below; the main content of this blog will, however, be individual posts from each of us. We hope you’ll enjoy reading and following our journey.

Let us introduce ourselves.

John is a 26 year-old gay guy now living in DC, but originally from Idaho. John’s spent a great deal of time hiking and camping in the rugged beauty that is Idaho, since hiking and camping are the regional pastimes of the West. He just moved to DC after finishing a Congressional campaign in New Mexico—sadly for him and all involved, a losing one—and is now working as a media monitor for a communications company until April.

Grace is 25 years old, currently living in New York, but a Rhode Islander born and bred. She spends her days answering the phone at a doctor’s office and daydreaming about being in the woods. When not working or traveling, she likes reading books and cooking fattening foods to feed to other people.

Both John and Grace recently returned from 2 years spent as Peace Corps volunteers in Armenia, which is where they met and became fast friends, seeing as they lived only a couple hours from each other. Grace plied John with incredibly delicious baked goods and John let Grace use his shower since she didn’t have running water in her village; a better basis for a friendship there never was.

Over the next several days you’ll see a post from both John and Grace, describing our reasons for hiking the Appalachian Trail; in other words, what foolishness got into our heads to make us hunger for 2200 miles of wilderness. We’ve already begun planning and gathering gear, reading books about the AT, plotting our mileage, working out to get our bodies as prepared as best we can, and making money to be able to afford to do this. It’s estimated that the trail costs somewhere between $2000 and $3000 each when all the gear, transport, and food is added up. It is not an inexpensive venture. Well, perhaps considering the amount of time we estimate to spend on it—4.5-5 months—it’s cheaper than living in either NYC or DC (where Grace and John live, respectively).

For those of you who don’t know much about the Appalachian Trail, it’s the nation’s most heavily trafficked footpath and its longest. Stretching from Georgia in the south to Maine in the north, it spans the Appalachian Mountains, coming in at around 2200 miles. Every year, a number of masochists like Grace and John start out in either the south or north and attempt to walk end to end; a good portion of those who start don’t finish, leaving the trail at some point. We, of course, intend not to give up partway through. Since we both lasted 2 years in the Peace Corps in Armenia, we feel that we’ve at least got the stubbornness quotient needed.

In the coming months and throughout the hike we’ll be posting a variety of things to this blog: gear lists; travel plans; our thoughts and emotions; pictures; videos; and more. Once on the trail we’re hoping to be able to post at reasonably regular intervals, as we will be bringing along an iPhone for video and pictures, and can also use it to draft posts. Hopefully, we’ll occasionally get a cell phone signal in towns to be able to utilize all that functionality.

Again, we are pleased to have you, our friends, family, and denizens of the internet, here reading about our journey. It’s an adventure we’re looking forward to, and one we want to share as much as we’re able.