Discovering the Appalachian Trail

The year is 2007 and I am about 13 years old at the time. My Family and I are driving up to Vermont for a family reunion. My family loved camping so on the way up there we decided to camp rather then stay in a hotel. One of our stops was in Shenandoah National Park. This place stuck out to me, it is such a beautiful place and was by far my favorite place where we camped on the way up to Vermont. As my family was packing up and getting ready to get back on the road we stopped at a gift shop. There I saw a sign that said Appalachian Trail and a path that led into the woods. Being the curious person that I am I asked my brother Patrick what the Appalachian Trail was. He told my that it was a trail that went all the way from Georgia to Maine and that few people ever hike the whole thing. That's when I said, "Well one day I'm going to hike the entire thing.".


Fast Forward to October 2012...


A couple of my close friends decided we wanted to go on a camping trip in North Georgia, since one of the friends was going up to college up there at Young Harris. That's when I found out that Young Harris is just a few miles from the Appalachian Trail. So I suggested we go backpacking and that was the plan. Long story short both my friend Mike in Tallahassee and Sarah in Young Harris as well as myself got to busy with school so nothing ever came of that trip.

Fast Forward March 2013..

Sitting in my friend Mikes living room a conversation sparked up.

 Mike: Lucas remember that trip on the Appalachian Trail we were planning?

 Me: Yeah, Whats up?

Mike: We should totally do it next 3 day weekend we have in school.

Me: We most definitely should I've been wanting to do it ever since the last time we tried.

So we both began doing some research and a couple minutes later I made a decision.

Me: Hey Mike I'm going to hike this whole trail next spring.

Mike: Dude you should totally go for it!

That was that. We ended up going on our section hike with Sarah too in late May from Woody Gap to Unicoi Gap in Georgia and boy did I learn a lot.

Start of section hike at Woody Gap Me (left) Mike (right) Sarah (not pictured)

 

 

 

Back to Present Day...

I am leaving for my thru-hike from Amicalola Falls State Park on March 14th. I will be on Springer Mountain, March 15th. This is my blog that I will have to document my journey on the trail. This will be the BIGGEST MOST GRAND ADVENTURE I will have tried to accomplish in my life and I want those of you who can't join me to experience this adventure too!!


For anyone who wants to follow me on my journey you can share this page with family and friends. I will be documenting the raw and uncut day to day life on the trail. Although, since I will not have internet most of the time on trail I will be updating when I am in town so bear with me there.

Lastly, check back soon as I will share my reasons on why I decided to go on this crazy adventure.

Happy Trails!!

Lucas