I am Bud’s wife, a Mama to my cat, a chicken wrangler, homemaker, and most importantly, a Christian who depends upon my Heavenly Father for everything.
I will be hiking the Appalachian Trail in March of 2018. The Appalachian Trail goes through 14 states, from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Katahdin, Maine. It is 2,180 miles long. I intend to do a North-Bound (NOBO) ‘thru-hike,’ which means hiking the whole trail within 1 year’s time. It takes 5-6 months to complete the trail and statistics say that only 1 in 4 thru-hikers actually finish the trail. I hope that I will be one of them! I will soon be turning 53 years old, I’m 5’2″ and around 125 pounds.
I made a thru-hike attempt in 2016, hiking (mostly alone) and hiked 1,932.8 miles, from Springer Mt., Georgia to Andover, Maine. I was on the trail for almost 5 1/2 months. I got off the trail due to my body breaking down. I had lost 21 pounds and was exhausted–physically, mentally and emotionally. My body wouldn’t go a step further. I haven’t been able to get past the fact that I stopped 256.9 miles short of my goal, which was Mt. Katahdin, the Northern Terminus of the trail in Maine.
It took me about a year to regain my health. I was suffering from really bad headaches, fatigue and body pain. Many days I stayed in bed. I finally did an herbal treatment for Lyme Disease (even though I didn’t know if I had it.) I have also been experimenting wiht different vitamins. Things have slowly gotten better.
Bud (my husband) is again, graciously supporting me in my endeavor, and has encouraged me to pursue this dream of mine. In fact, it was he, who suggested that I hike the trail again this year (though he already knew I wanted to try again at some point in the future.) He is the best husband, ever. I couldn’t have made it as far as I did in 2016 without him. He is every bit a part of the team. He will be mailing my food boxes, running to the store for last minute things I might want in my box, holding down the fort at home, taking care of Grace (our cat) and our chickens, and mostly, loving and supporting me emotionally…especially with those encouraging words when I call him in tears and need a pep talk.
Including all the things he will be doing for me as part of our team, Bud will also be working on our house, a ‘fixer-upper’ which we purchased about 3 years ago when he retired, chopping down trees and splitting wood, composing Orchestral pieces for Jr. Hi and H.S. Orchestras, (He’s Published!), and contributing to and helping to manage a ‘help forum’ for Orchestra Teachers. He is awesome!
Bud dedicated one of his compositions to me. It will be published this year, and he named it, “Appalachian Sojourn” in honor of my 2016 hike. Thus, the name of my new blog. If you would like to listen to it, you can click on the media player below.
This blog will eventually be my trail journal when I start my hike, and until then, I’ll use it to write about my preparations for the trip.
Appalachian Sojourn 