As Paula and I continue our hike, we’re always mindful of the purpose behind our journey—supporting Urban Impact. Please take a moment to read about what’s going on at this incredible organization. Your pledges truly can make a difference.. [...]

You pitch your tent in a motel parking lot and hang your wet hiking clothes from it. Well, what would you do after hiking through the rain? We’re actually staying in the motel, but we set up our gear outside to dry in the Virginia breeze. It rained terribly over the past 36 hours—two nights [...]

Today we’re in Buena Vista, VA, at the 801-mile mark. We’ve finished more than 1/3 of the trail, but not without some trials. Two days ago we encountered classic hypothermia weather. It was in the low 50s, and we were at an elevation of more than 4,000 feet. It was windy and raining, and we [...]

Wildlife abounds on the AT! We’re at the 722-mile mark, which is Daleville, VA, and we’ve had another exciting few days. The weather has cooperated aside from a few thunderstorms, but the fun part of our journey this week has been the wildlife we’ve seen. We climbed a beautiful ridge in the morning when we [...]

We’re at the 586.9 mark on our journey, Wytheville, VA — Roger and Laurie Dhonau came down from Pittsburgh to provide some hiker pampering so we’re in a Comfort Suites room for the night and feeling good. We just came through a horrendous day of rain. In our last blog, we mentioned that it was [...]

Paula and I just made it through one of the toughest physical challenges of our lives. At the height of the unexpected April cold front, we happened to be at our own peak: 5,700-foot Mt. Rogers—the highest elevation in Virginia. Blinding snow and wind gusts of over 55 miles per hour tore across the treeless [...]

We achieved a wonderful psychological milestone yesterday — we crossed over into Virginia. Wahoo! We are no longer walking the boundary of TN and NC. We arrived in Damascus, VA, which is the unofficial “Trail Town” of the AT. It’s a great town, and we’re taking a zero day to rest my leg and resupply. [...]

I am so ecstatic about what just happened. Here’s the story. As a parting gift when I left Christ Church, my good friend, Pastor Barry, gave me a fly-fishing fly that he had tied himself with about 20 feet of monofilament line on it and joked that we would need to catch some fish to [...]

We made it to Hampton, TN, just three more days in TN/NC and then we’re in the rolling hills of Virginia. We’ve enjoyed dry weather for the last six or seven days though it is predicted to rain the next three. Today, we celebrated a milestone in having crossed the 400 mile mark! We’re getting [...]

We’re at the 391.9-mile mark, Roan Mountain, Tennessee. We’ve gotten through the hardest part of the trail, at least in the South. This is the last time the trail climbs above 6,000 feet until Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, our home state. Paula and I have been amazed at the spectacular sights at this elevation, [...]