Foreword, 2022
As I write this prologue, I am about one week away from my start date of March 1, 2022. For about ten years I did not really tell anyone that I was considering hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. I had hiked short sections and had talked to friends and family about those trips, but I never wanted to let people know that I was seriously contemplating walking almost 2,200 miles for no other reason than it seemed like a good adventure for me to undertake. Until that point, I had enjoyed a pretty successful career path and I lived relatively settled life. So who in their right mind decides to put their life on hold for six months, spend lots of time and even more cash to be able to walk across the eastern end of America? As it turns out, lots of people make the decision to try. Every year about three thousand people attempt a through hike. Of those three thousand, only about ten to fifteen percent finish. I decided around 2017 that I was going to look into what it would take t...