AT Family Section Hike

It's been decided. We are doing a section hike on the AT next summer. It took a visit as a family to Harpers Ferry, WV and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy - ATC to shake me and the wife into realizing we aren't getting any younger and the experience would be something our girls will remember for a longtime to collectively hike as much of the AT as we can each summer.

Everything can't always be perfect. I'm never going to have six months to spare till I retire so why wait? So, over the next many months we are going to get serious about day hiking, backpacking and multiple day backpacking in order to get the girls used to carrying a bit of weight gradually and stretching their distances. While they get used to this I will obviously be getting used to carrying more and managing my expectations of big miles and making sure we find things on trail to keep them engaged.

In addition to training and gear purchases I am beginning to research easy yet still fun sections to be our first actual section. I think I have it narrowed down to half a dozen areas.

Lastly, one of Graces friends just requested baby items for a crisis nursery in lieu of birthday presents. This got us thinking as a family the other evening about supporting a local charity with our section hike. Currently we are thinking our possibily supporting our local food bank, but Grace is still considering some other options. Would love to hear about other worthwhile causes from you as well.

More soon from our recent trip to the ATC and our climb up Mt. Monadnock in NH.

Keep Hiking Forward!

Scott