By Jerry Adams, contributing editor, May 14, 2019  | Their chatter let me know they were coming a few minutes before they caught up to me on the trail this morning.  I stopped to let the young couple pass and we chatted.

“Since I left Springer in March, more than 500 people have passed me on the trail, “ I said. “But that’s OK. I’m slow. We’ve been out here for more than 500 miles and more than 500 hikers have already left the trail, ending their journey. We’re still here!””

They smiled. We chatted briefly about the two topics on every hiker’s mind — the machete guy and bears. Bears have been wreaking havoc in this area of Virginia, and the machete guy had just been arrested for killing one thru-hiker and cutting up another.

By Jerry Adams, March 2, 2019  |  Tonight I camp atop Springer Mountain in Georgia. Tomorrow, I begin the Long Walk to Maine, a 2,192-mile backpacking adventure. Again

Adams
The “why” of the whole thing has been rattling around in my 68-year-old brain since I decided three months ago that another backpacking trip from Georgia to Maine was absolutely the right thing to do. So it begins…

A schoolmarm friend wrote Tuesday asking me how her fifth-graders could follow me on the trail. They wanted to send me messages and hear about my travels. They wanted to know why I was doing this.

Great question. Yes, it’s about five million steps from Georgia to Maine, but that’s the attraction – a wonderful journey through winter, spring and summer, and across 14 states. It’s not the impossible dream.