Join our journey
Dean and the boys on the AT a few years ago
Please continue to read below, this is just an update to let everyone know that we hit the trail a day earlier than planned, March 12th. Today is March 25th and we are 70 miles into our journey. All is going very well although 1 Gerorgia mile feels like 2 Indiana miles. We are starting to get our trail legs and our daily mileage is increasing. We are posting on our facebook page each night that we have internet service. Peace, love, and happy trails.
This webpage is to share our dream of thru hiking the Appalachian Trail. Our official start date is March 13, 2012. We are an ordinary family that is going to do something extraordinary and would like to get as many supporters as possible to follow our journey and experience this dream with us. While on the trail we will be documenting our experiences and uploading them a few times a week onto our face book page (link at top). If you click on "like" on our face book page you will be able to follow our every triumph and struggle. Just knowing that we have support while going through the challenging days will make them much easier and being able to share our triumphs with everyone will make this adventure much more rewarding. We will leave our regular lives(school and work) and hike the trail from March 13, 2012 until we complete it. Our goal is to summit on September 26th, it will be our 15th year wedding anniversary and we hope to renew our vows on top of Katahdin. It the very latest we need to summit by mid-October. We are hiking all 2,184 miles from Georgia to Maine as a family! Our family consists of Dean, Lisa, Forest, and River. Forest will be 15 and River will be 9 when we set out for Georgia and let's just say Dean and Lisa will be a little older than the boys. The time spent on the trail as a family will be priceless. Throughout the journey we hope to gain a deep understanding and connection to each other and nature. We want to really know each other at a level that is difficult to achieve with all of the distractions in everyday life. From having discussions with our family and friends we know not everyone understands why we want to walk the trail. We are hoping that those that do not understand our desire can understand that this is a dream of ours. We hope that by following our dream others will be inspired to follow their dreams.
How did we get here?
This adventure started out as a dream of Dean’s many years ago and spread to an adventure for the family. We lived in the country and would often go for family walks down our gravel road. In the summer of 2009 as we were walking we started to discuss the trail. It was during those walks that we approached the boys about taking on this challenge as a family. Forest and River were both quick to let us know this was something they were interested in doing. We had many discussions with the boys before the decision was made to do this as we wanted them to understand the commitment they needed to make, the commitment our family needed to make, and the physical challenge this journey would be for everyone. The decision was made and we began planning in August of 2009. We knew that our lifestyle would need to change if this dream was going to become a reality. So….on Thanksgiving Day we stuck a for sale sign in the yard. Our home of nine years was a beautiful old farm house on 3 ½ acres with chickens and turkeys. We quickly sold the chickens and turkeys. We sold our home and moved to the city within 6 months. We also sold most of our belongings at an auction prior to the move as we were drastically downsizing in an effort to simplify our lives and prepare ourselves for this grand adventure. We do not know “how” our lives will be changed once we complete the trail but we do know that the experiences we have during those 7 months “will” make us into better human beings and bring us closer together as a family. We also hope to show others that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and to inspire others to not only live their dream(s) but to share it with others.
Thank you for visiting our page and please join us in this journey!
This webpage is to share our dream of thru hiking the Appalachian Trail. Our official start date is March 13, 2012. We are an ordinary family that is going to do something extraordinary and would like to get as many supporters as possible to follow our journey and experience this dream with us. While on the trail we will be documenting our experiences and uploading them a few times a week onto our face book page (link at top). If you click on "like" on our face book page you will be able to follow our every triumph and struggle. Just knowing that we have support while going through the challenging days will make them much easier and being able to share our triumphs with everyone will make this adventure much more rewarding. We will leave our regular lives(school and work) and hike the trail from March 13, 2012 until we complete it. Our goal is to summit on September 26th, it will be our 15th year wedding anniversary and we hope to renew our vows on top of Katahdin. It the very latest we need to summit by mid-October. We are hiking all 2,184 miles from Georgia to Maine as a family! Our family consists of Dean, Lisa, Forest, and River. Forest will be 15 and River will be 9 when we set out for Georgia and let's just say Dean and Lisa will be a little older than the boys. The time spent on the trail as a family will be priceless. Throughout the journey we hope to gain a deep understanding and connection to each other and nature. We want to really know each other at a level that is difficult to achieve with all of the distractions in everyday life. From having discussions with our family and friends we know not everyone understands why we want to walk the trail. We are hoping that those that do not understand our desire can understand that this is a dream of ours. We hope that by following our dream others will be inspired to follow their dreams.
How did we get here?
This adventure started out as a dream of Dean’s many years ago and spread to an adventure for the family. We lived in the country and would often go for family walks down our gravel road. In the summer of 2009 as we were walking we started to discuss the trail. It was during those walks that we approached the boys about taking on this challenge as a family. Forest and River were both quick to let us know this was something they were interested in doing. We had many discussions with the boys before the decision was made to do this as we wanted them to understand the commitment they needed to make, the commitment our family needed to make, and the physical challenge this journey would be for everyone. The decision was made and we began planning in August of 2009. We knew that our lifestyle would need to change if this dream was going to become a reality. So….on Thanksgiving Day we stuck a for sale sign in the yard. Our home of nine years was a beautiful old farm house on 3 ½ acres with chickens and turkeys. We quickly sold the chickens and turkeys. We sold our home and moved to the city within 6 months. We also sold most of our belongings at an auction prior to the move as we were drastically downsizing in an effort to simplify our lives and prepare ourselves for this grand adventure. We do not know “how” our lives will be changed once we complete the trail but we do know that the experiences we have during those 7 months “will” make us into better human beings and bring us closer together as a family. We also hope to show others that ordinary people can do extraordinary things and to inspire others to not only live their dream(s) but to share it with others.
Thank you for visiting our page and please join us in this journey!