Appalachian Trail 2021 - 2022

  Hello friends, family, mentors and loved ones! I have included all of you on what I hope will be a bi-weekly email with some reflections from my time on the Appalachian Trail. Some of you didn’t know that I was hiking the Appalachian Trail until right now—my apologies for that! Characteristically, my pre-departure was hectic and busy and left me with less time than I would’ve liked to check in with the people I care about. Many of you have asked to be included on these emails, others I have included here under the assumption that you’d like to read these updates. If you don’t want to receive these, please let me know! I won’t be offended in the slightest. We all have so much to read these days and the longform email itself is not a universally beloved genre of update. The Trip Down: How Does Joe Manchin Win in West Virginia? This is a far too ambitious subtitle for a short section about a road trip down to Georgia, but hear me out. I travelled down to the Southern Terminus of the...

Hello friends, family, loved ones, mentors and nemeses (you know who you are)! I'm writing with another update from this past 40 days on the trail. Observant readers may notice that 40 days is a much larger interval than my originally promised two weeks--my apologies! A mix of good times, bad times and very smart COVID restrictions on using motel-lobby-computers got in my way. But thanks to the kind folks at the Pearisburg Public Library, here in Pearisburg, VA, I'm able to share some stories and reflections. Before jumping in, I did want to share that I am unfortunately sidelined right now with a hip injury. I'll include a more thorough description the next time I post, but the long and short of the matter is that I am working for stay at a hiker hostel until I recover and/or get more clarity from an upcoming MRI. Hopefully my hike will continue in the near future. The Smokies: When I last checked in, I was just about to enter Great Smoky Mountain National Park, writing fr...