Source to Sea

I ran across the series of newspaper articles I wrote for the Greensboro News and Record during my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2000 while going through some old boxes of stuff at the house. I scanned and snagged the text with Adobe Acrobat, and they’re now posted under the Appalachian Trail Thru-hike Journals category.

Going [...]

January 24, 2001
Morehead City, North Carolina
End of the Trail
Mile 2,165

Well, this journey has finally come to an end. I woke up at 5 am to hike the final 2.5 miles to the top of Springer Mountain on 1/11. I reached the top in plenty of time to watch my final sunrise of the trip. [...]

Jan 11, 2001
Springer Mountain, Georgia
Mile 2,165

Hey ya’ll – just wanted to throw out a quick note saying that I climbed Springer Mountain in Georgia to watch the sun rise, thus finishing my journey on the Appalachian Trail.

What a fantastic way to end the trip. I’m still kind of in this state of overwhelming bliss, [...]

Jan 7, 2001

Hiawassee, Georgia

I’m sitting in a Laundromat in Hiawassee, Ga., making a laughingly vain attempt to get the funk out of my clothes. Having not seen a washing machine in more than a week, all my clothes, not to mention myself, were in dire need of a thorough cleaning.

On the way back to Fontana Village
12/30/2000
Mile 2,000-something or other

*This was written on a Greyhound bus on the way back to the trail. I went home for a few days off at Christmas to wait out some miserably cold weather. -JP

Hey ya’ll,

First off:
1) I’m not dead
2) I’m [...]

Hot Springs, NC
December 12, 2000

Hey ya’ll,

Just wanted to throw a note out that I’ve made it to Hot Springs, NC in fine shape. The walk from Erwin to here was absolutely fantastic. The weather was great and the views were just incredible. I had what turned out to be one of the best days [...]

December 8, 2000
Erwin, Tennessee
Man, things have gotten a little nippy lately! Tennessee has rocked thus far. The trail skirts the NC/Tenn line so I actually was in NC here and there. Pretty cool seeing a sign for Spruce Pine-27 miles. Erwin is trying its level best to suck me into staying for many days. [...]

November 14, 2001
Troutdale, Virginia
Mile 1,450

Howdy folks,

I’m writing from Troutville. Virginia, which is right down the road from Roanoke. According to my friendly Data Book, I’ve drug my carcass along the Appalachian Mountain chain about 1450 miles leaving about 715 miles left to go. It feels really good to be looking at the last 1/3 [...]

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
10/26/2000
Mile 1165

Finally Back in the South, or close to it.

Hey folks! Sorry to have a lapse in writing but the computer access problem crept up again in Pennsylvania. Let’s see, where to start? Well. I’m sitting in Harper’s Ferry. WV, having walked through Pennsylvania, and Maryland to get here. About 1165 miles [...]

Somewhere in New Jersey
October 10, 2000

Mile 900

“Hey Buddy – You want this grinder on a wedge or what?”

And so it was that I walked into New York and New Jersey on this AT trip, and I guess some explanation is in order. The AT over the last 150 miles or so cross several roads [...]

9/28/2000

Hi again from Connecticut!

Sorry about the lapse in time from the last posting. We’re still hitting
towns where the libraries kind of have some “unique” hours so it limits our
email access sometimes. Any of you folks familiar with PDA’s recommend a
cheap, easy way to email out? Emphasis on the cheap part!

First a couple of housekeeping [...]

September 8, 2000
Hanover, New Hampshire
Mile 441

Howdy Everyone!

Well we finally made it into Hanover, NH, home of Dartmouth College and more upscale finery than we certainly are used to So far we’ve covered 441.5 miles with only about 1720 to go. From Gorham to Hanover were the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Our luck with [...]