Matt Hiking in the Backcountry on Isle Royale National Park

I have been planning this hike for the entire length of my college career and as my time at Tech coming to an end it’s time to enact this plan. I am ready. I have been preparing myself for this for years. Backpacking has become my life. Mid March I am headed to Springer, I can’t wait. Five more months.

Every one asks and every journal contains an entry explaining why people want to hike the trail. Everyone says things about personal discovery and taking some time out of their lives to do some thinking and needing a change. I agree completely. You might as well do it while you have the chance and I currently have the chance. I need the time to make some decisions and seems like an appropriate place and activity to do some reflecting on the past and look into the future. Plus I just love backpacking and it beats the hell out of a job.

I found out it takes 3 entries to activate a journal so I figured I would add another typical pre hike entry detailing peoples response to my plan and maybe a bit of the plan itself.

Most people write about how everyone is amazed by their plan to hike the Trail and can’t understand why you would want to. So far I haven’t gotten that reaction. My friends and family have been totally supportive and act like this is just the natural decision to be made, and I appreciate it. Hiking and the woods have become my life. I hike a lot, and work in the woods so it is completely natural. I see people in the future, those who I am less close to having the dumbfounded reaction.

My plan is to start my hike in Georgia sometime during the second week in March. I am not sure how I am getting there but I may take a train down. I am staying in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula at the house I rent in Houghton. Hopefully I can get some work between December when I graduate and March when I leave. I am storing some of my stuff in my Brothers attic and the rest at my parents house in lower Michigan. That’s the plan so far, but I am flexible so we will see how it changes.

I have been doing gear shakedowns the past couple of weekends and am finally getting my pack to where I want it. A long (38 mi) day in Porcupine Mountains State Park helped me make some decisions with cloths and gear and a freezing night last night camping at High Rock Bay showed me I need a new sleeping bag. But I knew that already and will eventually order a Western Mountaineering bag. I am only 8 weeks from graduating and then my only concern is the Trail. It’s tough to concentrate and I am too busy to do as much trail planning/dreaming as I would like but I am almost done.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I am definitely living for the trail these days. I have 3 more weeks of class until graduation and December 15th can’t come fast enough. I am spending some time with my parents in lower Michigan for the holiday and they are incredibly supportive of my plans, which I am very appreciative of. After reading some forum posts and journals that talk about how their families don’t support their dreams it makes me really thankful for the people around me.

I am finally getting my gear totally situated. I am going pretty light (14 lbs base) and plan on moving pretty quickly as I don’t have a lot of money. My parents decided to get me a new sleeping bag for Christmas, which is awsome. I am getting a Western Mountaineering Ultralite Super and I couldn’t be happier. The gear situation is driving me nuts. I spend to much time thinking about equipment and it seems to be overshadowing the trail itself.

It is finally getting cold in the UP, high teens to low 20′s, so I can test out my cold weather system. Winter time is coming, which means spring can’t be far behind.

Twenty One Days until no more college (for now)
Three months three weeks (approximately) until the AT

Well, I finally graduated college on Saturday. Now I just have to finish a paper and take an exam this afternoon and I am done with my undergrad education and have myself a degree in forestry. It’s a bit surreal and scary to be done but I am definitely excited that the last major hurdle between me and the trail is cleared.

Only a matter of months now. I found out one of the guys I graduated with from my department is also going to be hiking the trail so we are going to travel down together and see where it goes from there. It’s nice to have someone else as stoked about it as I am to talk to.

My folks are coming up this afternoon for a few days and then I am going home for a week or so before I make a trip out to Colorado to attempt a couple 14ers. I have been XC skiing a lot and plan on getting some serious snowshoeing in this week as we have gotten some snow recently.

It’s about 5 weeks until I start my hike. I am getting pretty excited and would leave today if it was an option. I have been keeping super busy so as to not become overwhelmed with the excitement. After graduation I went out west for few weeks with some friends and attempted a few 14ers in Colorado and did some hiking/snowshoeing in some of the Western National Parks like Tetons and Badlands. I failed on all the 14ers, but not do to anything in my control, weather just got the better of us. Since getting back I have been working in Michigan Tech’s Entomology lab and trying to stay outside as much as I can. I have been skiing quite a bit and started ice climbing.

My friend Belinda has offered to take me to the trailhead, which is amazing and I can’t express my gratitude enough. It’s about 24 hours of driving from here so this is just phenomenal. Another forester who graduated with me will also be hiking this summer so he is going to ride down with us but we won’t be hiking together. So it looks like my official start date will be around March 23rd.

Between then and now I have quite a bit to do. I have to keep working, move out of my house, finish a few last minute gear details, and a bunch of other little things like taxes and what not. On top of all of this I have decided to apply to the Peace Corps so when I finish the trail I will have some kind of plan. I have an interview with them next Wednesday so hopefully I will be accepted and can leave on another adventure after the trail.

So I am almost within two weeks of my departure for the trail (15 days 19 hours and 17 minutes to be exact, but who’s counting). I will be on the trail the morning of the 24th of March. I am remaining calm but there is an ever present current of anticipation running through me. I am at about the same state of business I have been for the past two months so it isn’t too overwhelming and I can prepare for my hike pretty leisurely.

I was nominated as a Peace Corps volunteer last week and it appears that I will be doing forestry work in Africa starting this fall after my hike. I am really stoked about that. 2008 is shaping up to be an amazing year. I am just waiting on my medical evaluation to get a country assignment.

I am also getting the opportunity to do something good with my thru-hike. My friend Dan’s father developed a hereditary degenerative brain disease in the late nineties called Metachromatic Leukodystrophy. It is terrible affliction resulting in paralysis, blindness, seizures and eventualy death. Dan asked me if I would be willing to use my hike as means of spreading the word about the disease and fundraising for research. I jumped at the opportunity to take one of my dreams and use it benefit other people. We are setting up a website at www.AT4MLD.org so please swing by and check it out. There is some information on there and some contact info if you want to get involved.
I have all my gear set and my pack down 15.6 pounds before food and water. I have purchased almost all my food for the first 6 days and have it repackaged. I am moving my stuff out of my house on the 16th. My last day of work is the 19th and I have my travel plans squared away. My dream is about to come true. I am doing what I said I would. I might get another entry in before I hit the trail, I might not. It doesn’t matter. I am really excited to meet the other hikers whose journals I have been reading and the ones I haven’t. This is gonna be great. See you on the trail. Feel free to sign my guest book, I like hearing from people.

Made the trip down from Houghton via Pulaski, Tenn. and Muskegon, Mich. Picked up Tim in Muskegon and drove to Kim and Aubrey’s in Pulaski. Saw Rolf and Candy Peterson on the way down which is kind of an odd coincidence as I am working for them when I finish the trail. We stayed in a renovated church in Pulaski. It was pretty cool. Kim and Aubrey’s property is beautiful and it was great staying there, very surreal at the edge of this journey and I can’t thank them enough. Stayed in Tennessee for Easter and feasted like mad. Amazing food and plenty of it. Leaving for Georgia tomorrow, I can barely contain myself.

Spring Mountain, GA to Stover Creek Shelter, GA: Daily miles 2.8, Total miles 2.8

Left Pulaski about 8AM heading for GA. It is a pretty scenic drive but I slept a lot of it because I didn’t sleep well last night due to the overwhelming excitement. Arrived at Amicalola Falls St. Park at about 12:45 and signed in. I am the 330th person to sign in. We said goodbye to B at the Arch that marks the beginning to the approach trail. It was tougher saying goodbye that I expected and I will be forever grateful for what she has done for me. Tim and I split almost immediately and I probably won’t see him again on the trail. I made the 8.8 miles to Springer in just under 3 hrs. It was windy and cloudy so I took the obligatory starting out photos and headed off. I saw some snow on the way up but nothing too bad. Staying at Stover Creek Shelter with a few other thru hikers. It is 6:41PM and about 35 degrees. Ate Mac ‘n Cheese for dinner and found a note B slipped in my pack. It made me sad to be leaving my friends but was very encouraging. The spring is dry at the shelter so I don’t have much water which is a pain but I can make it through breakfast. It is weird sitting on the edge of such an immense journey.