A Family Adventure of the 2,185 mile hike from Georgia to Maine – 2014
The last thing I did in my real job (other than pawn work off on my colleagues : “you need me to do what while you’re gone?”) was to handle a conservation easement closing for the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust on land adjacent to the trail corridor on Long Falls Dam Road just north of the Bigelow Preserve. Walking by that property as we get close to the end of our journey was a fitting bookend and a stark reminder that real life is nigh once more.
I get lots of questions about how it’s possible to arrange work leave for a trip like this. It comes down to three things: 1) Be good at what you do; 2) Constantly strive to become even better at it; and 3) Be kind to the people around you. If you can consistently manage those three things (not always as easy as it sounds), then your employer will forgive many of your other eccentricities. Including the need to walk a couple thousand miles with your family.
It also helps to work at a place that is willing to look passed typical conventions and evaluate situations on an individualized basis, coming to solutions that are beneficial to all involved. In short, the things that make the peoples at Drummond Woodsum great attorneys also make them great colleagues and employers.
Now I have a few more weeks to savor the Maine outdoors before it’s back to regular life once more.
A Family Adventure of the 2,185 mile hike from Georgia to Maine - 2014 
What beautiful vistas. Thanks for sharing
I just hope that your employers, your childrens’ schools, your relations, and all the others who have helped to make this hike happen, feel as virtuous as they should do. It is a rare view of America at its very best.
Reaching this point in your travels is bittersweet. Truly a wonderful family accomplishment, growth figuratively and literally, and I am most appreciative for your opening this adventure to us day-by-day! Much love from Minnesota!
I have been following your blog religiously (just ask my brother Rich); I don’t know if you are using a different camera, or something else, but somehow these scenes from Maine really look different from similar vistas much further south. At any rate, these views of Maine are really spectacular. Welcome ‘home’
Just as teachers take sabbaticals for growth, I would think a lawyer taking a sabbatical on the AT would greatly help his work in legal matters related to the environment. Kudos to your employer, All In!
Hey, you used to write fantastic, but the last few posts have been kinda boring?I miss your tremendous writings. Past several posts are just a little out of track! come on!