A Family Adventure of the 2,185 mile hike from Georgia to Maine – 2014

We woke up early to try to make it into Town before the post office closed. Our plan was to get in by five, pickup our package, have dinner and hike out of town. The kids were a little lethargic after the late night and the going was slow. We were starting to hit the section of PA where the rocks begin, although the rocky sections were still intermittent. Read More

The kids woke up in their hammocks to wish me a happy Father’s Day. The day started at a beautiful campsite and ended at another beautiful campsite. It doesn’t get much better than that. Read More

We were up and packed early to hit the trail, but our plans for an early departure were waylaid by a slow breakfast at the restaurant across from the hotel. Three of us got our food, but Mama Bear’s omelet was inadvertently delivered to a different table, so we had to wait for them to cook another. But that just meant more time for eggs, pancakes and coffee for the rest of us.

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We woke up to a clear morning. After the late night arrival, the kids slept late into the morning (or at least late for hikers). It helped that the shelter kept things darker then our tent. We usually don’t stay in shelters; a family of four with a dog is kind of an unwieldy group to try to share space with others. Plus, the tent is usually nicer since the mice and other critters searching for food can sometimes make the shelters unpleasant. Read More

RobinHood and Cartwheel’s teachers have stayed in touch throughout out the hike. They pass along questions from the kids’ classmates that we try to answer in a timely manner. We don’t always hit the timeliness factor. We miss everyone back home at Dresden Elementary, and we’ll try to answer your questions here before everyone heads off to Summer Vacation! Also, we got to be on the radio: you can hear it here!

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After a late night at Chocolate World, we enjoyed sleeping in at Malto’s house. We got up to pancakes, sausage and eggs. It was misting and wet after a night of thunderstorms and our motivation to hurry back to the trail was low. RobinHood and All In took the opportunity to give each other summer haircuts. Read More

The evening brought another overnight rainstorm. We hurried to closed the vestibules left open to facilitate a breeze, then we went back to sleep until morning, awoken one other time to a large branch crashing to the ground from a tree somewhere between our tent and Bobwhite’s. Mama Bear poked her head out of the tent long enough to satisfy herself that none of our friends had been crushed. Read More

Having walked north each day for the last seventy-two days, we now have fewer miles to go then we’ve walked already. We approached the halfway point with trepidation, aware that Zeno’s Dichotomy Paradox told us that the halfway point was a necessary but impossible point to reach in any journey (because of the need to first get halfway to the halfway point, ad infinitum). Like Diogenes the Cynic, we defied Zeno by jumping over the halfway point. Read More

The morning brought damp but clearing weather after an evening shower. The kids slept late, still catching up on some sleep while I stretched my legs with a mile round trip walk to the spring for some water. The adults had coffee and chatted with the other hikers emerging from their tents until the kids finally crawled out of the tent. Read More

The kids slept in but not enough. They stumbled over to the picnic table rubbing their bleary eyes, Cartwheel still in her sleeping bag. The folks doing trail magic served up some tasty sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches and RobinHood entertained their nine-month old with his goofball antics. Read More