Joyce Hodgson

My aim in writing this blog is to encourage others to simply START reaching for their goals. The only way to achieve your goals is to start reaching, even if you have to use your tippy toes in the beginning. You might want to read my very first post to give you an idea from where I started! Somewhere. Sometime.

Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail is a lofty goal. There is a 75-80% fail rate of people planning to hike the whole Appalachian Trail. Training and preparation is essential! Through the next couple years I will post about my adventures in training and preparation. As of now, the Spring and Summer of 2016, I will be concentrating on simply hiking anywhere I can. I'm trying to condition my body to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. There are also posts about my gear. One post about testing gear (and other things) is here: Testing, testing, testing.

Things you find throughout my adventure is that I will have doubts, worries, success, and questions! I'm learning! About the outdoors, gear, wildlife, trail life, and about myself and what I am made of.

I also love to travel, so you might find posts about different places I hike while visiting. Like this post when I visited D.C. and a favorite outdoor store - REI and D.C. Parks. I'd love to hear your story about walking the Appalachian Trail or any experience you are willing to share.

I started my journey in training physically for the hike in July of 2015. I intend to start hiking in Georgia on Springer Mountain in the Spring of 2020.