Featured Post
I have been thinking about hiking the Appalachian Trail half-heartedly since 2011, and looked into it a little bit over the years, but never really seriously considered it, due to the time involved and the two concurrent jobs I've had since late 2010.
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Appalachian Trail Resources
- To All Prospective Appalachian Trail Thru-Hikers
- Thoughts, Statistics, and Future Plans
- Gear on the Appalachian Trail
- Technology on the Trail: Part 1: Devices and Power
- Technology on the Trail: Part 2: Apple Watch
- Technology on the Trail: Part 3: iPhone
- Meals on the Appalachian Trail
- Cost Analysis of an Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike
On The Trail, Ten Years Ago…
The last three days have been strange beyond belief; I've attempted to convey that oddness over the previous two entries, but it's truly not possible to convey just how strange it has been. Gatlinburg has been a strange little town that we've visited, and that strangeness simply does not want to let us go. (Well, mostly Beast; nearly all the unfortunate things the last few days have been at his expense.)
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Other Recent Posts
I was interviewed by Suzan Bond for the Indiedotes podcast. We talked about my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in the context of lessons that can be applied to goal and career management. This was the first podcast I’ve ever been on, and it was fun talking with Suzan. Check it out!
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One year ago today, I made a decision that would forever change my life: I decided to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. 42 days later, I stood atop Springer Mountain in Georgia, the AT’s southern terminus. 176 days, 2200 miles, and three pairs of boots later, I reached Katahdin, Baxter Peak, Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
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An open letter to all prospective 2017 (and future) AT thru-hikers:
It’s natural to get pre-hike jitters or fears, or doubts. But don’t let them scare you away. There is such a thing as too much planning. It’s very easy to overthink, and over-stress, and over-worry. Sure, bad stuff could happen on the trail. But worrying about it now won’t help, or stop it from happening. You’ll just have to deal with setbacks if and when they arise.
You are about to embark on an absolutely amazing journey, that (relatively) few people have started, let alone successfully completed. Between fellow hikers, trail angels, trail maintenance clubs, and all the local communities and trail towns, the AT has an absolutely wonderful community surrounding it. Everyone wants you to succeed, and everyone will help you along the way.
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I’m pleased to announce that in May, I will be giving two talks at the excellent php[tek] conference in Atlanta, GA. One will be a technical talk on computational algorithmic complexity. The other is a comparison of long-distance hiking and software development, which I developed over the course of my Appalachian Trail thru-hike, and which I’m particularly looking forward to giving.
I missed last year’s php[tek] because I was on the Appalachian Trail at the time. This was the first tek I’ve missed since 2010, so I’m happy that I get to go this year partially to talk about why I wasn’t there last year!
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What’s an Appalachian Trail thru-hike cost? While it’s very possible to do a low-cost hike, mine wasn’t. While starting somewhat price-consciously, the final three states destroyed my budget. Read on to find out why.
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