I don’t have any considered wisdom or prolific prose to offer for St. Patrick’s Day. Simply an update on where my AT thru-hike countdown, D-Day Minus Some Integer, finds me at this point in the journey. D-Day 2021 has me hiking a local green blazed trail for St. Patrick’s Day. Not the AT, but one year closer hopefully to a thru-hike. And despite the COVID pandemic, the past year since March 2020 has been a relative hiking success. In particular, I completed the Maryland section of the AT with my two sons, Matt and Greg (along with Jackie and Lucas) on New Year’s Eve with a day hike along the C&O Canal/AT north of Harpers Ferry and have ventured further into Virginia. Two day hikes with Matt since the New Year, totally almost 16 miles, have moved the Virginia track into Shenandoah National Park; declaring 2021 the year of Virginia. While knocking off the remaining 400+ miles of the longest state along the AT this year may be a bit ambitious, it would be great to at least complete the last small section in Northern Virginia and Shenandoah National Park. That would mark a successful year. I also am pondering a couple short forays into Pennsylvania with a former work colleague. The past year has also seen my AT adventure become more of a family activity, with my wife joining my sons and I on an overnight and a day hike. The plan this year is to include our grandson, my daughter and her boyfriend on at least one trip. Other statistics for the past year include 22 day hikes, totally 90.2 miles, on local trails. Highlights were Crabtree Falls Trail in George Washington National Forest, VA with Jackie; Calvert Cliffs SP, MD Red Trail with Jackie; Balls Bluff Battlefield VA trails with Lucas, Matt, and Greg; River Bend Regional Park/Great Falls NP, VA Potomac Heritage Trail with Jackie, Matt, and Lucas; Patuxent River Park, MD trails with Ryan, a work colleague. My gear has been refined/upgraded – getting closer to what I believe would be a solid thru-hike gear list. I will be working on updating the Gear Prospectus. And finally, I have started an Instagram account to chronicle my hikes/photos to accompany my Trail Journals journal. Follow me @quiet_man60 on Instagram and Quiet Man on Trail Journals
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Quiet Man
I don't have a bucket list. At 61 years old, I have already had the adventures of a lifetime, especially after a 30-year Army career, five years of teaching high school, and a 37 year marriage still going strong. But I still have this deep desire to complete the Appalachian Trial. Archives
February 2022
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