Email Journal

03/30/04. Dave's Appalachian Adventure

Dear family and friends,

As some of you have heard I'm embarking on a major adventure this summer: walking the Appalachian Trail. I'll be starting April 4 in Georgia and expect to finish in early October in Maine - a journey of 2200 miles and 6 months. This has been a lifelong dream. Quite unexpectedly factors in my life aligned to make it possible this year, so I'm going for it.

I’ll be stopping once a week in towns along the trail to resupply. When I can find public Web access I’ll send an email to family and friends with my current location and stories from the trail. If you’d prefer not to receive these emails please reply to this message and I’ll remove you from the list.

My email address for the next six months will be trailwalker444@yahoo.com. The “444” comes from my start date of 04/04/04. This curious date was not planned, it is the result of catching a ride from Ann Arbor to Georgia with some other hikers leaving April 2. I take it as a good omen. I’d be very happy to receive your words of encouragement and news from home sent to this address, but understand that I may not get your email for a week or two. I won’t be checking my other email addresses over the summer.

Here are the estimated dates when I’ll cross state lines. I may or may not be able to walk this fast, we’ll see. I’ll be flying home the first week of June for my son Ben’s graduation on June 1 and to conduct our Computer Challenge MediaFest and Robot Challenge events on June 5.

That’s all for now!

Dave