January 23, 2000This is a copy of my journal from my Appalachian Trail thru-hike of 1998. Originally, it was on Wingfoot's Trailplace site (www.trailplace.com). It is no longer available on his web-site. That gave me a good excuse to finally put up my journal on my own website. One thing I noticed in online journals are that they do not lend themselves to easy reading OFF LINE. The first on-line journal I ever read was Gutsy's of 1996. A simple ASCII text file that I could print out and read at my leisure. So I have decided to do the same thing. No frills ASCII. Makes for an easy download, too.
I would like to thank John Gordorn for the original transcribing of my journal back in 1998. Hard to believe it has already been two years since John and family deciphered my handwriting to put my words online for the virtual hiking community. John can assure you, this is a much easier way of reading my journal!
Like to thank Ron Moak for saving my journal. While I do have my journal in the original paper version, I never did save it to disk. Ron did. He was gracious enough to forward it to me. If it was not for him, I would have more typing than I would like!
I would also like to thank Wingfoot for letting me put my journal online in the first place. It was a great way to communicate with family and friends.
Finally, I would like to thank the hiking community. They helped me get prepared for my hike, allowed me to have an enjoyable experience in 1998, and helped me greatly in adjusting my post-hike life.
Thanks!
With no further ado, here is my Thru-Hike Journal of 1998.