Crossing the Border N.C. / Tenn. Line Spring 1997

This planned trip won't be the first time I've forsaken gainful employment and headed off on an unadvisible adventure. In early 1997 I quit my job as a reporter at WNCN-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina. I'd decided I was tired of journalism and ready for a change. Before I changed careers, though, I was off into the rolling mountains of the American Southeast.

I hiked over 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from its beginning at Springer Mountain in North Georgia to the town of Marion in Southwest Virginia. It was a good time and I met some fantastic people the likes of whom I never would encounter in my typical journalism/professional existance.

On the following pages are the jounal entries I made between March 24 and May 8, 1997. They're probably not very interesting to anyone but me, but I've wanted to put them online for a while. If for no other reason than for posterity should I lose my little journal.

Everything is transcribed exactly as I wrote it, comprehensible or not. In some places I've tried to explain what I was talking about. In others, as you'll see, that would be simply impossible.

You can begin by picking a portion of the journal from the links at the top of this page. Enjoy!.