Why?

This is me at about age 10 in Atlanta, Georgia, with my best friend Jay Hays waiting to get on a bus to go to summer camp for an entire week in the North Georgia Mountains. During that week we hiked for three days and camped two nights on the Appalachian Trail. This was the first time that I ever became aware of the trail and knew it existed. I remember getting ahead of the group and walking alone in peace taking in all of that incredible beauty. I remember the last morning sitting on the top of a mountain watching the sunrise. In all of the years since, a move to Florida, two marriages, raising two children and losing one of them, through a long career in law enforcement and through all of what life throws at you, those few days on that trail in those mountains never left me. It is those few days so many years ago that prompted me to move to East Tennessee and take up hiking. It brings me peace, a sense of accomplishment, challenges me, and I believe has prolonged my life. Next year I hope to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail starting on my daughter's birthday and I know when I get down to do the Georgia section at some point I will actually walk in my own footsteps, the steps that I took as a kid so many years ago. The steps that made such an impression on me.