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The First Third

Posted on August 15, 2018 by

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We’ve hiked 870 miles of the Appalachian Trail. That’s more than one third! (By 140 miles if you’re looking for specifics.) Bill Bryson, considered an authority on the AT based on his wildly popular book A Walk in the Woods, only hiked a third…

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High Alert & High Adventure

Posted on June 12, 2018 by

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Realistic expectations are a good defense against disappointment, so when planning our thru-hike, we read as much as we could about what we should expect. Several previous hikers said that life on the Trail is constant misery, or at the very least mild discomfort,…

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Hitched and Hiking!

Posted on April 20, 2018 by

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by Lindsey Rudibaugh My family has a long tradition of celebrating the first day of spring with a picnic.  No matter the weather, my mom loads up picnic baskets with chicken salad sandwiches, a variety of other mayonnaise-based dishes, puppy chow, root beer, what…

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Walking and Dangerous

Posted on February 4, 2018 by

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by Lindsey Rudibaugh Once upon a time, Travis got a haircut he really liked.  Then, as he reports happens too often, the woman who gave him this great haircut told him she was leaving that particular salon.  He sat there in her chair, taking in…

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We crossed hundreds of bridges as we hiked the full length of the Appalachian Trail, but this was the very last one. A fellow thru-hiker snapped this picture, catching us in the act of one of our trail traditions: kissing on every bridge. This habit was inspired by @mountunion, the college where we met as students and later reunited as colleagues. Mount Union has two lakes, and campus lore says that if you kiss someone on the bridge that crosses them, you'll marry that person. We're already married, but we chose to take this tradition to the trail for a few reasons: •Stopping at every bridge meant we took a moment to truly notice streams, rivers, and waterfalls. Mountain views were beautiful, but fairly plentiful. Water views were less common and oh-so rejuvenating. After collecting and filtering every drop we consumed for 7 months, we feel deep awe and respect for water. •Kissing on every bridge made it hard to get too far away from each other. The trail isn't generally wide enough to walk side-by-side, and it's easy to get separated over time as we each navigated climbs and obstacles at our own pace. So, waiting for each other at bridges was a safety measure that ensured we had landmarks to report to rescue personnel as last points of contact in the event that one of us went missing. (We also waited for each other at road crossings.) •Perhaps most importantly, Kissing Bridges required that we had to be happy enough with each other to pucker up whenever we came upon a bridge. Sometimes this meant standing on the bridge for a while to hash through things. Maybe we wouldn't go as far as we wanted that day, but we didn't let small annoyances fester, and we believe this practice helped us make it the full 2,190 miles feeling like a team. It took us until the very last day of our 210 days to get a picture, but we're so very happy to have captured such a core element of our hike. #teachingsofthetrail #safetyfirst #honeymoon #kissmeyoufool #tenderfootadventures #appalachiantrail #AT2018 Alas, we share the final hours of our Appalachian Trail adventure. We are thankful, beyond words, to those we have met, to those who have supported us from off trail, and to our tribe. "Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations." -H.D.Thoreau #goinghome #thruhikers #appalachiantrail #hikeathon #honeymoon #whiteblazesonly #501c3 31 miles left on trail and we're a sea of emotions, but the most dominant one is expressed in this silly video. This is for all of our supporters, our current donors, and our future ones. Some days have been gorgeous, more have been wet, and lately most have been cold, but our sense of responsibility to and gratitude for all of you has kept our feet moving forward for 7 months now. https://tenderfootlearninglab.org/campaigns/appalachian-trail-hike-a-thon/ #loveourtribe #herecomesthesun #philanthropygoals #nonprofit #501c3 #appalachiantrail #at2018 #tenderfootadventures This picture was taken through the plastic envelope that protected our phone from the pelting rain and wind that followed us yesterday....all the way to GEORGIA! We've entered our final of 14 states, and only 69 miles remain. We'll be home within the week, meeting our new niece and eating @brewnuts ...and stubbornly staying indoors during all rainy days for at least a year. #thingstolookforwardto #brewnutswemissedyou #drowninginrain #appalachiantrail #tenderfootadventures
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