In 2012, we hiked 2,184.2 miles from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail. During our two years of serious preparation for this hike, we relied heavily on several on-line trail journals by members of the AT Classes of 2010 and 2011. With the encouragement of friends and relatives, we decided to also attempt to post a daily record from the trail.

The bulk of this journaling was done in short fits and snatches in the middle of the night, typing on our iPhones while horizontal, often after being awakened for a nature call. The following day we would find a high point where we could receive a signal and send these hasty notes, plus a few photos to our Base Camp Manager. Ashley would take these electronic scribblings, whip them into a presentable shape, and post them to trailjournals.com. We were surprised when our story became the second most popular blog on that site for 2012, and even more astonished when our number of hits topped 400k!

We always intended to work on the quality of our journal post-hike, but now six quick years have slipped by before we realized it! While the trail remains daily in our thoughts, and while some of the special moments are seared in our brains forever (think caught in that lightning storm on the NJ/NY border!), many of the details of our time in the “long green tunnel” are starting to run together or just fading away…

So, it’s now or never to do some editing, (hopefully) improving, of the Troverts’ tale. The ideal would be to rework one entry at a time, posting each exactly six years to the day after our hike. If successful, this site will thus serve as a “virtual hike” for newcomers just now discovering the Troverts. However, if this massive undertaking dies on the vine, to skip to the end, We Made It!

-X & N Trovert,
Appalachian Trail Thru Hikers
April 2018