Tomorrow.
Tomorrow is February 3rd.
For a lot of you, tomorrow is Friday – hoorah! Your weekend is so close you can taste it and your workweek is finally coming to an end.
For even more of you, tomorrow is just another day in your routine. You’ll wake up to do your normal you things and you’ll go through the entire day without even acknowledging what day it is.
But for us, tomorrow is the biggest day of our lives. Well, second to our wedding day of course, but you get what I mean.
Tomorrow morning, at the butt-crack of dawn, we will load all of our gear into the back of a car and head to Springer Mountain with our families. When we get to Springer Mountain, we’ll bid a farewell not only to the family and friends who have supported us along the way, but to the comforts of society – big and small.
How We Are Feeling
Honestly, we’ve talked about how we are feeling almost every day up to this point, but now that we are so close it is much harder to even explain and I think that is because we truly just do not know how we feel. And it seems right to not know because we have no context for what we are about to do.
We have spent countless hours researching, training, prepping, and dreaming of our thru-hike. And now the time has come to actually start this crazy adventure. In some ways, beginning is bittersweet: we have to say goodbye to so many people we love and to planning. Yet, we also get to experience the fruit of our prepping labors.
Our stomachs are full of butterflies, our legs our itching to hit the dirt, and our minds are restless with wonder. How can the mouth produce an utterance that could capture the complexity of emotions we are experiencing right now?
Anticipation has a funny was of creeping up on you. At one moment, there is peace, tranquility, and expectation of what is about to arrive. Just days later, chaotic questions flood your mind causing you to rethink your decision to live in the woods for six months. But like the slow churning of the sea, those flutterings retreat and peace covers our anticipation once more.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow we begin our Appalachian Trail thru-hike
We no longer have to say, “Next year, next month, next week.” But, simply: tomorrow. Everyday after that, we will get to say we are thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.
For those that have followed our journey so far, thank you! We will continue to post regularly (wifi willing) to keep you updated on how we are doing. And to all that are reading, we invite you to join us in this strange anticipation. Find the adventure that awaits for you tomorrow. Discover the joy waiting for you in what is about to arrive, even when you cannot know what that may be. Lean into the mystery of what tomorrow holds.
Thanks for adventuring with us and happy trails to you all 🙂
