Well, tomorrow is the day. The day we start our journey north on the Appalachian Trail.

In actuality, the journey started months ago for us, back when we decided we would be hiking the trail and that we would be doing it as a Fundraiser for MANNA FoodBank. Our journey so far has been exciting and hectic. Sometimes it feels as though this day could not have come soon enough, while on others it felt like we would never have enough time to be fully ready. We have already experienced many challenges along the way, but even more so we have experienced SO MUCH Love & Support from friends and family- our whole community! We can’t thank you all enough. We wouldn’t be here without each and every one of you. We can’t make it to Maine alone, so thank you for joining us on this journey of a lifetime.

Earlier this week we left our Pennsylvania homebase, a.k.a Momma Grant’s house, where we had been doing final preparations while enjoying some long overdue family time. We can’t thank Momma Grant enough for letting us store our junk and explode our hiking gear all over the house. She also drove us all the way down to Georgia- thank you mom!!!

On our way down, we stopped to see a few friends in the D.C. area. We enjoyed some porch visits and tea, and walks in the park with our beloved people whom we haven’t seen in over a year. It was rejuvenating to be able to see old friends before embarking on this long trek.

We then continued on to our old stomping grounds and the place we still consider home – Asheville. Here we swung by MANNA to see our work family and weigh our packs before heading to Georgia to officially launch our fundraising campaign. That being said, we have already seen tremendous support and raised over $1,920 for MANNA! And we haven’t even stepped foot on the trail yet – you all are incredible!!! Don’t forget to check out or “Donate Page” to learn more about our “Fund-Race” to Katahdin. 😉

Here in Asheville we have been blessed with an incredible community of friends. We were grateful to see many of them again as we passed through. They lavished on us encouragement and support- we know all of this would not be possible without them.

We know for certain, even now as we embark on our first thru-hike, that no one can do this alone. It takes a community to do a long hike like this and we are so grateful for the community we already have and community we know we will continue to build along the way.

So here we go! We would be lying if we told you we weren’t nervous. We have had the full gambit of emotions these last few days. From pure excitement and giddiness to extreme stress and near panic. But tomorrow the hiking starts. We have planned for this, we have trained for this, and we have a ton of people supporting us through thick and thin. (We also had a little scotch tonight to calm the nerves. 😁) So, no matter what comes our way, we are ready and confident that we will be able to press forward, and take it one step at a time.

Thank you all for following along. We will try to post something at least once a week while on the trail. This will be determined by available service and wifi, so it might be sporadic at times. We will try to update our location as often as possible, too, so keep an eye on the maps- the one where we track our current location AND the one where we track those donations as they roll in!

Our next post will be from the trail! Until then…

Keeka and Micah