Celebrating 40 Days on Trail with a Matching Gift!
We are so STOKED because today marks 40 Days of our PCT adventure! Wowza y’all!
In celebration of being out here for 40 days (whoop whoop!), we are asking y’all to consider donating $40 to @manna_foodbank ! The total sum of all donations that come in between right now and Wednesday 5/31 at 11:59 pm will be matched (up to $2,000) by a generous donor… who happens to be one of our tramily members from the #appalachiantrail ! 😍 PLUS, if you donate $40 (or more!), Hero and BAM! will send you a postcard with a handwritten note from the trail! 🥰
Our goal for this second Hiking for Hunger fundraiser is to raise $40,000 in celebration of MANNA’s 40th year of serving Western North Carolina. Help us meet our goal and put food on the table for the 133,000 folks that MANNA serves every month… we need your help now more than ever!
Thanks as always for following along- we are eternally grateful for this beautiful, compassionate community that cares so much ♥️
Lotsa love and gratitude,
Hero & BAM!
P.S. We are struggling to keep up with posting on here and all the social media platforms. We just don’t have a lot of time, and there is very limited service. If you would like to keep up with our adventures in a more timely manner, please follow us on Instagram @hikingforhunger Thank you so much for your understanding.
.
.
.
.
#hikingforhunger #beyourownhero #doitfortheBAM #mannafoodbank #mannawnc #foodinsecurity #foodsecurity #foodislove #endhunger #foodassistance #feedingwnc #outpacehunger #feedingamerica #ashevillenc #AVL #northcarolina #westernnorthcarolina #WNC #PCT #pacificcresttrail #PCT2023 #PCTthruhikers #california #oregon #washington #mexicotocanada #thruhike #hiking #backpacking
DAY #1 On the PCT
PCT Day 1 – 7.6 miles
Southern Terminus to Random Campsite
PCT miles remaining (approx): 2647.4
Highlights:
– Delicious Breakfast at Scout and Frodos
– Driving to the monument with our wonderful shuttle driver, Skywalker, from @pctsouthernterminusshuttle
– Elaborate photo shoot at the monument featuring the @highlandbrewing Trailbound Hazy Pale Ale.
– Sobering moment looking at the border wall
– Starting the trail! Feeling giddy and excited
– So much water everywhere
– Lilac tunnels
– Stopping for all of the interesting plants
-Camp in a beautiful place with Heather, Eliza, Mags, and Audrey
-Mason joins for post-dinner hangs and beer drinking, more Trailbound from Highland Brewing!
– Great conversations with new friends
Keep following @hikingforhunger on Instagram for more updates and photos! You can also follow @hero_thru_n_thru and @bam_micah for even more pictures and videos from the trail!
Learn more about our fundraiser and donate at https://hikingforhunger.org/
Happy Trails,
Hero and BAM!
.
.
.
#hikingforhunger #doitfortheBAM #beyourownhero #mannafoodbank #highlandbrewing #mountinspiration #withoutlimitz #pct2023 #pctthruhike #PCT #foodinsecurity #foodsecurity #foodislove #feedingamerica #tramily #desert #backpacking #hiking #veganathlete #veganthruhiker #veganbackpacker #fundraiser #fundraising #adventure #explore #shareyoursky #vloging #coupleswhothruhike
Launch Event Reminder and Added Details!
The Hiking for Hunger Launch Event is coming up real fast, y’all! As Friday evening quickly approaches, we are excited to share a few updates and reminders with y’all 🥰
When: Friday, April 7th 6-8 pm, remarks around 7 pm
Where: Mount Inspiration’s West Asheville location (444 Haywood Rd.)
🍻 Our friends at Highland Brewing will be sharing samples of their brand spankin’ new Trailbound Hazy Pale Ale. We’ve had the chance to try it and it is quite delicious! 😋
🥨 Light snacks are being provided by the one and only Red Fiddle Vittles – y’all it’s gonna be TASTY up in here!
🍀 We’ll be kicking off a fun little ✨giveaway✨ at the Launch Event this Friday. It’ll include some H4H swag and some goodies from the incredible humans of Mount Inspiration. The giveaway details (what’s on the line, how to enter, etc…) will be shared after the event on our socials and website, so fear not if you cannot make it to the Launch- we gotchoo 😉
🚙 A note on parking: Free parking is available in the lot behind Mount Inspiration. There is also free parking across the street at the old Asheville Primary School.
We are so so excited to see y’all this Friday! It means so much to be able to celebrate with y’all as we get ready to embark on this journey 🤗
Cheers!
Hero & BAM!
Announcing our PCT 2023 Fundraising Goal! – New Donation Platform Instructions
You’re Invited! – PCT 2023 Launch Event
Alright party people, get ready to throw down, because we’ve got a Hiking for Hunger Launch Event on the horizon!
We are so so SO thrilled to share with y’all that we’ll have a dedicated time and space to celebrate the start of this next journey with y’all. We want to say a HUGE TY to our friends at Mount Inspiration who have so graciously offered their space in WAVL as the venue for this shindig… y’all are amazing!!!
✨The Deets (That We Have Thus Far):
Where: Mount Inspiration Apparel West (444 Haywood Rd. Suite 103, Asheville, NC 28806)
When: Friday, April 7th, 2023 @ 6 pm
Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more info as we get closer to the day of the event. Feel free to share this invitation with friends and family.
Please RSVP by emailing us at micahandkeeka@hikingforhunger.org
WOOHOO! Can’t wait to see y’all on April 7th!
Happy Trails,
Hero & BAM!
Announcing our PCT Start Date!
Announcing our PCT Start Date!!!
We will be starting at the California-Mexico border on April 12th.
Today is also our Trailiversary! Two years ago today we started hiking the Appalachian Trail. Even though February 14th 2021 was a misty dreary day in Georgia, nothing could dampen our spirits. We set out on the AT with so much enthusiasm and excitement we practically ran up all the stairs at Amicalola Falls. lol 😆 I (BAM!) also remember someone asking us where we were headed and I quickly responded “TO MAINE!!!” so loudly and enthusiastically, it even caught me off guard… the people who asked just kept walking.
Well, the enthusiasm is building again, this time in anticipation of the PCT!
Please remember to like, share, and comment on our posts. It helps us get in front of more people so we can raise more money for @manna_foodbank
Check out our website http://www.hikingforhunger.org and follow our blog.
Thanks for following our adventures and supporting our cause.
Hero and BAM!
.
.
.
.
#hikingforhunger #beyourownhero #doitfortheBAM #mannafoodbank #foodinsecurity #foodsecurity #endhunger #feedingamerica #ashevillenc #WNC #PCT #pacificcresttrail #PCT2023 #california #oregon #washington #mexicotocanada #thruhike #hiking #backpacking #Trailiversary #appalachiantrail #atclassof2021 #at2021 #atnobo #fundraiser
🎶 Please Allow Us To (Re)Introduce Ourselves… We are Thru Hikers, Headed for the PCT 🎶
What up, Hiking for Hunger fam! It’s been awhile since we’ve done an intro post, so here goes nothing 🙂
Hi, hello there! We are Micah and Keeka Grant-Tomlinson, the creators of the Hiking for Hunger (H4H) project, an initiative which came into fruition at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were both working for MANNA FoodBank in Western North Carolina (WNC), a part of the US that sees higher rates of food insecurity than the national average under normal circumstances. We witnessed firsthand the dramatic increase in need spurred on by the early days of the pandemic and felt driven to find a creative means of further supporting MANNA’s mission of ending hunger in WNC beyond our day jobs.
Thru hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) had been a dream of ours for a long time, and we had planned to finally make this dream a reality in 2021. Somewhere along the line, we came up with the idea of harnessing our thru hike as a means of fundraising for MANNA. Fast forward to the end of our H4H fundraising campaign on the AT, we had raised just shy of $32,000 for people facing food insecurity in WNC, more than tripling our original goal of $9,000.
We’re thrilled to be bringing Hiking for Hunger back as we prepare to thru hike the Pacific Crest Trail this spring. We’ll go into more detail on our backgrounds, what we’ve been up to during our year+ off from thru hiking, etc… in future posts. Until then, please feel free to ask us questions you’d like answered! 🤗
Happy Trails,
Hero & BAM!
Back At It!
Hello Hiking for Hunger community! We know it has been quite some time since we were last active on this account. We want to first of all thank y’all for bearing with us this last year and then some- a lot has been happening and changing in our lives since we finished hiking the #appalachiantrail (AT) in July of 2021, and our focus had to shift to some other projects and life things.
But we’re back now! And so excited to announce that we will be thru hiking the #pacificcresttrail (PCT) this spring! Not only that, but we will be fundraising again for the amazing @manna_foodbank while we hike. We are beyond thrilled that we have this special opportunity to once again combine our passion of thru hiking with our passion of being a part of the fight to end hunger in Western North Carolina!
We’ll be spending the next few months ironing out logistics as we prepare to embark on this exciting new journey- stay tuned for updates along the way!
We can’t thank you enough for believing in us while we hiked the AT. We hope you’ll join us on this new adventure as we take the PCT and food insecurity head on.
With Love,
Hero and BAM!
#hikingforhunger #mannafoodbank #pacificcresttrail #PCT #PCTthruhike
#PCT2023 #foodinsecurity #foodsecurity #endhunger #beyourownhero #doitfortheBAM
Hiking for Hunger 