Follow along

April 22, 2014

It’s only taken me 3 weeks but I’ve finally figured out how to keep FIMBY readers informed of our progress. Each time we get to an area with wifi or cell access, which for us is approximately every 3–5 days, I will tweet and or instagram our location and trail miles completed.

AT 2014 sassafras gap sign

All my Instagram updates go to FIMBY Facebook also. I hope to do this a couple times a week.

I started last Friday with our arrival at Fontana Dam shelter. This morning we arrived at Clingmans Dome, which I also tweeted/instagrammed. After a night off the trail hanging out with the Meyer family, doing laundry, and resupplying our food, we’ll be back on the trail tomorrow morning (today if you’re reading this from your e-mail subscription).

AT 2014 Cheoah Bald

Some people have asked how to track our progress, in real time, since the production cycle of our video series is three weeks slower than our actual hike.

If you’d like to track our real time location, or close to real time location, you can use those status updates to place our progress on a map, if you like.

AT 2014 Stecoah Gap

A few people have mentioned to me they are using our hike for geography lessons. I think that is so cool! I hope these updates will help you with that.

Here’s a few tools you might find useful for tracking our hike:

Appalachian Trail Parking - This is a site, divided by state, with trail access by road crossings and parking lots. What is especially helpful about this information is that almost all the places I will tweet/instagram from will be listed on this site.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has an interactive map which I am unable to comment on because I can’t seem to see it on my iPad.
Appalachian National Scenic Trail - This is the US National Park Service website of the trail. Look for the map in the left hand side bar under Park Tools, or click here for the official brochure map.

AT 2014 Russell Field Shelter map

Other places to follow our progress:

FIMBY Facebook is where I’m posting the majority of the photos from our hike. I plan to add a new album every 10 days or so. My last photo album contained 100 photos (yikes!), which are a real pain to upload from the iPad I might add.
Toesalad Facebook. Damien is publishing trail journals from time to time here. They are written on trail, on his iPad, and uploaded and scheduled at town stops.

Our video series is the story of our hike, which will include how-to’s and hiking help for other families and individuals. We’ll start filming the how-to’s next month once we really know what we’re doing. This month we’ve been filming the “first-month” experiences of being on the trail.

AT 2014 the AT Guide

That’s all I can think of for now. I miss the ease of communication, and writing and sharing I have from home, but I love the distance from social media I have on the trail. I feel very grounded, very present and attuned to physical living. I like it, most days :)