Searching for Ourselves: The Verge of an Evolution

To the ends of the earth would you follow me?
There’s a world that was meant for our eyes to see
To the ends of the earth would you follow me?
If you won’t I must say my goodbyes to thee

-Lord Huron, Ends of the Earth

I can remember the two of us sitting down to plan our first blog post and thinking that we didn’t really have anything of value to talk about. Even if we did, we did not expect the kind of support that we eventually got by the community here at The Trek. Your love and kind words have helped in more ways than you can imagine. We are still considering how to properly let you know who is behind the keyboard so for now we stay mysterious. Maybe you will eventually be able to figure it out by our different writing styles? Please continue to stick with us because we are still making this up as we go. It could still be argued we have no idea what we are talking about. Just kidding, but not really.

A Current Update of #twocookstakeawalk

Time has been moving just fast enough to make us uncomfortable at the thought of starting our trip next month. Check that: extremely uncomfortable. At this point, we have both turned in notices to our jobs and our stay at Amicalola Falls Lodge has been booked. There are a few small purchases left on our list and we are on track to complete a goal that we set almost a year ago to have every single purchase done by February 1st. Stay tuned to see if we complete that on time.

Additionally, we decided to not mail ourselves pretty much any drops along the way. We were extremely fortunate to partner with SoLo Energy Bars so we will be replenishing those from home. Aside from those energy bars, small gear replacements and seasonal clothes will be the only things sent to us. We both think that it would put too much pressure on our families to have to worry about our mail drops. There is somewhat of a nostalgic idea to experience going from town to town to resupply. That is wishful thinking and before you say we are going to miss food not accessible on the trail, please refer to the paragraph where we admit we have no idea what we are doing.

This entire journey over the past nine months can be attributed to an idea. That idea led two people to a dream and that dream has manifested itself into an evolution of those people. The whole experience so far is almost too amazing to put into words. We hope that you dare to dream of something so big that people will begin to speculate on why you are dreaming. The ones who cannot understand are the ones who forgot how to dream and are unfortunately stuck in a mentality of not reaching for anything more than the easily achievable.

February is Coming Quick!

We have been extremely blessed to have received so much love from our new trail family. We did not expect the amount of kindness that came from our first blog post and also from our social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram. From that you have given us the motivation to keep this dream alive and we are forever grateful for it.

I remember thinking over the summer when we were both working two jobs and seven days a week that it just could not be worth it. How could working jobs we (probably) would not pursue again be worth our time when compared to working the same amount of hours for one job as cooks? Although we arguably spent the same amount of time working two temporary jobs each that we would have at our previous jobs in the kitchen, the time away from cooking was extremely valuable and refreshing. A return to the kitchen seems imminent but who can tell what will happen in the next seven months?

To our employers who gave us a job knowing that ten months later we would abscond into the woods: thank you, thank you, thank you. Without your understanding from the very beginning this experience may not have been possible. There are so many people to thank individually that have supported us from day one and we have a plan in place to do so before we leave.

The planning and preparation is still yet to be complete for us. We have goals that need to be crossed off, small gear purchases that need to be made, and still need to maintain the delicate balance between letting go and holding on for the next month and a half. We have definitely one, maybe two more blog posts planned leading right up until we get dropped off at the lodge so stay tuned for those! The two of us look forward to hopefully meeting and staying in contact with as many of you as possible in the next month as we set out to hike the A.T.!

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Comments 4

  • windflier : Jan 3rd

    I get it. Next year is the magic year for me. i have the butterflies for all of this years hikers! Deep Breath, time will fly, ya’ll can do it!

    Reply
  • Jill Knox : Jan 6th

    I’m so jittery these days – just reading your post made me nervous (but I loved it). My husband and I are just 58 days from our drive to the Lodge… hitting the approach trail on day 59! I think the only item still on my list is a LONG handled spoon! !
    And maybe a better set of long johns….
    Thanks for your blog posts! !

    Reply
  • Ashley Hill : Jan 28th

    Just popping in to say I love Lord Huron.
    Trail soundtrack for sure

    Reply

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