Joe Schmidt

Joe Schmidt is a native New Yorker. A Western Kentucky University dropout, he holds degrees from the University of Louisville and Spalding University. His writing has appeared in print or online in River Styx, The Louisville Review, the Prose Poem Project. After years of weekend hiking in the Ohio and Tennessee valley regions, Joe (aka "Triton") hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 2011. He also hiked a 500 mile section of the AT in 2014.

Posts

On the Bus and off to the Lake

On the Bus and off to the Lake

Recently I slept in a tent for three nights alongside Nolin River Lake in Grayson County, Kentucky. Twenty or more men, ages thirty-some to

Aug 11, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
The Fishing Knife

The Fishing Knife

I was hiking the Knobstone Trail in southern Indiana. I'd been out a day or two. I was trying to prepare for a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail.

Jul 28, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
Hot, Hot Heat

Hot, Hot Heat

This has not been a hiking year for me. I keep in shape as I do not own a car and Atlanta has many parks, and many hills. In recent months I have

Jul 14, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
New York City,Trail Town

New York City,Trail Town

Like so many other native New Yorkers, I live in metropolitan Atlanta, the economic and cultural hub of the American Southeast; in fact, its gateway

Jun 30, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
Let Us Transcend

Let Us Transcend

I'd love to write today about the transcendence to be found hiking the wooded path, but I can't. Recent events in Orlando cast a shadow over my

Jun 16, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
On Not Having a Mistress in Argentina

On Not Having a Mistress in Argentina

I was eating a donut after an English department faculty meeting at a community college where I taught writing when Michael, who had hired me years

Jun 2, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
A Quick Stub on Bloodsuckers

A Quick Stub on Bloodsuckers

Days were regularly warm now. At night the lightning bugs lit up the darkness with their familiar space alien green florescence. Except for

May 19, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
Oaks and Death

Oaks and Death

The Keffer Oak, estimated to be three hundred years old, is the second largest oak on the Appalachian Trail. The Dover Oak, in New York is slightly

May 5, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
The Congenial Pony (Or Going Uphill for Telling on Zeus)

The Congenial Pony (Or Going Uphill for Telling on Zeus)

The previous night, the sky seemed airbrushed with the Milky Way. A dozen hikers formed a tent village in the woods around Saunders Shelter under

Apr 21, 2016 : Joe Schmidt
Han Shan and Hiker Trash

Han Shan and Hiker Trash

April is National Poetry Month, a fact I mention here only so much as poetry has been an inspiration and activity related to my hiking. Poetry, and

Apr 7, 2016 : Joe Schmidt