A is for Appalachian Trail...

Thought I'd start out the A to Z Blogging Challenge writing about something unexpected (after all, I could have gone with Adam, my son's name), but decided to go with this instead.  About a year ago, I came across the book "A Walk In The Woods" and became interested in the Appalachian Trail (AT for short).  I'm not much of a hiker (or exerciser for that matter), but I got this desire (white blaze fever, as its sometimes referred to) to try to hike parts of the trail some time in the not too distant future (seeing how one of the trailheads for the New Jersey portion of the AT is not that far from where I live).  I started reading everything I could get my hands on, including trail guides, and recently finished another book called "In Beauty May She Walk", about a 60 year old woman's "through hike" (a hike of over 2,000 miles within the same year).  I thought to myself, heck if she can do it, I could certainly attempt to hike some of it.  I've got a couple of decades on her and time to condition myself for the trail ahead.  Well, my goal this spring, is to start some serious training. By serious, I mean actually get out of the house to do some regular hiking on some local trails and see if my wanderlust of the trail via reading matches my desire in real life! Maybe I'll even attempt a small section of the AT next fall...even my daughter is interested in joining me, although I'm not sure how serious SHE is.  Just one thing, though...first I gotta figure out how to get over my squeamishness about mice, and let's not forget the bears!