Journal: benontheat.com...

Trail: Appalachian Trail     Goal: 2184 Miles

Dates: Apr 20 2015 - Sep 001 2015

On a long road trip with my dad when I was younger, we listened to A Walk In the Woods on audiobook, the story of Bill Bryson and his friend Catz attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail. While some parts of the book might have been a tiny bit ... more

On a long road trip with my dad when I was younger, we listened to A Walk In the Woods on audiobook, the story of Bill Bryson and his friend Catz attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail. While some parts of the book might have been a tiny bit inappropriate for me at the time, the trail has since always been at the back of my mind whenever I’ve stepped onto a path leading through the woods. After that road trip my dad and I talked a lot about thru-hiking the trail at some point, but finding the time to hike over 2000 miles isn’t very easy. It would most likely have to wait until he retired. On December 14th, 2010 William Carey Mattox ,my father passed away from a form of brain cancer called Glioblastoma Multiforme. My Dad was a proud eagle scout, and even though I never joined the boy scouts I still grew up with love of the outdoors. Hiking, fly fishing, and of course camping with my dad were a go to father son activity. Some of the best memories I have involve taking the 4Wheeler(what we called an ATV) into the woods and camp while visiting my grandparent’s farm. The Appalachian trail is special to me, its the father son trip I had always thought would come later but now I’ll never get to take with my dad. A month or so ago I realized that I would have the perfect combination of a large amount time off at the right time of the year to make a thru-hike possible, perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity. After spending some time thinking of ways to honor his memory on a thru-hike I decided that the best way would be to raise money in order to help prevent the very disease that made it impossible for him to hike the trail himself. less

Cassie Fosnacht

Apr 24 2015 7:00PM