Notes From The CLO

Last night Santiago let me know that he has under 800 miles left to hike.  That was a very big milestone for him, so I'm glad he's ticked that box.  He's still enjoying warm weather (sometimes way too warm for hiking!) but soon he's going to have cooler nights and...

It doesn't seem like Santiago has been gone for 15 weeks already, but he has.  He has been on the trail for 105 days now and he's hiked a total of 1,210 miles!  Doing the math, that means he has averaged just over 11.5 miles per day, including factoring in all the...

So proud of my hiker!  He's now over 1,000 miles up the trail and out of the state of Virginia!  Virginia has the longest section of trail and he was in that state for over a month.  Santiago is GETTING IT DONE!

Many people have asked what Santiago eats on the trail.  It should not surprise anyone who knows him that he has researched this topic very thoroughly!  He's determined he needs to maximize calories per food item while minimizing the weight he has to carry, for...

77.9 miles into the journey, Santiago crossed into his second state -- North Carolina.  He's still got a smile on his face, so that's a good sign!

Six days and 52 miles into Santiago's journey I met up with him in Hiawassee, Georgia, just to see how we was doing.  This little come-off-the-trail weekend was helpful for him -- he took a couple of hot showers, slept two nights in a comfortable bed, took the...

It is estimated that thru-hikers will take 5,000,000 steps on the trail.  Here are the first 25 of Santiago's 5,000,000....

Here we are at the Southern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail --  Springer Mountain, Georgia.  Fred's Navy buddy Perry and his wife Dee Dee drove us up here this morning - March 25th - not coincidentally, Fred's 62nd birthday.  We all hiked up to the top of the...

Fred's upcoming journey has captured the attention of our local paper, the New Buffalo Times.  Staff writer Francesca Sagala interviewed Fred last week and wrote a nice piece about him and his six-month hike to raise funds for the National Park Foundation.  Check out...