From the little town of Haugen, WI

Well, we've been on the trail for one week! If I had one word to describe this first week it would be generosity. Everyone we meet is super nice and loves hearing about Warrior Hike and our adventure! It's been great walking across this northern section of trail. After I finish this post (and some breakfast) we will head out of Haugen and complete our first 100 miles! It's amazing how fast it's gone.

Trail conditions are generally very good, with only a few sections flooded by beaver activity or plagued by poor signage. Ticks have been relentless and mosquitos are bad, but we just stop every few minutes to pluck the ticks away (usually 5 or 6 at a time).
Miles has had some blisters and a rolled ankle, but he hasn't complained once and blows me away with how he just keeps plowing down the trail. I've been feeling really good and I can feel my legs getting stronger every day. I conditioned quite a bit before starting the hike, but there's really not much that can train you for putting on 15-17 miles a day.
I'll try to keep updating this blog whenever I get time! Thanks for reading :)

IAT thru-hike: T-MINUS 0 DAYS

Well, the time has come for me to set off on my IAT thru-hike. I wish I could have gotten more blog posts up before this, but with finals (shudder), my wife's graduation from GRADUATE SCHOOL (did I mention she's amazing?), and all the prep work that had to be completed before the hike it has been very difficult to put as much time into this blog as I wanted. Never fear, though! I will be updating this blog (hopefully) throughout my hike and I also strongly encourage you to go to the Warrior Hike Facebook page and give it a "like" and "follow" if you want to see some seriously awesome pictures of my hike, as well as pictures of all the other veterans that Warrior Expeditions sponsors to accomplish amazing things.

You can follow along with the calendar on Warrior Expeditions to see where I'll be at each week HERE. You can also check out an interactive map of the Ice Age trail HERE.

My gear for my 2016 Ice Age National Scenic Trail thru-hike.

Here is a picture of my gear all laid out. My base weight (not including food and water, of course) is a little above 10 lbs. and that will be lightened a little more as the weather becomes warmer. It's May 14th here in the great state of Wisconsin and we had snow... yes snow... today and the low temperatures for the first few days of this thru-hike are slated to be in the mid/low 30s!

I think that gear lists are really important to share as they give others ideas about what they can pack and ways that they can lighten their load. BUT... I will not be posting a pre-hike gear list for two reasons: first, I have a serious lack of time in my life to do so, and second, I believe that gear lists that are published by thru-hikers are MUCH MORE VALUABLE if they are posted either mid-way or after the hike. This has given them enough time to test their gear and really choose what is necessary for them and inform others about what they may have started with that wasn't so necessary.

I'll post more as I have time (ha...haha). Thanks for reading!