Much like Michael Lissner's story, I was introduced to backpacking at a very young age in Boy Scouting. Through scouting, I've completed two 12-day, 55-mile treks in New Mexico's Philmont Scout Ranch, and a handful of 5- to 7-day trips in various trails throughout western Pennsylvania. It was not until the Fall of 2006 when I transferred to the University of Pittsburgh's main campus and joined the Pitt Outdoors Club that I gain a new outlook on demanding, high-adventure, long-distance treks. A fellow trip leader and club member, Moss (AT northbound '06), told me about his thru-hike, and I was hooked. I began leading backpacking and hiking trips for the club, and here I am now as a senior, holding an officer position, planning and leading trips. I believe this thru-hike is the ultimate culmination of my experiences in Boy Scouting and with the Outdoors Club. It seems like such a natural consequence of such experience to want to thru-hike; the trail is there to hike so we hike it. If somebody would ask me why I was hiking, I would just stare, looking like I couldn't understand what they were saying. There really was no reason.

It finally did occur to me that I might as well find an ulterior motive en passant. A coworker at U. S. Steel, where I have interned for two years, recommended that I look into an organization called Paws With A Cause. I found a contact at their regional Pennsylvania office, and began the fundraising effort. The same week, by sheer chance, I happened to meet a very kind lady at a Michaels arts and craft store who had been confined to a wheelchair, but had a beautiful retriever alongside her, showing the Paws With A Cause logo. It had to be a sign or something. A $5000 goal has been set, and I am spending nearly all of my free time, between two jobs and an 18-credit schedule, looking for donors and sponsors. Right now my main goal is to find an airline to donate plane tickets, because my current financial situation is not able to afford transportation.

At some undetermined point in the future, I plan to thru-hike the PCT.
Someday. I'm a dreamer.