When you start hiking the AT, you start off on a big journey with a bunch of strangers. Sure there are some couples and friends that are hiking together, but everyone else is a stranger. Hikers are an eclectic bunch for sure. They range in age from teens to the eighties in age. Come from every sort of socio-economic and educational background you can imagine. You get to know each other quickly though. We sleep in close quarters, share our meals and stories around the campfire, help each other when we need it, and quickly become friends. It has now become as though we are all residents of a small town that just happens to stretch some 2000 miles long.

I think the part that amazes me the most is how all of these different people come together to get through this hike. The kindness is overwhelmingly times, especially when…