2026 Goals

The year before the great Appalachian Trail adventure!

We have a lot of plans for this year. Some of them are surely non-essential, while others are critical. Here is the breakdown:

Winter (Jan/Feb of 2026) will include our very first Polar Plunge. A local group is raising money for a trail a town over from us. The polar plunge is a fundraising event for this and even includes a ball pit plunge for small children. It’s a bucket list item and we can’t wait. We are also planning on a snowy camping weekend and the oldest girls finishing their classes to be trail builder certified!

Spring hosts our 100 mile Ultra Marathon and Derek and I’s first Mammoth March. The Mammoth March is a 20 mile hike that takes place over 8 hours in Fall Creek Falls State Park. It feels so reminiscent of our OCR (obstacle course racing) days. We used to do the Warrior Dash and the Mudsanity races. Anything for a “free” beer and shirt back then I guess. Now, we do it for nostalgia and good causes.

Summer will be filled with various backpacking trips. We are hoping to go out, just the two of us, once this summer. We are quickly approaching our 20 year anniversary as a couple and our 16 year anniversary as a married couple. It feels like we should celebrate us a little bit. As a whole, we also want to hike and camp together as a family, primarily in Big South Fork and The Smokies. The conditions of both of these parks are crucial to adjust to before we begin the AT.

Autumn will contain our regular tradition of the Hiking Marathon and general backpacking trips. The Hiking Marathon is the reason we even got into this hobby as a family and our favorite family tradition.

To close out the year, the start of winter, we will begin our final shakedowns in preparation of our big adventure. Derek or myself will take some first aid certification courses as well as refresh our general knowledge of safety in the outdoor world.

There is so much to get done this year. I mean, this is all happening while the kids do schoolwork and the baby potty trains and Derek goes to work and I try to keep up with laundry and dishes. Life is moving quickly. We wouldn’t change a thing though. It’s getting really exciting here… xoxo