“All he could think about was, how I’m too young for this.

Got my whole life ahead.

Hell, I’m just a kid myself, how am I gonna raise one?”

“I wanted it to be over just as much as I didn’t want it to end.”

“You are not the captain of your life. God damn, it’s hard, but it’s the inevitable truth. And with time, you do experience it as sweet relief.“

“It has been a while. Quite some time, in fact.”

“On with my mittens in the the chill of the shade, and then off with my mid-layer in the heat of the sun.”

“Just put it in this baggie, Sarah.”

“Karaoke. It terrifies me.”

“Here’s my take on my own post-AT struggle with the northern section of the Long Trail…”, David Hiscoe wrote to me the evening before I left for Vermont.”

“Sorry it’s so late…I’m starting the Vermont Long Trail out of Rutland next Saturday…and I am feeling insecure.”

“Joe Triebsch sold an REI Co-op cycling windbreaker to me in the fall of 2018.”

“I awoke, skin clammy.”

“Waaaater…precious waaaater…life saving…WAAAATER!!”

“If Weverton Cliffs could talk, they would tell you a story.”

“March 2nd, 2021 was my first day of freedom.”

“I don’t know how else to say this, Sarah. I just…I just…damn. I just don’t…like you.”, he said over the phone.”

“This year, I am thankful that life had different plans for me than I had for myself.”, I recited silently as I stared at the waxed “4” and “1” atop my fruit tart.”

“Nude. I went with nude. Naturistic in its own right, it was clearly the right choice.”

“My heart racing, my palms sweaty, and my vision impeded by a borrowed- and quite frankly, horrifying- rubber mask, I rounded the corner of weathered sidewalk.”

“At 11:20am on Monday, October 11th, after 207 days of life on foot, I summited the majestic 5,269 feet of Mama K. Mount Katahdin.”

“Tuning in from the infamous Shaw’s Hiker Hostel, in Monson, Maine, you’re finding me full of whimsy.”