Tough week when you are all packed and ready to hit the trail after years of planning and your dermatologist calls you on Monday evening, less than a week out, and tells you that you have a spot (too much fun in the sun) on your back that needs to come off. Very bad timing. So I’ve spent most of the week talking to the doctors, friends, and family and have come up with the decision that I need to go ahead and take care of this before heading off to Maine. Due to my original plan of leaving very early on the trail compared to most hikers, the good news is I have the time to have the surgery, recover, and hit the trail with the masses in several weeks. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but I’m alright with it at this point.

So please bear with me. It looks like I will have my surgery this coming Wednesday and just as soon as I feel comfortable with the healing process, hopefully within about three weeks, I’ll publish a new take off date from Amicalola Falls. Being that the surgical incision is on my back, obviously I need to allow plenty of time for everything to heal correctly before putting a backpack on for five plus months. So not only is this very bad timing…it’s also in a very bad spot for doing what I want to do.

A good friend of mine told me the other night at dinner that everything happens for a purpose…so I’m going to leave it at that!