Greetings!
On May 10th, we're taking our first steps of a thru-hike attempt of the Appalachian Trail. Our route will be what's called a flip-flop: we're starting roughly in the middle, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. From there, we'll hike north to Mount Katahdin, Maine, then bus our way back to Harpers Ferry and hike south to Springer Mountain, Georgia. If all goes according to plan, we'll walk 2,190 miles through 14 states over 6 months.
While a long-term outdoor challenge such as this has always been a goal for both of us, our motivation to go for it now is not purely to cross something off our bucket lists. Our thru-hike is a hike-a-thon, a fundraiser for the nonprofit we are busily working to launch. This nonprofit, Tenderfoot Fair Trade Learning Lab, is what we hope to come home to after the trail: a 10+ acre property where college students spend a semester immersed in sustainable living. They'll work in the mornings to grow & cook their own food and produce their own energy, and that work will be in exchange for tuition for the classes they take in the afternoons. The 3 primary goals are to foster self-reliance, teach sustainable behaviors, and make college more affordable overall by making this one semester free or darned close. We'll be modeling a lot of what we teach through living in our very own tiny house, which we're looking forward to building together with reclaimed materials we find over the next several months.
So, in brief, the plan is this:
Step 1-- Sell off most of our belongings to pay for our wedding and prepare for living tiny.
Step 2-- Plan our hike as our honeymoon, funding gear, food, and other necessities through this Honeyfund.
Step 3 -- Take pledges (a quarter per mile, perhaps?) to raise money for student scholarships and an initial land purchase.
Step 4 -- Hike until we reach Springer Mountain, hopefully by Halloween.
Step 5 -- Return home and dig into the nonprofit.
There are a lot of other steps in there and we love to talk about them, so if you're curious or want to help, let us know! We feel incredibly privileged (and a wee bit terrified) to have such exciting and meaningful things to look forward to. Thank you for everything you've done to help us get to this point-- we certainly didn't get here alone, and we can't wait to pay forward all the love and kindness we've received.
Wedding Details
Ceremony Location:
Malabar Farm, 4050 Bromfield Road, Lucas, OH 44843 (map)
Reception Location:
Malabar Farm, 4050 Bromfield Road, Lucas, OH 44843 (map)
Suggested Guest Accommodations:
More Information:
We both feel that Mohican is where we fell in love with the outdoors, one of us through a 10-day Girl Scout camp, the other by growing up on the river with a dad who loved rafting. Our lives have been dotted with other similar-but-separate milestones: growing up in the Methodist church, doing Speech and Debate in high school and competing in the state tournament at Wooster (Travis' home turf) just before graduation in 2002, enrolling at Mount Union, auditioning for Pirates of Penzance (we met when we became dance partners for this show), finding work in our twenties that gave us a stronger appreciation for nature, and eventually making our way back to Mount Union where we re-connected as colleagues. For us, getting married at Mohican feels like completing a circle and starting a new one together. We'll be spending the whole weekend there, and we'd love our guests to stay with us!
Contact Us
Contact Lindsey Rudibaugh via e-mail.
