The final countdown

Here. We. Gooooooo.

After months of pouring over spreadsheets, receiving incredulous looks from friends and family, occasional stress eating, and intermittent freak-out moments, we have less than three weeks before we begin two life-changing adventures: getting married and beginning our thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

Hi, I’m Kara.

A few things about me: my name is Kara Booms, I am 28 years old, and I currently live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’m a nurse, an aunt to the three cutest kids you’ll ever see, a long distance runner, an amateur sailor, and very soon to be wife (!!!!) to Nick Saur. I like donuts, my two cats, and making Nick laugh when he’s grumpy. I have a bad habit of making short stories long.

How did we get here?

The Reader’s Digest version: everything got canceled in 2020, I’ve always wanted to get into backpacking, I bought Nick a backpack for his birthday, we started backpacking a bit, I learned that thru hiking is something that people actually do, thought it sounded neat, Nick asked me to be his best friend forever, we did a lot of planning, and here we are.

So why hike the Appalachian Trail and why do it now?

A few reasons and in no particular order:

  1. To pursue a simpler, more minimalist lifestyle.
  2. I love the mountains but live in Michigan… where there are no mountains.
  3. To keep living in a way that makes for good stories.
  4. I am kind of frightened of the outdoors after dark (not like severely, but a little bit) and living outside seems like a good way to master that fear.
  5. I honestly just really love to walk.
  6. I’m ready for the next adventure.

To answer the second question, because right now we are young, dumb, healthy, childless, houseless, and because there will never actually be a good time to go and walk for six months, so we might as well make it happen or forever wish we did.

In conclusion,

We hope that you’ll enjoy following along with our merry (mis)adventures of newlywed life on trail. Stay tuned as we compare our expectations verses reality and laugh at ourselves along the way.