M.J. Eberhart

After retiring first from the armed forces, and then from a busy optometric practice, I started hiking and backpacking in the early eighties. During that time I managed to hike a good bit of the Florida Trail and about half of the Appalachian Trail, from Springer Mountain Georgia to Duncannon Pennsylvania, all in jerks and starts over a period of fifteen or so years. In January 1998, I set out on my first uninterrupted long distance hike. That trek began on the Florida Trail, thence continued to the Cliffs of Forillon, Cap Gaspé Quebec, a distance of over 4,000 miles. During that time I took on the trail name: Nimblewill Nomad. The years 2000 and 2001 brought about nearly that same hike in reverse, the first known trek o’er the entire Appalachian Mountain Range, at least as we know the majestic Appalachians to exist on the North American continent. That journey lasted 347 days, covered a distance of over 5,000 miles, and included a hike through the Long Range Mountains of Newfoundland. 2002 brought a cross-continental trek, an adventure-filled journey that lasted 147 days, over 3,000 miles, from the old lighthouse at Cape Hatteras North Carolina, to another old lighthouse at Point Loma in San Diego California. In 2003, in preparation for a trek up the Lewis and Clark Trail that runs from St. Louis Missouri to Fort Clatsop on the Pacific, a journey, God willing that I’ll attempt at age 66, I loosened my legs by hiking the Natchez Trace Trail, from Nashville Tennessee to Natchez Mississippi.