Not an epilogue...

It's been over a month since we finished the trail. I'm having trouble processing this fact.

At some point on the trail I began to think that nothing else existed. There was only walking. There was only constant forward movement. But the movement came to an end. Honestly, it was anticlimactic, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I don't want to talk about the trail right this moment. I want to talk about life as of right now. Why? Because I still intend on talking about the trail, but later. I still have yet to write about any of Maine, and man is there some stuff to say about that section of the trail.

So right now. Let's talk about that.

It's been over a month, I got that far right? I'm currently in Eugene, Oregon. All of us are. It came to attention just recently that no one really knows a whole lot about us, and that's my fault. We're from Oklahoma... well, kind of. We're kind of nomadic. Me and Stevie were born in Oklahoma, and that's where we met Cheyanne, so let's say we're from Oklahoma. But we tend to seek out mountains, so here we are in Eugene.

Me and Cheyanne are working at a vegan greasy spoon joint called Cornbread Cafe (which gained some notoriety when it was featured on a famous television show hosted by Guy Fieri). If you're ever in Eugene you should probably check it out. Words can't express how relieving it is to work at an all vegan restaurant, but regardless, it's still work. And god damn have I been working. So I apologize for the fact that I've basically abandoned my internet pursuits for the moment.

You see, I'm in debt. All of us are. Mostly from hospital bills. And yet I'm still suffering, from what? I'm still not sure, but I got diagnosed with "post infection IBS", whatever the fuck that means. But hope is on the horizon, I should have health insurance soon and with that as my catalyst I think I'll finally be on the path to convalescence. That whole debt thing though, well it's got me working overtime every week trying to unbury myself.

The "real world" beckons with responsibilities and is not-so-slowly crushing me under the weight of its terrible burdens. As much as I suffered on the trail, I look back at that time with nostalgia and longing, often finding myself on the trail again at night in my dreams, only to wake and discover that I'm back inside the confines of a house, in a city, listening to the sounds of traffic.

And I despair.

Anyhow, my intention for this blog was to be informative. Ha, I didn't really accomplish that. But I guess it was at least moderately entertaining. So I just went with it. I find that I enjoy this whole memoiresque writing thing, especially about things worthy of writing about (like living in the forest for five months). So I'll continue to do that, but in the meantime, I still need to heal, and that's going to take some time. Regardless, I have some plans for the future.

That whole informative side to the blog? It's coming, I promise. You see I have this idea that I'm going to write a "Vegan's Guide to the AT". It's going to exist in three parts, ONE) thruhiking gear, what's vegan and why it's worth having, TWO) resupplies, what we used, what worked for us, and where you'll absolutely need to send dropboxes, and THREE) a comprehensively list of every grocery store along the trail and what they have to offer in the way of vegan goodies. It'll be available for free on this blog, and hopefully I can get it organized into a nice little PDF that peeps can maybe put on their smartphones. So you see, it won't be too much information, but it should at least help to educate anyone who might be interested in doing the trail, and doesn't necessarily apply only to vegans.

Also, gear and food reviews are going to be abundant in the near future, so watch out for those.

As for the name of this blog... well, it's got to change. You see, I'm not on the AT anymore, and I plan on going on other adventures, so I need a name that's more comprehensive... maybe Vegan On The Trail? Nah that sucks, but whatever, I'll figure it out sooner or later.

That's all for now.

Still not dead, still not giving up, still (and forever) vegan,
Colton