Soon after I began seriously planning to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, I decided I wanted to write a daily journal of my hike. And naturally, because I worked as a website developer, the journal would be in the form of a blog.
This Site
Nearly all of the websites I have developed use an open-source content management system called Drupal. About the time I started thinking about my hiking blog, a new version of Drupal was in development. This then became a logical direction for me to take. I could create my site while at the same time learning how to develop sites in the latest version.
This was a great opportunity for me to learn new skills without concern about meeting a deadline. I frequently erased everything I had done and started over, which was a luxury I would never have if I were being paid to build it.
Eventually, though, a deadline loomed and that was the departure date for my hike. I finally wrapped up development and launched this site shortly before I learned I would have to delay my start date. Finding out I would need to have hernia-repair surgery and delay my hike for recovery became some of my first posts for the blog.
When I was able to begin hiking in April 2017, I quickly realized my intention to blog daily from the trail was impractical. Each post took a minimum of three to four hours to write, and those were hours I could have spent socializing with other hikers or sleeping.
Other hikers have managed to blog daily, but I decided that wasn't for me. I regret I couldn't provide my journal in real-time, but I am glad I decided to stop trying. Because I elected to wait until I returned home to write, I could include extra details and historical background about the trail and include many more photos.
After I returned home from hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in late 2019, I rebuilt the front-facing side of my site using GatsbyJS, which is a React-based (JavaScript) framework. Then in early 2024, I moved back to running the frontend and backend on Drupal.
The home page now features a portrait of me that was taken by Kevin "Blue" Scott. I met him while hiking the PCT and ran into him again on the CDT. You can find more of Blue's outstanding hiker and trail photos on his website, milesformoments.com.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions about how this site was built.
Days are growing shorter
Nights are getting cold
Though the wind cause trees to bend
This tale may yet be told