Early this morning, coffee and book in hand, I walked with Nimblewill Nomad over the last few miles of the Florida National Scenic Trail and thence across Key West to the southernmost point in the U.S.

It's been a long and fun journey with Nomad over these 300 days, 4,800 miles and 314 pages. He never fails to energize and entertain and inspire.

What I've particularly enjoyed are the quotes (most from other writers and adventurers, but many he's written himself) that Nomad has assembled and sprinkled into his new book after each day's journal entry. I've more than doubled my stock now of precious quotes.

Like this one, just a couple of days from Key West:

If I've made it, it's half because I was game to take on a wicked amount of punishment along the way, and half because there were an awful lot of people who cared enough to help me.
--Althea Gibson

That's long distance hiking in a nutshell.

Perserverance. One plodding foot after another. Through all the sweat and stink and sunburn and rain and bugs and bad bowels. And through the beauty and solitude and quiet and woods and mountains and vistas and winds and stars.

And trail magic. The unexpected gifts of kindness that appear out of nowhere when you least expect it and need it most from people you don't even know and will never see again. Those sterling moments that serve to bolster your faith in humankind. That shatter the nasty visions that are beamed into our brains on the evening news.

Nomad's walk is not over, though.

He and I have another 550 miles and 75 pages to trek through, over the mountains of Newfoundland, the true end of the Appalachian Mountains.

It is this Newfoundland section of trail that my friend Dick Anderson, founder of the International Appalachian Trail, will be speaking about at the upcoming MOAC meeting on April 5th in Portland. Dick may also have some news by then on the possible extension of the trail into Nova Scotia.

So don't miss out. Be there.