Kentuckian on the Trail

The University of Louisville is contributing a potential thru-hiker this season. He is Brian Buford of the university's human resources department. He's their "manager of organizational effectiveness." Maybe that's why he says that organizing the food drops, getting house and cat sitters, and arranging to have his bills paid while he's away -- all that organizational stuff -- was easy.

His biggest challenge, he says, will be "staying motivated day after day after day for six months."

"'I’m going to need external motivation,' he said, which is one reason he invited UofL faculty and staff to 'join' him as a fitness challenge through the Get Healthy Now health management program." They're going to form teams that should each log, as a group, the same mileage he does every day. See the web site.

Buford has already had a going away party (photos on his own web site), but I don't see where it says just when he's heading out to Springer. He'll be the one with the Pee Wee Herman figure hanging from his pack.