Linnea Van Manen struggled with Lyme Disease as a young girl and felt the effects through her teens. Lyme manifested itself by intense bouts of bursitis in her knees, so much so that a year before heading out to the Appalachian Trail for a solo thru-hike, Linnea was confined to a wheelchair for some of the time.

She was a flip-flopper (or OBOer) and spread her hike over an eleven month period with seven months of hiking, much of it utterly alone. Despite all manner of incidents and occasional problems, Linnea reached her goal of a thru-hike at the unremarkable spot of Buena Vista. However, Linnea celebrated that finish as much as one would on the top of Katahdin.

She kept a blog about her journey at 2200miles.blog and has an Instagram account at lvanm01 if you'd like to reach out to her.

Tim McGann, one of my 2014 classmates, only really wanted to change his name. He.....well, let him tell you.

We hope that you take the opportunity to support our sponsor, Trailtopia, when you consider your next backpacking trip. Go to https://www.trailtopia.com/ to check out their wide variety of meals.