When Tom Jamrog was a student at the University of Massachusetts in the early 1970s, a friend gave him the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail. Jamrog put the quest on his bucket list.
A move to Midcoast Maine to build a home in Lincolnville with his wife, Marcia, in 1977 and then raising a family and working as a school psychologist in Rockland put off the long-distance hike. But when Jamrog finally got around to the Appalachian Trail decades later, at age 57, he didn’t stop there.
Jamrog completed the Appalachian Trail in 2007, then turned that quest into a late-in-life odyssey by completing another six major long-distance trails over the next 10 years. Now 67, he’s not done.
In 2010, Jamrog completed the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. In 2013, he traversed the 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail from Canada to Mexico, believed by many to be the world’s most arduous long-distance trail. Between these three major hikes, Jamrog hiked the 24-mile wilderness trail called the Fundy Footpath in New Brunswick (2008), the 272-mile Long Trail in Vermont (2011); and the 186-mile East Coast Trail in Newfoundland (2017).
In addition, he went to Europe in 2016, where he and Marcia hiked the 382-mile Camino de Santiago trail in Portugal. Originally a path taken by pilgrims in the Middle Ages to the shrine of St. James, the Camino trails have become a popular group of footpaths as well as a cultural experience. Jamrog said the flat, coastal trail gave him another perspective of the possibilities ahead.
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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