Calling Andrew Breecher

**Andrew Breecher** · 27th December 06, 09:30 AM

Not too forward at all!

Well as for how I started hiking, I've always hiked. My family went on many rambles while I was a kid, while on vacations and just around town. I didn't start backpacking until late in high school, but by college I was going out whenever I could in the Adirondacks with my ex-girlfriend, and out west a few times with my dad. In 1995 I decided to go for a week on the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut (doing the entire state) with my (then) girlfriend and another friend. We had a blast, and met several thru-hikers on our trip, and in talking with them we all decided that it would be a great idea to thru-hike the AT someday.

Jump forward to 2002, when I decided to hike for another week on the AT, this time in Vermont. Since I was hiking north in July, I met many thru-hikers, and in fact kept pace with several of them for the week. I decided right then that I wanted to thru-hike the AT not "someday" but "now." I had to save money to do so, but everything I did from then on was geared toward that goal. I got my pack weight down to an ultralight 8 lb base weight, and decided to thru-hike the John Muir Trail (only 218 miles) the summer of 2003 as a training hike for my 2004 AT hike.

I'd heard from someone on an AT forum that hiking in a kilt was extremely comfortable, and he had done so in a Mountain Hardwear Kilt on his 2003 AT thru-hike. I didn't like the look of the Mountain Hardwear "Kilt" so I got a Sport Kilt and wore it on my JMT hike. It was, as advertised, extremely comfortable, and I decided that if it was so comfortable while hiking that it was probably just as comfortable all the time. I was still a little nervous, of course, about wearing a kilt full-time, but I did some Internet research and found Tom's Cafe, and discovered some men who wore kilts all the time (and some men who wore just about everything else too). I got some kilt gear (belt, sporran, hose, flashes) and started wearing my Sport Kilt to work and everywhere I went. I got a UtiliKilt and a Bear Kilt. I got a "tank."

Then I thru-hiked the AT in my Bear Kilt, and after finishing I knew that I needed to hike the other two long trails in the US: the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. The PCT I finished this year. I'm planning on hiking the CDT in 2007, which will make me a "Triple Crowner," one of only a few dozen people in the world to have hiked all three trails, around 8,000 miles in total.

I hope this little biography didn't bore anyone. Feel free to ask more questions about hiking - I love it!

As a side note, while on the Appalachian Trail I was hiking with two sisters for a little bit, one of whom lived in Egypt (her trail name is "Cairo"). While on the trail her boyfriend flew over from Egypt to visit her - he'd thru-hiked the AT several years ago, and in fact had gotten her interested in it. When they met up I realised that I knew him - he was one of the friends who had hiked with me for that week in Connecticut in 1995!

Andrew.