He wrote an award-winning book, A Walk for Sunshine, several years ago. Now it is in its third edition with gear lists and hiking tips added. And he has put together a DVD/movie based on the book. Click here for more on him.

He will be at the Lincoln Park REI at 1 p.m. on Saturday giving a major presentation. It's free, but space is limited. The last I checked, some 23 slots remained. Click here for event details.

I don't know how many college or high school kids will have read this far, but I cannot recommend highly enough the AT as a life-altering experience. And Alt captures the nuances of hiking the AT nicely.

Very simply, I would not be the outdoors columnist for the Sun-Times, if not for my summer hiking the AT making it clear to me what I wanted to end up doing in life.

There's more stories in that some other day, year or decade.