Brandon Jacob, AKA The Dude, became something of a social magnet on the Appalachian Trail in 2016 with his Dudefests. Straight out of the corporate world and seemingly out of place in the slightly less genteel life of the trail, he embraced it, and its characters, with relish. There were two Dudefests; one at Trent's Grocery in Virginia, with Dudefest #2 attracting quite the crowd at the Inn At Long Trail, in Vermont. I've circled the Dude in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture. I chatted with The Dude while he was driving to a weekend away. The audio isn't great but the conversation was fun. The Dude can be contacted at Brandon@contractorscfo.com, while he can also be found on Facebook as Brandon Jacob. His blog is at http://trailjournals.com/jakethefake and for those of you who may have met him, he has a great picture collection of the people he met on YouTube at this link, https://youtu.be/8H_ZemBZl4U   Jessa continues her preparations for her start date next month. This week, she learns how to navigate around a car park. It makes much more sense when you listen to Jessa explain it! Please keep the reviews and emails coming, as well as suggestions for Jessa's trail name. Remember, the email address is steve@mightyblueontheat.com and don't forget to check out my books, which are linked here on Amazon. See you next week.