In this first episode of 2017, I'm introducing Jessa Hackman, our very own member of the Class of 2017 thru-hikers. She is from Madison, Wisconsin, is 25 years-of-age and has just qualified as a lawyer. The picture below is of Jessa at her graduation with her grandfather, the man Jessa credits with her decision to go to law school in the first place. Jessa contacted me to get a copy of Grizz's logistics spreadsheet from Episode #6 and I reached out to her in the hope that she would share her preparations for the hike, as well as give us regular shorter updates from the trail when she starts on March 23. With a bit of luck, we'll be following her all the way to Katahdin, sometime in August. In this first interview, Jessa tells us her concerns for the trip as well as recounting her current preparations. She is aware of the rite of passage that will result in a trail name but is open to suggestions from our podcast listeners, so please email me with any of your ideas. Jessa has just started a blog that you may wish to follow. You can find it here. If you'd like to contact her directly, she is happy to share her email address, jessahackman@gmail.com. Given the fact that this initial interview was shorter than some others, I've included the first of an intermittent series of product reviews. This is based upon the things that I took with me and starts with an interview with Henry Shires, of Tarptent. During our conversation, I refer to a setup video for the tent. Click here for that. I'm sure that you can see why it was so attractive to me. Henry provided me with great customer service, so if you have any questions, I urge you to get in touch with him here.