The other day I happened across ourhike.com, which is described as a novice hiker crossing the country on foot — wiith her mom.

The younger of the two is Robin, who has a rare blood disorder that damn near killed her a few years back. Now the disease is in remission so she’s taking the chance to hike across the United States on the American Discovery Trail. They leave next March, going from Maryland to California on the trail’s southern route. The two plan to hike 20 to 25 miles a day and finish in about 9 months. Well, they can make great time in Kansas, it’s awful flat out there.

Their preparations and training are chronicled at the blog Robin is keeping. Robin writes in a chirpy, Reese Witherspoon-in-“Election” voice that takes some getting used to, but if you poke around at her site and read her travails in dealing wtih aplastic anemia, you’ll forget about rhetorical flourishes and start noticing a genuine determination to do the hike (and raise a million bucks for research).

So I’ll be following her progress here unless folks insist I do otherwise.