National Parks Conservation Association

• Advocating for policy changes that protect our national parks and ensure they thrive for generations to come.
• Supporting educational programs that inspire future stewards of the environment.
• Funding restoration projects that preserve the natural beauty and biodiversity of park ecosystems.

We are two best friends hiking the Appalachian Trail.  We grew up on opposite sides of the United States, but the state and national parks in our amazing country have played important roles in both our lives. Our experiences in these parks have contributed to some of our best memories like marveling at the miracles in Yellowstone, or backpacking through blizzards in the White Mountains, or peeling off a jumping Cholla in Joshua Tree.

However, our environment, national, and state parks face an uncertain future and, as friends of our parks, we want to support the groups that work on conservation. We feel this is particularly important as there have been massive cuts to the EPA, a gag order on the National Parks Service, renewed attacks against the Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine, to name a tiny few environmental issues in our present and immediate future.  There are many groups that help protect our parks and environment for the future. We have chosen to support and honor the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA), whose members work to preserve our parks and environments in the field, courtroom, and Capitol Hill itself. If you are able, we would be honored if you would donate to support the NPCA as we strive to take a long walk of five million steps from Georgia to Maine over the course of the next five to six months.

More about us:
Tyler Hutchison is a Mainer (at least originally) who studied Electrical Engineering (a useless skill in the woods), but has dreamed of hiking the Appalachian Trail since his father first pointed out the white blazes on the top of Mount Katahdin when he was 10. As a Mainer, he gets to enjoy a long walk home.

Emily Alexander is from Roseville, California and studied photography in college (a much more useful skill in the woods). She fell in love with New England (and Maine in particular) in 2008. Though not a born Mainer, as an honorary Mainer she's pretty sure she's walking home as well.

The two of them met at a random concert in Boston in 2011 and have been essentially inseperable ever since.  They lived together in Boston, in Germany and now will set up camp along the Appalachian Trail.