He sits down and orders a house coffee, hot and black, and drinks it like it was the coolest drink of water his lips have tasted in a while. He is Jesse Whitecrow, and he&8217;s been hiking since September of 2002.

&8220;You have these life dreams that, most of the time, you let go,&8221; Whitecrow said. &8220;At 42 I decided I wasn&8217;t going to let go of this one. And this is the walk that follows.&8221; Whitecrow started his trek in Maine at Cadillac Mountain in the Acadia National Forest. &8220;I chose this location because it&8217;s the first place the sun hits in morning in the United States,&8221; Whitecrow said. He made his way to Natchez by the Trace, starting in Summertown Tennessee just below Nashville.

From here, Whitecrow plans to travel to St. Francisville, then to the Dakotas, the four corners finally ending his journey on the west coast in Washington state. Whitecrow said he wants to end his hike in the state of Washington because it is the where the sun last hits in the United States. &8220;It&8217;s kind of a symbol of the beginning or dawning of my journey and the end or sunset of it,&8221; Whitecrow said.

During his hike, Whitecrow said he has encountered many different animals such as black bears, moose and wild boar along the Trace. &8220;I was almost killed by a moose once,&8221; Whitecrow said. &8220;I haven&8217;t had any problems with the boars here but I didn&8217;t know they could be so big.&8221; Whitecrow said he has also met a number of people on his hike, some friendly and some downright creepy. &8220;I had this sweet old lady in Pennsylvania offer me some of her award-winning cherry pie, a place to stay and $10,&8221; Whitecrow said. &8220;Then, one time in Tennessee I had some creepy guy, who looked a hiker too, bug me all night. He reminded me of some psycho killer from a movie.&8221; Whitecrow said his view of the South and of southerners was a misinterpretation at first. &8220;You read and watch movies 1,000 times and you hear people talk about their interpretations of Mississippi and the South,&8221; Whitecrow said. &8220;But when you get here and see how many people are extremely kind to you and are so gregarious to help, your views drastically change.&8221; Whitecrow has had some difficulties dealing with the southern climate on the Trace. &8220;The heat and water situations are the main problems,&8221; Whitecrow said. &8220;The water in some places was stagnate and looks like old coffee with milk in it.&8221; While he is on his hike, Whitecrow is writing daily journal entries small moleskin journals he carries in his pack. He also fills the journals with various stickers, sketches and watercolors of things he as seen on his hike. When he as filled the pages of the journals he mails them back to his home in Massachusetts.

Whitecrow plans on publishing the journal entries in a book he is calling &8220;Whitecrow Walking.&8221; To let people, who are interested in his hike, keep up with his travels, Whitecrow stops at town libraries and posts his journal on his Web site, www.whitcrowwalking.com. To keep from getting discouraged on the hike Whitecrow reads from Proverbs and Psalms but he said he has had his share of disappointing moments. &8220;When I was on my walk my wife divorced me,&8221; Whitecrow said. &8220;The walk is my woman now and if I get distracted she reminds me to pay attention and to keep moving.&8221;