Walking Off War Veterans Hike along Appalachian Trail

Stark County veteran embarks on Warrior Hike along Appalachian Trail
Beacon Journal
By Jim Carney
staff writer
Published: March 17, 2014

Cecil E. Thayer III plans to spend the next six months walking away his war.

Thayer, 27, of Canton, on Monday began a hike of the Appalachian Trail with 13 other veterans.

“This is a time to just kind of deal with a lot of the issues that I have never really had time to deal with,” Thayer, originally from Massillon, said in an interview shortly before the trip began. A Marine and Ohio Army National Guard veteran who served two tours in Iraq, he received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Iraq in 2006.

He and the other veterans entered the nearly 2,185-mile Appalachian Trail in Georgia. They plan to reach Maine sometime in September as part of a group called Warrior Hike and its event called “Walk Off The War.”

Marine Capt. Sean Gobin, a 38-year old Rhode Island native, started the Warrior Hike nonprofit group. He left the service as a 12-year veteran with two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

Gobin, now an MBA student at the University of Virginia, walked the Appalachian Trail in 2012 to raise money for a fellow Marine veteran who lost both legs in combat in 2011. He decided to expand the idea and created the Warrior Hike.

Last year, 14 veterans hiked the Appalachian Trail. This year, along with the group doing that trail, groups in the western United States are hiking the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail.
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