Cuttin' Loose: Coming of Age on the Appalachian Trail chronicles the adventures Matthew U. Emerson's experienced as he thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail.Matt recounts some of his early days as a young man from the White Mountains of New Hampshire - days that had conditioned him to live in the world as a mere statistic, with nothing in his past thought would indicate what he would become.Trapped in a directionless nightmare of poverty, ignorance, despair, and devoid of experience, in 2011, Matt made the momentous decision to thru-hike the 2200-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.In Cuttin' Loose, you will share Matt's many experiences of life on the trail, the moments of triumph and the depths of struggles that he faced over and again over the course of his six-month trek. Along the way, you will get to know many of the other colorful hikers as well as various locals along the way - as he pushed toward his final goal, the summit of Mount Katahdin, in the Baxter State park of Maine.