Hikin’ the AT

The summer of 2002 I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. I walked from Maine to Georgia that summer. 2,181 miles, five months.

It all began the year of my 40th birthday. I wanted to try something a little different. I read about backpacking and it sounded like fun. I decided to backpack and hike a piece of the AT that year for my birthday. It was a time of many, many lessons.

I read somewhere that you could take about a third of your body weight in your backpack. I dutifully got my backpack to 63 pounds in preparation for my birthday hike. Was I in for a surprise.

I started my hike outside of Roanoke. It began raining the day I started and I soon realized 63 pounds was way too much weight. I’d take 20 steps and then I’d rest and take 20 steps and rest because I was so exhausted. I was doing this as the rain was pouring down. After two days of this struggle when I think I hiked a total of about eight miles I came to War Spur Shelter. I spent two nights there because I was so tired and the rain was coming down so hard.

The second night two thru-hikers spent the night. I fed them and fed them a lot of the food I had. And I noticed something. They were two of the coolest people I’d ever met. A “what do you want” seed had been planted.

I eventually found myself in Damascus, one of the best trail towns on the AT. And there I discarded most of the gear in my backpack. It left me with only the essentials and a backpack a whole lot lighter. I got hiking poles too and hiked for two days in and around Damascus. It was glorious.

Over the next couple years, I continued to do day hikes on the AT on the weekends, and I did a multi-day backpacking trip in North Carolina as well. After the 911 tragedy in 2001 like so many people, I reevaluated my life. I was in a very good job, but it was a dead-end job. And I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted to thru-hike the AT.

I decided to hike north to south because I’d already hiked so much of the Trail in the mid-Atlantic and the south.

I began my thru-hike on June 6th, 2002. I was wondering how I would do with heights. When I got above tree level on Mt. Katahdin the heights didn’t bother me at all. As I hiked south I came across many incredible vistas and high spots. The only time I was bothered was crossing the Bear Mountain Bridge in New York. It’s way above the Hudson River and I scooted along the inside of the walkway ripping a pair of shorts as I went. I was in tears when I got to the southern end of the bridge. I had a huge meal at the nearby restaurant and when the waitress gave me my leftover she wished me happy trails. Not her first thru-hiker.

Thru-hiking is a high calorie proposition. Every time I went into a trail town to resupply I would find a restaurant and eat myself into a coma. I was always hungry.

The first half of the hike I hiked about 11 miles a day. After Harper’s Ferry, I hiked about 18 miles a day. I was in trail shape by Harper’s Ferry. The hill I practice on before the thru-hike outside of Harper’s Ferry seemed nearly flat when I got there on my thru-hike. By then both my knees and my toes were sore. I was taking two vitamin I in the morning and two in the evening. (ibuprofen)

I hiked in my forties and thought I was in really good condition. Hiking with 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds I learned that even though I was very fit I wasn’t as strong as they were. I’d start an hour before they did every morning waking them up as I left. They’d catch up to me in a couple hours and then I would meet them again in the evening about an hour after they’d got to camp.

After a few weeks of hiking the Trail became a green tunnel and the hike became a job. Once in awhile there was a payoff. One night in Maine there was a cold front that blew in. The next day I hiked across Saddleback in gale force winds. I was leaning one way to keep myself up against the wind. If it had stopped blowing I would have fallen down. Even though I was in Maine the day was so clear that I could see Mount Washington far in the distance in New Hampshire. At the end of that day I was so pumped from overcoming the wind and Saddleback. A day I’ll never forget. A payoff.

I learned that the Trail gives you what you need when you need it. One time I got the wrong kind of hiking shoes. My toes were all scraped and bloody. It took three days for me to get hiking boots. Those three days were needed to let my toes heal up.

One thing we all realized as we hiked is that it takes five million steps to go from Katahdin to Springer. Every day I enjoyed the day because I knew that Springer was such a long way away. And as I left the shelter every day, I’d tell whoever I was with that I’d see them at Springer. Because you never knew what would happen on Trail and if you’d see that person again that day.

I also learned how important it was to brush my teeth every night. One night I forgot and a mouse in the shelter was kind enough to clean my moustache and beard for me.

As I hiked, I had lots of time to think about things. Sometimes angry thoughts about the past or about people would come to mind. I always wondered what that meant. I finally figured out that in most instances the anger wasn’t really towards the past or the person. It was more about something about me that I didn’t really fancy. From the day I figured that out I always questioned anger when it came to me. Why? In most instances the anger told me more about me than it did about the circumstances or person I was allegedly angry with.

When you got to a trail town you’d always load up your backpack with food and you’d have a full backpack. But you could always eat yourself out of that mess.

When I got to Springer on November 8th it was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. But later it came with the realization that I had postponed some tough choices. It took a while to sort out those choices and it was painful too. But I did sort it out and it all worked out for the best.

I went to Springer with eyes that had seen Katahdin.

MEGA ‘02