Well here we go. The adventure of a life time, but wait, life is an adventure. Life is also a journey, so I guess this will be a small snippet of my life and hopefully an incredible journey. With few responsibilities and working in seasonal jobs, I needed to do something for me. Something I’ve only dreamt about since the age of seventeen. I’m about to embark on an adventure savored only in my dreams; the Appalachian Trail.
What is it that draws people to walk over 2,100 miles it hostile terrain with only the things you can carry? I think everyone that walks the Appalachian Trail has different reason or combinations of reason for going, right of passage, leaving the parental nest, to figure out if you can survive alone, prove a point, get into good physical shape and a host of reasons as numerous and the people that trek it. I have reasons for going and I hope you can help me figure them out as the journey progresses. I’m getting a little long in the tooth as they say. I’m 58 and will be 59 by the time I start and finish the 2181 miles that is said to be about five million steps. Let’s start with that; I’ve been counting my steps, pacing and measuring. I know I had a lot longer stride when I was a younger man so it might mean I have to invest more steps than someone a third my age. If more steps are needed I will be happy to make them even if it actually figures out to more like 5.7 million steps. Who’s going to count them anyway? I will be a north bound hiker so it will start at the top of Springer Mountain in Georgia. I’ve never been to Georgia so that in it’s self will be a new experience. I’m not a shy person usually, but in unknown territory where good American folks talk a different language it might be a bit intimidating. Usually I combat that feeling with a big smile and a grand hello to all I meet. This trip will actually be a bit of an oxy moron (If my 12th grade English teacher should only see me using that wording). You see I’m going to get away…. Away from the hassle and hustle and the noise of people all needing some form of help, comfort or blessing that they are doing what is right. Yet I will be looking to meet people like me, learning their way and hopefully needing help, comforting, and a blessing that they are on the right path. I’m planning on going into the wood light and plan on coming out of the wood personally lighter than when I went in. I’m overweight and not in the best of shape so that is a couple of the more obvious reasons for walking thousands of miles. I’m not delusional as some of my friends must think; I think I know what lies before me. The cold, damp, parched, soaked, sores, pains, hunger, blisters, bites, stings, scrapes, burses and wetness through and through are the things I’m looking forward to overcoming with a cheerful voice and a whistle while I trudge forward. I love that word, trudge, like Geoffrey Chaucer said in A Nights Tail: “Uh… trudging. You know, trudging? To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.” I love it. It kind of sums up what the hike will be more like than anything. Yet don’t let me talk down the experience, though it will be difficult, it will also be the difficulty that makes it all the more powerful and desirable to do it. I want this more than anything at this point in my life and I hope it remains that way all the way to Mount Katadin.
The adventurous journey has to begin with preparations; the preparations of mind, sprit, body and of course equipment. I’ve read hundreds of blogs and studies one brand of equipment against another. Made some good purchases; made some bad purchases. I can see the cost will be more than I first expected. Going light on the trail is only measured in weight not in dollars. The lighter the more practical the better and more desired it is seems to have the bigger and grander pricing. That said I will try to balance the costs and the resources the best I can. I’ve picked an alcohol stove, titanium pot, aluminum trekking poles with cork handles for a starter.