Chapter I
How we got started

E FIRST walked on the Appalachian Trail 25 years ago on an October trip to the Smoky Mountains. We hiked the trails of the park by day, taking in the glorious fall color. Returning at night to Elkmont Campground, we rubbed sore muscles and shivered in a borrowed canvas tent and red flannel sleeping bags. One day we drove up Highway 441 through the middle of the park to Newfound Gap. Leaving our car in the parking area, we walked north along the Appalachian Trail.

The narrow path follows the ridge line of the mountains. Tennessee dropped off sharply on our left, North Carolina on our right. After three miles we reached Icewater Springs Shelter, a three sided lean-to, one of many spaced along the trail roughly a day’s hike apart. Other trails we hiked that week went to a scenic view or a specific destination, like Laurel Falls or Mount LeConte Lodge. But this trail was different. If you wanted, you could keep going — all the way to Maine.

It’s like the difference between sailing on a lake and sailing on Mobile Bay. No matter how large the lake, it puts boundaries on how far you can go. On saltwater, however, there’s always the feeling you can keep going. Sail down the bay and turn left, and the whole world is within reach.

In 1936 Myron Avery became the first to hike all sections of the trail. Since then another 2923 people have reported walking the entire 2100 miles. Earl Shaffer in 1948 was the first to through-hike the trail in a single season. Our goal is to do what Earl did.

Nearly two thousand people start every year from Springer Mountain, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, with the same goal. The idea is to leave just after the severe cold and snow of winter, but in time to arrive in Maine before the trail terminus on Mount Katahdin closes due to ice, usually in October.

More than half drop out in the mountains of Georgia and North Carolina — victims of cold, rain, steep climbs, heavy packs and sore feet. Less than two hundred make it to Maine.

We’ve spent the past few months getting ready. Every day we hike through the woods behind our house to the Montrose Post Office with a load of bricks in our backpacks. A particularly steep hill on the banks of Rock Creek, climbed repeatedly, serves as our Baldwin County mountain training ground.

We dried 25 pounds of tomatoes from Burris’s in Loxley, and green peppers from Bee Natural Farm. We ordered dried fruit, bulgur, instant beans and powdered cheese. Local stores provided the best buys on barley, oatmeal, rice, lentils, honey, raisins, nuts, hot chocolate and tea. Ann set up her test kitchen with 18 ingredients plus an array of herbs and spices. She packaged ready-to-cook, one-pot meals in Ziploc bags.

All this, along with 678 assorted breakfast and candy bars and numerous other supplies, went into 18 boxes to be mailed to post offices and hostels along the way. Places like Neels Gap, Ga., Fontana Dam, N.C., Erwin, Tenn., Bastian, Va., Harpers Ferry, W.Va., Delaware Water Gap, Pa., Bear Mountain, N.Y., Manchester Center, Vt., Glencliff, N.H., and Monson, Maine.

Reaction, as you would expect, has been mixed. Our children seem proud of us, and our preacher says that’s something he would like to do. Our parents, on the other hand, wonder where they went wrong, and the bridge club wonders why anyone would want to do something like that.

I’m not sure I can give an answer, except to say that it has been a dream for a long time. And we try to “advance confidently in the direction of our dreams.”

Trailhead
New Boots • Gathering • Grapevine • Springer Fever
A.T. Companion • Headlamp Material • Work Trips • Side Trails