PRING is in the air, and I’ve got a major case of “Springer Fever.” That’s Springer as in Springer Mountain, Georgia, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. Each spring, in one of the world’s great annual migrations, over a thousand hikers start from Springer Mountain headed for Mount Katahdin, 2,156 miles away.
Fewer than 200 make it to Maine. More than half drop out in the mountains of Georgia and North Carolina, victims of cold, rain, steep climbs, heavy packs and sore feet. Three years ago, in March 1993, I hiked for a week in Georgia, observing the thru-hikers in preparation for our own attempt. I wanted to learn what made a successful hike.
The next year was our turn. In one of the great adventures of our lives, Ann and I went all the way, finishing on my birthday, September 4, 1994. Last year we just had to go back to share the excitement of the start. We only hiked a week, but made friends we corresponded with as they hiked north. Several sent us copies of their finishing photo on Mount Katahdin. On our thru-hike we particularly enjoyed walking north with spring as it moved up the Southern Appalachians. The forest floor sends up shoots of bright green in North Carolina, Dogwood and Wild Azalea bloom in Tennessee, and finally Rhododendron and Mountain Laurel over the mountainsides in Virginia. 
When our niece, who lives in Virginia, announced her upcoming wedding for late May, it seemed a perfect opportunity. We have to get there somehow. We might as well "Walk to the Wedding." So our living room is once again a staging area for clothing and equipment. We constantly weigh alternatives, determined to get through the cold weather of March with the lightest possible packs. Our food dryer prepared peppers, onions, and mushrooms to flavor noodles and instant brown rice. Ann cooked and dried pots of lentil soup and vegetarian chili. Twenty-five suppers were packed in Zip-Loc bags. A spare upstairs bedroom is a staging area for food boxes. Oatmeal, powdered milk, granola, tea, sugar, dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter, tortillas, candy bars and instant puddings went into boxes along with plenty of packaged junk food from the sweetheart of the trail, Little Debbie. We mailed the first food box yesterday to Neels Gap in Georgia. Others will go to the Blueberry Patch in Hiawassee, Ga., Rainbow Springs Campground near Franklin, N.C., Nantahala Outdoor Center near Bryson City, N.C., post offices at Fontana Dam and Hot Springs, N.C., Nolichucky Expeditions near Erwin, Tenn., and the Damascus, Va., post office. After Damascus we’ll make up more boxes for the rest of Virginia. Some say why hike this trail again when there are so many other trails to hike? Why not experience the adventure of something new? I had a hard time coming up with a good reason until I found this quote from the naturalist John Burroughs. “To learn something new, take the path today that you took yesterday.”
Besides, it’s a sure cure for Springer Fever.
Postscript: Sadly, Larry McDuff was killed in a hit-and-run accident while riding his bike near his home in June 2005. His wife, Ann, died in a similar bike accident just two years before.
