Three Days on the Appalachian Trail – Part 2

More from this series: Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Lessons Learned | Video

Sunday, December 15^th, 2013 – Day 1:

I awoke at 8:30 the next morning after a fairly good night’s sleep. My buddy and I packed up out stuff to hit the trail. My buddy finished packing first and headed out while I finished up. Once packed, I headed back the couple hundred yards to the start of the trail to get some quick pictures and video before heading on. Just as I passed the shelter again on my way up, I met two guys coming down. They asked “Are we almost to the top?” and I laughed and said “Yeah!” Unfortunately, they weren’t joking. They had hiked to the top of the falls and somehow got turned around and came back down. They decided to go take a seat on the picnic tables to contemplate their lives while I headed on up the trail.

   

Hiking during the day allowed me to see the falls that I had only been able to hear the night before. I was also able to see just how steep of a climb I had been walking yesterday and would have to hike again today. I stopped for photos at a few times and eventually to shed my jacket and sweater which were causing me to overheat. As I made my way up the path, I heard my name yelled out and looked back to see my buddy coming up the path – he had gone back to the car to change out some gear. I thought I had been trying to catch up with him, but he had been trying to catch up to me.

            

We continued on past all the steps – again – and back into the wilderness. We were treated to many scenic vistas of mountains through some mild fog and leafless trees. Being from the flatlands of Central Florida, it’s always a treat to see the topography of more mountainous regions. As we hiked through the day, we were passed by many people coming down the mountain, which we would make small talk with. We stopped for breakfast and each of us had a Pop Tart, which I followed up with some Cheeze-Its and a granola bar. The path up the approach trail was exceptionally steep at many points, both ascending and descending mountains.

Appalachian Trail – Appalachian Impressions

On October 30^th, instead of watching the Red Sox win the World Series like a good fan, I took the day off of work and headed down to Tampa for an Appalachian Trail Conservancy Membership Drive that included a showing of the movie Appalachian Impressions. I’ve been a fan of the Appalachian Trail for several years after a friend put the idea in my head of hiking the whole trail in one go – a thru-hike. During a road-trip that included heading up to Georgia, I had visited Vogel State Park and during a hike there, I had come oh, so close to the Appalachian Trail, but had to turn around due to time constraints and a waning sun.

I had gone to the Athens Theatre in Deland, a much shorter drive, several months ago to see a screening of the movie Mile… Mile and a Half, a documentary of a group of friends hiking on the John Muir Trail. I had thoroughly enjoyed that movie and when I saw the membership drive for the Appalachian Trail contained a movie, I became pretty interested. I requested the day off from work and purchased my ticket to the movie – which was actually just a donation of anything over thirty dollars. I forked over fifty as I believe in what the ATC is doing to protect and maintain the trail and I feel that money is better spent protecting a great piece of nature than some material possession.

On the day of the event, after hitting Wekiva Springs to complete a long swim for my Triathlon training – I completed three miles in two hours and ten minutes, double my personal-best distance that I had set the previous week. Then on the drive into Tampa, I finally hit fifteen thousand miles on my car. I had a feeling that this was going to be a good day. Once in Tampa, with some time to kill, I hit the beach at Honeymoon Island State Park for a half hour before heading back inland to find the theatre.

The event was held in a typical movie theatre, nothing special about it. Prior to the movie, we had a few speakers from the ATC talk about what they do and the Editor of the AT Journeys magazine read a moving story about a father and his son who had started a hike on the trail before stopping due to the father’s injuries. The son came down with cancer shortly after and wasn’t given much of a chance, but he made it through and they made their way back to the trail. A former thru-hiker also spoke about his experience on the trail and read a few entries from his journal, which mostly consisted of lists of food consumed.

The actual movie was interesting, being segmented state by state. The first half of the movie covered the first half of the trail – from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the midpoint in Pennsylvania. It would talk of many of the well-known or important parts of the trail from popular shelters to popular hostels, to every state line. Many thru-hikers were interviewed and their comments were interspersed with the narration to tell the story of the Appalachian Trail and what it takes to thru-hike it.

During the intermission, one of the speakers did a few rounds of trivia with prizes while many of the viewers left to use the restrooms. After the short break, the movie resumed with part two, picking up from the midway point and continuing until Mount Katahdin in Maine. The scenes, the comradery of the hikers on the trail, and the changing topography all made me want to walk into work and quit to go out and hike the Appalachian Trail. I guess that would make the movie a success, as I can’t imagine its objective being the opposite – to keep me off the trail. I still have yet to pass a single white blaze, but I feel it calling out to me. One of these days.

Top 7 Places: Trails I Want To Hike

I’ve had a fascination with hiking and long trails for a few years now. I had never been much of an outdoorsman, but while having lunch on my birthday with some friends, one friend brought up the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail. He said it was long and might take a month to complete. I was fascinated by the idea – it was a challenge based on its scope, but easy in small doses. Upon further research, I found that my friend didn’t know what he was talking about. The idea stuck however, and here are seven long trails that I’d love to hike from end to end.

 

7: E8 European Long Distance Path

This European footpath travels through Ireland, a country I’ve already mentioned being at the top of my to-visit list, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. I’ve picked this path mostly because it passes through Ireland, although having never been to Europe before, getting to pass through so many countries is also enticing.

 

6: New England Trail

My original home, New England, always calls out to me. I try to return as often as possible to visit family and friends and get to enjoy the change in scenery, from fall foliage to winter blankets. It’s a short trail covering only 220 miles through southern New England.

 

5: Continental Divide Trail

The youngest of the Triple Crown routes, the Continental Divide Trail isn’t exactly complete at this point, which leaves it mostly to experienced hikers. The trail follows the Rocky Mountains through the heart of America, from Mexico to Canada through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. The CDT is one of the longer paths at 3100 miles.

 

4: Pacific Crest Trail

Another of the Triple Crown trails, the Pacific Crest Trail travels through the west coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington. At 2650 miles, the PCT is about an equal length from the longer CDT and shorter Appalachian Trail.

 

3: Florida Trail

The trail of my current home-state, the Florida Trail racks up about 1400 miles, but has multiple sections where you can choose to go an Eastern route or a Western route. One such fork in the road goes around Lake Okeechobee on either side. Another such fork splits between Kissimmee and Ocala making up an Eastern and Western corridor. I actually live and work less than a quarter mile from the Eastern corridor, which has made it somewhat familiar to me.

 

2: John Muir Trail

I really hadn’t considered this trail until I saw the movie “Mile… Mile and a Half”.  It’s a shorter trail at about 210 miles, but hits beautiful scenery through California from Yosemite to Mount Whitney. It has a short hiking window of July through September due to the amount of snow in the higher elevations, which can even linger into the Summer months.

 

1: Appalachian Trail

“The Green Tunnel” stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, stretching about 2200 miles. It typically takes about four to six months to complete and is considered a social trail due to the number of thru-hikers, section-hikers, and day-hikers. The trail runs through fourteen states, including five of the six New England states, which holds a special place in my heart.

Top 7 Places: Mountains I Want to Summit

Another top 7 list because I’m lazy – and possibly getting sick. Here’s a list of the top 7 mountains that I want to summit. No rules on this one, but they ended up being pretty dispersed anyway, so yay!

 

7: The Matterhorn (Swiss Alps)

One of the most popular mountains to climb, The Matterhorn rises high in the Alps between Switzerland and Italy. No confirmed Yeti sightings have come forth yet, but there’s still a chance.

 

6: Mount Katahdin (Maine)

The highest point in Maine, Mount Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. For most thru-hikers, hiking northbound means Mount Katahdin is the end of the AT. Supposedly, it’s a pretty spectacular finale to a four-to-six-month trek.

 

5: Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)

The tallest mountain in Africa, it is considered the easiest of the Seven Summits to climb, being more of a hike to the top than a technical climb. The mountain has many different regions ranging from rainforest to mountaintop.

 

4: Mount Denali (Alaska)

Also known as Mount McKinley, Mount Denali is the highest point in North America. It can be extremely dangerous to climb, just like most mountains on this list.

 

3: Mons Huygens (Moon)

The tallest mountain on our orbiting satellite, Luna – more commonly referred to as the Moon. With much-reduced gravity, the climb should be considerably less taxing, but having to plan to bring enough oxygen and somehow find a way to eat and drink in a spacesuit protecting you from certain death would be a tough technical obstacle to overcome.

 

2: Mount Everest (Himalayas)

Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on our planet, but nowhere near the most difficult. People practically get ferried up the mountain nowadays, but a good combination of hard work and support would satisfy my desire of standing on top of the world. I bet the view is spectacular.

 

1: Olympus Mons (Mars)

Olympus Mons is the tallest mountain on any planet in our solar system at a height of nearly 22 kilometers, three times higher than Mount Everest. How cool would it be to stand atop the tallest planetary mountain in our solar system?