There was a movie not too long ago about a bucket list. You know, the list of all the things you want to do before you "kick the bucket." Well, before the term became fashionable, I had a list of things I wanted to do before I kicked the bucket, and one of them was to hike on the Appalachian Trail. I was pretty naive about what all this would encompass, but one of the young men at Troy High School had just completed it, the whole thing. He left right after graduation and finished some time in the early fall. He told us about some of it, and one of the other teachers and I decided to give it a try.
We really didn't prepare all that much, and didn't work out getting the legs in shape, so you can guess how this was fated to turn out. Anyway, our spring break came at school one year and off the three of us went. The young man kinda figured we could handle a short 12-mile climb in the weekend we had allotted for it. He selected an area in Tennessee that he was familiar with (I think he picked an area where he thought two old guys wouldn't get themselves killed) and we set out. The weather was very nice all the way down -- upper 60s during the day and lower 60s at night. We got there, and met up with some friends of his and set plans in motion to start the hike early the next morning.
Well, the next morning was a bit of a challenge. Clouds moved in and there was a slight drizzle. We had rain gear so we thought we could outwalk it and started up the trail. "Up the trail" is a slight exaggeration -- actually we climbed a pretty good mountain trail with lots of switchbacks, rocks, drizzle and falling temps. We had only been out a few hours, when the temps had dropped considerably, and the drizzle changed to rain, then snow, then freezing rain. But we kept going and after about four hours, had managed to cover about three miles of the hike. It's amazing how little progress you really make (as opposed to how much you think you make) when climbing like this.
I thought it would be really fun to take my 2meter ham radio handi-talkie with me and see if I could talk to the world from atop a mountain in TN. Good idea, bad planning. Batteries tend to lose their charge in this kind of weather. I didn't bring any spare batteries because our guide kept saying to keep the weight down. I also remembered my drill sergeant from basic training who once said, "If you pack it, you're carrying it. Noone will take it for you."
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| Here we are taking shelter from some of the wind during a break. Took this picture by setting it out away from us on a rock, setting the timer, and running back up the hill to get in the shot. |
The scenery was pretty good, at least until the snow storm hit. We were lucky to find one of the trail shelters and have a bit of cover for the night. You can see in the picture how much wind would get through this thing. We actually put up our tents inside the barn and slept there overnight. When we got up the next morning, the barn was filled with snow and our tents were ready to cave in. Obviously we didn't have any warm fires to cozy up to either.
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| This is one of the guys, Pat, who went on the hike. You can see how the barn was built -- lots of snow and wind moving through all night long. |
The whole route we planned was going to be 12-miles. So far, we had gone six. Well, I wasn't too smart in math, but I knew if we turned around now and went back to our start point, a couple of things would happen: we probably would survive this thing, we would still get our 12-miles in. Just not the way we had planned.
That evening I got sick from some of the mountain water that my purifying kit didn't purify. Also, I think I slept for 12 hours straight. But we made it, whatever "it" was, and I crossed that off my list. I also got a greater admiration for the efforts of those who hike the whole trail. I also marvel at those who did this back in the days of the settlers.
I must admit, I've had better spring breaks. But not any as challenging as this.
Backpacking: An extended form of hiking in which people carry double the amount of gear they need for half the distance they planned to go in twice the time it should take. Anonymous
Hooah
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