Kindle Notes & Highlights
His journal is sprinkled with delightful down-home country humor. Trying to hitchhike for a long time in southern Virginia, he wrote, “I thought I might get a blister on my thumb from waving it in the air.” At Charlie’s Bunion, a mountain in the Smokies with a sheer drop: “I thought if a fellow fell from here he’d have to take his lunch to keep from starving to death before he hit bottom.” On a rainy day in Maine, it was “so foggy the birds were walking.”
Summing up, he wrote, “Now that I’ve reached my destination, I realize it wasn’t the destination that was important: it was the journey. It was hard work, but rest and food have never been as sweet. I’ve been in bad weather and on dangerous terrain and have discovered that strength and youth aren’t as valuable as persistence is. And mostly I’ve just been overwhelmed by beauty—every day, every direction I looked. I won’t ever forget it.”
In the population at large, two-thirds to three-quarters are extroverts. Among hikers, two-thirds are introverts. “That’s an overwhelming discrepancy.
The large majority of the population prefers to see the world in terms of facts, what’s tangible. But among hikers, two-thirds prefer to see the world in terms of possibilities.”
Despite the extreme physical effort needed to complete the trail, most thru-hikers do not possess special athletic prowess. In fact, strong athletes are more likely to aggressively challenge the trail and exit with injuries than are the frail and the cautious. Most 2,000-milers say attitude and determination are far more important than strength and conditioning.
Trail names reflect a sort of split personality, in which one’s trail identity is far removed from one’s other life in, say, the corporate world. Trail names are so widespread that one can hike with someone for weeks and not know the name his parents would
Although it’s two thousand miles long, the trail corridor is only one thousand feet wide.
Remote for detachment, narrow for chosen company, winding for leisure, lonely for contemplation, the Trail leads not merely north and south but upward to the body, mind and soul of man.
Bill Mersch, who started as the PATC bus driver on group trips in 1939 and succeeded Frank Schairer as supervisor of trails in 1943, said of Avery: “Myron left two trails from Maine to Georgia. One was of hurt feelings and bruised egos. The other was the A.T. The first will disappear, the second will last.”
Just before Earl Shaffer’s 1948 thru-hike, an article in the A.T. News debunked the notion that anyone could do a thru-hike (even though six people had done the whole trail in bits and pieces). But when adventurous souls are told a task is impossible, they immediately begin to find ways to do it.
For years after, Benton MacKaye and others derided thru-hikes as “stunts.”
One person who saw the bearded Gene, then twenty-four, said “That sure is a spry old man.”
When she became discouraged on her first thru-hike, she told herself, “If I go back, I’ll just have to work hard anyway. After the hard life I’ve lived, this trail isn’t so bad.”
Grandma remarked she’d done the hike for a lark. “The books said it was so lovely that I couldn’t resist hiking it.”
“I just decided that I’d had enough aimless walking. I needed a goal.
One way to mentally prepare is by expecting misery much of the time and realizing that other parts of trail life compensate for the suffering. Expecting to escape unscathed is a sure path to disillusionment.
If you enjoyed the trail, it stays in your mind, in memories, in pictures. It stays with me in the sense that I appreciate the simple things; I understand what the basics mean. I’m like everybody else. I get caught up in the wants and the haves. But I still know I can revert to staring into a candle or a fire and going back to any given point on the trail and refocus on what it meant. I still think about the trail every day, 365 days a year.”
“There are two A.T.’s,” one speaker told the 1993 ATC meeting. “One, an App-a-latch-i-an Trail, runs from Georgia to Maine. Another, the App-a-lay-shun Trail, runs from Maine to Georgia.” In truth, there are dozens of Appalachian Trails, each what a hiker wants to make of it. The physical trail—the 265 mountain climbs, 255 shelters, and thousands of two-by-six-inch white blazes that mark the narrow footway—is in many ways the least important of the trails. The trail is also an abstract concept, a path to a hiker’s dreams and aspirations. After all, what separates the A.T. from other trails is
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By hiking the trail continuously, your journey is more than the sum of the parts. The contrast between the sections helps you appreciate the truly outstanding areas.
Ned Greist, a former ATC vice chair, claimed a section-hikers’ record. Forty-six years elapsed between the time he first set foot on the trail (hiking from Franconia Notch to Mount Lafayette, New Hampshire) and when he completed it (at Spivey Gap, Tennessee, in 1975, at age sixty-six).
O.W.’s motives for doing the trail, like those of most 2,000-milers, were never clear. “They were vague and broad-based and poorly articulated,” he said.
“When you have a backpack on, no matter where you are, you’re home,” said Leonard.
Her 1975 car wreck destroyed her “worldly ambition. I’ve had little jobs since then, but the pursuit of money or career does not interest me. I’m cursed with a high I.Q. but not the ability to do much with it.”
Wanda believes that hiking is therapeutic for some people with serious mental problems. “Hiking helps them in some way,” she said. “But the trail can’t heal everybody. There’s a point of diminishing returns. I might have reached that, too. Now I have a balance in my life.”
What they lack are calcium and vitamin A. For calcium she suggests carrying powdered milk, cheese, and sardines packed in oil. Dried fruits, such as dates, figs, and raisins, are high in vitamin A. Her study was based on a small sample of one years thru-hikers.
One place that hikers consistently rate highly is The Inn at Hot Springs, North Carolina. It is the first real town that many northbound hikers visit and as such a welcome sight after perhaps three weeks in the woods.
Pancakes are a much-prized item along the trail. Some believe the Mount Cube Sugar House in New Hampshire serves the best pancakes on the A.T.
Another treasured commodity among hikers has always been ice cream. Most noted along the trail was the store at Pine Grove Furnace, Pennsylvania, where many hikers have tried to enter the “Half-Gallon Club” by eating a half gallon by themselves at a single sitting. The store was closed for renovations in the summer of 1993 but was expected to reopen in 1994.
When David backpacks now, he eats beans and whole-grain rice. He soaks the mixture all day in a pint container in his pack. This cuts the cooking time to within a few minutes of the processed foods most thru-hikers use.
At the time, the Bear Mountain Bridge had the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world—1,632 feet. For many years, hikers had to pay a dime to cross it, the only toll ever on the A.T.
The area between Bear Mountain Inn and the bridge is an area of historic significance and of two trail distinctions. Near the Bear Mountain Nature Museum, which opened in 1927, the elevation of 124 feet is the lowest along the entire A.T. The zoo and museum complex, which is locked at 5 P.M., is the only place along the trail that is shut at night. It’s also the best place along the trail to see a bear.
Many thru-hikers find their most luxurious A.T. accommodations just before the border, at Graymoor Monastery in New York. For more than twenty years, the center has provided long-distance hikers with a night’s lodging in a private room, shower, laundry room, and dinner and breakfast. The rooms in the old friary would not strike most people as plush, but they are ideal for hikers.
Jim “Pony” Adams speaks of the time he was returning to the A.T., walking along a Pennsylvania highway, when an old van passed him. The driver suddenly slammed on the brakes, swung around, and came back. Alone and apprehensive, Jim hurried into the woods. A man ran a hundred yards along the trail to catch him. It was Earl Shaffer, just wanting to talk about the trail.
Desperate to finish, Earl descended into Unicol Gap, Georgia, where he saw a man with his family. He recognized Gene Espy, the second person to hike the A.T. By chance, Gene had brought his two daughters to see the fall leaves. “I had no idea he was on the trail,” said Gene. “Five minutes earlier or later and we wouldn’t have met.” Gene took Earl into town and helped him replace some of his worn clothing and his depleted food supply, and revived his spirits. “He gave me the boost to finish,” Earl said.
Keep in mind, also, that fatigue and hunger can aggravate the symptoms of hypothermia, which include shivering, lethargy, and confusion.
Hair is raised by the electrical field preceding a lightning bolt. That’s a sign—albeit a late one—to get off the mountaintop.
As Maurice Forrester, Jr., put it in the A.T. News, the age of innocence on the trail is gone for good. The idea that the trail is a sort of haven, immune from the ills of society, is out of date. Still, the A.T. remains remarkably safe. “The Appalachian Trail may not be the paradise our fancies would like, but it is still a far better place than most others,” Forrester concluded.
“I’ve done most of my 5,600 miles of backpacking alone,” Susan Gail said. “If I didn’t go alone, I wouldn’t go at all. There are things that are a whole lot scarier than backpacking alone.”
Of his hiking, he said, “It’s a rich mans life without the money.”
He began carrying a guitar on his Continental Divide hike in 1979, and now he carries one all the time. It weighs two pounds. He carried his old guitar for eight thousand miles with no case, just lashing it to the back of his pack with the neck down. The rain drenched it and the sun burned it, but it still worked. He even credits it with saving his life. While hiking through Utah, he spent a night on top of a steep mountain. When he woke up, he saw that the mountain was icy. Trying to skirt a cliff, Jim slipped, falling toward the edge. He kicked his feet in and clawed with his hands, but
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“The more I’m out there, the more I’m convinced it’s the time, not the miles. It’s not the eighteen thousand miles, it’s the twenty years. I’d much rather take my time.”
The successful hikers are the ones who find goodness and joy even in the difficult times, who see beyond the misery to the beauty of nature and the comforts of trail society. They’re the ones who know that the rain turns the forest into a magical wonderland and provides the rainbow that caps the day.
“Any day I’m outdoors is a good day,” said Laurie “A Traveling Wilbury” Mack. “There’s always something different on the trail.”
Few hikers will actually say they get bored on the trail, although some admit that the miles can get monotonous. A hiker’s senses can become saturated by the beauty continually surrounding him.
Jeff Hansen finds that many people come to the trail after some emotional distress. “We’ve had people who’ve lost family members in accidents, and the trail becomes their family,” he said. “I think it’s a great idea, to use this to sort things out.” He believes the trail simplifies a persons life and lets him get closer to his innermost thoughts. “A simple walk in the woods for the afternoon does that. Six months of it has to be that much better,” he said.
“When I started I didn’t legitimately think I was going to be able to finish the trail. I hoped I could, and I planned to finish, but I didn’t think I could. I was surprised to learn that my body had limits far beyond what I’d imagined. I could walk all day in the rain and cold and not be miserable. It taught me that limits are most often what’s between my ears and nothing more.”
Initially, the idea of doing the whole trail motivated Greg “Pooh” Knoettner. “To keep myself going, I’d tell myself I have to finish this thing, but that wore off quickly. I discovered I love hiking and that’s what kept me going. It’s hard to hike the whole trail if your only motivation is that you want to finish.”
Gussow believed in the importance of staying in touch with childhood innocence, vigor, and fantasy. “As adults, nature heals by reminding us in a bodily sense what it was like to be a child.” He went on to say that nature heals because it slows us down and encourages us to use our bodies. Gussow quoted painter Thomas Cole’s letter to Asher Durand: “You sit, I know you do, in a close, air-tight room, toiling, stagnating, and breeding dissatisfaction at all you do, when, if you had the untainted breeze to breathe, your body would be invigorated, your spirits buoyant, and your pictures would even
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“It’s an adventure of the soul, something to nurture the soul,” said Steve “Offshore Steve” Gomez, who hiked the trail in 1986. “The trail was the start of a big change in my life. It was the beginning of listening to my heart more than what other people’s expectations of me were.”
Jim “Jimmy Bee” Bodmer was doing a 34-mile day into Damascus with two friends, Polyster and Archer. They stopped at a shelter at dusk for dinner and then did the last short stretch in the dark. “As we got to Damascus, I had been singing ‘I See the Light,’” Jim said. “Up ahead we could just make out the lights in the valley where Damascus is and I said, ‘I see the light.’ Just then a bolt of lightning struck nearby. I could feel the electricity. Polyster turned to me and said, Jim, don’t do that again.’”
