Is that a Clif Bar in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Leaving town with a full food bag is always a double-edged sword. Your next few days of trail meals are going to be good, but food is very heavy, and after your first steep climb of the day, you’ll want to stop and eat something just to lighten your pack. A good target is 10 to 12 lbs for a 4 or 5 day hike. Try to choose nutitious but light-weight food. As you eat, your pack gets lighter.

Preparing and eating meals on the AT becomes a ritual only a very few will experience. Meal time at a shelter with your fellow hikers is one of the great pleasures of thru-hiking. People from all walks of life have hiked to that spot on the trail and they will share mealtime with you. The smells and flavors of your meal are somehow better after you hauled your food 15 miles and up a mountain or two. Eating is not just something you have to do, but a memorable part of your hike.

In the evening, after you have eaten your dinner and your stomach is full and warm, your muscles will relax and your mind will fill with all you have seen and felt that day.

Happiness is a light pack!

After four days of hiking, we arrived at Neel’s Gap. I sent 15 lbs. (that’s pounds!) of stuff home. I thought I had packed light, but after my first few mountains, I knew something had to go.

This is not another post about what you should be taking, but about what you should NOT be taking; a sort of anti-equipment post. It doesn’t take long to start trimming down your pack, but most hikers refuse to part with anything they have brought. I’m here to help. Following is a list of what – I promise – you will not need and should not take.

G.P.S. – -Just follow the white blazes.
Coil of rope – – You are hiking, not climbing.
Huge first aid kit – – There is no surgery on the trail.
Ax or saw – – If you can’t pick it up, please don’t burn it.
Bear-proof food bag – – Hang your food bag from a tree.
Camp stool – – Sit on a rock or a log.
Compass – – Follow the white blazes.
Giant hunting knife – – Please do not kill wildlife.
Spice rack – – Come on!?@!?

The above are actual items we saw on the trail. The guy with the spice rack didn’t make it the whole way, but he really, really thought he needed those spices!

What you need or don’t need may not be so obvious until you actually hike on the trail a few weeks. I’m here for you, though. The above items are better as ideas than actual supplies you will need.

Hey, what’s in your pack?

For 2,175 miles, I carried the Gregory Z pack. It was a great pack, reasonably priced, and lightweight. It lasted the entire six months and it still looks new. If your pack fits correctly, it can improve your hiking experience exponentially.

I bought my pack from an outfitter, so I got to try on many packs. The Gregory Z had all the buckles and straps, but you can’t adjust shoulder strap height or waist-belt height, so your torso length must be within a certain range.

If you don’t have an outfitter close by, you may want to buy a pack you can adjust for a perfect fit. I also have a Dana Design Redirect pack. The shoulder strap and waist belt height can be adjusted to distribute weight more evenly. This often makes the pack weigh more and also cost more. After about 15 miles of steep trail, it may be money very well spent.

Careful which one you choose--that pack goes with you EVERYWHERE. We were lucky we didn't fall off that mountain!

I won’t spend a lot of time writing about equipment, but there are a few items I think are very important to a great hiking experience. I’ll be writing later about what to take and what not to take, but if you have any questions, be sure to leave a comment and I will let you know my thoughts. Bye for now.

Two’s Company

I started my 2007 thru-hike March 12 and finished Sept. 9th. It was a magical hike through 13 states and some of the most remote and beautiful country on the East Coast. I was able to share this adventure with my brother, Steve, who for 6 months was my hiking partner.

We were a rare breed on the trail, as few people will have the ability to stick with someone on a 2000+ mile hike. (Actually, it’s rare for anyone to finish at all!) I saw some teams fail, and often this ended their hike. Doing something this intense, fun, stressful, and physically challenging has got to be thought out ahead of time, especially if you really want to enjoy your experience.

A shave and shower was long overdue!

On my hike I had a partner, but most people, for various reasons, choose to hike solo. This doesn’t mean you’ll be hiking alone. There will be many days when you may not see another person. Most days however, you will meet like-minded folks, looking for adventure. Everyone on the trail goes home with an experience they never anticipated.

You can hike alone or hook up with other solo hikers for a while. I said this in an earlier post, and it bears repeating–this is your experience, your time, your resources, so enjoy!

This is the photo my lovely wife, Norma, thinks looks like a Wanted poster.

Lost and found on the Appalachian Trail

About 30 miles from Springer Mountain, it was a perfect day to hike. Mid-morning, lots of sunshine, still cool. Giant Rhododendrons were making an almost perfect archway under which to hike. A smooth trail with only a slight uphill grade-lazy hiking.

Your first weeks hiking on the Appalachian Trail you spend a lot of time looking down at your feet. But, as you get stronger and more confident, you slowly start to look up more. This may be when you start to see the trail for the first time.

A beautiful day to hike

On this day, I was hiking a few steps behind my brother Pac Rat, when he stopped to reach down and pick something up. I came up to him and he held out his hand to show me a quarter from Maine. We were already wondering if we’d make it to Maine so surely this must be a sign.

We both wondered why he had looked down just at that moment and happened to see such a small object on this 2,175 mile trail. Had it just been dropped by a recent hiker on their way from Maine? Had he lost a lucky charm? A memento? A hope, maybe?

This small, found object would be the first of many, but this one was particularly telling for me. I took it as a sign that we would, indeed, make it all the way. We would be among the few hundred a year who make it all the way. A beautiful day.

What’s your trail name??

There is a long-standing tradition on the trail to have a trail name. I haven’t been able to find out the true history of trail names; only that it started in the late ’70’s. (Please leave a comment if you can fill in this blank for us!)

My trail name is Lucky, chosen by me because I felt lucky that my lovely wife, Norma, let me go for 6 months. My brother Steve’s name is Pac Rat. (No explanation necessary) Just about everyone on the trail had a moniker, but you don’t have to have one. I will say this: if you don’t have a trail name when you start, someone along the way will give you one, and you may not like it, so you may want to pick it yourself.

Having a trail name is part of the fun. On my second week on the trail, we stopped to have lunch with some other hikers at a trail-side picnic table. One hiker introduced himself as “Leaky Bladder.” It turns out the night before he hadn’t screwed the cap tight on his 2-liter bladder and it leaked out inside his pack. And he was christened (in more ways than one) Leaky Bladder.

After spending time with some folks, it’s easy to see how their trail name matches their personality. Others remain a mystery and they may not clue you in. For me, having a trail name was part of leaving my old self behind and exploring this new person I was to become. Your trail name is a fun and harmless new way to express yourself. Your adventure, your name. Make it meaningful to YOU!

Hike your own hike

There are as many ways to do the Appalachian Trail thru hike as there are hikers. Before you leave, you will need good organizational skills (I’ll be posting about this soon) but once you hit the trail, I hope you can remember to enjoy it.

This may sound like simplistic advice, but when you are hungry and tired, it’s the simple things you forget. I hope you can spend many hours just walking and looking around you, not trying to stick to some schedule.

This is why you hike your own hike.

You will get so much advice, before, during, and even after your hike. Remember this is your experience. There will be some very good advice, but someone may say something that stays with you. The trail motto is “Hike your own hike” and I think that’s the best advice I’ll be giving you.

Most asked question: Why?

If you have given serious thought to hiking the Appalachian Trail, most people want to know why. Depending on when you asked me – before, during, or after the hike – you would have gotten a different answer every time.

The idea was born one day as I had a faint recollection of my brother-in-law talking about hiking through the Appalachian Mountains. He had books about hiking adventures and the images in the books came back to me. That was more than 30 years ago and I really didn’t even know if it was still there or what. Like you, I was searching for an adventure.

The information I was able to find showed the trail to be the same as it was when it was established more than 50 years ago but facing a struggle to keep this continuous 2,175 mile, uninterrupted trail in tact. At the time, I was 52 and I thought between being physically able to do it and the integrity of the trail, if I wanted to go, now is the time.

On the trail with my brother

This is the story I told people and the story I originally started out with, but as the next year unfolded, my reasons would change dramatically. More to come…