Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail
In 2012 while we were on holiday in San Antonio, Texas, Matthew read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. He really enjoyed it, so Stephanie and I read it and then Matthew and I half-heartedly made plans to "Do that someday". It was the kind of statement you make while lying on a beach chair in the sun reading, while wistfully thinking about how cool that would be. Stephanie dared us to do it, said she’d support us, but we had to commit to finish it, all 2180 miles of it. Matthew had never slept in a tent before and I hadn’t in over 40 years. Like Bryson, neither of us had any hiking/backpacking experience at all. I “trained” by walking around town with my new backpack filled with about 30 lbs of ballast. In other words, we were not likely to succeed. We started off at the end of March 2013 at Springer mountain in Georgia and finished on top of Mount Katahdin in Maine in September. Here are a few highlight photos of the journey.
Starting on Springer Mountain in Georgia at the end of March 2013 at the southern end of the trail
Somewhere in Georgia near the start of the trail, a fellow hiker kindly took this photo for us.
Hiking on a mountain trail looking down on the clouds
We had already forded this stream when we saw this sign on the other side. The water was fast and deep.
Sign on entering the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine. Seriously remote trail here.
Yes, that is a rattlesnake.
Matthew balancing walking over a stream
Iron rung ladder up a slippery wet stone patch of the trail
The AT does its best to go along the tops of the mountains along the way. Mountaintop hiking is beautiful.
A misty mountain path near the treeline somewhere in Maine
The Southbound entrance to the 100 Mile Wilderness
A very slippery staircase down a rock face
Lots of rocks. We found you only get about 1000 miles out of a pair of boots.
We made it to Maine! You can see how emaciated we were. You just can't eat enough to maintain weight.
A very appreciated plank walkway across the muddy trail in Vermont
The NY Metro North train has an AT station!
Our tents
The Smokey Mountains really are.
The trail around a bend
Another trail bend on a wall over a river
There are wild Shetland ponies on the trail in Virginia.
The Half Gallon Challenge - Tradition to eat a half gallon of ice cream at the half way point of the trail. Hard to believe, but it's not difficult.
A VERY serious sign on the way up Mt Washington. People have died there of exposure in the summer.
Walking down the other side of Mt. Washington, we were passed by the cog train.
There were many beautiful footbridges
The trail passes under a curiously wedged boulder
A narrow section of the trail on a rock wall
A beautiful misty look over the edge next to the trail
Climbing the rocks in Pennsylvania. We had ascended from the river below
The AT has its own footbridge over the Massachusetts Turnpike I-90
All you have to do is follow these white stripes known as blazes painted along the trail.
There are trail logs to sign along the way
Ice storm our second week out there.
The ice caused many heavy branches to fall across the trail.
A curious tombstone right next to the trail on a mountaintop outside a remote town. Hard to read at the bottom: "Uncle Nick Grindstaff -- Lived alone, suffered alone, and died alone"
There was a Norovirus outbreak among the hikers and we were lucky to avoid it. Someone made this when it was over.
It's a tradition for men not to shave
At the northern end of the AT atop Mount Katahdin in mid-September 2013. Still had long way to go to get back to the car.
Stephanie and Samantha met us at Katahdin and scaled the last mountain with us. I am so proud of them. It was the most difficult mountain on the AT.