The Appalachian Trail

 

On a bright and sunny spring day in the Smoky Mountains, we took our kids to the trail that changed our lives forever.

The Appalachians Mountains hold a very special place in our lives. In our mid-20s, Parker and I thru-hiked (walked end to end) the Appalachian Trail. We hiked 2,174.1 miles from Georgia to Maine, through 14 states (GA, NC, TN, VA, WV, MD, PA, NJ, NY, CT, MA, VT, NH, ME), in 5 months and 11 days.

After dating for four years, we decided to go on an “adventure of a lifetime” before settling down. The AT fit the bill. Thru-hiking in 2004, was truly an adventure in every sense of the word.

Starting at the southern terminus of the trail, we began walking north with only a paperback guidebook for resupply and water source info. No GPS, no cell phones, no apps. On the trail are “White Blazes”, a simple paint brush mark on trees that marked our path from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine.

We carried everything we needed in our backpacks to survive: food, clothing, shelter, and water (we had to find springs along the way and filter our water for hydration and meals). We walked 10-25 miles a day (about 100 miles a week), for 5-7 days at a time. Towards the end of the day, we would find a good campsite near a water source, set up camp, build a fire, cook our dinner, and rest up for another day of hiking.  

When we ran out of food, we would hitchhike into town to stay a night in a hotel or hostel and resupply for another week (100 miles or so) of hiking. We had to find a payphone to call our parents and a library to get online.

We took our kids to the trail at Fontana Dam and found the three-sided shelter that we stayed in decades ago. Decades! Along the 2,000+ mile path are lean-tos (three-sided shelters) provided for all hikers. It’s first come first serve so if there is room, you roll out your sleeping bag and you might sleep next to someone you’ve already met on the trail or an absolute rando hiker! If the shelter is full, you must continue to the next shelter or pitch a tent. For the most part, Parker and I cooked dinners at the shelters to socialize but tented down the trail because we preferred the privacy.

The Fontana “Hilton” is not your typical shelter, due to its accessible and popular location, it’s huge and well built. It can probably hold up to 30 hikers or more if the weather is bad. We were surprised to find a solar charging station, a water bottle filling station and a bathroom nearby with a hot shower (an absolute luxury on the trail back in the day when the best you could hope for was a nice spring to refresh). Wow! We saw a small group of thru-hikers by the shelter. We said hello, but they were pre-occupied with their phones.

When we thru-hiked, no one knew where we were. We feel lucky to have had the experience of being completely unplugged in nature. Make no mistake, it was not an easy hike. Although it was more of a mental challenge than a physical one, we were beyond exhausted at the end. But of course all of the pain was worth it. We walked the entire Appalachian Range wild and free.

We told our kids that if we kept following the white blazes north we would end up in Maine by September. They said, “nope, we’re good”!

*****

Day One and Summit Day

April 10 - September 21, 2004

The Appalachian Trail truly changed the trajectory of our lives. It changed our perspective on how we wanted to travel and explore the world.

Little did we know that this hike would ignite our love for the outdoors and travel. Five years later, in 2010-2011, we took off on our first trip around the world, scheduling our itinerary around hiking in New Zealand (hike the Te Araroa) and Nepal (hiked Everest Basecamp and the Annapurna Circuit). In 18 months we traveled to: New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Nepal, India, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. For the second time, we honestly thought that this was indeed our “last adventure before kids”.

But of course, we realized on that trip that we would absolutely have to show our future kids the world one day. Now here we are!

*****

One of our favorite AT stories is that on day 7 of our hike we met a hiker named Brad. The three of us got along well and we hiked together for nearly 1,000 miles. Once we got to Harper’s Ferry, our schedules/paces didn’t match up anymore, so we parted ways but kept in touch.

Long story short, he came to our wedding the following year and met Parker’s sister. Brad and Amanda got married two years later! In 2004, over 4,000 hopeful thru-hikers registered, only a little over 400 made it all the way to the end. The three of us where one of the 10% to complete the hike that year, and yes, decades later, we retell the same trail stories.