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.

 

 

 

We are Stateside!

 

We have made it around the globe and we still have some traveling a head of us.

July 2024 (Texas - OK - TN) - NYC - UK - France- Spain - Portugal - Egypt - the Philippines - Vietnam - Japan - Peru - Costa Rica - Tennessee!

After ten months of international travel, we flew into Tennessee from Costa Rica. I may have shed a few tears when our flight attendant, whom we chatted with about our travels, welcomed us home. We will be spending the next couple of months visiting family and doing some summer road-tripping through parts of the US.

Parker’s sister Amanda and our brother-in-law Brad live close to the Smoky Mountains with their daughters Krislyn and Lissa. It was great to be around family again. The Kaesers met us in Japan to ski in March, and the cousins were excited to have more time together.

Tennessee is a beautiful state with so much to see and do. The kids had some homeschooling to catch up on since we took the longest Spring Break ever. But after school, the cousins were able to hang out. We also enjoy spending time at the Kaeser's homestead where the kids swam, rode mini-bikes, harvested honey suckles, jumped on the trampoline, and took Rahab (their goat) for walks.  

It was time to unpack for a bit and begin adjusting to the American Life (where you must drive everywhere to get anything done amongst other things). During our travels we had mainly stayed close to city centers where everything was walkable: stores, restaurants, etc. Parker had left his vehicle in storage at his sister’s house while we were gone, and we drove for the first time in ten months. We rented motor bikes in Asia but nothing else during our travels. I was a little anxious, which was silly because although it felt weird at first, it just wasn’t a big deal.

Parker is an avid fisherman and the Smokies are a fisherman’s haven. One Sunday, Parker and Brad went fishing at The Little River. It was their lucky day because they both caught their limit and brought home ten rainbow trout.  The trout were beautiful and delicious. The big boys were very proud of themselves. And the rest of us were very happy to eat the killer fish tacos and yummy smoked fish dip that Brad made for us. 

*****

One day we decided to visit Fontana Dam and we unexpectedly ended up on the Tail of the Dragon in the Smokies. The Tail of the Dragon is a famous 11-mile section of Route 129 with over 318 curves. It is popular with sports cars and motorcycle enthusiasts. We knew it was nearby, but we didn’t realize we were going to be driving it that day.

It is popular because for 11 uninterrupted miles this route has no houses, driveways, businesses, or intersecting roads. We started seeing groups of super fancy sports cars (Porsches, Maseratis, Miatas) and they were going around the curves fast!  

Kaia was starting to get a little motion sickness from all the turns. Then Parker said, ”I think the Tail of the Dragon is near here somewhere”. To which Kaia responded, “well, it says Tail of the Dragon on your navigation screen”. Ha…found it!

At one end of the route is Deal's Gap where we stopped for lunch and watched the racers zoom by. In the parking lot was “The Tree of Shame” where vehicle parts (mainly motorcycle parts) were hung, collected from crashes along the route. There are a couple of  deaths on the Tail of the Dragon every year and the Tree of Shame was a stark reminder.

There were  professional photographers at the more exciting turns taking photos of each passing vehicle (even ours - photos are available on line for everyone driving through). Also, people were pulled over the side of the road sitting on lawn chairs, watching the racers. When there a was vehicle behind us, Parker would pull over and let them pass. The drivers always gave us an appreciative wave as they sped off around us. It was fun seeing all the fancy sports cars and motorcycles. We waved at the photographers and the spectators as we rolled by in our slow, lifted 4Runner, at the posted speed limit of 30mph. 

*****

Citico River is famous for trout fishing. We had stored all of our outdoor and camping gear with our vehicle so we would be ready for the outdoors when we arrived in the States.  We headed out to camp and fly fish for a couple of days. We had previously scouted this river and knew that we would have no cell signal. We found a great camp site right next to the river, it was the perfect place to unplug. 

It was a beautiful area with no one camping anywhere for miles around us. Parker has been taking the kids fishing since they were toddlers, not only do they enjoy it but they are also improving their skills. They switch off between fly fishing and spinning rods. It was a great few days of doing everything and nothing. We fished, we read, the kids carved things, and we ate a lot of smores.