15 years ago I became keenly interested in the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail (or the AT as it’s commonly known) is a
hiking trail marked with white blazes in the eastern United States and it
extends 2,184 miles between Springer
Mountain in Georgia and Mount
Katahdin in Maine. I had only been hiking for a few months and had just
recently begun running. But of course, like anything else I’m interested in, I
became obsessed with it and devoured all the pertinent info about it I could
find. In this case, that began with a trail map that I bought which extended
from the floor to the ceiling of my dining room!
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Every year thousands of thru-hikers (or people hiking the
entire trail at one time) start from one end of the AT (usually Springer) and
make their way to the other end. Only about 1 in 4 makes it the whole way on
their first attempt. Some take as many as 8 months to complete the journey
while others complete it in as little as 3. The un-official record for the
fastest “supported thru-hike” (or, a hike with a little help from your friends)
is 47 days by Andy Thompson in 2005. That’s more than
46 miles a day! The “unsupported” record is 60
days by Ward Leonard back in 1990. An equally impressive travel rate of 36
miles per day!
When I first attempted to wrap my
head around the concept of hiking the whole Appalachian
Trail it quickly became apparent that, as a parent of two small
children, there was no way I could possibly devote a minimum of 3 months to
something so “frivolous” as that. So, I shelved the idea until my later years
(after the kids were grown) and focused on doing “section hikes” on the part of
the AT which was nearest and dearest to my heart – The White Mountains of New
Hampshire.
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| Well Marked Trail |
The AT first hits the White
Mountain National Forest near a little village called Glencliff and continues
nearly 100 miles northeast though some of the most scenic and difficult hiking
trails in the country before emerging once again on the other side at a
slightly larger town named Gorham. When I first charted this Glencliff to
Gorham (or G2G) course I figured I could probably do about 16 miles a day and
finish this whole section in about 6 days. I’m a runner, so 16 miles a day
should be easy! Yeah, right!
Later on that year, I attempted a
“trial-run” over the middle third of the G2G and found that I had a LOT to learn about thru-hiking. 16 miles of road running
is not even mildly comparable to 16 miles of hiking over that kind of terrain
with a 30+ pound backpack laden with a tent, sleeping bag, cooking equipment,
food, clothes, supplies, and other extraneous gear. It was a long and painful
2-day learning experience and by the end of it I wished a bear would track down
the scent of my 3+ pounds of trail mix and carry me off!
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| Yes I Am! |
In the years that followed (and
with that not-so-pleasant experience behind me) I satisfied my AT cravings with
various multi-day, hut-to-hut hikes stopping for the night at one of the 8 AMC High
Mountain Huts - answering the “sirens call” of a nice warm bed, a yummy
pre-hike breakfast & a sumptuous post-hike dinner. This allowed me to carry
much less gear in my backpack and, in turn, enjoy myself a whole lot more! But,
even so, the idea of doing the G2G always stayed with me - in the back of my
mind. That is, until this year.
This year I signed up for my first
50 mile trail race and have been working hard getting myself ready for it. The
past few months have been filled with many hours on the training trails and
even doing a trail marathon - just for fun. So, when I plotted out the rest of
my summer I couldn’t help but dwell on the G2G. This was the year to do it!
Unfortunately, most of the High Huts were already booked. And, even if they
weren’t, they were now costing $120 a night! Yikes!
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| The Start |
I couldn’t bear to carry all that
gear from my previous attempt, so I came up with another plan. I would camp out
and bring only the bare minimum: water, snacks, a couple changes of clothes and
money to buy my meals at the huts. For sleeping I found a great (and
lightweight) hammock that would serve as my shelter and my sleep sack. After
loading up my pack it came in at a little more than 24 pounds – or 4 pounds
over my target weight. I tossed as many “non-essentials” as I could but only
managed to get it down to 22. Oh well. It would have to do.
Since the last time I tried this
trek I also added two more kids to the fold. As a result, “daddy time” is
somewhat limited these days. So, my plan was simple - go light, go quick and
try to cover as much ground per day as possible. With 5 days available to me
(and accounting for 1 day of travel & return) that meant I’d need to do
about 24 miles a day (for 4 days) to cover the 96 miles from Glencliff to
Gorham. At about 2 miles per hour that meant 12 hours of hiking, 8 hours of
sleep and 4 hours of eating/downtime. Tough? Yes, but not impossible. Or, so I
thought.
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| Still Life with Pack |
Day One dawned early as I loaded
up the Civic for the drive north. A short time later I was pulling into Lincoln to stash my bike
at the Tedeschi Food Shop – the southernmost stop on the AMC hikers shuttle
route. The bike would serve as my transportation back to my car some 18 miles
further south (and west) in Glencliff. With the bike locked (and covered with
fallen tree branches & leaves) I hopped back into the car to start my
adventure. I hit the trailhead just a little after 6am. The sun was up but
hidden by rain clouds. I wouldn’t see its shining face until late the following
day.
The trails leading up to the first
peak (Moosilauke) provided a bit of an “oh-shit” wake-up call. I hadn’t gotten
my “hikers legs” yet and the going was very slow and labored. 2 miles in and I
was drenched - partially by rain, but mostly by sweat. Fortunately I had an
ample supply of electrolyte tablets and even added electrolyte supplements to
my hydration pack. With all the salt I was losing, I was going to need it! The
summit of “Big Moose” was shrouded in fog and I headed back down the other side
without so much as a glance around. The footing on some of the descending
trails was steep and slippery. If I was going to make it to Liberty Springs (my
first stop for the night) I was going to have to go quickly, but carefully. One
wrong step and that would be the end of my trip. Or worse!
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| Lonesome Lake |
He was doing what’s called
“slackpacking”. Hiking only with a very small day-pack (in this case a very
small cartoon character day-pack) then getting rides into (and out of) town
every night to find food & shelter. Or, while in the Whites, doing the
“work-for-stay” gambit at the AMC Huts. Work-for-stay is just what it sounds
like. You perform odd jobs around the hut and the Hut Crew feeds you dinner
leftovers and lets you sleep on the dining room tables after everyone else has
gone to bed. Fun, right? Well he seemed to be enjoying himself!
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| Lonesome Lake Hut |
I bid him adieu and scrambled up
and over South, then North Kinsman. By this point the light rain that had been
falling for most of the day had gotten a lot harder. Thankfully I reached my
first hut (Lonesome
Lake) before the skies really opened up. I sat down at one of the long dining room tables and tucked into a
piece of homemade bread and a nice, hot, bowl of chicken rice soup. Mmmm. The
hut was crawling with children having made the relatively easy hike up from
Franconia Notch with their parents to stay the night. Many ignored me, but
others looked on with a kind of morbid curiosity. Who is that smelly man? And
why is he eating that soup so fast? Just wait kid. Someday you’ll be that
smelly man!
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