Shenandoah National Park, Hawksbill Mountain, May 24, 2018 — My friend Karen Lutz is the mid-Atlantic regional director for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. As such, she’s forgotten more about the Appalachian Trail than most people will ever know. That’s why she was asked to appear on “Travels with Darley,” a travel program that airs nationally on Public Television.
Karen is a bona fide expert. Her resume opens with a 1978 thru hike, especially prominent because so few women thru hiked 40 years ago.
Karen’s original hiking boots are enshrined in the Park’s Big Meadow visitor center museum. We paid respects at this shrine to (grave of) Karen’s youth on our way to lunch.
The day’s itinerary was a march to the top of 4,050 foot Hawksbill Mountain, the tallest peak in Shenandoah National Park. It’s also the last 4,000 footer headed north on the AT until New Hampshire.
The program’s topic was all the wonderful things a tourist can do in and around Culpeper, Virginia. Hiking on the AT is only one of them, and thus only a part of the subject at hand.
Darley and Karen making tracks.
Television production is tedious work. Endless b-roll has to be shot to serve as transitions between topics or video wall paper to cover voice-overs. You can never have enough in the editing process.
Karen and Darley did a lot of marching shots that will be used to stitch together parts of the AT segment.
Lots of starts and stops on the way up.
The folks involved in the shoot were many including Darley and her three person crew, plus writers from the Richmond, Virginia PBS station and representatives from the Culpeper chamber/tourism organization.
Getting ready for the summit interview. They hid Karen’s mic in her hat – clever, but a hat is not something Karen normally wears. She’ll probably hear from her friends.
During the actual interview, the mob hung out at a nearby outcrop where I busted a guy from Maine whose dogs were off leash. Dogs must be on leash to protect wildlife from harassment, but also to protect the dogs from from the bears, coyotes, raccoons, skunks and snakes who can inflict far worse on the dogs.
Channeling Ansel Adams before heading back to the cars.
It’s a wrap. Stay tuned for the air date.
In the National Capitol Region, the program airs on Maryland Public Television and Howard University Public Television.
Max Mishkin and Dan Smith are the AT ridgerunners in Maryland
Maryland Appalachian Trail, August 28 – 29, 2015 — Many hiking guides list Maryland as the easiest state on the Appalachian Trail. Here the AT is a relatively flat ridgewalk, mostly on South Mountain. It has its share of rocks, but nothing compared to those to be experienced north and south of here. In that sense, Maryland is fortunate.
In contrast, Maryland has the misfortune of being easy and close to the millions who live in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro areas. That’s a lot of people, many of whom take the shortest path to the AT section nearest home. It’s a recipe for over use and abuse. That may be why the state funds two ridgerunners for just 38 miles. One starts early and the other stays through October.
On Saturday Dan Smith and I hiked from Weverton Cliffs to Gathland State Park. These gentle miles unfold quickly. Even the hump to the top of the cliffs isn’t an outrageous challenge. Pretty much any able bodied person can make it. Come at it from Gathland and the physical challenge is even easier.
Relative to the work Lauralee and I did last week in Shenandoah National Park, this southern chunk of Maryland was a piece of cake. Still, I was surprised at the amount of trash we policed up – ranging from micro trash like mylar snack wrappers to discarded/forgotten clothing. Dan said it was a light weekend. Note to self: Remember this for next year.
We also broke up a couple of illegal fire rings too. Fires, except at designated fire pits at the shelters, are illegal in Maryland, but some people just don’t seem to care.
Dan is an amiable Pennsylvanian and mechanical engineer who appreciates being outdoors. He’s thru hiked both the Appalachian Trail (AT, 2,200 miles) and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT, 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington, featured in “Wild.”)
Next year Dan’s off to hike the Continental Divide Trail (CDT, 3,100 miles from Mexico to Canada via New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.) It’s the last leg of his triple crown and I have no doubt he’ll nail it. The ridgerunner community will miss him.
After repositioning Dan’s car, I left him to rush northward to spend the night at Annapolis Rocks with Max Mishkin. I made camp about two minutes before I needed to turn on my headlamp.
The two Maryland ridgerunners rotate so that there’s always a caretaker on site at the Rocks. It didn’t take long to figure out why.
Caretaker’s tent at Annapolis Rocks. I hung my hammock nearby.
Annapolis rocks is the Grand Central Station of Maryland’s AT section. On a nice weekend, several hundred people per day have been known to visit. Most are neophyte day trippers who are unaware of the Leave No Trace principles. Consequently trash and cigarette butts figuratively snow from their presence.
Outdoor organizations also frequent the Rocks. Scouts and Outward Bound groups are common. Camping is restricted to a limited number of designated sites and no fires are allowed.
As I was walking in, a disgruntled father with a couple of sons was moving out with the speed of the approaching darkness. It seems that the father brought the boys to one of the most sensitive and protected places in Maryland to show his boys how to build a fire and make a lean-to. Max caught them hacking live trees and starting a fire.
Rather than camp the right way, they packed up when Max didn’t allow them to continue their activities. The damage they caused was sadly obvious when we cleaned up the site the following morning. As some of my military friends put it, “You can’t fix stupid.”
The upside to caretaking at Annapolis Rocks is obvious. People seem to love a guy with patches on his shirt. I think we found Max at central casting.
Max is a jovial extrovert from Connecticut who graduated from William and Mary. Since then, he’s knocked about in political campaigns and paralegal work. On his days off, he volunteers like I do at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Visitor Center. In early November he plans to hike Vermont’s Long Trail. I’m planning to be on that trip too if circumstances permit. I love the challenges of winter hiking.
Two Outward Bound groups came in turn to climb the rocks. This is a climbing favorite in Maryland. The highest rated climb, Black Crack, is 5.9 on the Yosemite decimal system because it has an overhang. The others are non-technical but do require rope protection. It’s a long drop to terra firma.
I love to see young folks learning how to climb. The rock is a hard sandstone infused with calcite. The cracks and fissures make excellent and safe handholds.
The youngster on the right did an excellent job.
Say it ain’t so! Buckle up your overshoes. The seasonal transition is beginning.
Lauralee Bliss may well be the dean of AT ridgerunners.
Shenandoah National Park, VA, August 15-17, 2015 — I now coordinate five ridgerunners who patrol the 240 miles of the Appalachian Trail (AT) for which the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is responsible. While I am a volunteer, they are paid a modest stipend for their summer work.
Last weekend I walked a section with Lauralee Bliss who is the sole ridgerunner for all 105 miles of the AT in Shenandoah. That’s a lot of territory to cover. To say her hiking resume is strong is an understatement. A former orthopedic nurse, she has thru hiked the AT both northbound and southbound. Her memoir of those hikes, Mountains, Madness, & Miracles: 4,000 Miles Along the Appalachian Trail sells well. She also has published more than 20 books. http://www.amazon.com/Lauralee-Bliss/e/B001JPCEBI
Lauralee’s multi-year tenure and the volume of unsolicited praise from hikers pretty much says it all. I’d heard a lot of good things about her long before actually making her acquaintance at a National Trail Day event earlier this summer.
Last Saturday, after completing my work with PATC’s North District Hoodlums trail crew, I hiked in to meet Lauralee at Black Rock hut located at northbound mile 882.3 on the AT. From there we would hike to McCormick Gap at mile 865.3 with a second overnight stop at the Calf Mountain hut in between.
A very nice couple, former thru hikers, joined us at Black Rock. Lauralee tents. I hung my hammock.
Along the way we swapped ridgerunning stories and performed minor trail maintenance including clearing some minor blowdowns and picking up micro trash.
Our first adventure happened bright and early the first morning. We stopped to snag the TP someone had left next to the deposit they’d plopped just a couple of feet off the trail. As Lauralee shed her pack with intentions of parking it, I noticed a copperhead lolling in the leafy landing zone, perfectly camouflaged as they are. When ole “Jake No Shoulders” slid into a new residence amongst the discarded TP we decided let it be and wait for another time, discretion is the better part of valor you know. That’s the only mess we didn’t clean up.
Lauralee checking in with Shenandoah dispatch. Many ridgerunners are issued radios that connect them to the various forms of support they need. She’s standing next to Skyline Drive which is the primary front country feature of Shenandoah National Park.
The first day was a hot one. Toward the end, my IT band was talking back loudly and with authority, but what the hey, it’s all in a day’s work. At one point I saw a branch strangely sticking out of the ground and partially blocking the trail. I judged it to be a tripping hazard. Wrong! It was plugging a yellow jacket nest.
I got lucky. When I yanked it out only a few of the evil little critters buzzed about to take a gander. Rather than luck, it could have been professional courtesy since I used to work at Georgia Tech. Whatever the reason, I’ll take it. (The Georgia Tech mascot is “Buzz” the Yellow Jacket.)
Along the way we heard about a boisterous southbound Boy Scout troop which had camped at the Calf Mountain hut. Negative reputations travel fast on the AT. We didn’t know what to expect, but experience has taught each of us not to hope for much. We weren’t disappointed, though it could have been much worse.
Trash left by the Boy Scout troop. We only wish they had signed the shelter register. We love return addresses when we find trash. The pot was full of uneaten food.
Of course the trash was right next to this sign.
Lauralee’s purpose for bringing me to this section was for me to see where maintenance is needed. Some parts of this section are overdue for weeding. Weeding is important because weeds are the vector for Lyme disease-bearing deer ticks. http://distancehiking.com/blog/lyme-disease-appalachian-trail/
A contractor mows parts of this section since its distance from population centers makes recruiting overseers difficult. The vegetation alongside the trail is an invasive species called Japanese stilth grass. Stealth grass would be more like it. The stuff sneaks right up on you with overwhelming force!
Other sections need work.
Lauralee, whose trail name is “Blissful,” trims briars.
We stashed our trash at Beagle Gap for pick up later. That’s about three gallons worth.
Many hikers want to become ridgerunners because they think the job is about hiking. It’s actually about education. The purpose of ridgerunning is to help hikers do the right things to take care of the trail and its surrounding environment.
Among other duties, ridgerunners break up illegal fire rings.
Ridgerunners help hikers understand how to “Leave No Trace” that they’ve ever been in the wilderness. https://Int.org .
Ridgerunners pack out other people’s trash. It’s one of the distasteful parts of the job.
Best of all, ridgerunners help hikers. Here Lauralee helped this young college student with a pack shakedown that eliminated eight excess pounds of equipment that she did not need.
One thing I learned about Lauralee is that she is a bear whisperer. On our last morning we found a young bear ambling in the forest. It probably is his rookie year away from his mother.
When Lauralee talked to the bear in her soft blissful voice, his head cocked from side to side while his ears twitched in every direction like radar searching for UFOs. Maybe to him that’s what we were.
I just know this: He left us with a gentle heartbeat and in the good spirits that reflected the extraordinary person with whom I was fortunate enough to share the weekend.
Aug. 6, 2014. I took summit photos in two different shirts.
Home Sweet Home, August 6, 2015 — I wasn’t going to write a one-year-retrospective. Most of them are boring and trite. As I have often said, being a successful thru-hiker doesn’t make you special. It only means that you were fortunate enough to have a special experience.
Okay, so what happens when it’s over? You go home and then what? Post hike depression is well documented. Of course, I thought it could not happen to me.
When your hike is over, if you’re lucky, you have to get back to work. That’s true for most hikers. If you have something lined up – say going to grad school – you’ve got it made. But even if you have to job search, you’ve got a defined focus for your time and a purpose to pursue.
If you’re retired, that’s another story. Recently retired people are the second largest, albeit, small category of thru hikers. A lot of them shut the door to their offices and open the front door to the AT with little transition time. I met a hiker in Georgia this year whose time lapse was four days!
I prepared for ten months, but it’s almost the same. I’d done nothing to prepare for retirement itself other than to know that I’d have to “keep busy.”
Boom! The hike ends. You take a victory lap. The the crowds stop clapping. For months on end you’ve had a routine. Wake up, eat and hike. Following the white blazes was my job. Where is the next white blaze?
Aside from the daily trail routine, hiking is heavy exercise that bathes your brain in a heavy flow of endorphins all day long. Like distance running, the craving doesn’t stop when you end your journey.
Endorphins act like opiates. These chemicals, manufactured by your body, make you feel really good. When they go away, the funk can get very deep indeed.
I thought that returning to a strenuous exercise routine and increasing my volunteer activities would help me avoid endorphin withdrawal and the mental depression that goes with it. NOT SO!
I did all these things, but in between, I sat in my easy chair and stared out the window or zoned out with ESPN on the idiot box. My reading habit evaporated. In the past year I have completed exactly one book; that compares to my 3 to 4 per month lifetime average. My motivation meter was pegged at zero.
There’s more. My weight began to creep up. I did switch back to healthy foods from the ultra high calorie trail junk, but I ate a lot and drank more beer. I’ve regained about 75 percent of my lost weight.
After my voluntary stint as a ridgerunner in Georgia this spring, my mind began to get a grip. Maybe returning to the scene of the crime helped.
I remembered why I retired in the first place. My retirement routine couldn’t replace my previous career as an adrenalin junkie. The 60-hour plus work weeks needed to be left to history. The new normal needed to be new.
Now my volunteer time is structured around specific goals. I’ve found opportunities with much more responsibility – to the point where I supervise five paid employees in one of the gigs. Best of all, I’m beginning to have a lot of fun.
For now, one year after my hike, retirement has become a never-ending process. I’m contemplating more hiking adventures, but I’ll tackle them differently. For example, I’d love to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. (“Wild” by Cheryl Strayed is set there.) But if I do, it will be over three years in sections rather than all at once.
If I learned one take-away from hiking the Appalachian Tail it is that thru hiking takes a long time. While I loved my hike and would do it again, I got tired of being out there “forever.” Moreover, making “forever” so is not a reasonable expectation.
Looking ahead, I’m hoping to better use my time because at this stage of life, you truly have to do more with less.
Post card I sent to those who helped along the way.
One of the best parts of my final day on the trail was to share it with my friend Karen (Tie) Edwards.
Here’s a link to a one of several videos I’ve made in support of speeches I’ve made this past year.
Northern Virginia, July 17 – 28, 2015 — In deference to Garrison Keillor, it wasn’t a quiet week anywhere around my town. It was busy as could be.
We had the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) biannual meeting at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va. where I led two hikes – more to come on that, followed by a trail construction day with an environmentally oriented youth group from Yonkers, NY called Groundwork.
In between a small group of North District Hoodlum sawyers schlepped our chainsaws up to Bears Den on Saturday to buck two large dead trees that were felled by professional arborists.
Did I mention that the daytime temps averaged over 90 F with high humidity the whole time? So there I was, producing infinite amounts of sweaty washing while our still-under-warrenty washing machine awaits a new motor. No, I have not sublet any space at our house to anyone named Murphy.
The first hike was a strenuous 16-miler on the AT from the Reno Monument on Maryland’s South Mountain south to Harpers Ferry, WV. The heat took its toll.
Monument to Civil War journalists at Maryland’s Gathland State Park.
The second hike was a five-miler on the First Manassas civil war battlefield on the 153rd anniversary of the battle to the day. It was hard to imagine what it was like for the soldiers who wore woolen uniforms in suffocating heat and humidity. This is at the “stone bridge” for those familiar with the battle.
We started the morning with a preview of the battle in the visitors center.
This stone house and former tavern served as a hospital during the battle. The battle’s culmination point on Henry Hill is just above this structure.
At Bears Den. The sawyer was approximately 80 feet in the air. Couldn’t pay me to do that. This dead tree plus another threatened to block the access road if blown down in a storm. The need to preempt that is self evident.
A severed branch smacks the road with a big boom!
Wearing my sawyer hat. I need to iron my neck and maybe use some spray starch.
Head Hoodlum Janice Cessna briefs the young folks from Groundwork.
Working Hard! It’s important to make the experience hands-on. Here the kids are building a check dam which is a structure designed to slow water.
Completed waterbar – a structure designed to direct water off the trail.
Harpers Ferry, WV, July 7, 2015 — I was privileged to see a sneak preview of “A Walk in the Woods,” a knockabout comedy staring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. The show opens in 1,800 theaters on Sept. 2.
Redford. Slapstick. No way!!! Indeed, it’s true. The movie was a delightful midnight snack adding a light touch to Redford’s rich acting career. If you recall, Redford and Paul Newman always had a comedic touch.
To my delight, the humor was practically nonstop. The jokes kept coming. Anyone would get them, but there was enough hiker and AT double entandre to evoke knowing nods and smiles from the audience.
Potty humor on the trail isn’t new and this movie doesn’t disappoint. The ubiquitous and sometimes maligned potty trowel makes more than a cameo appearance.
Redford with toilet paper in hand may have been added for shock value, but more likely, the potty trowel scenes are subliminal Leave No Trace messages using a subject not much discussed in polite, read the non-hiking, society.
Yup. Bears aren’t the only ones who do it in the woods and wanna be’s need to know that and prepare to pull their pants down around that and other deeply personal subjects in advance.
To recap for the unfamiliar, author Bill Bryson penned a best-seller in the late 1990s entitled, A Walk in the Woods. It was a semi-fictional and somewhat autobiographical story based on chunks of the Appalachian Trail that Bryson sampled in preparation to write his story. His sidekick, Steven Katz – played by Nolte in the movie – is the foil and comedic counterpoint as their adventures unfold.
This New York Times best seller is credited with driving up the number of AT thru hike attempts by logarithmic factors since.
The screenplay differs a fair amount from Bryson’s original story, but the essence is there. Two old comrades with diametrically opposite personalities reunite after decades of estrangement for one last adventure.
Neither this film, nor the recent movie “Wild” (based on Cheryl Strayed’s best selling memoir) are about hiking per se. In each, hiking is the means to the end. In this case, Bryson confronts career burnout and the remedy is a romp in the woods with his old buddy Katz. Our treat is to go along for the ride and enjoy the laughs.
Kristen Schaal.
The cast is fantastic, especially Longmont, Colorado’s own Kristen Schaal who is brilliant. Her character plays off a classic AT stereotype and the reappearance of her character could have been a hilarious punctuation point near the end of the movie when Bryson and Katz have to be rescued. In stead, the dynamic duo are saved by other stereotypes they first hate but come to love. In reality, it doesn’t happen that way on the AT. No spoiler alert here.
As with any movie about subjects we know intimately and love dearly, this movie has its share of nits to pick and quibble about. Among them, in the movie: Gooch Gap comes after Neels Gap. McAfee Knob appears after Shenandoah National Park. The duo has trekking poles strapped to their obviously empty packs, but never use them. The social aspects of the AT experience are mostly AWOL. The bears that steal Bryson and Katz’s food are grizzlies, not black bears. (We know bears will do almost anything for food, but hitchhike from Montana? That’s a bit much.) Much of the movie was not shot on the AT. That’s dramatic license. So what?
The $64 dollar question is how “A Walk in the Woods” will affect the number of hikers in the future. History is clear. Major media events drive numbers up.
Given that most Millennials barely know who Redford and Nolte are, it may not have much effect on that demographic. Large numbers of Boomers, on the other hand, missed out when they were in their 20s. Like me, they had to wait until retirement to find the time. Could be that this will remind them to get off the bench and out in the woods.
More likely, we may expect the number of weekenders and short-distance backpackers to increase along the trail. After all, Bryson himself didn’t hike the whole thing. For those without the where with all or inclination to thru hike, sampling chunks of the trail is a viable alternative.
Hordes of uninitiated hikers can have a disproportionate impact on the environment. That’s why the potty trowel metaphor is an effective vehicle to communicate the larger Leave No Trace message. It creates awareness and opens the door to a broader discussion of appropriate behavior and practices.
Viewers come to movies like this with a truck load of preconceptions. They’ve read the book, tramped around on the AT or other trails, and have their own inventory of intrepid experiences. Hikers want a hiking movie with which they can self-identify and reinforce the attributes of the hiking experience as they understand it.
In other words, hikers will tend to want a certain label and vintage of fine red wine, e.g. perfection. For some, this won’t that movie, and I’ll submit that there’ll never be one. So, this flick may not be what you hope for, but it will still make you laugh because if you haven’t been there and done that, at least you’ve seen it.
As a feature film, this treat is tasty, but definitely lo-cal. It never intended or tried to be an opulent double Dutch chocolate delight. In other words, here’s little to satiate the uncontrollable urge known as hiker hunger in “A Walk in the Woods” the movie, and unfortunately the lack of high caloric content may be unfulfilling to a few of the usual suspects out there in hiker land who never seem to be satisfied anyway.
By its end, “A Walk in the Woods” is a light comedy based on our favorite pass time with a sprig of deeply personal revitalization for the two main characters garnishing the end. They all lived happily ever after.
When you think about it, isn’t that a big chunk of why any of us lace ’em up and grab our trekking poles?
Yours truly with the 2015 Potomac Appalachian Trail Club ridgerunners.
Blue Ridge Summit, PA — No good deed goes unpunished. In my case, the “punishment” is really a delightful reward. Last month I was asked to manage the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club’s (PATC) ridgerunner program. I couldn’t wait to be thrown into that briar patch!
Although I love being a grunt on the Hoodlums trail crew and overseeing my AT section, I’ve been searching to expand into a leadership role within PATC and this one is perfect for me.
These ridgerunners are highly trained, independent, experienced and motivated. Serving them is a high honor. If you could meet them in person, you’d know exactly why. You’d break your pick for any one of them.
The Ridgerunner’s primary role is to be an ambassador from the trail to those who use it. They are there to help and encourage, especially desired behaviors such as practicing the Leave No Trace ethic. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridgerunner for more. Ridgerunning is a rewarding experience as readers know who recall the blogs I wrote while ridgerunning in Georgia this past March.
Each ridgerunner patrols a defined section of the PATC’s 240 miles of the AT. The length of their service is dependent on the where their patrol section is and the funding provided by the partner agency responsible for that section. They aren’t paid a lot, but that’s not really the point.
As for the good deed — I prepared a report for various senior AT leaders about my experiences and observations in Georgia. The report was widely circulated, and I think someone thought, “Okay wiseguy. You brought it up. Now step up!” I accepted in a nanosecond.
Looking ahead to upcoming challenges, the number of AT thru hikers and visits to the trail is expected to dramatically increase next year in response to two Hollywood movies — Reece Witherspoon’s “Wild” which involves hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail and Robert Redford’s “A Walk in the Woods” which is based on Bill Bryson’s popular book about hiking the AT. “A Walk in the Woods” opens Labor Day weekend.
Historical data tells us to buckle up and expect a huge increase in the number of inexperienced and inadequately prepared hikers. For my part, I’d rather be part of the solution than be part of the problem.
Meanwhile, I look forward to hiking with these great ridgerunners on patrol in, what for us, is the real world.
Several friends and acquaintances have congratulated me on my pencil drawings lately. I can draw, but not nearly that well. The featured image for this post was taken with my iPhone and processed by an app called Pencil Sketch. I’ve used this artful feature for more than a year and absolutely love it. I created the renderings that follow just to show you some of the tricks it has up its sleeve.
This is the original photograph. The various renderings follow.
Harpers Ferry, WV, May 26, 2015 –There I was doing my best Captain Kirk impression as I sat in the command chair behind the counter of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) visitors center when the door opens and I hear a cheery, “Hi Sisu!” (Sisu is my trail name.)
To my delight, in walks Emily Leonard. At least that’s who she was when I camped next to her and her husband on Springer Mountain, GA in early March. Now she is “Black Bear,” an awesome thru hiker who remembered me promising that I would take her ‘half-way photo’ if she reached ATC HQ on a Tuesday, my volunteer day. Well, she did and there I was wearing a giant smile in salute to her presence and accomplishment.
Emily is a former teacher and soccer coach who lives in Maine. She sounded and looked strong. After the formalities, I treated her to a healthy, read leafy green-colored, lunch at a quirky local restaurant. Our conversation quickly established that she’s having a wonderful time walking in the woods. You can follow her blog at: http://happyhiking.bangordailynews.com/category/home/ I really hope that Black Bear goes — ALL THE WAY!
By way of additional insight, I wrote about Emily anonymously in one of my blogs from Georgia. She was a hiker with the ultra light Cuban fiber tent pitched with so much slack that I worried might blow away in a strong wind. After staying the first night, her husband returned home to Maine and work while Emily hiked on. That wasn’t the first time I learned to never judge a pack by its cover.
Of note: It turns out she ditched that tent for a range of reasons and is using the one her husband had. So much for hi tech.
Separately, a hiker named “Bonafide” aka “Winter Walker” phoned me from Bears Den hostel last night. I first met him in Tennessee in December 2013 during my thru hike. That year his doctor told him to lose some weight, so he walked from his home state of Vermont to Tennessee and back to Harpers Ferry. This year he decided to thru hike and I met him plowing through the north Georgia snow back in February.
Sisu and Winter Walker in Mount Rogers Outfitters, Damascus, VA in Dec. 2013
His call was to check in being that he was nearby. When I mentioned that the movie, “A Walk in the Woods” would be out in September, he unleashed a tirade about hikers who mess up the woods and don’t follow Leave No Trace principles. It was instructive to say the least. It seems like time and distance don’t weed out all the bad apples.
The “Walk in the Woods” trigger was this: The Bill Bryson book features many scenes like the ones I reported from Georgia with people tossing trash and worse all over the trail.
He asked me what I thought the answer might be. My response was one word: Babysitters. That’s what you get when you act like a child.
Here’s the trailer for “A Walk in the Woods:” It promises to be a fun movie.
Hiawassee, GA, Top of Georgia Hostel, Sunday March 8, 2015 — My first patrol was over late Friday night. The hiking was energy intensive at times, especially in the snow early on. The ice and wind inflicted some serious damage on the trees, especially along the expose saddles between mountains.
Overall, the trail treadway is in good shape. The water is draining properly and the mud is minimal under the conditions although my clothes were covered with it by the time I’d reached the summit of Springer Mountain.
Along the way I was able to clear several blowdowns that impeded navigation.
The hikers seemed strong and determined for the most part. I did notice a propensity for them to hold at shelters or dive into town when it rained. I can’t say I didn’t do some of that during my hike. Hiking in the rain is miserable.
My patrol pattern will be changing for the rest of the time I’m here. From now on, I’ll be hiking south from Neels Gap to Springer where I’ll spend two days while the caretaker there is off. This makes sense since most of the need to help hikers occurs in the first 30 miles.
Naturally, Murphy was lurking over my shoulder. I didn’t get back to Hiawassee until 11:30 p.m. Friday evening. I was so tired that I locked my car keys in the trunk. I had to go to Atlanta to get a new one. Lesson learned!
This weekend was spent at the Appalachian Trail Kickoff. It’s a hiking seminar at Amicalola State Park. The presentations ranged wide and far from bears, to hostels, to lightweight gear. It’s designed to help hikers learn what would be helpful for them to know prior to starting their hikes.
It was a special privilege to meet and talk with Gene Espy, the second person ever (1953) to thru hike the Appalachian Trail.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, February 20, 2015 — I’ve spent the past week gettin’ ready for love. Oh, not THAT kind. I’ve been with a group of people training to assist hikers on the Appalachian Trail this year. We love the trail and the people who hike on it.
Our base camp is a modern style house from the late 50s or early 60s owned by the National Park Service. During the summer it is basecamp for the trail crews that work in the park.
Our mission is to educate hikers primarily on “Leave No Trace”™ principles, encourage them and help them in practical ways.
An estimated three million people walk at least some distance on the Appalachian Trail each year, so Leave No Trace is a big deal. The national scenic trails, of which the AT is only one albeit the most famous, are being “loved to death. The number of users continues to increase at a high rate. Therefore, the impact on the environment from human footsteps alone is enormous. Add their feces and urine, toothpaste, dishwater, dropped litter, abandoned gear, fires, animal disturbance and all the rest together and the sum is enormous.
Unfortunately, individual hikers fail to appreciate that their impact is additive to all the others. That’s why Leave No Trace is more than Pack it in. Pack it out. Hikers are expected to plan and prepare for everything they might encounter on their hike. Understanding how and where to camp prevents erosion and unsightly scars. Knowing how to dispose of human waste properly is critical to preventing water contamination and disease. Respecting wildlife, fellow hikers and campers, leaving what you find undisturbed and generally being considerate round it out.
Here I’m demonstrating how to hang a food bag in a way that is not tied to any tree. Bears have learned to break ropes tied off to trees and feast on what falls to the ground!
Human food kills bears. Once they become unafraid of humans, bears have to be trapped and moved, or worse, destroyed. They are magnificent animals. Being thoughtless has sad consequences. The AT-wide bear statistics weren’t encouraging. Bear territory is shrinking and the animals are only trying to find food.
Had a small bear encounter at the outfitter in Gatlinburg, TN.
During the week, the Forest Service taught us a lot about hiker/camper psychology and methods to be persuasive without confrontation. Nobody wants to hear that they are a screw-up. Above all, we learned to count small victories.
Then there’s the weather. Minus 23 at altitude in the Smokies! Holy frostbite Batman!!! My gear will get me to -15F at best with a miserable night. I’ve experienced and slept outside in -50F in Alaska and northern Minnesota. I can’t carry that kind of gear over these mountains. Best to stay in town when the weather forecast looks like this.
Today I drove to Hiawassee in north Georgia to visit a couple of hostels and assess trail and weather conditions. There weren’t that many hikers around. Several had been driven back to or into town by the subzero temperatures. They said the snow wasn’t a big deal, but that there were a lot of downed trees to impede progress.
Ridgerunners/trail ambassadors carry large pruning saws to attack blowdown up to about a foot in diameter. At a minimum, we can trim away the branches from a large trunk. The going will be slow next week. Can’t wait.
Tuesday the Georgia crew meets with the Forest Service and the local trail club for coordination. Let the games begin!
