How I came to hike the AT

I guess I have always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail, well, at least since I was about 10. That’s when my dad started taking my older brother Randy and me on hikes in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Our second day hike put us on a small but spectacular piece of the AT, Franconia Ridge. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times that incredible stretch of trail has passed beneath my boots in the forty years since but certainly it has been at least a hundred. For the next dozen years each summer would find me in the mountains of NH for a week or two accompanies by some combination of my dad, my brother or friends. The trips were frequently in August and we would meet thru-hikers on the AT.

A year after graduating from college I managed to move from New Jersey to New Hampshire. Now the mountains would be no more than an hour away allowing for lots more time spent on the trail. Unfortunately, there was no time. The first summer in NH was 1977 and afforded enough time for only 2 day hikes. The next 2 summers provide a better balance of work and play. Then came the decision to hike the AT in the summer of 1980. The friends I had been working for since moving to NH had not been able to pay me much over the last 3 years and offered to continue to pay the same low wage while I was on the trail. That was great. It would fund the whole trip. Unfortunately, their financial world came crashing down in March of 1980, just a few weeks before my planed departure. Foolishly I thought, no matter, it’s just a hike.

After about 2 weeks on the trail and plenty of time alone with my thoughts, it became all too apparent that the money would run out in about 1 week. I had no job to return to, no place to live and only about $100 in the bank. There was no way I was going to borrow money from family or friends. This was just not my way. At the next road crossing I hitched, a very long hitch, to Greensboro North Carolina and caught a train back north. It would be 24 years before I would return to Springer Mountain.

In the years since, it has been seldom that more than a week has passed without a hike in the mountains of NH. The summer of 1992 saw the beginning of my western adventures with thanks to the prodding of a young backpacking protégé, Chris Gardei. Every summer since has delivered 2 to 8 weeks of backpacking adventures in places such as Wyoming, Colorado, California, Montana, Alaska and New Hampshire. Additionally, the six summers from 1998 through 2003 were spent leading week long back packing trips at Hidden Valley Scout Camp in the Belknap Range of New Hampshire through 8 consecutive weeks.

In the fall of 2003 an old friend, Jim Derby, called. OK, he’s not as old as I am. In fact he is ten years my junior. He had been a graduate of the technical theatre program at Gilford High School back in 1982. I have been the Technical Director there since 1979 and still am today in 2004. Amazing, isn’t it. We had done a fair amount of hiking and ski touring together back in those days and occasionally, once every few years, still got out together. Jim was all excited about the Pacific Crest Trail and wanted me to join him to hike it next summer. I was in the throws of the production of “Kiss Me Kate” and told him we should talk after Thanksgiving. My life slows down a bit around that time. It also seemed a bit odd to me that only months after getting married Jim would be planning to leave on a 6 month adventure. Well it seems that they had been hiking in the Sierra Nevada during their honeymoon and met a bunch of thru-hikers. This is where Jim got the bug and miraculously his new wife, Chris, seemed to be ok with it.

So, sometimes, late at night after tech, I would check out the Pacific Crest Trail info on the Web. It’s a long trail, about 2,650 miles. Its terrain and climate vary widely from 600 miles of desert in the south to snow fields in the High Sierra and rain forests in the northwest. It crosses some vast wilderness. The idea was exciting if not a bit frightening. Jim hadn’t done a lot of hiking in a long time. The question that came to mind was did he really know what he was getting into. In the end of November we talked on the phone. I asked if he was still seriously considering the PCT. He admitted that he had been thinking maybe just a couple of weeks in the Sierra Nevada might be a better idea. I agreed. For him a couple of weeks would be a better idea but now I had the “long distance hiking bug”.

The longest of my hikes so far would be The Long Trail in 1996 and 1997. It runs the back bone of Vermont’s Green Mountains from the Massachusetts border to the Canadian border for 270 miles. The southern half of the trail actually coincides with the Appalachian Trail. The trail is long enough to require hitching into town for re-supply. The whole AT is only about 8 times longer.

Throughout the winter of 2003/2004 there was a little more research on both the PCT and the AT. I contacted several hiking buddies looking for a partner to join me on one of these long hikes. Alas, none felt they could afford the time though all were envious of the idea. Then it was show-time again. My friends and family will understand the meaning of this. As technical director, I get completely absorbed in the production and loose touch with all other aspects of life. It completely takes over my life but this is a good thing. This time the show was “Little Shop of Horrors” and what a fabulous crew and production it was. But that is another story. “Little Shop” was followed by Regional and State Drama Festival productions of “Copper Queen”.

It was the middle of April now. I still had not made a final decision about how to spend the summer. The New England Drama Festival was in the 3rd week of April and I had promised to take a small band of Gilford techies and performers to New York City during the last week of April to see three Broadway shows. We camp in Harriman State Park. It’s a real fun trip. I had really wanted to have a partner on the trail, someone to share the adventure with, to reminisce with afterward. There was concern about abandoning the Valley Voyageurs program at camp, though six years had to be some kind of a record. Additionally, my partner from 2003, Will Johnson, would be return to carry on the tradition in 2004. On top of that, the performing arts wing of Gilford High School was closed for renovation on April 15. I would not be allowed back in until September. Really this would be the perfect summer for a long adventure. Going solo was probably a good idea after all. Surviving life with another for more than a month has always been a challenge for me anyway. Twenty-four hours a day for five months just might lead to the end of a perfectly good friendship. So it would be a solo adventure. Being solo in the more familiar terrain and climates of the Appalachians seemed to make sense.

How I came to hike the AT