5 days hiking the Appalachian Trail (Part 1)

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  • Labeeman

    Well-Known Member
    Silver Member
    Rating - 100%
    23   0   0
    Oct 11, 2010
    1,001
    83
    Baton Rouge
    A stream, a rock, and a healing hand.

    At some point about 2 years ago my wife and I decided we wanted to start section hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). We both were motivated to hike the AT as we wanted to challenge ourselves both physically and mentally, plus we wanted to see what the trail culture was all about. The AT trail is the grandest of all long distance trails in America. Completed sometimes in the late 1930’s the trail stretches for 2200 miles and goes from Georgia to Maine. It basically follows the Appalachian Mountains and goes through some of the most rugged terrain in the eastern part of the U.S. The trail draws thousands of hikers every year but only 20 percent will ever hike the whole trail from start to finish. It take 6-9 months to complete the whole trail depending on your hiking speed. I read it takes 5 million steps form start to finish. The culture surrounding the trail is a story within itself. The trail has its own economy made up of people who provide shuttle services, people who operate hostels, and people who supply the hikers with the food and gear it takes to survive on the trail. A lot of these people are past hikers themselves and know the trail and the area around the trail like the backs of their hands. They are great resources for newbies like us and make hiking the trail a very efficient process. Notice that I didn’t say it made it an easier process, as there is no easy process when it comes to hiking the AT. Unless you live in an area where there are mountains and hills there is no way you can properly prepare for the hardship of the AT. Living in Baton Rouge put us at a serious disadvantage.
    This hike was one of the most physically challenging things I have ever accomplished. I had made a very hard hike in the Southern Rockies in 2016, so I was somewhat familiar with hiking in rocky terrain, but this was a totally different animal. The Rockies trip was a one day hike in, camp for a week, then a one day hike out. It was very hard as we were at 9000 feet and hiked up to 11000 feet. The thin air wiped me out, but it was only for a single day in and a single day out. On the AT the elevation was only 3000-4000 feet, but the grind was endless. It was 5-7 hours every day, for 5 straight days, going up and down mountains and hills. I was in good shape, but as I found out the first day I was completely and totally unprepared for what lay ahead.
    On the morning of the first day as we waited for the shuttle driver we made a final check of our gear and were somewhat satisfied that we had everything. At about 9:45 am we were picked up by “The Grateful Hiker” shuttle service in the parking lot of the hotel. The owner Mary popped the hatchback of the RAV4 and we through our packs in. We sat in the back as she had another hiker already in the front seat. We scooted out of the parking lot and headed to Springer Mountain. Springer Mountain is the southern terminus of the AT and if you are hiking north, this is your starting point. It was about a 1.5 hour drive from our hotel to the trail head at Springer Mountain. We started out on asphalt roads but as we got further south we ended up on smaller and smaller roads as we got closer to the trailhead. Somewhere along the way I started to get motion sickness from the twisting and winding mountain roads. This had happened to me before but it didn’t make it any easier for me. I do not tolerate being nauseous and it’s something I try to avoid at all cost. All I could do was pull my hat over my eyes and hoped we would be at the trailhead soon. I don’t know how long it took but we finally arrived at the trailhead and before I knew what was happening we were out the car, the hatch was popped open, and we were told to grab our packs. At some point during this chaos Mary informed us that we had to hike up to the top of Springer Mountain to start the hike and then hike right back down the same trail to start our tract north. It was also during this time that we strapped our packs on and started the hike. In my mind we would have a gradual incline going up the lower part of the mountain to warm up on, but I soon found out there was no such thing.The climb up was a mile long and as steep and rocky as can be imagined. I was still car sick when we started the climb up so I started to pray often and early. As I made my way up the mountain, the outside part of my right knee started to hurt. By the time I made it to the top of the mountain it was hurting pretty bad. We took a break at the top for lunch and some pictures and then it was down the mountain to start on our northbound trek. I would soon find out that going down mountains and hills were much harder on your joints then going up. By the time we made it down my knee was in serious pain and I still didn’t feel the best. At some point during the day I started to feel better as far as my car sickness was concerned, but my knee never got better. I also found out that because the terrain is so rocky and tricky that you are looking down 95 percent of the time trying not to trip and fall. This was something else I didn’t expect. An hour before we got to our first camping site for the day I ended up getting over heated and getting sick again. Between my nausea and my knee pain I was ecstatic to see our first campsite on Hawk Mountain. As soon as we could, we took the packs off and set up camp. At some point after we set up camp two other hikers that we had met earlier on trail set up in the same camp site. We would hike with them for the next 3 days and would be good friends before the hike ended. Sitting around camp that night was not fun. I felt so bad that I had no appetite and had to make myself eat. My wife rose to the occasion that night and took care of the camp chores and we hit the sack early. We ended up making 8.3 miles that day and I literally was just glad to be alive.
    As I laid in the tent the following morning I could tell it was getting light out but I just could not make my body get in gear. I thought we would be up around sun up and then be on the trail around 7 or 7:30 am but it never worked out like that. We got up closer to 8 and I struggled to get some food in me. I still was not very hungry but I managed to get a breakfast bar down before packing camp. The big obstacle for the day was Sassafras Mountain. There’s a saying on the trail that says “Sassafras will kick your Ass” and it didn’t disappoint. The climb up sassafras was made up of steep trails, rocks and more rocks, and switch backs. As I made my way up the mountain, the pain in my leg was constant and it was all I could think about. I started to keep my right leg stiff to relieve the pain in my knee. It did help, but it just transferred the load to my hip and that started to hurt. I made it up Sassafras by taking 20 steps and resting for 10 seconds then doing it all over again. It was slow going, but it got me up the mountain. As we reached the peak we started our way down and I found out the downhill side would be just as tough as the climb up. Numerous hikers passed us up that day and we spoke to all of them. They were all good people and each tried to encourage us to keep on keeping on. We were hiking to a camp site called Justice Creek and it couldn’t come quick enough. We finally made it and found a beautiful campsite over looking the creek. As we set up camp I started to think I may not be able to continue the hike. My knee was really hurting and we had many days of hiking ahead, and if my knee did not get better I would have to get off the trail. I actually had typed a text message to our shuttle service to pick us up at the next pickup point but since we didn’t have any phone service it never went through. This turned out to be a good omen for the days ahead. After we got the camp set up we got our camp shoes on and made our way to Justice creek to soak in the cold water. My wife’s feet were hurting so she soaked her feet in the cold flowing creek. I sat on the side of the creek and used a cup to pour water over my knee. It really helped with the pain and helped the irritation settle down. My wife who is a nurse said the pain was caused by my IT band on the side of my knee. We also spoke about the possibility of cutting our trip short which none of us wanted to do. After we finished at the stream we hobbled up to the tent site and felt and looked like we were 100 years old. As we were cooking supper our friends we met the day before hiked into camp and set up for the night. Like the day before, my wife had to step up and take care of the cooking and other camp chores, but I was feeling a little better so did what I could do to get us ready for bed. As we were talking before going to sleep my wife said we need to go through our food bag in the am and take out as much as we could to lighten the packs before hitting the trail in the am. Like the day before, we did not get up early. When we did wake we made coffee and went through our food bags. As much prep as we had done for the trip, we still brought way too much food as we thought we had to bring enough for the whole trip. As we found out later, it is pretty easy to resupply so most of the time you only need to bring 3-4 days of food in you pack before resupplying. We consolidated all the extra food in a couple of extra ziplocks then packs up camp and headed out. Before crossing the creek my wife said we should try to wrap my knee with Coban and use a flat rock to apply pressure to the side of my knee. I had seen people use those rubber bands with a plastic ball the size of a marble to do the same thing we were trying, but as bad as I had felt the last two days I was willing to try anything. When my wife finished wrapping my knee with the coban and the carefully placed rock I used some gorilla tape for good measure to keep it all in place. We then took off out shoes and crossed the creek and headed for the shelter to jettison the extra food for some other needy hiker to find.

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    BIGGREEN

    Well-Known Member
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    26   0   0
    Jan 24, 2010
    404
    28
    Lafayette, LA
    GORGEOUS up there this time of year. We ride motorcycles up and back down the BRP from Cherokee to Front Royal. We hop off the bike and hike a few trails, mostly to check out waterfalls. Covid messed up our planned trip this year but next September we are shipping the bike to Bangor and flying up there to meet it the first week of October (missing CTC for the first time in 15 years) and riding the 3500 miles back over the next month or so.
     

    Labeeman

    Well-Known Member
    Silver Member
    Rating - 100%
    23   0   0
    Oct 11, 2010
    1,001
    83
    Baton Rouge
    Man that will be an epic trip. I hope it works out for you. My dream trip would be to ride to Alaska on a bike, but like I said it’s a dream ha ha as I don’t even own a bike. A man can dream can’t he.



    GORGEOUS up there this time of year. We ride motorcycles up and back down the BRP from Cherokee to Front Royal. We hop off the bike and hike a few trails, mostly to check out waterfalls. Covid messed up our planned trip this year but next September we are shipping the bike to Bangor and flying up there to meet it the first week of October (missing CTC for the first time in 15 years) and riding the 3500 miles back over the next month or so.
     
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