I thought it would be interesting to receive some reports of how, many of us began our affection with hiking and what we carried on those trips??

Mine started when I was 8 ot 9 years of age growing up in rural Georgia...my uncles living very close, each had a couple of 100 acres of adventure land (heavy woods and undisturbed so it was primarly bushwacking)

I went to a local Army/Navy store and became fascinated, before long I owned (funded by mowing lawns) a heavy canvas tent, army backpack, sleeping bag, heavy boots, large flashlight, small radio with one earplug, Army waistbelt with 1 quart canteen, machete and storage pouch attached, aluminum mess kit & standard issue bartow pocket knife.

Food for the trip would consist of snacks for lunch, a can of pork & beans, sliced white potatoes with onion in foil wrap & white bread for dinner and usually a cinnamon roll for breakfast. The potatoes and onions were cooked in the coals of the campfire. The aluminum pan from mess kit warmed the beans over the campfire. Sometimes a can of Vienna sausages and crackers
were added for lunch.

Always slept directly on the ground in the tent, except during the summer when it was directly on the rocks next to the streams, listening to the radio to 3-4 am. (no wonder my Z-rest seems sufficient today)

As soon as we got off the school bus on Fridays, 1 to 3 of my friends and myself where off to the woods for the weekend....great adventures!

Tell us about YOUR first trips.........

I remember going car camping with my dad and sister a lot when I was a kid. The trips got fewer and farther between as we got older. When I was about 13 my dad and stepmom took me on my first backpacking trip with my cousin and some of my stepmom's co-workers. It was suposed to be a 3-day trip in Yosemite, but turned into a 1-nighter since the first night in a bear ate all of our food. My dad had it hung up in the tree just like he was supposed to, but this bear was willing to work a little for our food. It shredded the limb that the food was hanging from and took everything but a packaged of dried spuds and some dehydrated veggies. We were able to throw together 1 small pot of food for the 8 of us the next morning.

At that point I swore I hated backpacking and would never go again. The truth was not that I hated backpacking, it was just that I had a miserable time with my stepmom and having to carry all of her crap in addition to my own. (Dad carried his stuff & all the shared stuff like kitchen stuff, SM carried a daypack, I carried a 40# pack with my stuff & hers). My interest was sparked again a few years ago when an ex told me about his AT thru-hike attempt. I'm hoping I will be able to do a thru next year.

First AT experience was with my NYC scout troop in 1975 from Bear Mt. bridge to High Point, NJ. We started with 14 and six of us actually finished. My pack was an old scout ruck sack and I remember carrying one of those leaky orange pup tents and sterno cans for fuel. Our food was a combination of Mountain House (limited variety then) and misc. cans of ravioli and tuna. Of course Tang was a staple still associated with the space program. I had an old and heavy rectangle sleeping bag from the 1950s. Also remember carrying one of those flat and round aluminum canteens. It was a great experience. By 1978 I had started to buy better gear and continued section hiking the northern AT states. Still have not had the opportunity to thru hike, but am hoping to within the next five to seven years. One of the great things about the '75 trip was that it covered the first section of the AT constructed, or so I have read.

First camping was in the Boy Scouts. While sitting on a log near the fire ring, another kid turned to me and said he would like to knock my teeth out. I don't remember much pleasure in that one. Then in the army, in pup tents that leaked; again, not much fun. Then when I grew up and had kids and lived in western NC, we went car camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway. And then, my sons and I went on a one-day hike on the AT with a retired forester who was a family friend, and I have loved the trail ever since. We hiked 11 miles near Hot Springs, carried only a lunch and some water, and also drank from the clear mountain springs (this was in the 1960s). Patco, who also posts here, was in about the third grade.