When did you.....?

[hiicprn]

Hello all, its nice to meet you. I am a fairly new member of the board and so far I like what I see. I have spent lots of time reading the forums and looking at your trail photos and I still can't get over it. Its a wonderful thing to suddenly learn that you are not alone and that you share the love of nature with thousands of others.

My question to you all may be simple to answer for some but not so easy for others. Obsession is it's own creature and pounces on its prey in the time and manner it sees fit. In my life AT = obsession. Oh yeah, the question.....When did you first hear about the AT and when did you know that it had you? When did you find yourself daydreaming about walking north? How consumed did you get with your gear or planning? Did you go for it and if so was it what you expected?

I am very interested to hear from you all so please feel free to post. We all had our own unique introduction to the trail and I really want to learn more about the experiences of others.

[Blue Jay]

Long ago (decades) I hiked Mt. Graylock and someone told me the White Blazes led to Georgia in one direction and Maine in the other. In the late 90s I got tired of the rat race, stopped running, cut the chains most of us have to the several thousand pounds of steel we have welded to us 24/7 (cars), went for a walk and never really came back.

[hacksaw]

In 1962 I did a weekender with my Scout Troop (Troop 39 Cumming, Ga) Up Blood Mtn. SOBO to Slaughter Gap then out to Lake Winfield Scoot. Went to sleep under the stars and woke up under 3 inches of snow! I thought that was pretty cool, especially knowing that I could do it all the way to Maine! I was hooked. Spent the next 37 years doing local hikes in North Ga. and N.C./Tenn. (Longest, I think was about 150 miles) and dreaming about thru-hiking until the kids hit the bricks and the missus bailed.
In '99 my biz was at a crossroads-either invest a ton of money or punt...I punted and hit the trail 3/29/00! Best move of my life. I'm planning to do it again in '05 if health permits.

[Doctari]

I don't know when I first heard of the AT, it had to be at least 40+ years ago. Anyway I knew of it when I was about 8 & family & I were on top of Clingmans dome in the Smokies, I saw a sign that said "Appalachian Trail ---------> " I followed a short trail to the AT, It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw, I wanted to start then & there (no pack, no plan, I was 8) and for some reason my dad wouldn't let me :mad:

So a "few" years later, (1997) I was standing on Springer for my first section hike, I cried for 20 minutes. I no longer cry at the start of each section, but, , , , , ,

I should be to Kathadin in 2020 at the rate I'm going, unless I get to thru before then
:dance




Doctari.

[twilight]

:jump I remember when I was a child and riding in the car to visit relatives in northern PA and looking at the mountains and thinking it would be cool to be able to walk up that mountain and camp up there!!! :cool: I had know idea at the time the mountains I was actually looking at in someplaces were host to the AT!!! It wasn't till many years later that I actually started doing it(maybe 30 years), but I was hooked. I started on loop trails in PA and started dreaming bigger. I can't say when I actully heard of the AT. :-? But, for a while I believed it to be holy! I wouldn't hike on it until I could thru-hike. But, that turned out not to be my reality. :( I've turned to being a section hiker. Completeing nearly 3 states so far: GA,MD & most of NJ!!! :) I get excited planning my next section hikes and have 2 planned now for this year, NY in Apr, & the rest of NJ in May. I do hope someday, to thru-hike, but for now I'm happy with what I am doing now!!! :banana

Twilight

[Kerosene]

I was exposed to camping and hiking in Boy Scouts in the late 60s/early 70s. Being very goal-oriented, I wanted to attend Philmont out in New Mexico one summer. One of my scouting buddies read Ed Garvey's Appalachian Hiker book in 1971 and organized a week-long trip from the Water Gap to Unionville during spring break in 1973. We did central Pennsylvania in '74 and Mass/Conn in '75. By the third section I had decided that this might be pretty cool to finish someday.

I did several other sections through college and just after graduation, but then started my career and family and got distracted. However, my Trail experiences are always top-of-mind and crystal clear, and in 2000 I decided to re-dedicate myself to completing this life goal. I've completed all but a 19-mile section between Roanoke, Virginia and Glencliff, New Hampshire. At this rate I hope to summit Katahdin in 2013.

If I ever decide to thru-hike it would be in retirement, and even then I think I'd like to get exposed to some of the other great trails in the world.

[MedicineMan]

Age 13 Beauty Spot to Iron Mtn. Gap with the Boy Scouts...our troops operating area was from Damascus to Devils Fork Gap and it was our Scoutmasters Goal to get every 'entering class' of scouts from one end of that section to the other...so you can imagine the number of times I have done these sections....
Woke up one morning and heard a thru-hiker say 'its time to go to work', since then never had the need/fantasy/dream of a thru...but do love to section the AT. Personally it would become anathema to do a thru but to be able to do a 2 week section then a paddle trip say on the Yukon and then Ben Nevis or return to the Rakura, then a backcountry experienc in a National Park, then another 2 weeker on the AT is my fantasy-never getting tired of any and always exposing the self to the rest of what the country and world have to offer. Well we live close to that fantasy now, having hikes/camped in 14 National Parks in the last 2 years, too many paddle trips to lists, and the continuous sectioning of the AT...its just having to stop every other week and work that slows me down.
I suppose anything could become an obsession and there are far worse ones than hiking the AT whether in sections like Kerosene and myself (and countless others) or via a thru...just remember that God made a real big world with some stupendous things to see and that makes me think of the coastline of Norway and the peaks of Chile......

[Footslogger]

Actually, I first heard about the AT when I was about 11-12 years old. I was a Boy Scout growing up in Ohio and my troop did a lot of hiking/backpacking. The older scouts would talk a lot about the AT and that's when the dream got planted in me. Priorities change and life goes on ...and it took another 40 years to make it a reality. Regardless of the many changes and phases in my life I never lost sight of my dream. I lived in a suburb of Atlanta for years and got to hike all of Georgia and most of N Carolina several times before finally deciding that 2003 would be my year.

The rest is history !!