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Lone Wolf
02-12-2005, 14:55
For me it was August of 1985. I'd made the decision a month earlier to hike the AT starting March of 86. I was living in R.I. and drove to Mt. Greylock, parked and walked north for about a mile. I've been screwed up ever since. :D

The Old Fhart
02-12-2005, 15:01
For me it was 1960 when my brother and I first climbed Mt. Washington.

weary
02-12-2005, 15:34
I'm guessing around 1937 and on Mt. Washington. My mother took her six kids to the National Forest Dolly Copp Campground outside of Gorham for two months every summer, and we regularly climbed the surrounding mountains mostly on foot, but Washington by car, foot and train. A frequent excusion was to climb Washington by the light of a full moon, catch the sunrise, and then do the Presidential Range and exiting via the Daniel Webster Scout Trail to our Dolly Copp tent site.

My first AT backpack was around 1942, when we peddled out bikes to Dolly Copp, and camped for two weeks. Gas rationing had made automobile travel impossible, and by then my Mom was working as a machinist in a Maine shipyard.

After the war my mother returned to teaching, a career she had begun when just out of high school in 1918. She and her youngest child eventually graduated from college the same year in the late 1950s. Most of us drifted away from long Dolly Copp vacations, but my Mom continued camping and climbing from late spring until early autumn well into her 80s.

Weary

kncats
02-12-2005, 15:34
1972 while on a 55 mile hike along the Long Trail. We were in the area where the AT and the Long Trail are the same.

Footslogger
02-12-2005, 15:35
It was a Septemeber Saturday morning in 1980 at the 3 Forks road crossing. We hiked south, stopping at Stover Creek shelter for lunch and then continued on to Springer. We camped at Springer. Woke up early Sunday morning and watched the sun rise and then hiked back down to FS 42, where we got our ride back to Atlanta.

Hadn't thought about that day for years but when I saw this thread it came back to me like it was yesterday.

Thanks for the memories ...

'Slogger
AT 2003

Lone Wolf
02-12-2005, 15:40
You're welcome Slogger. I was out hiking today on the AT out of Damascus and was thinking about when I first walked on "The Trail". Thought it would be a good thread. :)

Alligator
02-12-2005, 16:25
October of 1988. I took a backpacking class that was offered at the local county college. We traveled North of Rt 206 in NJ, near where the bakery was, and on to High Point. It was my first time backpacking and on the AT too. I rehiked that section last summer. Saw a mama bear and cub right near where I had started so many years ago.

"The wheel is turning and you can't slow down..."

Doctari
02-12-2005, 16:39
For me it was during summer vacation with my family, 1964, @ Clingman's dome in the smokies. I was at the lookout tower, yippy, yaawn, saw a sign that said "Appalachian trail -----> " I followed the sign Looked Left (south) looked Right, left again & fell in love. I wanted to hike the trail then & there, for some reason Dad wouldn't let me. I don't understand, after all I was 10, had no gear or experience or money, so why couldn't I hike?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Anyway, I have a picture of that very spot after hiking to it from the GA border (dick's creek gap actually) in 2000.

Someday, I shall see it again, on my thru hike in ????.

Doctari.

Draggin
02-12-2005, 17:02
I have been hiking on the AT since 1975 as a teen and never stopped. I presently live about 100 yds off of the trail in Cheshire,MA between Mt. Greylock and the Cobbles. This will be my first thu-hike this year, but I have section hiked from Delaware Water Gap to Katahdin. I once owned a house in Cheshire for many years where the trail was my back border. I consider the AT my playground. Draggin

Kerosene
02-12-2005, 17:33
April 6, 1973, northbound from Delaware Water Gap to Unionville, New York with two other 15-year old Boy Scouts. We did sections in PA, MA and CT the next two spring breaks, which led me to set a life goal of completing the AT someday.

I do remember seeing the white blazes leading into the dark woods of what I later learned was the Long Trail in northern Vermont when I was in elementary school in the late 60's. I walked along a bit of the LT after summiting Mt. Mansfield from the west on a 5th grade field trip, and I walked into the woods at a road crossing once. I was always impressed with how rugged the LT looked, and I found out that the northern LT really is when I thru-hiked in August 1979.

Kerosene
02-12-2005, 17:35
October of 1988. I took a backpacking class that was offered at the local county college. We traveled North of Rt 206 in NJ, near where the bakery was, and on to High Point.What college and where in NJ, Alligator? I went to high school in Middletown in central Jersey near Sandy Hook.

Baldy
02-12-2005, 17:37
Can't remember the exact name of the spot, but it was where the access trail from Cosby Campground intersected the trail just north of Cosby Knob. It was in 1997, and was my first long trip with scouts.

The Hog
02-12-2005, 17:39
1953. My mother says she took me for a short walk on the A.T. in Shenandoah NP. I was 2 years old and have no memory of this (or much else for that matter...)

flyfisher
02-12-2005, 17:44
For me it was during summer vacation with my family, 1964, @ Clingman's dome in the smokies. I was at the lookout tower..Was there a lookout tower then? Seems like I visited Clingman's about 1983 and it was a clearing in the woods surrounded by trees.

I remember climbing on the Rosevelt monument at Newfound gap (and my parents have the picture) about 1963. First day hike on the AT was a Saturday morning in July of 1975 from Wayah Bald to Wayah Gap, 4.2 miles.

First Backpacking trip was from Hot Springs to Erwin in May of 2003, a trip I took to be out in the woods instead of someplace where they could throw me a party for my 50th Birthday.

BlackCloud
02-12-2005, 17:46
It was 1991 or 2, and my BSA Troop was overnighting it @ one of PATC's cabins. Milesburn Cabin, in Caledonia State Park, PA, is about 25' off the trail, and is a GREAT place to hang out and relax.

I have since visited 12 other PATC cabins on or near the trail & have absolutely loved most of them....:clap

Tramper Al
02-12-2005, 17:50
Age 8, walking down South Main Street in my hometown.
We also frequently went up through the woods behind our house to Velvet Rocks Shelter.

Tramper Al
02-12-2005, 17:51
Age 2, walking down South Main Street in my hometown.
We also frequently went up through the woods behind our house to Velvet Rocks Shelter.

Tramper Al
02-12-2005, 17:56
Not only have I accidentally discovered 'quick reply', but I seem to have no editing (or deleting) access to my own posts. Sorry again.

Nightwalker
02-12-2005, 18:05
For me it was August of 1985. I'd made the decision a month earlier to hike the AT starting March of 86. I was living in R.I. and drove to Mt. Greylock, parked and walked north for about a mile. I've been screwed up ever since. :D
So let me get this straight: You're saying that you were totally sane and normal until then?

Hmmm. :-?

Lone Wolf
02-12-2005, 18:10
Oh absolutely. :)

orangebug
02-12-2005, 18:10
Probably first time was less than 5 years old at Newfound Gap. As I grew up and traveled a bit, I began noticing white paint on trees, and wondered what that was all about, although I'd heard of the AT.

First time I knew that I was hiking the AT was Memorial Day weekend 1996 between Horsepen Gap and Springer. I was hooked by the fields of ferns.

Alligator
02-12-2005, 18:21
What college and where in NJ, Alligator? I went to high school in Middletown in central Jersey near Sandy Hook.
Middlesex County College. Just a few miles north of you. Went to HS in Edison. I was too aimless after HS so I ended up at MCC.

baseballswthrt
02-12-2005, 18:37
Just off an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2003. We were on our way back from my first ever backpacking trip (On the FLAT New River Trail). My husband had been talking about the AT ever since the moment I met him! We stopped in the overlook and he walked me down the trail about 50 yards. I was hooked! I wanted to walk forever, but we had kids waiting at home for us, so the long walk will have to wait a few more years....

Askus3
02-12-2005, 19:36
My first time on the AT could either be in 1955 when on a family trip we took the cog up Mt. Washington. But that might not count for three reasons.
1) I don't remember it.
2) The AT might not have gone to the summit of Washington then. Only recently did they establsh the Trinity Heights Trail to the summit.
3) I did not hike up it.

Maybe even before that we might have picnicked at Anthony Wayne and we might have drove over the Bear Mountain Bridge. Does that count? I also remember another time climbing up to the viewpoints overlooking Anthony Wayne Rec Area on another summer picnic and I know the AT goes over these outlooks, but no definitive date can I place to this prior AT encounter.

The first definite hike that I remember on the AT was when I was 9, Fall of 1961 and went from Bear Mt. Inn to West Mt on the AT then we (my vrother & I) circled back staying overnight at the West Mountain Shelter. I might have also walked through the Bear Mountain Zoo before that but no positive recall on that.

In response to flyfisher: I remember hiking both ways out of Newfound Gap. One dayhike to Charlie's Bunion and the other to Clingman's Dome. This was 1971. There was a tower there on Clingmans Dome with a wheelchair ramp and I have a picture to prove it. Not very high but high enough to get you over the trees.

shaggy2004
02-12-2005, 19:38
I don't know if this counts or not. The first time I was on the AT was the day before I was born when my mother and father went for a walk through the rhodoendron Gardens on the top of Roan Mountain. Yep, I guess they got me hooked early. ;) The next time I know of being on the AT was as a toddler on the summit of Clingman's Dome. A picture is the only way I know about that time. The first time I can personally remember being on the trail was a day hike I went on with my Dad and Aunt up through Laurel Fork Gorge to the waterfall, when I was about 9 or 10. I remeber going passed the shelter in that area and not being able to imagine people actually sleeping in it. After that I begged to be taken hiking all the time. It just kept getting worse from there and finally I thru-hiked this past summer. And the worst may still not be over :bse

TakeABreak
02-12-2005, 19:41
I would have to say in sometime during the 1970's, when I was a teenage, at Newfound Gap. We were traveling through to S.C. from Michigan and I remember going through the Smokies.

MOWGLI
02-12-2005, 20:02
My family has had a cabin in New Jersey on Greenwood Lake for 60+ years. As a youth I made regular hikes up the State Line Trail to pick blueberries - probably from age 4 or 5. I don't know when the first time it was that I actually stepped on the AT, but I have spent virtually all of my life within 15 minutes of the trail.

Whistler
02-12-2005, 20:12
My first time on the AT was when I was 2 and hiked up Blood Mountain from Neel's. I had been carried up a couple times before, but that was the first time under my own power. I thank my parents for their patience, as I'm sure I got distracted with rocks and bugs and dirt the whole way up.
-Mark

Scaper
02-12-2005, 20:22
The summer of 1975 I had just got my drivers license and I started driving out to Sandy Hook Md. to fish in the Potomac. Its a tiny town just over the river from Harpers Ferry. I used to park at the small Mom and Pop strore. I believe it was called Libs at this time. The owner named it after his wife. On a couple of occasions that summer I would see hikers with big backpacks crossing the rt. 340 bridge which the trail followed then. I knew nothing of the trail then. I thought they were out to hike the C AND O canal towpath. One day after fishing I was in the small store in Sandy Hook and 2 scruffy looking hikers walked in and after to talking to them for about 1/2 hour I found out they were hiking from Ga-ME. I pumped them for imformation of the trail. I was hooked. I was out the next weekend to hike up what is now called the Loudoun heights trail, whice the OLD A-T used to follow. 15 years later I finally got to hike from Ga-Me. Jim

rickb
02-12-2005, 20:23
Baxter Peak, July 13, 1983.

WalkinHome
02-12-2005, 21:21
Spring of 1997, a maintenance trip with the crew from L.L. Beans in the Potaywadjo section. What a hoot! All I had for gear was O.D. Load Bearing Equipment (LBE) and a Ruck (I'm dating myself here aren't I TOP) and the crew leader kept asking me if I had brought any grenades.

TJ aka Teej
02-12-2005, 22:20
By 1967 (10-11 years old) I'd been up Katahdin several times via the AT. The first time I was aware of the Trail was in July of 1960 or 61 when three teenagers from New York City camped next to us in a WMNF campground ("Gunstock"?) just west of Kinsman Notch in NH. I remember being amazed at their wild black hair and beards and that they had hiked the AT all the way from New York, which to me was a million miles away.

Mr. Clean
02-12-2005, 22:29
was off Skyline drive in the Shenandoahs back in 1978. Not sure which part of the trail it was, but we did an overnight while fishing for brook trout. Fried the trout in butter and beer in a cast iron fry pan - boy, have times changed. Can you imagine hiking with a large cast iron pan? And hauling six packs?
Maybe someday I'll have a chance at doing the whole thing in one shot, but for now I'm doing long weekends while raising a family (yeah, I got a late start).My little boy is thirteen months old and into everything, but he loves hiking with me in his backpack. Maybe in ten years we'll do some really long sections together. :sun

jackiebolen
02-12-2005, 22:38
My first step on the trail was at Springer Mountain last February and ended 1500 miles later. I read a lot about it first though.

oruoja
02-12-2005, 22:50
Bear Mt Inn, NY on a rainy June day in 1975 with thirteen other scouts enroute to High Point, NJ. Out of the fourteen of us six of us finished, Ever since that trip I was hooked on hiking and over the years did several sections with friends and solo. Hoping to thru hike within the next six years.

Valmet
02-12-2005, 22:57
Great Thread. My first hike started at Wesser, N.C. I finished at the northern end of the GSNP. It was July 1972. I had a pack from Sears (still have it), a cheap 2 man tent, a real cheap sleeping bag, a ground pad and box of solid fuel tablets. My food was beenie weenies and stuff like that. I had no idea what I was doing but had the time of my life. Spent almost 2 1/2 weeks on the trail. Came back home and went to a backpacking store and walked out with a North Face sleeping bag (big foot), Vasque boots, and a Svea 123 stove. That was the most pure hike I have every done. It was unspoiled and simple. It hooked me and I have never stopped since. The gear has gotten better, much better but the feeling of that trip will remain with me forever. To this day I can tell you about each night, people I met, things I saw and how it changed me.

MedicineMan
02-12-2005, 23:09
1972 Beauty Spot to Iron Mtn Gap a section I've done at least 10 times since...was with the scout troop, before being given the priveledge of doing this hike the scoutmaster required that you hike Buffalo Mtn in Johnson City two times previously. It was mighty cold and while we had a good scoutmaster who actually backpacked, he never told us about not carrying canned goods and while i froze in a sears bag he snored away in an REI down bag....after that experience i began missing lunch at school to save my lunch money for my first down bag a North Face Chamois

bigcat2
02-12-2005, 23:52
My first AT experience was w/ my dad. It was the summer of either 1992 or 1993, can't remember the excat year, but we hiked from Clingman's Dome to Double Spring Shelter and back. My dad told me of the stories of when he was a kid and hiked the section with his friends. I don't think he realized it was part of the AT, but I remember that day as a great day because I got to spend it w/ him. Though it wasn't a long hike, we had a great time. Now I get to tell him stories of my adventures on the AT. I'll always remember that day and all the information he provided on that hike. Hook, line, and sinker, here I am.

fuzz
02-13-2005, 02:55
September of this past fall I took my first step on the AT just south of the Inn at Long Trail in Vermont on my way up to the top of Killington. 50 miles later I still wanted to do the whole thing. Hopefully very soon. What an amazing trail. It just kind of gets in your blood and then you know you have to try out the thruhiking thing sooner or later.

fatmatt
02-13-2005, 03:09
First time I was on the trail was in Newfound Gap in the Smokies, many times when i was younger. First time I hiked was in June '04 at Unicoi Gap, GA. And I am coming back for more this summer...

Flash Hand
02-13-2005, 03:31
Front Royal, Virginia in the year of 2003, to make sure if Appalachian Trail is REALLY there!. And after that, I believe it is! LOL

And my first feet landing for long distance hike of course at Springer Mountain.

Flash Hand :jump

wacocelt
02-13-2005, 03:41
July 20th, 2000, Abol Bridge. I was carrying more weight in wet cotton than any two Ultralight packs with 5 days of food. Those were the days...

ffstenger
02-13-2005, 05:32
A week-long section hike in the GSMNP, 1999. I was ready to quit by the end
of the first day ( a REALLY bad start) but completed the section and hooked
ever since;) Never had a bad day like that first one either !!! Showme

papa john
02-13-2005, 08:51
Mid 80's, we were camping up in Shenandoah at Big Meadow CG. Went hiking on some of the trails looking for waterfalls. Followed one trail up to the ridge where it intersected with the AT. I started to do some research on the trail and the seed was planted.

One article that I found in a magazine talked about thru-hikers and how they resupplied and about life on the trail in general. I am thinking it was in Readers Digest but I haven't been able to find the article since then. There was another article that talked about this person who simply vanished while on the trail never to be found or heard from again. Sure would like to find those again.

PJ

peter_pan
02-13-2005, 10:41
Age 16, summer of 1963, with four good friends from our Baltimore MD boy scout troop we did the bottom third of the SNP on the AT. A trip never forgotten. We had a bear larger than us stand on his hind legs, look at us, roar, then bound over the side of the hill and out of sight. Never forget stuff for sure.

grizzlyadam
02-13-2005, 11:02
the summer after 5th grade- i was rafting at the NOC with scouts and we took an afternoon to hike north on the AT for a few miles. at the time i couldn't comprehend that the trail i was walking on extended all the way to maine, much less, georgia.

Frog
02-13-2005, 11:10
Around 1975 was the first time i can remember being on the AT but the first time i heard about it was in 6 th grade around 1964 in a geography book and i started day dreaming then about going to places in my home state that the trail went threw and i guess i have been day dreaming and full filling that dream ever since. :sun :rolleyes:

The Scribe
02-13-2005, 12:13
I had been to the summit of Mt. Washington (car), to Pinkham Notch, and a few other places along the AT since the mid 70's but they don't count. Kind of like saying I was there when the Sox won game seven against the Evil Empire last fall when in fact I was in my living room. :jump

First time ON it was early last May with Attroll. We (and his wife ans stepson) hiked in from the Jo-Mary Road to the Cooper Brooks Falls Shelter then back out the next day. He took it easy on me as a newbie. It was a close-to 80 degree weekend, even way up there. Beautiful. There was still snow on the ground on the other side of the river from the shelter.

Last September we did Caratunk to Monson over the Labor Day weekend.

LOVED IT.

Last night, with the snow piled up against the bottom of some of my windows, I had the maps out and was dreaming.

PCM

cupcake
02-13-2005, 14:07
about a year ago, fall, a short walk on the trail across the street from pinkham notch. it was flat, rooty, and slippery --- the beavers had flooded much of the trail. this was THE A.T. i'd only read about it. and down the trail comes a couple of guys --- one looking very official, with blood running down from his knee. i can't imagine the horror on my face, my eyes wide open, and i asked, "is the trail that hard?" this was an honest question. his buddy just busted out laughing. it wasn't hard at all, he'd just fallen. oops.

neo
02-13-2005, 14:20
my first hike on the the appalachian trail was oct 1974,i was almost 16,i hiked with my explorer post from waterville rd to lemmon gap,i remember it just like yesterday,we camped less than 2 miles north of snowbird mountain.:sun neo

grrickar
02-13-2005, 14:20
October 2004 was my first experience. We started in Hot Springs, NC and ended up in Wesser, NC at the NOC nine and a half days later. I got a couple of trips planned this year, and hope to get a couple of 50 mile sections completed.

LionKing
02-13-2005, 15:56
For me it was August of 1985. I'd made the decision a month earlier to hike the AT starting March of 86. I was living in R.I. and drove to Mt. Greylock, parked and walked north for about a mile. I've been screwed up ever since. :D
Driving over NewFoundgap as a child with family and actually walking(although I didnt know it then) walked about 100 yards past the momument on the AT until my Mom yelled at me to get back in the car.

Then the next time...May of 98...Springer...late, uneducated with hiking, fat, tired, and annoyed at life.

Things changed a lot from then till October 13.

zephyr1034
02-14-2005, 03:18
The first time I technically set foot on the AT was in the spring of 1962. My family used to go for drives on Sunday after church (yeah I know, no one does that anymore. Why not?). Anyway, one day we went to Washington Monument State Park on top of South Mountain. We walked up to the monument on a wide, smooth trail. But we returned to the parking lot on the AT. All 0.11 miles of it. I was fascinated by the Trail, but at 14 I had neither a license nor a car.

About a year later, I discovered the train service to Harpers Ferry. Over a couple of trips, I quickly covered the Trail between the Sandy Hook Bridge and Keys Gap.

Jaybird
02-14-2005, 07:08
i guess my very first time i ever stepped on part of the Appalachian Trail was in the late 80s....my girlfriend (now wife) & i stopped @ the TN/NC line, near Clingmans Dome & walked for approx. 1 mile on the trail.

BUT, it was a few years later, 2000, when my friend "TeePee" & I, standing on the A.T. @ Carvers Gap on a windy, icy, foggy day...that we decided........." we're gonna hike part of the Appalachian Trail!" :D

J.D.
02-14-2005, 08:46
Spring 1958 - Hitch hiked from Ohio to NYC and along the way HAD to see/touch/smell the AT which I had only read about... Just a short walk.

Summer of 1962 - Proud that I had kept the weight under 60# in my Red Kelty pack! SVEA 123 - Still have them both! - Delaware Water Gap over to the N.E. Extn. of the PA TurnPike. Can't remember 2 -3 days...?

Great Thread Idea - Thanks!

Happy Trails,

J.D.

totally Boagus
02-14-2005, 09:20
I was a young kid maybe 6 to 8, in the mid to late 1960's, My Aunt had a cabin near Pine Grove Furnace Pa. She would take all the kids over to the camp store for ice cream and then we would run up and down the path. Now and then we would see a hiker come in and they looked very rough and ready. The ice cream and the look of those hikers may be what got me interested in the trail

NotYet
02-14-2005, 09:47
I have a picture of me at age two at a family picnic on Roan Mt. I remember coming to Roan for similar gatherings many, many times, and at every picnic we'd walk over to explore some of the AT. So I don't know the exact moment I first stepped on the trail, but I know it was before I can remember!

Although I grew up in Texas, my Dad was a hiker from Bristol, TN. His childhood "stomping ground" was the AT. He told me many stories of the trail, and I wanted to hike the whole thing for as far back as I can remember. Although my Dad had died 13 years prior, he was there with me every step of the way during my thru-hike.

Rain Man
02-14-2005, 10:27
If you don't count the few times my family stopped at Newfound Gap to gawk at the vistas while driving through the GSMNP, then my first time on the AT was July 31, 2003.

My daughter Sarah (aka Grass Picker aka Grass) had announced she wanted to hike the AT, after running into two thru-hikers at the NOC in Wesser, NC, during a college whitewater outing she was on.

I said "Well, let's go find the start in Georgia and hike for a weekend, so you get the feel of it and know for sure." I had only been out for a single one-night hike before then. On July 30 we drove down to the Forrest Service Road #42 parking lot, where we slept in the van. Early the next morning we hiked the 9/10ths of a mile south to the summit of Springer, checked everything out, took photos, and headed north. Came out at Neels Gap three and a half days later and didn't want to stop.

Now I've section hiked all the way to Fontana Dam and in April I'm doing the GSMNP section. woooooooo woooooooo!!!!
:sun
Rain Man

.

hiker5
02-14-2005, 11:30
October 2002
I had just started grad school at Virginia Tech and did a day hike from VA 311 to Dragons Tooth with some other new students. I was blown away by the view. :sun

TankHiker
02-14-2005, 11:39
I was probably on the AT many times as a child, but didn't know it.

But the first time that I knew I was on the AT was in 2001 at the Rangeley road crossing. I walked about 10 feet into the woods while my family sat in the parking lot with the car running.

-TANK

Rift Zone
02-14-2005, 11:41
A while back, in California, I got involved with this girl. Before long she had to leave Back to School. She wasn't gone long before I missed her and had to visit. She Attended Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. My first time on the AT was back in April '98. I flew into Boston/Logan and took public transpo to Hanover. The bus actually dropped me off in VT so the final stretch to my baby was on the AT. The cool thing about it is I don't own luggage. I don't travel with luggage. I travel with gear. I hiked to my baby carrying a pack!

Rift Zone
02-14-2005, 11:49
I should also say that while she was in class I was making good use of the Dartmouth Outing Guide that she gave me. I still have that copy.

celt
02-14-2005, 12:21
I didn't know it at the time but Mount Washington on July 4th 1974 was the first time I crossed paths with the AT. I was five and I'd come up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail with my Dad. I guess that means I first crossed the AT near the Trading Post at Pinkham Notch the day before. July 25th +26th 1979 was my first hike along The Trail: From Mount Lafayette to Zealand Hut and I remember my Dad telling me I was on a trail that went from Georgia to Maine. I was completely blown away by that.

Lilred
02-14-2005, 12:23
I don't remember when I first learned about the AT. Sometime when I was a teenager and was fascinated with the thought of walking from Georgia to Maine on a trail through the woods. March, 2003, I was hiking to a waterfall in the Smokies and saw a sign pointing out the AT. I wanted to jump on it then. I decided then that I wanted to hike the AT. Found Whiteblaze and started learning and buying gear. Nov. 2003, Rain Man was kind enough to let me tag along to Neel's Gap with him and I took my first backpacking trip ever. Seven days it took me to get to Deep Gap N.C. Now I'm hooked and will be hiking Springer to Neel's Gap the last week in March. That will close up the first 90 miles of the AT for me. Starting June 1st, I'll have 4 weeks, starting at Carter's Gap. CAN'T WAIT!!!

The Solemates
02-14-2005, 12:27
No idea. I suspect I was on the AT before I could even walk.

RockyTrail
02-14-2005, 12:37
June 1975; hiked up the access trail from Cosby Campground to the AT carrying a truck load of heavy gear (ugh!). Went over to Cosby Knob shelter for the night. The shelter was slam-packed full of hikers. At that time the shelter had a chain-link fence and door across the opening (to keep bears out?). All the trees around the shelter had been clawed badly. Slept out in front of the shelter a pup tent alone while everyone else was behind the fence talking about the bears, felt like bait on a hook! Ha ha

Pootz
02-14-2005, 12:44
I attended a conference in Knoeville TN back in the spring of 2003. I drove from there to the top of the mountian above Gatlinburg TN just to take a look at the AT. I had never seen the trail but I was already planning a section hike for the summer of 2003. It took about an hour or so and was worth every minute. It was love at first site. I am now in the planning stage for my third section hike this coming summer. Some day I plan to do a thru-hike. Work always seems to get in the way.

steve hiker
02-14-2005, 12:59
It was just over a year ago, in the first week of December 2003. I drove to the Smokies for a few days of hiking, parked in the Cosby lot and headed up the Deep Gap trail. It was cool and raining lightly when I started. As I rose in elevation snow started appearing on the ground and the rain turned to sleet.

I finally reached the ridge and saw my first AT trail sign, pointing north to Maine and south to Georgia. I'll never forget that moment.

It started to snow just after that, and as I followed the white blazes to Cosby Knob shelter I imagined the footsteps of hundreds of SOBO thru-hikers who had walked the same steps all the way from Maine. By the time I got to the shelter everything was covered in white. It was beautiful beyond words.

The next month (Jan 04) I went back and hiked the northern half of the Smokies, and the following month (Feb 04) the southern half to Fontana. Since then I've sectioned from Fontana to Dick's Creek Gap and from Hot Springs to Sam's Gap. Don't know if I'll ever have time for a thru-hike, but the AT is in my blood for good.

Mags
02-14-2005, 13:21
Columbus Day Weekend, 1986 with my Boy Scout troop. We climbed Mt. Lafayette in NH.

Can read about it here:

http://www.magnanti.com/miscwritings/troop_71.htm

Tha Wookie
02-14-2005, 15:33
Hey Wolf,


Do blue blazed trails count? ;)

My first was a blue blaze, right off Tray Mt. in GA. down to the High Schoals Falls. Man it was great -my brother, me, and my dad. I was a couple years old.

God Bless ALL the trails!

Tha Wookie
02-14-2005, 15:35
I forgot to say the year was 1978, July.

swamp dawg
02-14-2005, 15:58
I first set foot on the AT in the summer of 1964 while in the Smokies and I somehow knew that my fate was sealed. I wanted to walk parts of the trail but figured walking the whole trail was out of the question. It took a great deal of time to get back to the trail but it has been one of the most special adventures of my life. As I section my way up the trail over the years, I realize that it is more than a hike. What it is will have to be defined but your experience as you travel on the AT but it will surely change you. Life is good on the trail.....Swamp Dawg

fantasmagris
02-14-2005, 16:04
Embarrassed/ashamed to admit it - long ago my mom and i were passin near Pearisburg WV on our way to Hillsboro WV. my mom detoured, stopped and walked onto the AT with me in tow. i'd be surprised if we walked a half mile before heading back to the car. I was like "gee maw, do we have to..." And now MANY years later i'm like "gee maw, would i love to - and hope to someday!" And my poor old ma probably never will (tho i think she still badly wants to). :o

c.coyle
02-14-2005, 16:42
When I was about 6 (roughly 1960), my dad took me up "Showers Steps", a couple miles north of 501 Shelter in Pa. These are about 500 crude rock steps built in the nose of Roundhead by a guy named Showers after WWII.

When we got to the top, I asked my old man about the white stripe on the tree. "If you keep going that way, you can go all the way to Maine. If you keep going the other way, you get to Georgia." I thought that was very, very cool.

I still feel like a little kid when I'm out there.

hungryhowie
02-14-2005, 17:09
I was probably about 4 or 5 when I first set foot on the AT. My family used to visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park during many of our vacations, and we hiked out of Newfound Gap a few times, so that's probably the first time I was on the AT, that would have been 1986-87ish.

The first time I was congnizant of the AT on a dayhike near the AT in the Smokies several years later. I remember passing a barely recognizable side trail with a sign saying that the Appalachian Trail was a mile or two up the trail. I remember asking my father what is was and being told that it was a really long trail stretching through the entire mountain chain.

My first encounter with thruhiker was in the mid 90s. I was climbing LeConte and when I met them. I remember that there was a girl and a guy, and was intrigued by their stinch and her unshaven legs. They told me what they were doing, but it didn't really make sense to me at the time.

Spring of 1999 I hiked a loop trail (a new one for me), up to Gregory Bald and over to Russel and Spence Fields. It was a beautiful spring day and several thruhikers passed by. The one I'll never forget, WaterBoy, stopped and talked about his adventure with my mother and I for 10 minutes or so. He told me how he started in Georgia several weeks ago, and how he'd gotten food poisoning in Hiawassee and had to layover for a week or so before continuing on. He carried everything he needed on his back, and said he was going all the way to Maine, 2000 more miles, and that it would take him another 5.5 months.

I couldn't get that out of my head. I knew I was going to do that. My father helped me devise a way to graduate from HS early so that I could set out the next Spring. I got a job at a local outfitter, learned about gear, and bought a good deal of it. The very next spring, I was in the same place as Waterboy, and on my way to Maine.

I got a really special birthday present that year, I walked into Maine on my 18th birthday. I think that's they best birthday present I've ever gotten.

-howie

Lone Wolf
02-14-2005, 17:12
I've really enjoyed reading everybody's first AT encounter. Good stuff. Keep em coming. :)

RockyTrail
02-14-2005, 17:14
Yeah, ain't this a good thread?

Lone Wolf
02-14-2005, 17:16
Yup. No BS, fighting or anger.

bulldog
02-14-2005, 17:42
April 29, 2000. The day I started my thru-hike.

Tabasco
02-14-2005, 17:54
July 2003, Delaware Water Gap walking South. Went to the Poconos on a family vacation, did short day hikes 3 days of my vacation.

Met thru hikers: Magic Rat and Turtle, Payphone and RedDirt and Fluffy Nutter

Great times

A-Train
02-14-2005, 19:59
August, 1998 on Mt. Lafayette. Coming from Greenlead Hut, headed to Galehead. Waited on the summit for my folks for what seeemd like forever. Soaked in the incredible views.
2 thru-hikers came from Franconia Ridge heading north. I asked them where they had come from. "Georgia" one of them replied. I could hardly fathom the idea. I was intrigued instantly and the seed was planted.
Incidently enough one of those hikers was Jack Tarlin. I forget the other guys name.

Jack Tarlin
02-14-2005, 20:04
Well I hope I offered you a drink at least!

A-Train
02-14-2005, 20:08
Well I was only 15 so, I probably was packing my own :)

weary
02-14-2005, 20:18
Well I hope I offered you a drink at least!
Jack, stop joshing us. Even I know you wouldn't have offered a drink to a 15-year-old. Right? I'm assuming you just didn't read his entire post.

Weary

Jack Tarlin
02-14-2005, 20:48
Gee, I thought the "W" in WCTU stood for Women's Christian Temperance Union. I was evidently mistaken; it actually stands for "Weary".

Of course I read A-Train's post. Unlike you, Weary, I actually do read stuff before replying or commenting. You should try it sometime.

And you'll see that other than mentioning that he was with his folks at the time, he doesn't mention his age anywhere, so reading his post wouldn't necessarily enlighten anyone to his status as a minor. While his present age is included in the uper right hand corner, gosh, I neglected to figure out the math, so no, when I read his post, I had no idea how old he was in 1998.
I rarely look to see how old anyone is before I reply to their correspondence. Believe it or not, this isn't something that particularly interests me.

But to set your mind at ease, Weary, no, I doubt I'd have offered him a drink at that point in his life. That was a joke. OK, Weary? Sorry I got your bowels in such an uproar there.

However, if he was hiking with the Olsens at the time..........

Lone Wolf
02-14-2005, 20:52
85 posts and it finally went to s**t. Why don't you two intellectuals go back to the guidelines thread and continue ********** there. Grow up.

Jack Tarlin
02-14-2005, 20:55
Read my post #82 again, Wolf. It was all of 10 words long.

All I was doing was attempting to make a joke.

Lighten up. Seems Weary ain't the only one that's humor impaired today.

A-Train
02-14-2005, 21:00
However, if he was hiking with the Olsens at the time..........

I actually was, I just neglected to admit it initially. Small omission on my part. I had sent them ahead to Garfield Ridge to fetch some water, you must have just missed them. They are true Ultra-lighters :)

SGT Rock
02-14-2005, 21:13
1979, the loop around Standing Indian.

tombone
02-14-2005, 21:33
was winter of '68, and i stepped on the AT first at Dry Sluice Gap, having climbed up the Grassy Branch Trail after spending perhaps my coldest ever night at Kephart Shelter w/scout troop. The climb from Charlie's Bunion to the (old) Icewater Spring LT was a killer at the end of that day. First section hike was I-40 to Devil's Fork Gap the following summer, followed by Clingman's to Fontana. First (and only) thru was '76.
For that I upgraded from canvas scout pack to Sears Hillary III pack, work boots were the norm, Svea stove, richmoor was around and mountain house freeze dried was new on the market. Foam pad under the fiberfill or holofill? sleeping bag. Flavored dextrose slabs, powdered tang, and pop tarts got me up the trail back then. 110 instamatic camera provided tiny negatives for slides. gotta back up the projector to get any size-but at least they are all really underexposed/dark.

bobgessner57
02-14-2005, 21:38
1970, 50 mile loop through the Smokies with my scout troop. We were trimmed down going light with 4 mil plastic tube tents, sterno stoves, canvas packs and all the cotton we could stand (including the strap pads made from old baby diapers). Had a fantastic trip from Newfound Gap north to Cosby Knob and then around to Smokemont. The things that hooked me were the views, especially Charlies Bunion; the bear at Cosby shelter that grabbed a pack by the pocket with a butane cyliner in it-then blindly charged the outhouse and got stuck in it knocking the door off in the process; meeting the other hikers; and the wonderful water, so cold and good.

weary
02-14-2005, 21:51
Read my post #82 again, Wolf. It was all of 10 words long.

All I was doing was attempting to make a joke.

Lighten up. Seems Weary ain't the only one that's humor impaired today.
Ah, Jack. Most of my posts are humorous. Haven't you noticed?

Weary

Big Dawg
02-14-2005, 22:25
1st trip - Oct/99, loop trail near Mt.Rogers, 2nd trip - Oct/00, Springer heading north, one section at a time!! :clap

smokymtnsteve
02-14-2005, 22:33
When I wuz a little bitty baby ..

my grandma used to pack me up and take me :D

karo
02-14-2005, 22:46
My first experience was like others here. I first saw and stepped on the AT at Newfound Gap in the Smokies. My son and I walked a few yards north and then returned before my wife and daughter freaked out on us. WE then went up to Clingman's Dome and they laughed at me for bringing a hiking stick. A hundred yards up the trail, my wife had the hiking stick and I wound up carrying my kids! But we made it anyway and I still have at least one pic of that moment. My first real hike was when Lonewolf dropped us off to hike to Apple Orchard shelter for a TT (trailtalk on thebackpacker.com) hike. Do you remember that LW??? That was November 2003 and everyone bailed except Little Bit and myself from our group and several on the former thru hikers. I swore if I ever got off that mountain and back to my wife I would NEVER go again. LOL, I never lived up to that tho. I will continue to hike and hope to sectin hike the AT more when I can. I love reading the trail journals and gear advise here and on Whiteblaze!

karo
02-14-2005, 22:50
http://community.webshots.com/photo/100583515/100585320RsaadN

BTW lonewolf, what is that guys name??

cutman11
02-14-2005, 23:01
I NEVER hiked, backpacked, or camped in my life. I turned 39 and took one son to a weekend indian guide camp. It just so happened that Massie Gap in the Grayson Highlands was nearby, and on the way home, we stopped with another Dad and his kid. We hiked up some side trail ?rhodadendron trail onto a large plateau with a single small hill in the middle of it. We walked up the hill, and from there could see a bunch of hikers on various parts of the AT, like ants they were so far away. I found out about the AT then, and decided I needed to do it. I started at Springer the next year on my birthday, and have been sectioning sequentially ever since.
I too my oldest son with me that first trip to springer ( we only ended up going 2 days to gooch gap -- I had so little experience, it was tough on him).
My second son went a couple years later and hiked 2mi. uphill from deep gap to the top of Standing Indian, he got to the top first (8 yr old) and Yelled down to me to hurry up, "Dad, Dad, you GOTTA SEE THIS, it makes the walk up that big hill ALL WORTH IT." I knew then, that he was hooked, and sure enough, he has hiked with me every summer since then. It still brings tears to my eyes writing this. He is now 12, and has done two 90 mile sections, and I'm pretty sure he will be among those of you who have Thru hiked either before, during or after your college days. I just hope I can beat him to Katahdin, so that I can do it again with him when he makes it there on his own!

Hurricane Tom
02-14-2005, 23:35
My first time on the AT was back in my sophmore year at college at U. of Tenn. in January of '89. Had a guy on my dorm floor who was an experienced hiker and suggested a few of us drive over to somewhere near Cherokee, NC and access the trail and spend the night in a shelter. I had no idea the "shelter" was a 3 sided shed with a chain link fence for a wall and bed. Did I mention it was January and about 10 degrees outside? We all just about froze to death in or rented 1 season bags except for the experienced guy in his 4 season mummy bag. We never spoke to that guy again.

It took me 15 years to get over that first time but I finally took up this adventure again in August of '04 with my best friend. We did a day hike from Watauga Dam to Venderventer and back. We are hooked!:D

chknfngrs
02-14-2005, 23:51
I hiked Mt. Washington with my dad in 1989.

Uncle Wayne
02-15-2005, 02:37
Early 90's. My 16 year old son and I took a 3 day trip to the NOC. One of the best times of my life.

Lone Wolf
02-15-2005, 06:38
Karo, that guys name is Roy.He's hiked thousands of miles on the AT, PCT, FT and over in Europe.

leeki pole
02-15-2005, 17:43
Memorial Day weekend, 2002, loop hike from Cades Cove in GSMNP. Stepped off the Bote Mountain trail and onto the AT. Just stood there for a good 10 minutes. Like Wolf, ain't been the same since.

Todd Kirkendol
02-15-2005, 21:55
For me, it would be growing up as a kid in the mid-eighties. My father was originally from East Tennessee. He would take me home with him to visit my grandparents and he would always end up carrying me into the Smokies for a "quick vaction." One particular trip, we went up to Newfound Gap and Dad introduced me to the AT. He said, "Son, this is the Appalachian Trail...it goes all the way to Maine in that direction (pointed north) and down to Georgia that way (pointed south). I remember being astonished as to the sheer concept of a "trail" going that far away from anything I had ever known. On the long car ride back to West Tennessee, my father and I discussed the AT at length. Who made it Dad? How old is it? How many people have hiked it? Through all the questions we came to the agreement that when I graduated high school; he and I would attemt a thru-hike. However, it was not to be...my father passed away suddenly in April of 1993...and for a long time our trip was forgotton...until I went to Boone, NC 3 years ago. I was browsing in an outfitter store called Footslogger's and came upon this poster (see link below). I was so moved by the photograph and the instant memories it brought back of my father that I almost burst into tears. Which brings me to where I am now...after much saving and sacrifice, I will start me and my father's thru-hike 3/24/05.

http://www.atctrailstore.org/catalog/iteminfo.cfm?itemid=240&compid=1

orangebug
02-15-2005, 22:55
Let me know if you need a shuttle to Springer. I just cleared my calendar.

Hikerhead
02-15-2005, 23:31
I was around 17. I would hike up Tinker Mtn. Back in the day, the trail was a gravel road to the power line tower and then it went into the woods. Old timers might remember the gate across the road here with a lot of no trespassing signs on it. one day I decided to walk past the gate to get to the next tower to take a pic of Roanoke. I'm walking past this huge A-frame house when I hear some guy screaming like hell wanting to know what I was doing. I explained that I was going to walk another 100 yards and take a picture and go right back down. "No your not!", so I didn't. Then he spots someone's car parked just below his house. He asked if that's mine. I said no and he went balisic...he jumped in the car and started blowing the horn. On one of these earlier hikes I came across a girl with a back pack. I think this was when I first learned that this was the AT that went from Ga to Me. I ended up giving her a ride to the tiny tiny post office in Cloverdale. Turn the page to just a few years ago. I was hiking up Tinker with gal pal on the current trail. When I got to ridgeline I find a Rotweiller staring at me. We eased around him and continued on to the first rock overlooking the cove. We sat there and here comes the dog and now he has a buddy. We fed them and became buddies. Their dog tags said that they were Rocky and Rambo and the owner was the guy who threw me off his mtn 25 years earlier, more than likely his son. They followed us all the way down the mtn to the gas station. I was concerned about them running into the road so I got some rope out of my truck and tied them up and called the guy to come get his dogs. He finally showed up and pulled out this big wad of money. I told him to keep his money that we're just glad to get his dogs back to him. He kept on insisting to give us some so that we could at least go buy dinner. So I said sure and he gave me 30 bucks. Now I always look for Rocky and Rambo whenever I go up on Tinker Mtn.

one tin soldier
02-15-2005, 23:55
Dec 1995 - Feb 1996 I did several 3-4 day hikes from Damascus to Saunders and Lost Mountain Shelters and back to Damascus. These were in preparation for an attempted thru-hike starting in April 1996. I made it to N. Adams, MA, before i had to drop off for knee surgery (pre-existing condition that got worse).

Since then I've hiked another 1500 miles on the trail but have only added N. Adams to N. Woodstock as far as new grounds. I'm starting out again from Springer on May 8 and intend to walk as long as I'm enjoying myself.

I've never been concerned about finishing the AT as a section hiker because I've enjoyed the journey so much that finishing it might be anti-climatic.

bobtomaskovic
02-16-2005, 01:17
I think it was in 83 or 84 at newfound gap 30 inches of snow fell that spring and the road had just opened back up. I made my girlfriend ( wife now ) get out in the slop and walk 100 yds or so north. We met a thru hiker who had been rescued by helicopter against his will during the storm by the park service. I didn't get back on the AT again till 99 with a MATC trail crew.

walkin' wally
02-16-2005, 09:58
Many years ago in my pre-teens with my dad. We hiked the short distance off the road to the Jerome Brook lean-to. ( since removed ). It was located at the SE end of Flagstaff Lake. I saw the lean-to with the notebook laying on the floor and my Dad explained what the AT was.
I never forgot that day.

Doctari
02-16-2005, 18:51
Was there a lookout tower then? Seems like I visited Clingman's about 1983 and it was a clearing in the woods surrounded by trees.


Yes, it was there. I gots pictures, well,, my mom do. Built in the early 50s I think. Based on the Art Deco theme of the time. Saw it as late as 2000, looks the same, just a little older.

Red Hat
02-16-2005, 19:32
To finish the course at ATI with Warren Doyle, he drove us up about 10 miles outside Damascus and we hiked back into town. It was awesome! I was so excited about actually being on the trail. I had seen the trail on a map back in 1992 and written down in my journal that I would hike it someday.

Kembo
02-16-2005, 20:00
August, between my Jr & Sr year of high school in 1970. My parents dropped me off at Pearisburg for a shakedown before my thru hike. I immediatley got lost. It was two days later when I figured out where I was. All I had was a road map to go by. It was funny reading Ed Garveys book a couple years later. He got lost a couple months before me on the exact same section. It was a trail relocation that wasn't very well marked. What an introduction to the Appalachian trail.

Goon
02-16-2005, 20:19
While I always liked to hike and camp, I had never been backpacking until a buddy invited me to go with him way back in February 2001.

Temperatures well below freezing. 40mph winds on the mountain tops. Freezing rain. Sleet. Snow.

Loved every minute of it, been hooked ever since.

karo
02-16-2005, 21:24
I meant to say I enjoy reading the posts on here and Trailjournals. I forgot which site I was on! I still get a kick out of people (friends, tourists, etc.) asking where the trail goes. "Well if you head north, Maine; and south, Georgia!"

c.coyle
02-17-2005, 12:14
... I still get a kick out of people (friends, tourists, etc.) asking where the trail goes. "Well if you head north, Maine; and south, Georgia!"

I don't think I've ever hiked through Duncannon where at least one kid didn't ask me "Where did you start?" "Where are you going?" I always lie and say "Maine, Georgia." They love it. The idea of walking 2200 miles fascinates non-hikers.

The Weasel
02-17-2005, 12:32
It fascinates hikers too!


The Weasel

Freighttrain
02-17-2005, 12:46
Around 1982 me and a few buddies would drive up to the 309 crossing in Pa and hike in for the night.... my scout troops never seemed to do the AT

Happypappy
02-17-2005, 17:39
Wow, that was sometime in the '60's when I was a boy scout. Never made it out of Pa. on the trail, but I have kiked some of the local sections many many times ever since.

Ridge
02-17-2005, 18:09
but probably somewhere in NC mountains years ago. I first did serious AT hiking beginning at Amicola State Park to Springer ending at Katahdin. What a trip.

weary
02-17-2005, 18:22
I don't think I've ever hiked through Duncannon where at least one kid didn't ask me "Where did you start?" "Where are you going?" I always lie and say "Maine, Georgia." They love it. The idea of walking 2200 miles fascinates non-hikers.
Just as I arrived at the top of a hill in New Jersey, 8 or 9 kids on motor bikes came roaring to the top. I was a bit nervous, being from Maine and having read stories about big city gangs.

One of the kids looked puzzled, and asked, "Where did you come from?"

I replied, "I just walked up from Georgia."

The kid: "How did you find your way."

"I followed the white blazes."

He wandered over and took a look, and exclaimed, "Someone must have painted them."

He then declared, "I bet you haven't been any place as high as this!"

They then roared off the hill and I continued my walk north.

Weary

Catsgoing
03-11-2005, 20:12
June 2004 Springer Mountain

With My 2 Dogs Gerty and Sophie..........

Nearly Normal
03-11-2005, 23:42
Always took the wife to the mountains in Oct and in 2003 wound up at Roan Mountain. Couldn't drive further than Carver's Gap so parked and walked up towards the bald's. Clear day and the view from the first bald overlooking the valley community was super. I had always thought I might like to hike some of the trail but that set the hook in me.
pete56

JojoSmiley
03-12-2005, 20:06
Must have been around 1985 or so on the way back from visiting my brother in Texas on my way back to Norfolk, VA I drove to USFS road 42 and hiked up to Springer. I was actually hooked at age 10, just took 30 years to make it a reality.

Krewzer
03-13-2005, 01:01
Excellant Thread!!!
Like others, I haven't thought about it in years.

August 1967, NewFound Gap, Great Smoky Mountains. I was 21 years old, just back from the Army and on my honey moon in Gatlinburg, Tn. Had a guy tell my about it while I was sitting on a rock, on the trail, waiting on my new wife to come out of the bathrooms. I couldn't help wondering about that thing going all the way to Maine. I bought an AT guide for NC and Tenn at Sugarlands Visitor Center that afternoon. I still have it and pull it out just for kicks every now and then. (Talk about primitive maps!)
I got over that wife in a few years, but never did get over wondering what was around the next bend in that trail. Took another 37 years to see around all of them. That didn't help much either, I still wonder what's around the next bend, in the other direction, in different weather, in different seasons, with other friends, on a full moon, at sunset, sunrise, morning, evening, noon.............

jaboobie
03-15-2005, 12:23
July of 2003, I figured I'd check out the Pine Grove Area. I had seen signs for the AT. after moving to the area in 1998 but hadn't spent any time on it before. I took the Pole Steeple Trail and after having lunch on the rocks, I headed up the trail instead of going back down. I saw a sign Saying "Appalachian Trail" and thought, "Huh, the AT cuts through here."

That's the first time I stepped ont he trail, I had driven across it hundreds of times.

Bloodroot
03-15-2005, 13:30
Peters Mtn. back in...........1985. Really young and extremely thrilled finding out for the first time there was a trail so long.

karo
03-15-2005, 14:43
Lonewolf, Tell Roy we (the Trailtalk crowd) said Hi and we appreciate ya'lls conversation and shuttle on our Mount Rogers trip in '03. Thanks and till we meet again, Karo

karo
03-15-2005, 14:52
Karo, that guys name is Roy.He's hiked thousands of miles on the AT, PCT, FT and over in Europe. Sorry I meant to reply with this quote. Maybe I'll make it to Trail Days in Damascus.

Cookerhiker
03-15-2005, 16:52
Growing up in Northern New Jersey, the closest part of the AT to me was the oldest part - Harriman Park, NY. As members of the now-defunct NY Section of the Green Mountain Club (having since seceded and renamed the Thendara Mountain Club), our family spent time at their facility on Lake Tiorati. Sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s in my pre-teen years I set foot on the AT in that vicinity. As a child, I remember how impressive it seemed that this trail connected Maine & Georgia. My hike through Harriman last summer brought back nice memories.

Kozmic Zian
03-15-2005, 22:44
Yea......1st Time. When I was a kid, maybe 5 or 6, my parents had friends who lived in Cherokee, NC. We used to go up there and visit their farm on the 'side of the Mountain'. On an early (1952) foray over the Smokies to Gatlinburg, we stopped in Newfound Gap, got out and walked a mile down The Trail. I read the plaque put there by the NPS and wondered how anyone could 'walk to Maine'!!!! I thought to myself, 'Maybe I can do that some day'. KZ@

sloetoe
03-16-2005, 00:39
would be mid-February, 1977, where the AT looped through Macedonia Brook State Park in Connecticut. First night, 20*F and still, dry air. Next morning, big fluffy flurries drifted in circles onto 32*F trees. By nightfall, there was a foot of new, THICK sneaux covering every frickin' surface of anything left still for too long; my buddy and I were covered in sweat (bluejeans and cotton undershirts -- thank God for that great wool shirt -- same one that did the AT two years later...), tired and lead-legged, and somehow made it down St. Johns Ledges in the dark. IN THE DARK. With that foot of sneaux covering everything. Ever try to stay on trail, in fresh sneaux, in the dark, looking for WHITE BLAZES???

Oh, and the tent was cotton, too.


I'll stop now. Before the State Troopers and the Judge and the "Nolo" plea and all that.....


Dang. I miss Whiteblaze -- need to rejuvenate the habit...

'Toe

Gonzo!
03-16-2005, 09:28
I first set foot on the AT on Springer in 1981 - First ever backpacking trip. Hiked the AT a lot(about 6000miles) after that until I got married. Working on getting back out there. Still have the same external pack and will use it again! Been nuts about the AT ever since - just don't live close enough to enjoy it on a daily basis.

Israel
03-16-2005, 23:55
Let's see...my first steps on the A.T. were at Woody Gap, heading north on a 5 day trip. It was when i was 15, or around 1989. Went with a friend on our first big trip alone without parents. Left Woody Gap with a hatchet with wooden handle and my sleeping mat was a blow up raft- the kind that you lay in the water on a sunny day! That thing had to weigh 8 lbs. just on it's own! Man oh man did I carry way too much stuff on that trip! It was great though. I just climbed up to Preacher Rock this past weekend with my 2 1/2 year old...first time he climbed a mountain all under his own steam- talk about cool.

AbeHikes
03-17-2005, 15:37
Like many others...

Rockefeller Memorial at Newfound Gap in the late 70's... My parents used to stop there on our way back to GA. They just thought it was interesting to stop on the state line. I explored the memorial and then found the trail next to it. Like many others, I did the bidirectional gaze and wonder. GA to ME? Wow.

Stopped there many times over the years. I'm glad the desire recently rose to the surface.

newhampshire camper
05-13-2005, 22:38
The first place for me was a day hike up the southern side of Bear Mt. in CT.

kentucky99
05-14-2005, 09:41
I belive it was in 99 or 98 I was reading a national geographic seen the trail and I was off outside of damascus,wearing pair of overalls and jean jacket first day was storming and ran into a man called johny reb he says better go home to momma:D ky

Rowdy Yates
05-14-2005, 09:53
:jump For me it was in 1978. I was in college at Middle Tennessee University and some of the guys mentioned that they were going hiking on the AT that weekend and did I want to go. I decline but it peaked my interest and that August I was ready and went for the first time with the Outdoor Recreation Department of MTSU, fell in love with it and have section hiked approx. 700 miles to this date.:bse

TOW
05-14-2005, 15:17
For me it was August of 1985. I'd made the decision a month earlier to hike the AT starting March of 86. I was living in R.I. and drove to Mt. Greylock, parked and walked north for about a mile. I've been screwed up ever since. :D
i'm with ya pal on that last quote. for me it was Nantahala Gorge, NC in August of 2000. i can't the AT out of my mind....wanderer

superman
05-14-2005, 16:33
In the early 50's, as we were walking down the flume in NH, my mother told a friend of hers that the Appalachian Trail passes near where we were and that it goes from GA to ME. Her friend wanted to see it so we all bush whacked to it. She seemed to know right where it was. I kinda thought it might be something more than a path in the woods. When I thru hiked in 2000 I stayed at the Parker Motel and hiked out in the morning but I took time to bushwhack back to the flume. I'd remembered it being closer than it was....oh well.

RITBlake
05-14-2005, 17:11
I was 10, and my brother wanted to go hiking for his 12th birthday with a group of his friends. Parents drove us up to Kent Falls in Connecticut. An hour later we were on the AT.

I have definite recollections of my dad telling me about the trail. It was magical to me really. A footpath cut right through the woods, from Georgia to Maine? People walk the whole thing! I pictured long-bearded woodsmen living off the land. Crazy, fast forward 12 years and I'm 2 weeks away from attempting a thru-hike.

RITBlake
05-14-2005, 17:19
My first real hike on the AT was in high school. A friend and I hiked for 2 days in the white mountains of New Hampshire. We wore cotten t-shirts and I had nothing but a light sweatshirt to stay warm. I had grabed an old sleeping bag from the closet of my house. It turned out to be a womens regular and was about a foot short. I froze my butt off in Lake of the Clouds. I used an old dinosaur of a pack, a chewed up Kelty external. We had great weather for our first day but by the time we hit Mt. Washington it was pouring. Halfway through day 2, our food, gear, clothes were all soaked. The rain never let up for the next two days.

We eventually managed to get a lift back to our car.

We were wet, cold, and tired but driving home through Vermont, we agreed that we did have a great time.

DLFrost
05-15-2005, 00:14
Mid 60's, just a little kid, Clingmas Dome. I spied the AT where it swerves away northwards from the tower path. "Whazthat? Applach-in trail? Wherezit go? I wanna see!" Off I trot... Moved down to East TN at 10, and have since seen many sunsets and starry nights there.

That's about the most concise explanation for trail fever when you think about it: "Wherezit go? I wanna see!"

These days Clingmans Dome and Newfound Gap still romances folks towards the Trail. Every time I go up there I see em' lookin' and wandering along it--and it's the children who are first to run over there. :point: "Look! Look! Wherezit go?"

DLF

QHShowoman
05-16-2005, 11:18
I was born and raised in CT. When I was about 12, I begged my parents to take me up to Cornwall, CT to look for the famed ghost town of "Dudleytown." While we were exploring, we met a couple of hikers who explained that part of the AT ran through the area we were in. A few years later, in high school, I came out as a lesbian and fell in love with lesbian performer Barb Barton's "Song for Rebecca," which was written to honor the memory of Rebecca Wight, who had been murdered on the trail. So, its as if the AT has always been in the background, but it wasn't until the past few years that I've really become interested in hiking it.

Stoker53
05-16-2005, 11:59
1962 - 1963......can't remember. Lived on a farm near Troutville . Va. Opening day of trout season and my dad and I were hiking to a stream to fish. My dad mentioned that the trail we were walking went all the way to Maine. Have no clue where we were....I really appreciate my Dad for sharing his love for the outdoors with me. I was 9 /10 at the time. Think I'll call him now.......getting sentimental thinking about it.

mhussey
05-16-2005, 12:09
Last year, first week of September, I started out from the middle of the "100 miles of Wilderness" and ended up at Abol Bridge the next day (55 miles). Excellent time of year to hike, from here on out I will be slowing it down and not doing 22 miles one day, and then 33 the next:jump

Smoke
05-16-2005, 12:24
June 1999. My father-in-law and a group called the Hoosier Hiker's were doing the whole trail in sections. He asked me to go and I complied thinking it was the son-in-law thing to do for one year and never go back after that! Been section hiking since. We actually started off a road just outside Woodstock, Vermont. I think we hiked to Happy Hills Shelter from the road. BTW, I kept hiking with them and they finished last year. I'm now sectioning in Virginia. Seems a little easier after New Hampshire!

Deerleg
05-18-2005, 12:02
My Appalachian odyssey began many years before I even realized it. In 1983 my new bride and I went to Gatlinburg TN for a Christmas reunion with my mother’s family. We discovered we were very close to New Found Gap and that there was a trail up in the pass you could hike. It was December and there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground and the temperature was in the mid 30’s. We drove up to the gap, parked, and started walking north on a trail marked with white blazes. The two things I remember most about that hike were seeing the “caged” lean-to and an odd bedraggled looking man with a back-pack. I had no idea I was looking at a through hiker on a trail that stretched more than 2100 miles!

LIhikers
05-18-2005, 16:20
I don't remember the year, but it's not that long ago. I first hiked the AT southbound with my wife and one of girlfriends from where the trail crosses route 17A in New York. We did an out and back day hike into New Jersey and loved every inch of it. From there we did New York and New Jersey as day hikes. Then it was West Virginia and Maryland a few summers ago. After that it was the southern portion of Pennsylvania. Last summer central Pennsylvania and last month we bagged Connecticut. This summer we expect to finish Pennsylvania.

Our plan is to have everything north of Harper's Ferry done by the time I retire in 15 years. Then we'll start in GA and only have to get to Harper's Ferry to achieve our goal of becoming 2000 milers. Of course if all is going well we'll keep walking and make a thru hike out of it.

Singer
05-19-2005, 00:59
My first sighting was when my Dad and I drove under the AT crossing of the Massachusetts Turnpike in 1987. My Dad said " That's the Appalachian trail. It goes from Georgia to Maine, about 2000 miles. Can you believe that people actually walk the whole thing?" He said it with such awe and respect that I knew I would have to try hiking it someday. Well, I hiked the AT across Vermont in 1991, and have been section hiking it ever since. This summer I hope to finish New Hampshire! :banana

Hammock Hanger
05-19-2005, 07:43
On a visit to GA. We went to Neels Gap and hiked up Blood MT. I was hooked from that momment forward. Sue/HH

Kerosene
05-19-2005, 09:31
How old were you, Hammock Hanger? And did you have prior backpacking experience in Florida?

Hammock Hanger
05-19-2005, 09:40
How old were you, Hammock Hanger? And did you have prior backpacking experience in Florida?It was 1991 or 92, so I would have been 35. Yes, I had backpacked quite a bit in FL but none of the trips were ever longer then 5 days and usally averaged more like 3.

It was early spring when we hiked up to Blood and spent the night with 20 thru-hikers. It was freezing cold and there were doors and shutters on the Shelter back then. As well as a fireplace and we had a roaring fire going.

You know how excited & "saged" three day old thru-hikers can be. After listening to them all evening I knew I would be backpacking the AT soon.

That summer, in June my husband and I hiked on the AT for our week vacation and every summer after that for years. Then 2001 came and I headed off alone and became one of those "thru-hikers". The rest of course is history...;) Sue/HH

Stoker53
05-19-2005, 10:06
How old were you, Hammock Hanger? And did you have prior backpacking experience in Florida?
Glad it was you who asked this and not me. Those of us ( men ) born south of the Mason/Dixon line are taught, from an early age, NOT to ask women how old they are.

I'm sure that Sue, realizing that you were from up North, chose not to lambaste you for the slip up.:)

MarcnNJ
05-19-2005, 10:08
Probably around 1995, i was in my early 20s. late bloomer for sure, but now im in the midst of planning my 06 nobo thruhike. parked at dunfield creek at the delaware water gap, and did a 5d/4n to vernon with 2 college friends. i think my pack weighed 55lbs, in the heat of the summer. after starting to replace some gear with my thruhike in mind, i plan on carrying at the most 35 pounds. im hoping this makes me feel like im floating!:jump

Kerosene
05-19-2005, 13:57
Glad it was you who asked this and not me. Those of us ( men ) born south of the Mason/Dixon line are taught, from an early age, NOT to ask women how old they are.

I'm sure that Sue, realizing that you were from up North, chose not to lambaste you for the slip up.:)Stoker53, re-read my post and you'll notice that I asked how old she "was" at the time, not how old she is! A child perceives the woods and a trail differently than an adult. To a child, a trail leading into the woods is mysterious and a little scary, and it's hard to understand that it goes very far.

LIhikers
05-19-2005, 14:18
[QUOTE= Those of us ( men ) born south of the Mason/Dixon line are taught, from an early age, NOT to ask women how old they are.

I'm sure that Sue, realizing that you were from up North, chose not to lambaste you for the slip up.:)[/QUOTE]
Even north of the Mason/Dixon it's a universal truth never to ask a woman her age.
Sometimes it's more a matter of survival than of respect...lol :banana

Mags
05-19-2005, 15:46
[QUOTE= Those of us ( men ) born south of the Mason/Dixon line are taught, from an early age, NOT to ask women how old they are.

I'm sure that Sue, realizing that you were from up North, chose not to lambaste you for the slip up.:)
Even north of the Mason/Dixon it's a universal truth never to ask a woman her age.
Sometimes it's more a matter of survival than of respect...lol :banana[/QUOTE]


In my early 20s, worked as an orderly in Out Patient surgical unit. I was the only male working with all women in their mid30s to early 60s. They were all mothers -- they more or less adopted me! They insisted on meeting anyone I dated as well making sure I had enough warm clothese for any trips I did. They threw an awesome going away party for me when I did the AT in 1998.

Anyway, I invariably picked up three life lesson from these wonderful women:

1) You can never go wrong with getting flowers for your girlfriend/wife
2) Never ask a woman her weight
3) Never, ever, ever ask a woman her age

These three lessons have helped me in my life..esp. the first one. :)

Hammock Hanger
05-19-2005, 16:13
Anyway, I invariably picked up three life lesson from these wonderful women:

1) You can never go wrong with getting flowers for your girlfriend/wife
2) Never ask a woman her weight
3) Never, ever, ever ask a woman her age

These three lessons have helped me in my life..esp. the first one. :)[/QUOTE]

First let me say I understood that Kerosene was wondering more on how old I was when I got bitten by the AT bug, then how old I am. Mainly because I have never been shy here or anywhere else on saying I'm an old fat lady....

As for the three things learned above... 1- Absolutely, 2- Absolutely 3- ABSOLUTELY!!!

Even if a women says she is overwt, and she is and she knows it, it is crushing to hear it from others. A guy I hiked with this year mentioned that I wouldn't have so much arthritic pain in my knees when I hiked if I lost weight. Luckily I felt he was clueless to the impact of his remark... otherwise the park rangers would have found him out in the woods as vulture food!!:cool:
Sue/HH

Waterbuffalo
06-21-2005, 20:54
It was either Clingmans Dome or Newfound Gap in summer of 84 on a family vacation with my folks.

hopefulhiker
01-21-2007, 10:03
The year was 1969 for me.. I don't remember exactly where but it was in the Shenendoahs near the Skyline Drive.. I was on a supported hike with a school group..

rafe
01-21-2007, 10:14
Summer 1975, it was either the saturday hike to Moosilauke summit, or the next day's hike over Franconia ridge. I'm not sure if the saturday hike was on the AT or not. We started at that big old Dartmouth Lodge on the south side (?) of Moosilauke. In any case it would have "touched" the AT at the summit.

freefall
01-21-2007, 11:01
I was younger than I can remember when I frist stepped foot on the AT. My family car camped in the Shennies 5-6 times/ year and our favorite short hike was Bearfence Mtn. So I sure that is where I first stepped on the AT.
The first time I remember being on the AT and knowing what it was I was 7 and went off from our campsite at Loft Mtn to gather firewood. I carried an armload back and told my parents I had found a secret trail and they told me it was the AT and that it went all the way to Maine.

maxNcathy
01-21-2007, 11:35
Saturday,April 15, 2006. Cathy and I first set foot on the AT 42 miles north of Damascus. Dave from Mt Rogers Outfitters shuttled us north where the Trail crosses a paved road.
We tented along the Trail and really enjoyed the hike back to town over Mt Rogers area etc. We got back to town Wed afternoon. The next day we rented bikes and rode on the Creeper Trail for a few hours. Weather was gorgeous except for cold rain Wed morning as we hiked to town from Lost Mt shelter.

4eyedbuzzard
01-21-2007, 11:55
First step on the AT? Summer of 1969. With my uncle, his wife, and my younger cousin in GSMNP.

I remember the year because my uncles two older daughters were going to Woodstock. I wanted to go with them. I WAS almost 13 after all! And I really didn't see a problem in going.:rolleyes: Oh well, I went hiking in the Smokies instead. Missed the "summer of love" in '67, Woodstock in '69... (Sigh)

rickb
01-21-2007, 12:18
Baxter Peak, Katahdin on July 13, 1983

weary
01-21-2007, 12:59
I don't remember the trip, but I came close when I climbed the Imp at the age of 4 in 1933 in the White Mountain National Forest. The trail follows the summit ridge and we only hiked to the overlook to the Dolly Copp Campground, where we camped for 10 weeks every summer.

Within a very few years my family climbed every week or so, to one or another of the peaks between the Imp and Mount Madison, which meant we were on the AT frequently.

We didn't think of them, however, as being on the Appalachian Trail, which most of us (eventually eight) had never heard of. Our hikes were complicated by the periodic arrival of new babies. My younest sibling was born in Octpber 1936, but luckily all were born at least a few months before the camping season.

Three of the six continue to walk regularly. Two have substituted golf and one is into rebuilding Model T Fords. Such is life.

Weary

Frolicking Dinosaurs
01-21-2007, 13:10
The first time I remember was at Newfound Gap in the GSMNP about age 6-7. I was visiting the area with my family and remember my dad trying to explain how long the trail was to me and my younger brother.

ed bell
01-21-2007, 13:55
Our hikes were complicated by the periodic arrival of new babies. My younest sibling was born in Octpber 1936, but luckily all were born at least a few months before the camping season. Sounds like there is some sort of correlation between the two significat events.;)

Chaco Taco
01-21-2007, 14:11
Boy Scouts February 1987, Mt Rogers, Iron Mountain Trail and looped back onto AT.
Second trip was Mt Sterling and jumped over to Davenport, spent night at location of Cosby Knob Shelter. Very cool.

gollwoods
01-21-2007, 15:09
I also had the clingman's dome as a young vacationer experience I always liked comming to the Smokies on long weekends but never hiked until I was 44 yrs old

Marta
01-21-2007, 20:03
Summer of 1966. My father took my brother and me on an overnight hike near the Flume and Mt. Lafayette. The idea of a trail stretching from Maine to Georgia infected my young brain. I've still got a pretty serious case of the disease.

Gray Blazer
01-21-2007, 20:11
Probably while I was still in the womb and at Newfound Gap.

Wonder
01-21-2007, 22:10
I went on a day hike with my day hiking buddy to the Pinnicle in November of 2003. I had crossed the AT on a hunting trip, and the idea was planted in my head.....but after the pinnicle hike (13 miles, my longest to date at that point) I decided to get my leg fixed and take off as soon as I could. 2 years later, I some how found myself at springer.

Swiss Roll
01-22-2007, 10:25
The thing that comes to me when thinking about this question is not the first time I was on the AT, but all the years I lived with the AT practically in my backyard and didn't even know it. At three different points, Burkes Garden, Bland, and Pearisburg, the trail lay about an hour's drive from the town where I grew up, and I didn't even know of its' existence. I had seen it at Newfound in my twenties, but didn't really 'discover' it until last March, when I did a small section from Allen Gap to Hot Springs. I rank that encounter as one of the turning points in my life.

Gadog430
01-22-2007, 10:50
When I was a young girl, our family went car camping ALL THE TIME. One of our favorite places was Winfield Scott Campground in North Georgia. We were probably there and at Vogel 100 times over the years. Of course, you cross the AT to get there at Woody Gap. So I was always aware of it, just never stepped foot on it.

Sometime in the 80's Dad and I were having a conversation about how I never realized how close the AT was to Winfield Scott...it runs the ridge right above the campground. All those times we were there and never went on it. His response to me was, "Yes, but our family wasn't oriented like that...we were water oriented...canoeing and boating."

The first time I was actually on the AT I came up thru Jarrard Gap and took a left on the AT and up and over to Blood Mountain and then back down from Slaughter Gap to Winfield Scott.

Raising kids made me wait, but this summer my goal is to finish the Georgia section...and then set a new goal.

Dawg

clicker
01-22-2007, 18:57
Early spring of 2002, I went for a hike in the smoky mountains and started at Davenport Gap, went south. Didn't hike the AT only, but some of the best sights I saw that day were on the AT. Haven't thru hiked yet, but can't wait to.

Cherokee Bill
01-22-2007, 19:54
:-? Me and "Ole Roy" did from Petites Gap to James River, spending the night at Matt's Creek Shelter (Central Va), mid-80's.

Ain't been the same since! On the "AT" every chance I get, as I live about 20-miles away:D

Been a long time since that first hike! I am 60 now and will retire in 6-years @ 66 and will be part of the CLass of 2013 :banana

warren doyle
01-22-2007, 19:56
Summer 1968. Osgood Ridge at the junction of the Webster Scout Trail just north of Mt. Madison in the Whites - a 38-year love affair.

totally Boagus
01-22-2007, 20:42
it was between 1968/71 when as a young guy. I would go to Pa. and stay with my aunt and uncle at their cabin very close to the iron masters house at Pine Grove Furnence. I would walk to the state park and buy ice cream at the camp store. Don't recall any thru's but do remember seeing the white blazes on the lifeguard stands at the lake

Moxie00
01-22-2007, 21:09
1948, Katahdin Stream. Boy Scout Troop 136 from Waterville, Maine climbed Katahdin. When we got to the top on the Hunt Trail, aka Applachian Trail our scoutmaster told us that the trail went all the way to Georgia.I looked at him and said, Mr. Brown, some day I'm going to walk it all the way to Georgia. I did a ton of hiking and backpacking on the AT after that but it took me 52 years before I was able to take the time, go to Georgia and walk all the way to Maine. Never did south bound and never will. Just like walking toward Maine too much.

Blissful
01-22-2007, 21:22
I was probably about eight years old. We were at SNP. That was the year too a bear ripped a huge hole in our our screen house thinking our trunk containing our clothes was an ice chest.

weary
01-22-2007, 21:48
Summer 1968. Osgood Ridge at the junction of the Webster Scout Trail just north of Mt. Madison in the Whites - a 38-year love affair.
The Daniel Webster Scout TRail was the trail I used to come back to Dolly Copp when, from about age 11, we would climb Washington, often on a full moon, watch the sunrise, take photos with my Kodak box camera, traverse the Presidentials, and return to camp.

My love affair with the trail is longer than yours, Warren, but no less intense. As a frail kid with a cough that lasted for months at a time, and that no doctor in the 30s could cure, I relied on the trails for friends. Often alone. I didn't want to slow "real" humans.

The allergy has never left, but over the years, it has shifted away from my lungs, and new medicines have helped. When I got back into backpacking in the 1960s, my late 30s, I could keep up with most people my age and many 20-years younger. Well, until an MD doctor and heart specialist, poisoned my lungs a second time with a medicine that induced incurable fibrosis of the lungs.

I subsequently found scores of references on the internet about how the medicine, Amiodarone, poisoned the lungs of 2-3 percent of those using it -- 17 percent of whom died as a result.

My doc said he had never seen a case of the drug causing lung poisoning and therefore suggested he should be excused from not recognizing the symptoms. Apparently, he also can't read, or maybe, doesn't bother to read, anymore. I can understand that, what with a $1.000 a day practice.

Anyway, trails are still an attraction. Really what I live for these days. Some think it "hectoring" but from time to time I maY still remind folks that mountains are fragile and developers are encroaching.

Weary www.matlt.org.

RAT
01-22-2007, 22:12
It was around 1985 or 86, we had been exploring some backcountry near where I live for several years venturing further each time, finally one trip in our quest for "the top" we came out on this really nice ridge trail that was marked with white blazes. I knew instantly what it was and have had AT fever ever since. No cure.


RAT

trlhiker
01-23-2007, 21:14
it was either 1985 or 86. It was a backpacking course for college. I had a cheap campmor pack, a J.C. Penny tent, an old sleeping bag, canned foods, 2 canteens over my shoulders and we were hiking from Reeds Gap to the top of ThreeRidges, camping overnight, down to route 56 camp near there overnight, were supposed to go to the top of the Preist but we mutinied. On Sunday we hiked back to reeds gap via the marhar trail. I had a miserable time and swore I would never backpack again. It was 5 years before I would try again. Now I love it.

mweinstone
01-23-2007, 21:16
ive actually never been to the trail but im hoping to one day.

Elf
01-23-2007, 23:23
Windsor Furnace, for a day hike to Pulpit Rock. My dad spent a lot of time hiking on those trails and camping (when it was legal to do so in waht is now the game lands) in the late '60s and '70s. When I was rather young we went for a walk up there. I've been there and to the Pinnacle almost a dozen more times since then.

Fly By Mike
01-24-2007, 16:21
1985 - while cross country skiing near Benedict Pond in Mass. Have always loved that area and still day hike there occassionally.

TOW
01-24-2007, 18:05
For me it was August of 1985. I'd made the decision a month earlier to hike the AT starting March of 86. I was living in R.I. and drove to Mt. Greylock, parked and walked north for about a mile. I've been screwed up ever since. :D For me it was the mid August of 2000. I stepped foot on the trail heading north out of Nantahala Gorge.

derekthered
01-24-2007, 19:33
Summer of 2000, I was 16at the time, and camping with some of the Boy Scouts at a farm in Sussex County, New jersey for the week. We hiked about 10 miles southbound and overnighted at the Rutherford Shelter.

Fun times, especially since we were all paranoid of bear attacks! :-P

Undershaft
01-25-2007, 14:43
First week of March, 2003. Somewhere in the northern section of Shenandoah National Park at one of the spots where the AT crosses Skyline Drive. My buddy and I were visiting his girlfriend, who was living in Virginia at the time, and she took us to Front Royal (where she grew up) and for a drive in S.N.P. I had previously read about the AT online and was very interested in the Trail. I made her stop at the road crossing, walked about twenty feet up the trail and took a couple photos with white blazes in them. Six months later I was in Harper's Ferry hiking south. Every year since then I have hiked a section of the AT. I should be finished in two or three years. The Trail really is addictive....

carolina trekker
01-25-2007, 16:41
1968. Boy Scout "Operation Lost" camporee in Bear Mountain State Park, NY. Been hooked ever since.

macbugs
02-09-2008, 23:08
I've been intrigued by this hiking thing for awhile and this afternoon after stopping in at work for a little bit I drove 20min. north and at Rt. 501 intersection in Bethel, PA I walked about 20 yards into the woods towards Maine and now am hooked.

Bulldawg
02-09-2008, 23:13
I guess it was at Newfoundland Gap on the way to Gatlinburg who knows when. Gatlinburg was a popular vacation destination for our family as I was growing up and who knows when I first actually put soles to it. I guess it was probably 15 years ago there when I was actually thinking about it.

But so far as an actual hike on the AT, a real planned day hike; that would be Blood Mountain in 1997.

Bulldawg
02-09-2008, 23:13
I've been intrigued by this hiking thing for awhile and this afternoon after stopping in at work for a little bit I drove 20min. north and at Rt. 501 intersection in Bethel, PA I walked about 20 yards into the woods towards Maine and now am hooked.

Awesome, WELCOME!!!:welcome

Tin Man
02-09-2008, 23:31
Interesting. An old LW thread brought back from the dead by a newbie. :) Great thread too.

My first time was at a state park in Mass. where I car camped with my family when I was 6. Looked south and said to myself, "wow, Georgia is at the other end of that". Turned around and said, "wow, Maine is at the other end there. Wow!" Been hooked, on and off, ever since.

rafe
02-09-2008, 23:33
Moosilauke summit. 1975, I think. I'm not sure which trail we took up to the top, except that there was a big lodge at the bottom (a Dartmouth facility) and the approach was from the south or west. So our walk uphill may have been something other than the AT. The following day we did the Franconia Ridge -- up Liberty Springs trail and down Falling Waters. Nice weather both days.

gungho
02-09-2008, 23:41
I have had what I would call many 1st time encounters with the AT. Until,last year we had done several little day hikes here and their along the trail. I t wasn't until this past July,that we actually got off the couch and actually starting enjoying the trail. Now I can't stop. So,I guess if we are talking about the 1st official step onto the AT,It would be from wayah gap to NOC July of 2007. Life will never be the same:D

Summit
02-09-2008, 23:51
In October of 1973 at the age of 23 I stepped onto the AT for the first time at Dick's Creek Gap, GA and did a 35 mile section going north. I had borrowed everything because I wasn't sure I wanted to get into it. I used an old Boy Scout pack with no waist belt and canvas shoulder straps (no padding). I wound up wrapping a towel and tee shirt around and under the straps. Though ill prepared and equipped, "the bug" caught me and now 34 years and thousands of miles later, I'm still a wandering star. :)

warraghiyagey
02-09-2008, 23:53
June 27, 2006. Katahdin Stream.
Magical.:sun

Tin Man
02-09-2008, 23:55
June 27, 2006. Katahdin Stream.
Magical.:sun

Seriously? First time?

warraghiyagey
02-09-2008, 23:58
Seriously? First time?
Yeah Man. But here's the thing. I was right back there this past May 31.
And I'll be there this May 31 for a thru. I held the dream for years. Now it's in my system - it's right for me to be on the trail whenever I can.:sun

rafe
02-09-2008, 23:58
My first sighting was when my Dad and I drove under the AT crossing of the Massachusetts Turnpike in 1987. My Dad said " That's the Appalachian trail. It goes from Georgia to Maine, about 2000 miles. Can you believe that people actually walk the whole thing?" He said it with such awe and respect that I knew I would have to try hiking it someday.

Being Massholes, we drive under those bridges several times each year. Anyway, we always do a fake genuflect as we go by. Being a multi-decade section hiker, I always looked forward to the day that I'd walk on the bridge instead of driving under it. That happened in June 2005. That's when I finally realized there were two bridges. D'oh.

warraghiyagey
02-10-2008, 00:00
Being Massholes, we drive under those bridges several times each year. Anyway, we always do a fake genuflect as we go by. Being a multi-decade section hiker, I always looked forward to the day that I'd walk on the bridge instead of driving under it. That happened in June 2005. That's when I finally realized there were two bridges. D'oh.
I drove under that bridge this fall after another (abridged) SOBO. Yup. A tear or two and I kind couldn't talk for a few minutes.

Almost There
02-10-2008, 00:00
January 2005, up on Springer Mtn. right after an ice storm.

Tinker
02-10-2008, 00:04
Virginia, summer 1976. I went on an overnighter with a friend who did all the planning. I was along for the ride. I believe we overnighted at Punchbowl Shelter. I didn't revisit the AT until 1981, when I did a two nighter in the White Mountains. Since then, I've done a lot of section hikes.

shelterbuilder
02-10-2008, 00:53
September, 1973, with the newly re-formed Outing Club from Albright College in Reading, Pa. We went for a day hike through the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary near Eckville, and after stopping at both lookouts to watch for migrating birds of prey, we dropped down over the rocks and hiked out the main trail to the junctin with the AT, and then down the mountain to the road crossing in Eckville. I had heard about the trail the year before that, by reading published weekly "reports" from Ed Kuni, who was hiking it in '72 (and again in '73).

The Outing Club had 2 overnight trips that semester - one in October and one in December. During the December trip, we froze our tails off, camped on the Pinnacle in 20* weather with a steady wind. Most of us had summer-weight bags and spent a fitful night. Half of us decided that, if we were going to keep doing this, we needed better equipment...the other half of the group, we never saw again!!!:D

HUNTHIKELIFT
02-10-2008, 01:02
Last year 2007 May 16th Neels Gap at WALASI-YI with my best friend Ben (BigDipper) and my highschool chem teacher and coach Dick (Think Spring). It was the beginning and I am now addicted. Great people and beautiful trail and awesome personal test,mental and physical....nuff said :)

Footslogger
02-10-2008, 01:06
It was probably in the early 80's near Blood Mountain for me ...

'Slogger

DawnTreader
02-10-2008, 01:15
Mine was summer 2003. Hiked up Ammonusuc Ravine Trail to Lakes Of The Clouds, then took a left at the junction and stepped on the AT. Have hiked on that mountain many times in the last five years, but on that first hike, the weather was clear, 70 at the top, no wind.. Beautiful... hooked, line and sinker... absolutely fantastic.

DawnTreader
02-10-2008, 01:22
Yeah Man. But here's the thing. I was right back there this past May 31.
And I'll be there this May 31 for a thru. I held the dream for years. Now it's in my system - it's right for me to be on the trail whenever I can.:sun

We both picked pretty sweet spots to meet the trail!! tell the story about your Daicy Pond campground debacle and how you had to start the trail twice in two days!!!

CaseyB
02-10-2008, 02:13
Mt.Rogers NRA up on the mountain. I remember seeing thrus walking past our campsite in the dark(1993, i wuz 19 ) and thinking they were hardcore.......in hindsight they were just jetting to the next booze stop. (Atkins)
Most of us locals mistakenly consider thru-hikers to be either super-hippie-trustafarians or retired whatevers. The more I read, the more I understand: what we see walk thru here is nothing more than a random sample of the US population, looking for a bit of adventure.

Mrs Baggins
02-10-2008, 07:41
We started talking about the AT in Mar 2003, following a 3 week trek in New Zealand. I started buying and reading books on it right away. In June 2003 we went to the South Mountain Inn (we lived in Maryland), parked and walked to the Dahlgren camp area. There were some hikers there and I asked them where the AT was and they pointed us to it. I stepped down onto that trail, looked up to see my very first white blaze and I swear to you I heard the angels sing. I was in absolute awe and in tears. We'd lived in Maryland for 4 years and were only vaguely aware of the AT's presence there. We did our first overnighter from there (Turner's Gap) to Harpers Ferry just a month later and it's been deep and abiding love ever since.

nitewalker
02-10-2008, 08:49
in may 14 1993 i hiked up the amanousac ravine trail with pitdog and frenchie. we stayed rite in the middle of the gem pool only to have the tent act like a human lung. the tent would fill with air and then it would get sucked out causing the tent to continually hit me on the side. we made the evening only to awake with the drainage into gem pool at our tents edges. we got out of bed packed the tent and headed up the ravine towards lake of the clouds where the ATjoins. as we start upward the clouds are relentless, snow is all over the trail , ice everywhere, no crampons or technical winter gear at all. we finally made it to the emergency shelter below the lake of the clouds. after a short break we went up mount monroe watched the clouds clear out for a glimpse of what we were heading for. after the 15 second glimpse we head to mount washington, make the accent with no real problems other than visibility.on the way down it was really easy because we were able to slide back down most of the trail below the icy areas above the tree line. i had done some hiking previous to this trip but this was the one that put the AT on the map for me....what a trip it was

Rowdy Yates
02-10-2008, 10:15
I've been intrigued by this hiking thing for awhile and this afternoon after stopping in at work for a little bit I drove 20min. north and at Rt. 501 intersection in Bethel, PA I walked about 20 yards into the woods towards Maine and now am hooked.

:welcomeCongratulations macbug!! the problem with getting "hooked" is that you can never get unhooked, so you may as well join the rest of us and take a hike.

Speer Carrier
02-10-2008, 10:38
Early 1950's- near Dalton, Massachusetts.

Fannypack
02-10-2008, 11:24
In June 1995 I "hiked", actually struggled from Rockfish Gap to just past Calf Mtn Shelter... I was hiking with my father as we prepared for a 1996 AT thru-hike attempt...

It was 95 degrees and I was carrying 45 lbs and my father thought i was going to have a heart attack. I was breathing sooooo hard and stopping every 50 ft as I struggled up the 1st hill, actually every hill or rise in the trail.

This was quite an eye opener for me. I never realized that i was so out of shape.....

Off topic, Jim Zorn as the new Redskins coach?????? Little Danny has done it again..... Well I guess we will see next yr?!?!?!?!

greg burke
02-10-2008, 11:30
See(Trail essay) under general catagory it was an english paper last year not a day goes by im not checking the WB...

BigStu
02-10-2008, 11:33
Huffman Va. in a little over nine week's time for 50 miles then it's off to MerleFest :D

Roots
02-10-2008, 11:37
My family is from the Bryson City area, so I pretty much grew up around the AT. We always went to NOC rafting or for the 'Sunday Picnics' around the river. I always found it interesting seeing those white marks at NOC and watching people with those huge packs on walk out of the woods. I grew up in Girl Scouting so I knew of Backpacking, but I had never done it. As Gungho, said we had day hiked for years on the AT. Our first day hike we were fascinated by the shelters (although now I kind of feel like LW about that;)) and the thought of just following the white blazes. So for our first backpacking trip on the AT it only seemed appropriate to me to do the Wayah to NOC section since it was like 'walking home' for me. Now we CAN'T GET IT OUT OF OUR MINDS:).

Del Q
02-10-2008, 12:05
When I was born. Parents threw me out of the car window, landed on the trail outside of Boiling Springs, Pa; raised by bears and thru hikers, thought the white blazes were pacifiers. Trail magic meant a lot to me in the earlier days.

warraghiyagey
02-10-2008, 12:16
We both picked pretty sweet spots to meet the trail!! tell the story about your Daicy Pond campground debacle and how you had to start the trail twice in two days!!!
You mean after my first climb of Katahdin where I may have lingered at the summit even longer with thoughts of my 70 lb. pack waiting for me at the Rangers station?
The one that had me wiped out by Daicy Pond so I tried to put up my two man tent under the trees and the Ranger shooed me out at dusk and drove me back to Katahdin Stream where I stewed the entire next day and then on my fourth day in Maine finally walked from K Stream to Hurd Brook lean-to (after a series of hissy-fits - especially closing in on Hurd Brook as it was dark in the woods and I couldn't see the trail or blazes with my light) only to finally reach the lean-to and find out that at 9:15 pm it was past hiker midnight. And where I sat all the next rainy day until a lovaeable group of Mobsters slowly trickled in through the afternoon and we headed into Maine together.
One of who will be SOBO this June as will I.
That story??? Nah - you tell it.

Pennsylvania Rose
02-10-2008, 12:18
April 1, 1990, Springer; 1st time on the AT, 1st time backpacking. I rectified my late start with the next generation - alll of my kids have been on the AT many times - 3 of them before they were a year old.

Cool thread. Glad to see it brought back to life.

Wilson
02-10-2008, 12:57
Grayson Highlands, day hike to Mt. Rogers. Don't remember when, probly late 80's.
Passed a young couple that where hiking fast and then later a older man, friendly, said he was on the way to Maine.
He said he thought the young couple were trying to leave him behind.

I thought that was odd untill I found this site and have read some of the posts.

Bearpaw
02-10-2008, 15:10
September 1986, My scout troop climbed to the top of Clingman's Dome. Someone mentioned the Appalachian Trail ran next to it. I had no idea where it came from or went to.

The first time I hiked any part of the AT and KNEW what it was was May 1995 when my girlfriend and I hiked the section from Mt Collins to Clingman's then headed down to Forney Creek Trail and Andrew's Bald.

A-Train
02-10-2008, 15:37
August 98' on top of Lafyette in the Whites. Who was the first thru-hiker I met? Baltimore Jack of course!

greentick
02-10-2008, 15:39
Intersection of AT with Byron Reece/Freeman trail vic Blood Mountain December 27th, 2004. Walked over Blood on a cold night with my son and stayed at the tent sites for an overnight.

Jim Obermeyer
02-10-2008, 16:08
Delware Water Gap for a four day hike heading north. Started the day Three Mile Island went down. Came off the trail and the world was going to end.

Pedaling Fool
02-10-2008, 16:29
Mt. Katahdin via the knife-edge trail (I think it was the Helon Taylor Trail). Went on to thru-hike the AT in the state Maine. That was in 1981.

HikerRanky
02-10-2008, 16:43
Was in the Smokies at Newfound Gap... Hiked from there to Charlie's Bunion and back down... This was back in June 1987. I remember the view up there was the best I had ever seen east of the Mississippi River...

Randy

Blister
02-10-2008, 16:51
1988 - I borrowed some gear from the outing club of the college I went to and spent the weekend hiking up and around on various trails on Mount Greylock. It was the first time I ever set up a tent and wore a backpack. I remember it poured all night long, I was by myself. I didn't learn until later talking with some people I ran into that the AT went from Georgia to Maine and I have never been the same since!

Hoop
02-10-2008, 18:30
Mt. Kathadin 1975 while on a camping vacation.

spittinpigeon
02-10-2008, 19:17
My first sighting was when my Dad and I drove under the AT crossing of the Massachusetts Turnpike in 1987. My Dad said " That's the Appalachian trail. It goes from Georgia to Maine, about 2000 miles. Can you believe that people actually walk the whole thing?" He said it with such awe and respect that I knew I would have to try hiking it someday. Well, I hiked the AT across Vermont in 1991, and have been section hiking it ever since. This summer I hope to finish New Hampshire! :banana

It was probably around 1987 when we drove under and my mother said the same thing, and that a classmate of hers had hiked it. That crossing also happens to be the first place I set foot on the trail in 1997. We became vagabonds that summer, and decided to escape the city. The pike was the only way I knew to get to the trail, so we pulled over off the highway and said our goodbye's to the driver.

Kerosene
02-10-2008, 19:25
I posted about my first AT experience back in Post #10 (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showpost.php?p=85978&postcount=10), but on reading this thread again I vaguely recall the first time I was intrigued by hiking. It was in the mid-60's when I was living in South Burlington in northern Vermont and I was 7-10 years old. I recall seeing these white blazes leading steeply up into the dark woods as we whizzed by in our station wagon going somewhere. It was the Long Trail of course, but it got me thinking about long distance trails.

I took my teenage daughter to the Clarendon Gorge/Mill River bridge a few years ago, and she had a similar reaction to seeing the trail continue uphill into dark pines southbound from the bridge. She really wanted to keep following the trail to see where it went from there.

Press
02-10-2008, 20:51
1972. I was in college. Two friends and I spent the summer working in Tampa, Florida, and when we returned to VA in late August went on a 3-day hike on part of the AT near Rockfish Gap. I don't remember much, except that one of my friends started off carrying an iron frying pan. He threw it away pretty quickly.

BradMT
02-11-2008, 10:22
Somewhere in the White Mountains in 1975.

Purple Hayes
02-11-2008, 10:27
somewhere near port clinton pennsylvania 1998

troglobil
02-11-2008, 10:36
1976 Mount Washington, my first backpacking trip.

Thoughtful Owl
02-11-2008, 10:42
I think it was around 1973-74, at Mt. Rogers Wildernesss Area. Myself and 7 other scouts, my scoutmaster and an assistant SM did a week long backpacking trip on the AT. It was my first experience and I still haven't gotten over it some 30 plus years later.

I was at MacAfee's Knob this past weekend with some of my scouts and for me it is still just as exilerating as it was the first time I was there, also in 1974.

TO

Skuter
02-11-2008, 10:48
Clingmans Dome lookout tower.

The Old Fhart
02-11-2008, 10:51
I first climbed Mount Washington and stepped on the A.T. in 1960. About 40 years later I would work on the summit for 4 winters. Always nice to get back to your roots.;)

DG_on_AT
02-11-2008, 10:56
My first experience with the AT came in 1998, Spring semester during my freshman year in college. Bored out of my mind one morning in the back of a chemistry classroom, an older student told me that for the past 3 years, he had accurately predicted the first snowfall on Roan Mountain using some kind of homemade database on his Sharp Wizard. I thought he was kind of wierd, but I was intrigued, so we ditched class and drove from Johnson City to Carver's Gap, where sure enough, it was snowing.

We hiked, with no gear to the Roan High Knob shelter and I was introduced to a whole new world.

That weird person from Chemistry class has been one of my best friends for 10 years now.

Lumber
02-11-2008, 11:42
I went down to Georgia with 5 other friends for our senior sping break trip. We started from the aproach trail, with no maps, and walked for three days. I was carrying an inflateable sink, and a few other un-needed items. The end of the story is, we get real wet. Hitch a ride from the store in suches,ga. The guy that picks us up says he's taking his old ladie to work. He also says there's beer in the cooler if ya'll want to get drunk. So five of us in the back of his truck, one up front. All drinking beer. We get to our cars and then go to myrtle beach for 3 days. Wanted to hike the whole thing since.

Ashman
02-11-2008, 15:15
Been on a few backpacking trips with the scouts, first time on the AT was my junior year of college. I went with 4 other friends all with varying degrees of experience over our Spring Break 1993. We did Max Patch Bald down into Hot Springs. We called ourselves the "Brave Brave Brave Idiot Hikers" (a nod to Brave Sir Robin of Monty Python Fame). I bought new Technica Gortex boots two months prior to break them in. All the other guys were ragging on me and my high fallutin boots. Till thier feet got wet and cold. They all wanted to pack it in a quit, me I was High and Dry! I had fresh socks each day (long weekend trip) and loaned them to the poor schmuck who had nothing but cotton socks, cotton t-shirts, and a leather coat. (I should have rented to him, would have paid for the trip!) It was a miracle nobody got really hurt. A group from Michigan ogt lost on the same stretch of trail later in the same week. Hadn't been back on the trail agian till last November, now I can't wait for my next trip!

Frau
02-11-2008, 21:51
The summer of 1982 I was a young mom working at Catawba Hospital, which can be seen from the AT. I was intrigued by the AT crossing at Rt. 311, which I examined everyday to and from work. Finally, one Saturday, I headed south, determined to see what I could see. Didn't get far until I realized I was not in shape for the hike. I crossed 311 and tried north toward MacAfee's knob, and didn't get as far as I had south bound.

For years I took only very short hikes and walks with a child on my back. When I divorced in 1988 I began my training--hiking Sharp Top (Peaks of Otter) from the bottom up. My true love for hiking began then.

I had returned to hiking when I moved so close to the James River Face Wilderness and AT (96). Apple Orchard Falls enchanted me. Following my gastric bypass I used Apple Orchard Falls Trail as my personal training ground, timing myself each time and beginning a trail running regimen, adding Cornelius Creek Trail when I had built up strength and endurance after weight loss.

I toyed with the AT both north and south of Petite's Gap prior to this. My last hike with my daughter was up Sulpher Springs Trail to the AT the day before her death. That is always a very special hike for me, one I made Sunday morning again.

When I met Nessmuk, he introduced me to really hiking the AT and the blue blaze trails in this area. We are constantly expanding our trail area. This is mostly repeats for him, since he began hiking with the boy scouts here in the 60s. We paddle around here all the time, too. I feel torn some days about whether to hike or paddle, so do both most summer days.

There are so many places I want to hike now, and so little time. What in the world would I accomplish were I not a teacher with summers off?

In the wind...(yes, I ride motorcycle too, and disturb folks from the BRP).

Frau

J5man
02-12-2008, 23:20
L.Wolf, funny you should start this thread.......I actually started writing an article on this a couple months ago so I am going to cut and paste what I have writtens so far.... Footslogger, you are actaully mentioned towards the end because of a lot of the informational posts you have submitted.....I just did not get to a lot of you others yet....anyway here it is: (the actual time of my first encounter was Oct 2006)


I remember the day it happened; the first day I first stepped on the Appalachian Trail. I was on a hiking trip with my nephew, Ethan, and we were doing a stretch on the 20 Mile Trail in the Smoky Mountains, a few miles from Fontana Dam. I had heard of the Appalachian Trail before then but really did not much about it at all. On our way up the 20 Mile Trail, we met a couple of middle-aged guys coming down. In our brief conversation, they mentioned that our trial would eventually run into the AT. I remember thinking how excited they seemed over something so “not a big deal”. Our plan that day was to hike up 20 Mile Trail, hang a right (which I soon learned was the AT), and go to Shuckstack Fire Tower. Anyway, after a brief encounter with these enthusiastic hikers, I knew there was something more to the AT than I had realized. Ethan and I kept on trucking up this steep, winding, never ending trail until we finally got to the intersection of the 20 Mile Trail and the AT. We were hiking in unknown territory to us and were trying to gauge our activities to get back to the trailhead before it got dark. My guidebook gave some vague instructions on how to look for these “markings” on a tree on the AT (my first exposure to ‘Blazes’ – markings painted on trees to mark a path or a side destination off of a main path) and follow the overgrown path up the top of the mountain where the fire tower was. We decided to go for it. As soon as my foot touched the AT, it just seemed different. I can’t really explain it, but it was just different. Little did I know the rich and illustrious history of the path I was on. It could be likened to someone stepping on a sacred Indian burial site not having any idea the levity of where they are. I did not know that this little stretch I was on was a mere speck of the 2,000 plus miles stretching from Georgia to Maine. I did not know that it was originally conceived to be a trail to encourage people to get out and hike in their area, and that it was never meant to be thru-hiked. I did not the story of Grandma Gatewood, the 70 year old woman from Ohio, who thru-hiked in tennis shoes and carried a shower curtain as her shelter. I did not know the story of Bill Erwin, the blind man who thru-hiked it with his seeing-eye dog, Orient. All I knew was that it had a calling that would bring me back to it.
After we got back from our trip, I began reading about the AT. Then I started researching it. Then I became obsessed with it. I stumbled upon a website called www.whiteblaze.net (http://www.whiteblaze.net/), a site for AT enthusiasists. To me it was like finding the Dead Sea Scrolls! It had articles on every aspect of hiking the AT from gear lists to first aid. I was in heaven. Initially, I just scoured the articles, then I started reading the posts people were using. Eventually, I signed on and became a member of the site. This allowed me to start my own posts. I was amazed at the sense of community these AT hikers had. I worked in the pharmaceutical industry and the industry website that would be equivalent to this site is nothing more than a tool for frustrated employees to complain about how miserable their lives are. I started a few online threads about equipment and then a couple about hiking in The Smoky Mountains. I was amazed at how knowledgeable and helpful everyone was. I learned so much just from reading the posts. I eventually logged on everyday just to see what was going on. Some of the members are quite well known and reply to almost every subject on there, eventually I felt like I was getting to know some of these people. “Footslogger” for instance is a physical therapist who lives in Wyoming. He thru-hiked the AT in 2003. He is very passionate about hiking and seems to know as much about it as anyone but yet is one of the most humble people on the site. His wife is “Bad Ass Turtle”. Most people who hike the AT (and other trials too) eventually take on a “Trail Name”, a nickname given to you by other hikers or in some cases, one that you’ve given yourself.

J5man
02-12-2008, 23:22
actually I did not even know the section of the 20 mile Trail we were doing was the BMT.

dessertrat
02-12-2008, 23:33
My first AT backpack was around 1942, when we peddled out bikes to Dolly Copp, and camped for two weeks. Gas rationing had made automobile travel impossible, and by then my Mom was working as a machinist in a Maine shipyard.

Weary

My grandmother might have known your mother. She was a smokestack welder at BIW during the war.

dragonfeet
02-12-2008, 23:44
1999 I was working in Dahlonega Ga and this carpenter was always going on and on about the AT. So finally I got a pack together and hiked from Amacaloa to Springr and back. The first night I slept next to a tree and was covered in carpenter ants all night. The second night it rained and I didnt bring a tend on account of all the shelters that were supposed to be peppered along the trail like a chain of motel 6's. It took me 3 days and by the time I got back I could barley walk and ever since then no matter where I am in the world my heart is always in the woods.

Nokia
02-12-2008, 23:50
Beaver Brook trail headed up Moosilauke in the winter. We brought trash bags and slid partly down the falls. Stupid

Capt.Scott
02-12-2008, 23:59
I was 16 or 17, about 1977, hiking with my father and brothers in the Blue Ridge. First trip on the east coast after having moved from Montana. We hiked up the Gunter Ridge Trail to Marble Spring. Shelter was gone, but I met two thru-hikers camping under a tarp. The seeds were planted and I have been hiking ever since. Will be on Katahdin June 2009 ready to head south. PEACE

SunnyWalker
04-03-2008, 20:19
It was 1998 and I was off work due to a broken ankle. I was over at Barnes and Nobles looking at their bicycle books. I had broken my ankle on a cross country bicycle trip. Had an accident in Rawlins, WY and had to come home. (Went back the next year and completed the trip). Anyhew . . . there I was in B and N and I found this book on the AT. Now I knew about the AT, faintly back in my mind. Being from the NW we have plenty to hike on and never had once considered the AT and the East. Well, the book was captivating and I made a mental note about the AT. Thus I have read and studied about it and this last Summer finally left Amicolola falls and found myself at Springer. The first step on the actual trail made me think of that broken ankle and finding that book. Memories, the stuff of life.