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  1. #1
    Registered User Lacbe's Avatar
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    Default When did you decide to thru-hike the AT

    The first time I heard about the Appalachian Trail was from the February 1987 edition of the National Geographic " Tunnel Through Time ". After I finished reading the article I knew some day
    I would thru-hike the trail. 20 years later my dream comes true in 2007. I'm curios to know when you knew that you would thru-hike the AT.

  2. #2

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    In 1975 I had to go to Philly on business. On Sat I did the typical touristy things. On Sunday I rented a car and drove to Port Clinton. I knew from my readings that the AT when thru town and I figured I could find the white blazes. I hiked about an hour before I had to turn around and go back. It seemed impossible that if I turned left the trail went to GA and if I turned right it went to ME. I saw 2 guys tenting off the trail a bit. I knew then that somehow, someday I would hike all of it. It took 13 years but in 1988 I finally had the opportunity to thru. Thanks for reminding me.

  3. #3
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    July of 85 I was riding on the back of a garbage truck and for whatever reason doing the AT popped into my head. That day I started a seperate savings account. March 22, 1986 I started at Amicalola. The rest is history. I AM hiker trash.

  4. #4
    Fat,drunk & stupid is no way to go thru life, son. EarthJourney's Avatar
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    I think she first showed her appeal to me in '79. I was a junior in high school and one of my buddies started talking about it. I was consumed w/the idea for a couple of years and then it drifted away. Now it is BACK - with a vengeance
    It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent - Dave Barry

  5. #5
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    I read a reprint of the National Geographic article in Reader's Digest in 1989. I found the original article and was hooked. I didn't know anything about backpacking but headed out from Springer anyway. I promised my mom I'd be back by June to earn book $ for college. By Neels Gap I KNEW I had to thruhike. However, by Erwin I was tired and my mom's lack of support (she wouldn't send me $ from my bank account - pre ATM days) killed my morale. I've regretted every minute since that I got off. I married a guy and we were planning to go back in 1991 to thruhike, but became parents instead. (How long do you think that marriage lasted? )

    I haven't given up, though, and am going to thru when my youngest gets a little older.

    I've learned two good lessons, though. Don't give up on your goals even if the going gets tough, support your kids in thier goals even if you don't understand them, don't run away from your problems, talk to people when something is important to you, and listen when something is important to them. (That's two and two and one, isn't it? I must be a gully dwarf.)

  6. #6
    ME => GA 19AT3 rickb's Avatar
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    Default

    Ooops, just noticed this was the 2007 forum.
    Last edited by rickb; 03-30-2006 at 21:45.

  7. #7
    AT 4000+, LT, FHT, ALT Blissful's Avatar
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    Yep, I caught the bug in the seventies too. We used to travel to SNP a lot when I was little (one of our favorite parks) and all I could think about was this trail that meandered through the park with these wite blazes, and it stretching from Georgia to Maine. I contacted the ATC, bought a data book when I was 14 with my babysitting money (even though I wasn't hiking it, I just wanted something official!), got Ed Garvey's original Appalachian Trail Hiker from the SNP Big Meadows vistor center that became like my second Bible in a way, and have been thinking about the trail ever since!







    Hiking Blog
    AT NOBO and SOBO, LT, FHT, ALT
    Shenandoah NP Ridgerunner, Author, Speaker


  8. #8

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    I read that same article and was on the trail a few months later - in March of 1988. For a long time I thought that was the first I had ever heard of the AT, but a couple of years ago I found a sheet of paper I wrote when I was about 14 in which I listed my life goals/dreams. Among them was "Hike the Appalachian Trail". I don't know how I had heard of it, living in Arizona, but somehow I was intrigued enough to write it down, though I totally forgot about it for the next 17 years.

  9. #9
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    In 1972, when I was 11, my family moved from Michigan to Charlottesville so my father could work on his PhD. A family with three kids and no income except a grad fellowship looks for cheap entertainment, so we'd drive up to the BRP and go for short dayhikes on weekends. 'Gee', I thought to myself when my dad explained how the AT went all the way from Georgia to Maine, 'Wouldn't it be great to hike the whole thing? I wonder if anybody's ever done it. I could be the first!' Big dreams from a sixth grader! It took almost three decades before I did the first half. Just hope it doesn't take another three decades to finish it! But I didn't give up on the dream from 1972 through 2001, and I'm not going to give up on it now.

  10. #10
    Registered User Undershaft's Avatar
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    Back when I was in college(mid-late 90's) I became interested in backpacking in general. I was reading an article online about winter camping. The thought that people hiked and camped in winter had never occured to me. I soon found several other websites about winter camping to learn more. One of these sites was called HAE Adventure. It was filled with stories of winter hiking and camping, but at the bottom of the list was an account of a thruhike two of the members of HAE(Half-Assed Expeditions) did in 1987. After reading the journal of their thruhike I said to myself "That sounds like a blast. I should do that!" Only now, some 9 years later am I in a position where my goal is within reach. Harper's Ferry to Katahdin in 2007. Springer to Harper's Ferry in 2008.

  11. #11
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    I first started thing about it soon after becoming a boy scout. Then Nat. Geo article came out in 87. It took me about 24 hrs to decide to hike it the next season. My boss at the time almost choked on his salad as I told him I wanted six month off the next year. His next question was if I expected to have a job when I got back. I didn't care. I had a few standing offers. But my mind was set! When I told him my plans he supported me fully.

  12. #12

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    My dad hiked the AT when I was little, and I used to love hearing him talk about it, but it never really crossed my mind when I got older.
    He passed away three years ago, and several months ago I saw him in very vivid dream, and he said "you have to hike the Appalachian Trail". I started planning the next day.
    Mindi

  13. #13
    Springer-->Stony Brook Road VT MedicineMan's Avatar
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    Default for me its was when i decided not to---

    and that was in 1979, woke up on the trail, had camped near a shelter with several thru-hikers inside...overheard one of them say 'time to go to work', promised myself that i would hike as long as the body allowed but never let become a job or an end point.....
    Start out slow, then slow down.

  14. #14

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    When I was 13, I was going to a school for disadvantaged kids. We took a 4 day hiking trip to hike a section of the AT in NH. There were two guys with beards, they were nobo thru-hikers. It amazed me that someone hiked that far. Ever since I have wanted to do a thru-hike. now 15 years later I am still waiting. I will hike the AT if I have to sell everything I have. And one day I hope to do a triple crown along with a secret hike that I don't want anyone to know about until I am almost ready to do it.

  15. #15
    Top Shelf roxy33x's Avatar
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    When I graduated Highschool I decided to move to Costa Rica for a year as an exchange student. While there I got to meet a lot of interesting people from the states and a couple of them were talking about the AT. I had never heard of it and became instintly fascinated by it. It took me less than 24 hrs to decide I wanted to do it. I had never backpacked or ever done overnite hiking of anykind. Just the car camping thing. All I knew is that I had a heart for adventure and I felt connected with nature. It is breathtaking and inspiring to me and it makes me feel like anything is possible and life is good. So when I got back to the states I had a plan to do it, except.... I got married.... Then moved.... then bought a house... then aquired debt..... Ahh the American dream.

    My passion for the trail never faded... it just became more difficult to reach and the added challenge of getting my husband excited was thrown in the mix. But, it is slowly happening. I am now 23, and have been happily married for 3 years. We sold our house last fall and moved to Charlotte NC to be closer to the trail. We have begun getting our gear and my husband is starting to get excited. He is having trouble comprehending hiking for six months. I think he thought for 3 years that it was just a dream of mine and that it would never come to be. He hasnt fully come to know me very well yet!! He seems to think he wont physically make it. I wish he had the same " you can do what ever the hell you want to if you put your mind to it" saying. I guess I just want it so bad that nothing really scares me.

    Anyway, we are halfway there with the gear, halfway there on the debt being paid off, and im getting another job to save up for it. Im getting rid of everything. Im kind of excited about completely starting of new financially and job wise when we get back. My husband not so much... but he loves me! We are doing our first overnite trip next weekend with our packs, new tent, new bags, new pads and new shoes.... Im so freakin stoked!!
    Live the Dream Without risk, there is no reward. Georgia to Maine. What a reward!

  16. #16
    Registered User Jaybird's Avatar
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    Default decision time..

    Quote Originally Posted by Lacbe
    The first time I heard about the Appalachian Trail was from the February 1987 edition of the National Geographic " Tunnel Through Time "...........etc,etc,etc,.......... I'm curios to know when you knew that you would thru-hike the AT.



    Yo Lacbe:

    i've always loved walkin' in the woods...but, my decision to Hike the A.T. was in the year 2000...while visiting western NC (Banner Elk)...we traveled with our friends to the top of ROAN MTN to CARVERS GAP & got out of the car & walked about 100 yards up the TRAIL (on the A.T.) & i knew @ that moment...that i would hike the A.T. one day...

    i started section-hiking in 2002 & will pass the 750 mile mark this year in Central VA.

    Section-Hiking Pearisburg-Glasgow,VA (w/ "Jigsaw") Apr 22-May 3
    see ya'll UP the trail!

    "Jaybird"

    GA-ME...
    "on-the-20-year-plan"

    www.trailjournals.com/Jaybird2013

  17. #17
    1000+ miles down, 1000+ miles to go
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    I made the AT decision last fall. I knew I wanted to do something big after I spent a week hiking on Isle Royale in Lake Superior a few years back. I'm shooting for 2010. This year is lots of weekends and a few longer trips to "hone my craft." Next year's highlight will be at least a week at Philmont. 2008 and 2009 I plan on spending a lot of time on the Lake Superior Hiking Trail. Then in 2010 I hit the AT with a break somewhere in the middle to be on staff at the Boy Scout National Jamboree in Virginia.

    Now all I have to do is tell my boss and my wife.
    "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute.
    But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute--and it's longer than any hour.
    That's relativity." --Albert Einstein--

  18. #18
    Registered User
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    Default Quite a while ago

    Even though I grew up in New Hampshire, my first exposure to the AT was while camping in Shanandoah National Park. My (then) wife and our two kids would walk short distances and I would dream about the day when my life would permit me to do the whole trail. This was around 1966 when I was stationed in Washington, DC. Since then I have been through three marriages and two retirements and I plan on finally doing it at 68 in 2008. Single - free - and back in New Hampshire a mile from the trail. For those of you who make it, you will be walking on a section I maintain, and another section I monitor. Hope to see you

  19. #19
    Registered User blindeye's Avatar
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    i heard about the trail in the 70's and i was into hiking and camping so i wanted to try it. then all of a sudden wife,kids and i all but forgot about it.
    then about 2yrs. ago i was in the local grocery store when one of the cashiers a 20 yr. old female started talking about how she wanted to try the trail. as it turns out she didn't do the trail BUT it got me thinking about it again.
    that was 2 yrs. ago, i've been in the gym got some good advice from WB members and bottom line june or july 07 i'm goin' SOBO and i couldn't be happier

  20. #20
    Carpe Diem doobe01's Avatar
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    I decided to hike the AT when I was probably 12 or 13 when I went on my first backpacking trip to Mt. Liberty via the Liberty Springs Trail in New Hampshire. Me and my cousins were staying at the Liberty Springs Tent Site and decided to go up to the summit to watch the sunset. It was one of the best times of my life and I decided right then I would hike the AT someday. My cousins also agreed with me but now he cannot go because of obligations of beong an MP in the Army stationed in Holland. So I guess I will be heading out alone on March 9th 2007!!! I can't wait.

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