Faithful Readers:
Today is Saturday, 14 April and it is raining. Not rain as from a passing cloudburst, but that steady constant drippy drizzle that would make hiking the trail today an exercise in personal fortitude. I am warm and dry, sitting at my kitchen table looking out of the window and thinking about all the AT hikers who had likely planned to start their thru-hike on 01 April and now, two weeks later, are either already off the trail or seriously considering it given this spring’s dose of cold, wet, stormy weather.
I have been browsing though multiple journals on www.trailjournals.com. So many of them seem to start off with great enthusiasm and optimism. They start with happy stories of how they imagine the hike will progress, how they may be able to “lose a few pounds along the way,” how they just retired from their job, how understanding their spouse is to let them do this, how they have been wanting to hike the AT for their entire life and now is the time. The introductions often include details on how they have been planning for months ahead of time, packing and mailing multiple supply drop-boxes, spending hundreds on new gear and clothes. Unfortunately, many if not most of the journals seem to end after two or three days into the hike. Some end with an all-too-common of a story that includes weather hardship, gear failures, repetitive motion injuries, endurance issues, homesickness, or some total mismatch of their expectations versus the reality of the trail. These are a little sad to read because you know these people started out with honest intentions. But they just had something that prevented them from fulfilling the plan.
It is the other journals that are a bit disturbing – the ones that just stop with no explanation. They often end with a last statement that reads something like “tomorrow I hope to make it to Podunky Shelter” then … nothing. I always wonder what happened to these hikers and why they decided to call it quits. At least give us an epilogue that says “my pizza dependency prevented me from going any further” or “it was at that moment that I decided I would be better off living a feral life with the bears” or even “Dammit! Hiking’s hard! I’m out!”
As for me, I am looking over my calendar for May to decide what weekend may be best to finally complete my goal from last year and arrive at Fontana Dam. I want to get there before 21 May, since that will be one year since I started my hike in 2017.
Doctor Photon