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| Chadstrek Summary (so far) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| I started with high hopes on a cool drizzly day at Amicilola Falls State Park in Georgia. I intended on hiking the Appalachian Trail, a 2168.1 mile trek. I planned on taking about six months to travel from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Two days earlier Josh Perrault, and his girlfriend Nicky, picked me up in Providence for our long drive down south. We stayed at his uncles' house that night in Clayton, Georgia. The next morning they dropped me off at the approach trail. That first night on Springer Mountain was cold and wet. Even though it was the first day of spring, it didn't feel it. The first week went by, and things started to happen to my body, bad things. I started to get blisters, and worse than that my knees were very painful. A lot of hikers had the same problems as me. I reached Hiawassee and stayed at the Blueberry Patch Hostel. It was there I considered dropping out, but after a good filling meal of pasta and talking to other hikers, I decided to 'walk it off'. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The first couple of weeks it was surprisingly cold. During the day it stayed around 40 and at night dropped down around 20, I thought the south was supposed to be warm! When I hit the Smokies it started getting warmer, but still very comfortable. The weather was nice as well. For several days it was foggy and hazy. When the sun came out I sunburned, and got blisters on my calves, hands and arms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the Smokies I saw some great views, the best being Charlie's Bunion which is an exposed rocky knob with a great scenic vista. I later went over some cool Balds, which we don't have up north. They are mountains with grass on top of them, the best of which was Max Patch in Tennessee. I camped on top of it, and saw the sun set and rise on Easter morning. I had been making a lot of changes to my backpacking gear and within a month from starting had replaced most of my equipment with better and lighter stuff. I passed through a lot of small cool southern town like Hot Springs and Erwin. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most hikers on the AT use trail names, mine was Dungeon Master. I met a lot of nice people hiking like Mother Hen, Greenlight. Grizzly Andy, Maine, Moonshine and La. Bear who I hiked with off and on for 2 months. Nearing Damascus Virginia, a few of us decided to take the Damascus Challenge. We got up at 4 in the morning and hiked 33 miles in one day. It took me 14 hours, but it wasn't too tough. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| I went though an interesting section in Virginia called The Grayson Highlands. It is a hilly grassy area with large rocky outcroppings. The best part was the wild ponies that lived there and let you pet them.� I stayed in a few neat places like an empty church in Troutdale, a picnic pavilion in Bland and a log cabin on the side of a mountain near Pearisburg. A nice day was stopping at Davis Farm Campsite in Virginia. It was overlooking a beautiful valley full of farms called God's Thumbprint. I saw a great sunset and slept under the stars. In the morning I heard cows mooing in the valley. As I ate breakfast I could see them getting closer until they surrounded where I was, and tried to get into the camping area. I had a scare a week later when I was hiking up on Sawtooth Ridge. It started to rain real hard and got very dark, the wind picked up to maybe 50-60 MPH. I heard a roaring sound and thought the worst, a Tornado! I ran a little down the hill and crouched near a tree. After a couple of minutes it lessened and I quickly got off the ridge. The day wasn't over yet, I hiked some more and came to the most scenic overlook of the trip, McAfee Knob. It is an anvil shaped slab of rock jutting out into space overlooking a magnificent valley hundreds of feet below. The next day in Daleville someone told me that there was tornado warnings in the area the day before. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Soon I was in Shenandoah National Park. The park was great, the trail was relatively easy and I saw a lot of wildlife. So far I had seen lots of birds, owls, hawks, ravens, vultures, grouse, turkeys, bears, dozen of deer, and black snakes. I made sure to stop at every wayside and restaurant in the park, to keep my weight and energy up. So far I had lost 35 pounds, but my body was doing great. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| On my birthday I made it to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. My Mother and Uncle Buster, who lives nearby, came and picked me up. We went out for my birthday on June 15th. I spent 3 days resting and eating at his house. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| It started to get hot, and by now I had sent all my cool weather clothes home. A week later, I met my girlfriend Nicky and my friend Dan in Pine Grove Furnace State Park, where I was attempting the half gallon challenge. It is a thru hiker tradition to eat a half gallon of ice cream in one sitting. It took me 45 minutes, but I did it! Nicky and Dan hiked with me for two weeks through Pennsylvania. We saw rattlesnakes and Copperheads, through this very hot and rocky section of trail. A week later I saw a big skunk and a coyote. I was now in New Jersey, which was surprisingly rural and scenic. I quickly entered New York where I could see the Manhattan skyline from Bear Mountain. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| By this time, the weather had been hot for awhile. The bugs were out in force and sleeping was not easy. My knees had started to hurt again and I was a little homesick. In Kent, Connecticut my Mother and cousin Roger came to visit me. I decided to call it quits, and went home with them. I made the decision� to hike the trail to get away from reality for awhile. I was unhappy with my job and just needed to escape the rat race. It is a simple life on the AT. You know what you need to survive and what your priorities are. It also makes you appreciate what you have, and how little you really need. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| In April of 2002 I am getting back on the trail to finish it, about 700 miles. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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