I lived in Connecticut for three years after I left the United States Navy and then moved to Maryland where I've lived for the past 41 years. At the end of 1999 and in January of 2000 while visiting one of my children who was in the Peace Corps I read Bill Bryson's "A Walk In The Woods" and this was the first time I probably realized I lived about two hours from the Appalachian Trail (AT). I had been to Harpers Ferry but never noticed the White Blazes in town.
The idea that two older guys without any backpacking or hiking experience could hike the 2100 plus miles of the AT from Georgia to Maine made me believe that I could do it too.
Reality, my career, my family obligations and my lack of hiking knowledge kept me off the AT. I learned a lot from "Backpacking Light" a Yahoo discussion group and that became the source of how I prepared to hike the AT.
In August of 2003 I backpacked for a single overnight the first time. My Madden Mountaineering Backpack at 6 pounds was way too heavy and I had packed too much food and water for a simple overnight. I learned a lot from all the mistakes I made on this first hike from carrying too much weight, forgetting the poles for my tent, not watching white blazes for trail turns and other stuff. I was also 62 years old and out of shape and I had not done much training for this initial hike.
The most important lesson I learned on this initial hike is to not try to bushwhack back to the AT. Upon leaving Pen Mar and heading south (SoBo) I was on a wide and flat trail and I missed the AT turning off to my left. I ended up at someones home. I should have just turned around and retraced my steps but I didn't. I pulled out my AT terrain map of Maryland and my Compass and determined that I could intersect the AT using my Compass. I was lucky and I did cross the AT and continued on SoBo. I nearly fell backwards climbing up some rocks as my pack was too heavy and I wasn't experienced at this time to know the proper way to climb. My the time I got to the turn off to the Shelter I was too tired to go any further and decided to set up my tent. Discovering I had left my tent poles in the back of my Jeep, I used my hiking poles and some cord I had brought and rigged my tent so I had about a foot of head room. I boiled water with my Pocket Rocket stove (still use it today) and poured it into one of those freeze dried meals. At that time I didn't realize how much sodium was in those meals. I was way too warm in my 25 degree sleeping bag and the road and dog noises kept me up part of the night.
The next day I wasn't really hungry so I ate an energy bar packed up and hiked back to Pen Mar. This time I made sure to watch for a white blaze every few minutes. As tired and sore as I was I was very happy I had done this first overnight backpack.
