AT Section Hiking - Getting Started

In September 2021 I hiked my last AT miles with another younger senior, Phil Tymon from California. I first met Phil On Wednesday August 24th in the 100 Mile Wilderness just north of Cooper Brook Lean-to (most shelters in Maine are called Lean-to's). He was hobbling north with the aid of a broom as he has slipped and twisted his ankle a few days earlier while getting water. He had arranged with the AT Lodge in Millinocket for a pick up at Jo-Mary Road, about 3.7 miles further north. I told Phil once I got to my Subaru at Jo-Mary Road I'd wait for him and take him to the ER in Millinocket. It turned out he had broken his ankle. We remained Facebook friends ever since that day. He came east to hike my last AT miles in VT and PA as I was completing my 13 year AT journey. I learned a lot in the two year after my failed attempt at climbing Katahdin to Baxter Peak in Baxter State Park, near Millinocket Maine. As I wrote in my book "Maine's Appalachian Trail How Seniors Made Section Hiking Easier" I climbed Katahdin off the couch and didn't have the AT Data Book or AWOL's AT Guide or even a terrain map of the trails in Baxter State Park. For me, footwear is the most important item for anyone who is planning to hike the AT or just hike in general. I started with Merrill trail shoes and they worked initially. Initially I purchased the REI brand of hiking socks and they also worked for me for several years. In 2012, I was introduced to Body Glide, my another younger senior, Randy Ruble and began to use it every day on my feet in the morning and again during breaks, especially if it was a hot day. I've probably avoided blisters because of Body Glide. I can't remember the number of pairs of trail shoes I've purchased over the years, but as I aged, I found I needed more ankle support and I puchased my 1st pair of Asolo Boots in 2015. Around the same time I started to where ACE soft-sided ankle supports and found they worked best on the outside of my hiking socks. Between the boots, ankle supports and Black Diamond snap-lock trekking poles I felt secure. Since footwear is so critical, I've always shopped late in the day after I've been on my foot for most of the day. Initially, I'd use of socks that REI had for try-on's but started to bring my own hiking socks. I'm not sure who told me this or if I got it from an older Yahoo hiking light discussion group, but your feet will swell the more you are on them. Add a day pack of backpack and they could swell even more. I've purchase all my hiking footwear at REI as they have a great refund or exchange policy and I've been an REI member since 2005. Once you've settle on footwear and socks, the next critical item is your backpack. I started out with a Madden Mountaineering backpack in 2003, but at six pounds empty it was just too heavy. At the time, I was following a "backpacking lite" group on Yahoo and looking at backpack suggestions in Backpacker Magazine. REI had lots of choices but they were all in the four to five pound range and I felt being 5'8"and 160 pounds that was too much weight. ULA out of Utah kept coming up as an excellent choice, but no one in the Greater Maryland, DC and northern Virginia carried ULA. In the spring of 2004 I drove from my home in Baltimore County to Damascus Virginia as Mt Rogers Outfitters carried the ULA P2 pack and they had several in stock. It was a 7 hour drive and I spent the night in a motel near Damascus. Around 10am I arrived at Mt Rogers Outfitter and asked to be fitted for a ULA P2 backpack. The young man who took care of me, spent a lot of time measuring to make sure I had the right size and he loaded the pack with a number of 5 pound sandbags so I could feel what it would be like to carry 20 pounds. One of the great thing about the ULA P2 was the hip belts came in different sizes and I ended up ordering a small from ULA in Utah as the medium hip belt was just too large. My ULA P2 is 4900 cubic inches and weighs 47 ounces. I used it in July 2021 on a 3 day, 1 shelter night and 1 Hut night backpack on my last AT section in the White Mountains of NH. I've thought that maybe REI should have sleeping bags, pads, tents, cooking gear available to use to load up a pack during the sales process as this would be a much better way to judge how a backpack fits with "actual" gear versus 5 pound beanbags. OK, you've got your hiking footwear, your backpack, now its time to consider your sleep system. I've always used a sleeping bag and a 2.5 or 3 inch insulated air core pad. If I was in my 60's and starting my AT section hiking adventure, I'd consider a hammock. Back in 2009 when I started, I recall hammock systems were very heavy and a 2+ pound tent was a much better option. After trying several other sleeping bags over a couple of years, I choose the Big Agnes Zirkel 20 degree down bag weighing 2 pounds, 2 ounces. I also choose the Big Agnes 2.5 inch insulated air core that fits into the sleeve in my Big Agnes down bag. In 2014 my valve on my Big Agnes insultated air core failed during my last night at Fahnstock State Park in New York and Big Agnes replaced my air core at no cost. I am a restless sleeper, but with the air core in the sleeve of my Big Agnes down bag I never end up on bare ground or the hard work floor of a shelter. As I mentioned above, I would have considered a hammock system, but back in early 2000's I choose to tent. I started out with Eureka 2-person tent at 4 pounds but switched the following year to a Henry Shire Tarptent at 2 pounds, 2 ounces. Since 66% of my AT miles were road to road using the 2-car system, and I and the other seniors I hiked with preferred shelters or Lean-to's, my Tarptent didn't get much use. In 2019, I bought my friend Fred's 1 pound tent. It uses a trekkin pole for support, but it reduced my backpack weight by another pound. It's small and just enough room to sleep and my backpack stays outside Now, we have the Big 4, footwear, backpack, sleep system, and shelter. This means my base weight without clothing, medical, cook system, food and water comes in at between 8-pounds, 8-ounces or 7-pounds, 6-ounces. Now that we have the basics and I will discuss the others in another Blog, let's discuss testing out your gear. I choose to do an in and out hike to Devil's Race Course Shelter (this was torn down and replaced by Raven Rock Shelter in 2010) on Friday August 15th 2003 and hike back to my car on Saturday August 16th. This would be my first AT hike and my first overnight in a tent in decades. It would be a good test of my gear. I had purchased an AT terrain map for this section and I had my older compass. I parked my car just outside Pen Mar Park in a large parking area and under some very old trees. I used the park's bathroom before heading south. The path was flat and groomed. Somehow I missed the double blaze on a tree indicating the AT went off to my left and I ended up near someone's home. What I should have done, but didn't was to backtrack until I found the AT. Instead I took off my pack, laid out the terrain map and compass and made a determination that I could "buchwack" to the AT by following a bearing my my compass to a stream that the AT crossed. This worked as Maryland here is pretty flat and I intersected the AT and continued south. If I had had more knowledge I would have never done this and this was the last time I ever did this. There was some elevation change and since this was the first time I carried a full pack I had to make sure I was learning a bit forward when I hiked. I caught myself a few times and almost fell backwards once or twice. Between Pen Mar Park and High Rock the elevation increased about 350 feet over 2.8 miles. Except for some rock type steps I hardly noticed the climb. I did a pack off break at High Rock, took a photo or two and ate some snacks and drank some water. By the time I got to the turn off to Devil's Race Course Shelter I was tired and didn't feel I wanted to hike down the side trail to the shelter. I took off my pack and began to set up my Eureka tent. Somehow I had forgotten to put the poles for the Eureka tent in my backpack. I did bring some light line and between my trekking poles and the trees near-by I got my tent to be partially open. I can't remember if I was in a designated tent spot either, probably not. Again this is something I would remember not to do again. I boiled water and poured it into one of those freeze dried trail meals. It was ok, but it had way too much sodium for my taste, but I ate it anyway. I slept badly as I could hear dogs barking much of the night and the sound of cars. On Saturday August 16th I packed up and hiked back to my car. I had hiked nine-point-four-miles (9.4) and learned several lessons.