Date: 2012-02-25
To: My First Steps on the AT August 2009
Miles today: 0.0

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.Lao TzuIt was not quite 3 years ago, when the District Superintendent of the North East District of the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church (Boy that is an impressive title) Pastor Dave Michel / Trail name ¢Pitchit¢ wondered, if I might be interested in hiking the Appalachian Trail. He had been backpacking for years and more recently section hiking the AT with other United Methodist Pastors, United Methodist Laity and even a Professor of Veterinarian Pathology from Purdue University. I say even because Bill VanAlstine / Trail Name ¢Buck¢ is not a fellow United Methodist but of a different denomination. Buck is one of our best photographers. Buck will take pictures of anything and everything. Buck does not care if the subject of his photographs are moving or not, animate or inanimate, animal or insect, plant or rock and living or dead. His photographs can run the range of awe inspiring to downright disgusting or even bordering on blackmail.   He, especially, loves animal scat, fungi, spider webs and fellow hikers in uncomfortable situations or ridiculous poses. One of my favorites memories of Buck is seeing him hop out of the shuttle to photograph a dead moose. The UMPs, LUMPs and RUMPs would not be the same without him being a part of the group. I digress.Pitchit romanticized the group¢s section hike of 2008 in the Grayson Highlands in Virginia. He told me how picturesque it was and how fantastic the hike had been. I said to Pitchit where do I signup and would he see if it was OK with the others of the group that I go. They said yes.I believe Pitchit, unknowingly, understated the difficulties I would be facing with the section the group had selected to hike in 2009. The section of AT they had selected to hike in 2009 was hut hopping in the Presidential Range in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Wow, I think saying Pitchit understated the difficulties is understating the understated. (Those who have hiked this section of the AT would understand that last sentence.) But to be fair to Pitchit ¢ "Slippers" that would be me, my first trail name, could not have been more unprepared.I had three strikes before I even took my first step on the AT ¢ First I did not get in proper shape prior to the hike. Second I should have dropped at least twenty pounds before I started. Finally, I should have listened to Pastor Larry Ray / Trail Name ¢Trail Boss¢ (A retired United Methodist Pastor) at the shakedown, specifically, as to how to properly hydrate. I was heading to be an abysmal failure as an excited new AT section hiker.So in August 2009 after a Limousine ride from Indianapolis to Chicago, a flight from Chicago to Boston and a shuttle ride from Boston to New Hampshire late that evening, I would get up the next morning with the other 6 hikers of our group to take my first steps on the AT These first steps would nearly be my last steps on the AT. The first day would nearly be my last day. The AT would very nearly do me in. By end of that first day I would be exhausted. By the end of that first day I would be dehydrated. By end of that first day I would have no interest in food. (This is the first and last time I can remember not being interested in food) By end of that first day I was nearly literally dead.Bob Dexter / Trail Name ¢Boots¢ a United Methodist pastor took pity upon this greener than green hiker stayed with me until we arrived at Greenleaf Hut just before dark. I have blacked out the exact time, but I am sure it took me 14 hours to hike the 6.4 miles of the AT I hiked that day plus the distance hiking the side trail from the road to get on the AT that morning and the 1.1 miles from the trail down to Greenleaf Hut where I would spend my first night on the AT. I really wondered often that first day what was I thinking. Why did I believe I could hike the AT with no problems. I did hike that day from one awesome and inspiring mountain top to the next. But, when I hiked the second mountaintop of the first day and saw that I had one more down and up and how far I had left to hike to Greenleaf Hut to spend the night ¢ my language was less than stellar and seriously wondered if I was going to make it to that hut. I did.God bless Rod Ray / Trail Name ¢Noisy Rod¢ NR for short. He had saved me a mammoth supper at Greenleaf Hut. One problem, I had no interest in eating. I only wanted to go to bed and anticipated dying in my sleep.Pitchit ask me that evening before going to bed ¢are you mad at me?¢ I believe he felt he blindsided me with his tails of the trail and especially sharing how great the section hike was in 2008. The first day does not sound like the first day of someone who would hear God call him to thru hike the AT but do not underestimate what God may ask you to do. My second day you will read was worse than my first, but that is another journal entry.The best part, today, is I love hiking the AT and in only two weeks, I will take my first step to thru hike the AT in 2012. Buck and Noisy Rod will hike the first four days with me to Neels Gap. WTG will be there too and all the way to Maine. (She will always be there where possible at the end of the day and will hiking from time to time.My son-in-law, Jon Lorenz (No trail name yet) will join us on March the 12th and hike with me and possibly WTG until the 16th.It is getting so close I can almost see, smell, touch and taste the adventure.