Date: 2009-05-15
From: Woody Gap

To: Shooting for Fontana Dam
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Forty years old. What better time in a person's life to take a walk in the woods? I have a rare opportunity to spend 12 days traversing some of the most pristine natural geography in North America. Add to that I will be spending the twelve days with my sixty-nine year old Dad, Bob Burgess, and it is a no-brainer. I invited myself to join him and our good friend Michael Brown, of Savannah, Georgia to hike roughly 150 miles of the infamous and historic Appalachian Trail (the AT). The plan is simple: cover an average of 13 miles a day, starting at Woody Gap, 20 miles North of Springer Mountain, Georgia and finishing at Fontana Dam, North Carolina where my uncle and aunt, Jim and Madeline Burgess, will pick us up 145 miles later, in all our glory. We chose to begin at Woody Gap because Dad and Michael hiked the first twenty miles of the AT up to this point last year. Thus, this is a continuance of that journey with me as a privileged new hiking partner. The section we are hiking is considered to be some of the roughest terrain on the 2172 mile AT, which begins in northern Georgia ("Deliverance" country) and ends in northern Maine at the summit of Mt. Katahdin, fourteen states away. As novice hikers, needless to say, it will be quite a challenge to meet our calculated schedule.Our equipment is, of course, state-of-the-art. Kelty and Jansport backpacks. Eddie Bauer hiking poles with built-in compasses. Magellan nylon super lightweight hiking shorts. Vasque boots. In the hiking world, weight is everything, obviously the lighter the better. My tent and sleeping bag, each of which weigh less than 4 pounds, are hand-me-downs from my Dad as he upgraded these and other critical items from last year to save literally just a few ounces. In fact, I think he has completely re-outfitted his gear twice in preparation for this journey. The typical long distance hiking pack should weigh less than 35 pounds and ideally around 25 pounds. When we first weighed in and began training, our packs both pushed around 40 pounds. We quickly learned to ditch the extra clothing, sunscreen bottles, calamine lotion, protein bars, toilet paper and even poured out some of our premium liquors. I was even tempted to leave behind the Macanudo cigars as well but couldn't bring myself to do it. Down to about 30 pounds without food and cooking utensils, which Michael will provide and allocate for us to carry at the beginning of the trail, we felt prepared equipment-wise. When we spoke to Michael just before departure, he indicated the food and utensils would weigh in at about 8 - 10 extra pounds per backpack. Thus, we are now each back to our original 40 pound packs and, needless to say, concerned.Training is another story. My entire family is worried, not so much for my Dad who is a long-time jogger and in excellent shape, but for me. This is especially true of my Mom, Lola Burgess. While I spend a great deal of time in the gym and have built up an impressive three pounds of extra muscle over the last 25 years, I have no real endurance. As a result, I decided to impose a strict weekly regimen of gym-based and local hiking endurance conditioning. I switched my normal gym routine from primarily upper body weight lifting to a focus on my legs. The stair-stepper and leg presses, I thought, would be most beneficial for steep uphill climbs. I implemented this initiative with hiking boots and other full hiking gear on (just to get in the right frame of mind) and received many strange looks from other health nuts at the gym. A month of this, however, and my legs began to thicken and my strength increased. The true shock came when I actually tried to walk with my fully-stocked backpack on. This included local North and East Texas hikes such as the 14-mile roundtrip Northshore Trail of Grapevine Lake near DFW airport, the 20-mile 4 C Trail of Davy Crocket National Forest and the vibrant parks and highway feeder roads of Garland, north of Dallas. The hiking trails Dad and I did together, Northshore first and 4 C a few weeks later. It took our feet about a week to recover from ill-fitting boots and the shock of pack weight after the Northshore Trail, which was our first real hike together. I could barely get down the house stairs for the first few days due to blisters and just general foot pain, but it only took about a day to recover after the longer 4 C hike (my Dad lost a toenail on that one). The remainder of my training consisted of hiking, with full pack, poles and additional training weight, in and around the parks and highways of Garland. I had many a surprised family quickly move in the opposite direction of my hike in Breckenridge Park, and identified numerous homeless campsites hidden in the foliage along the George Bush Turnpike feeder roads. I even extended my conditioning to carrying my pack during evening neighborhood walks with my wife Jane and our 10-month old daughter Zoie. This resulted in many strange looks not only from peering neighbors, but also from Jane and Zoie. As the start date grows near, our concerns have turned to such phenomena as possible hypothermia, hyperthermia, snake bites, bear attacks, twisted ankles and just downright exhaustion. My Dad took me aside just before we left Dallas and said the one thing we want to avoid, under any circumstances, is collapsing on the trail. I thought to myself, "What kind of vacation is this?"By the time you read this, prepared or not, we will be well on our way to exploring perhaps the greatest trail ever constructed. No matter what happens it will no doubt be a grand experience we will never forget. Will we reach Fontana Dam? Does it really matter?