Date: 2006-06-05
From: Damascus, Va.

To: The hike begins
Miles today: 0.0

By David JablonskiThey will start walking Monday and stop in late August. That¢s the plan. Three months of hiking or 928 miles, whatever comes first.Jeff and Mary Jablonski of Mount Orab, Ohio, have been hiking forever, they said. When this little stroll on the Appalachian Trail is done, that will be true ¢ literally.¢Robert (Leary) asked us, ¢Do you really think you can do this?¢¢ Jeff said. ¢I said, ¢I don¢t know.¢¢¢We¢re going to try,¢ Mary added.It all starts in Damascus, Va., 459 miles from the start of the Appalachian Trail in Springer Mountain, Ga., and 1,715 miles from the end of the trail in Katahdin, Maine.Mary and Jeff, recently retired from their jobs as an emergency room physician and substitute teacher, respectively, didn¢t want to tackle the entire trail and couldn¢t. They couldn¢t start until June 5 because they wanted to attend their son¢s and daughter-in-law¢s graduation from medical school on June 2.However, their goal of hiking the section of the trail that stretches from Damascus to Bear Mountain in New York is big enough. As they said, they don¢t know if they can do it, but they won¢t know until they try.¢I want to do the hike as a challenge with my new life of retirement,¢ Mary said.. ¢Usually, our hikes are round and back and back and forth. This time we¢ll always be going to a new destination.¢Jeff wants to do it, because ¢it¢s there.¢¢Actually,¢ he said, ¢we met some hikers at Bear Mountain State Park a long time ago. We saw how cool they looked and smelled back then, and that turned me on to doing the trail when I had some time.¢Jeff originally planned to hike alone. He soon got a partner.¢I didn¢t want to be alone (at home),¢ Mary said. ¢I wanted to protect him from all the female hikers. ... I didn¢t think I¢d be able to do it. I still don¢t know if I¢ll be able to do it.¢Her $240 boots make her more confident, as does a three-day practice hike done at Shawnee State Park in southeastern Ohio.But the Jablonskis have been planning this hike for about six months. From what equipment they would need, to preparing food to be shipped to different parts of the trail, to figuring out who would feed their cat, half the work is already done.Now they just have to start walking.¢We¢re going to start slow,¢ Jeff said. ¢We¢re not in any hurry. No land-speed record will be set.¢The biggest difference between this hike and all the ones before it ¢ at Buzzard¢s Roost, the Cincinnati Nature Center or just down Crawford Day Road ¢ is the weight they will be carrying on their backs.Jeff¢s backpack will weight 35 pounds, and Mary¢s 25. Somewhere along the path, they pack might bring them down, and for that, they have a plan.¢You don¢t fall face forward,¢ Mary said. ¢You try to go with the weight of the pack,¢ Jeff added.¢We¢ve already had practice,¢ Mary said.¢You don¢t want to wreck your pack,¢ Mary said. ¢It¢s your house your home, your life on the trail.¢Falling is just one danger.¢Mostly everybody has been warning us about bears, snakes and dangerous people,¢ Mary said, ¢but we¢re not scared of those things.¢Someone asked Jeff what he would bring for protection.¢I guess I¢ll have to go back to condoms,¢ he joked.A badly sprained ankle or a broken bone could derail them, but the thought of such things won¢t stop them from starting. They plan to hike about 10 miles per days, five in the morning and five in the afternoon with breaks every two hours. Once or twice a week, they will stay at a hotel, but they will spend most of their nights in a tent.Netflix has been put on hold. They¢ll miss all the summer movies. But they don¢t think they¢ll be bored.¢It¢ll be a test. It¢s a challenge,¢ Jeff said. ¢It¢s something different. There¢s going to be a lot of people, a lot of nature, a lot of contemplation.¢¢We¢ll be too busy breathing hard up the hill to get bored,¢ Mary said. ¢I¢m bringing a book to read. My brother Jimmy said tear off the pages as I go and use them to start a fire.¢So will they make it? Three months or 928 miles? Or will they be back in the hot tub in a few weeks?¢It¢s questionable,¢ their daughter Emily said.¢I think everybody would like us to make it,¢ Mary said.For someone like Mary who ran the Boston Marathon, a little walk shouldn¢t be a problem.¢She¢s tough now,¢ Jeff said. ¢She¢s used to suffering.¢¢I get in the zone sometimes when I¢m hiking,¢ Mary said. ¢You don¢t think of anything. Your mind kind of goes numb.¢There will be plenty of time for that.¢I like the quiet of the woods,¢ Mary said.¢It is nice,¢ Jeff said.