Date: 2007-03-15
To: Influences
Miles today: 0.0

It's been a while since I last checked in, so I thought an update was due. Through conversations and correspondence with many lately, I have been thinking about what it is that drives one towards attempting a long distance hike. Some can relate to this and some cannot. I have come to believe that a lot of it is in the genes so to speak. I could be wrong on this, but I urge anyone reading this, who has done a long distance hike, or who yearns to attempt it, to take a good look at their ancestral lineage. They may find a few relatives who in some way or another shared a sense of longing for, or strong connection to the natural world, or a sort of wanderlust, or desire to strike out and find out what's around the next bend in the road, trail, etc.I can identify at least a few in my family. Two that come to mind immediately are my father and his mother. I cannot provide an intimate first hand account of my father since he died when I was very young, but from the stories and accounts passed on to me from my mother, relatives, and friends of his, I have a good picture in my mind of the kind of man he was. In his short life, he accomplished quite a bit. A veteran of WWII, he joined the NYC police dept. after the war, and in a short time rose from patrolman to detective. I learned a lot about his dedication and success in this profession from citations he received and newspaper articles written about him. Yet even after the success he achieved for the short time on the NYPD, he was not afraid to change course, and pursue a different calling. He went back to school, earned a degree in education and became a high school teacher. My mother once told me he dreamed of one day becoming a professor at a small New England College. He dared to dream and then pursued his dream. I learned also that he had a great love of the outdoors, and would frequently go camping and hiking. He would often take my brother and I hiking and exploring through the woods near our home. In looking back at who he was, I have no doubt that if he had lived, he would have hiked this long trail. It was just in his nature to do something like that.My grandmother, who we affectionately called Nana, was a feisty and spirited Irish woman, who always seemed way ahead of her time in many ways. My grandfather passed away at a relatively young age and Nana was left to raise 4 children. Her independent nature helped her fulfill that responsibility on her own and allowed her to realize some of her own dreams later in life. Growing up in one of the 5 boroughs of New York City, she longed for a place in the country. She was finally able to purchase a small plot of land in Middletown, NY surrounded by woods, pasture, and farmland. She purchased a small bungalow (I think from the Brooklyn area), and my father, my uncle, and some of their friends, took that structure apart piece by piece, trucked it all the way to Middletown, and assembled it on that little country plot. Over the years, she improved the place, and I recall some great memories of my siblings and I visiting for a few days and disappearing in the woods from sun up to sun set. The place eventually became too much for her to maintain, and modern suburbia eventually took over all the open spaces around her small oasis. I know she loved that place dearly and so it was a tough decision to eventually sell it. She later took up residence on Long Island, not too far from where I grew up. One thing that really impressed me about her was her ability to "get around". As far as I know, she never owned a car, and I'm not sure she ever had a driver's license. That never stopped her from going where she wanted to go. She simply walked to get there. I can recall her walking close to a 5-6 mile round trip to go somewhere, and she would do this multiple times per week. Whenever I think of Grandma Gatewood, I can't help but think of my grandmother. She was a wonderful woman who lived to the age of 97.So your probably wondering at this point what this all has to do with a thru hike, and in particular, my attempt to thru hike. My point is, the fabric of who we are, and in many ways what influences us in our life choices, is to a great degree based on those who came before us. I don't discount the idea at all, that nurture also has a great influence on us. It's good to know where we come from however. This will be a physical journey, but more importantly it will be a time to dwell on and contemplate lives that in a sense, live on within me.