Date: 2002-03-24
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Miles today: 0.0

If you read my first journal entry you know how I got my original trail name   ...but who is "Toot" and why does he want to thru-hike the AT ??Well, no one thing is driving me to hike the AT. It is the culmination of something that has been developing inside me over the years, going all the way back to my first memories of being in the outdoors. I was raised in the city but always loved loved nature and being in the woods. Life was simple, growing up in the early 50's, and I took every opportunity to pack a lunch and disappear into the woods in a heavily wooded park near my home. I would spend the entire day just sitting high in a tree observing things from above or lifting rocks and investigating the little creatures in their holes and dens. My first taste of actual hiking came when I joined the Boy Scouts. It was a troop full of backpackers and it seemed like when we weren't doing handicrafts we were out hiking somewhere. At age 12 I signed up for my biggest challenge to that point   ...an 18 mile overnighter !! My parents had their concerns but I was a solid little hiker and had no doubt that I had the necessary skills and stamina to tackle the miles. I'm pretty certain that one single event set the stage for what has become a central interest, even a passion of mine. Over time, my adventures took on greater distances and were longer in duration. Any reservations or fears I may have had were replaced with knowledge, confidence and respect for life and our environment. By the time I turned 16 and made Eagle Scout I could hold my own with any of the older "Explorer" scouts. About the time I graduated from high school and enterred college (1967) there was a lot going on in the world. I made it through year of college but Viet Nam was just too big of a distraction for me and I enlisted in the Army. Now most guys who spent 3 years in the Army (Airborne Infantry) back then had more than enough hiking and sleeping on the ground to last them a life time. But not me   ...my love of the outdoors and interest in backpacking lived on. I will admit that immediately after getting out of the Army in 1971, the last thing I wanted was another "Ruck" on my back. I had humped an ALICE (that's a military rucksack, for those of you who don't know) so many miles over such rotten terrain that backpacking certainly wasn't the first thought on my mind. I used those first few years back in the early 70's to learn SCUBA diving and remain an avid diver to this day. However, time went by and the trail came calling again. I think the biggest attraction for me in getting back out into the woods was when my son began to show an interest in nature. Once he was old enough we joined the Boy Scouts together and I rediscovered my love of backpacking. During his "trail to Eagle" he and I hiked the GA and NC sections of the AT dozens of times. I led 3 backpacking treks to Philmont (a scouting reservation in New Mexico) where I learned a lot about higher elevation and low humidity hiking. Once my son made Eagle and moved on to bigger and better things I continued to work with that Boy Scout troop and to this very day still accompany them on many treks into the GA and NC wilderness. I was divorced during those years and used backpacking as my outlet for physical exercise and solace. Just as I was starting to believe that I would be on my own for the rest of my years I met a very special person, Leslie (Turtle)  ...the person who would become my best friend, soulmate and hiking partner. Our first "real date" was a 7 day backpacking trek in Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. It was on that adventure that we both realized just how compatible we were and how much we truly enjoyed backpacking together. That pretty much brings us up to the present day   ...allowing for a few minor details along the way. As I wrote in my last journal entry, my partner Leslie (or "BA Turtle" as she has become known in the AT thru-hiker community) did her thru-hike in 2001 to gather research data for her doctoral dissertation which by the way, she will defend next month (April).So   ...was it any one thing that drove me to plan a thru-hike ?? Probably not. It's in my bloodstream. I like people, nature, outdoors and exhaustive physical exercise. I like the challenge of doing things that are difficult and not often attempted by the average person you meet on the street. Last, but by no means least, I like adventure and experiencing new things. I am not the most competitive guy around, in terms of team sports, but there are few things that involve a challenge or adventure that I have not tried at least once in my life. For me, the AT is all about the experience and the journey and not totally about the destination. Having climbed Katahdin once already, I know the exhilaration of reaching the summit and I have no doubt that I will find myself there again in 2003. The magic will be the day to day experience, the meeting of new people and the 6 months away from the rat race.