Loner2012AT

April 7th, 2012. Intro video to a series made during a 5 1/2 month, solo north bound 2,178 mile thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. First I make a very awkward speech about my plans for the hike. I singed in as thru-hiker 801 for the year. *Click 'SHOW MORE' below for more notes about this video...

(The first few videos start out with me talking about recent events, then showing pictures and video clips. Future videos will be more in order.)

My Mother and 10 year old niece Kendall drove me down from our home in Greenville, South Carolina, to the Amaciola Falls State Park in Georgia.

We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for my last meal before the trail.

Once at the park, the visitor center has a gift show and a tiny museum with history about the park and the A.T. There is a nice display of all the different native animals that live in the area. They are stuffed taxidermy examples, but the black bear and coyote were still very intimidating.

Amaciola Falls gets its name from the Native American Indian word "Um-ma-eolola", or "tumbling waters". The Cherokee lived here until 1832, when they were forced to march west as part of The Trail of Tears. Settlers knew of only one Cherokee, a woman, who remained here until the 1850s.

(0:49) The falls are absolutely breathtaking at 729-feet tall. The highest in Georgia and one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia. You can really feel the mist and their power.

The park was not developed until Springer Mountain was chosen to be the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail in 1958.

Here is the website for the park. It's a little disappointing as you have to look hard to even find the word "Appalachian Trail". (http://gastateparks.org/Ami...).

It was the day before Easter and there were lots and lots of people of all nationalities at the park having cookouts and doing Easter egg hunts.

My Mother and niece walked thru the archway and up to the bottom of the stairs with me. Mom got the trail name '8th Mile' because that's as far as she could hike!

A small girl in the park, around 7 years old, saw me with my backpack and hiking poles, pointed at me and said, "Look, a thru-hiker!" (Her parents must have taught her a little about the A.T.) I could only think to myself, "I'm not a thru-hiker yet."

We all hugged and said goodbye and I started up the many, many sets of stairs. It was very exciting and scary at the same time to really begin my thru hike that I had been planning for about a year. Months later, my niece told me that Mom cried all the way home, thinking she would never see me again.

(0:57) The first day I hiked the 8.4 mile approach trial to the top of Springer Mountain (you can drive to within one mile of the actual summit if you like.), the Northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The former terminus from 1937 until 1958, was Mount Oglethorpe, about 20 miles away. It was moved here instead, because of over development and smelly chicken farms along the trail.

(0:59) When I reached the plaque it was almost dark but the sunset made it feel very special.

(1:08) Me kneeling at the first white blaze! This photo was taken by a nice couple on an overnight hike. I really like this pic a lot. (Look closely, and you can see my water bottles and guide book in my pockets.)

I was REALLY heavy at the start, almost 250lbs. Always a big boy, I had lost a lot of weight the year before with diet, long practice hikes, lots of kayaking, and twice weekly skateboarding sessions where I badly injured a calf muscle that took almost 6 months to heal.

Unfortunately I gained a lot of weight from not hiking and depression. But thankfully the leg was healed 100% and gave me no trouble at all during my hike.

I took my pre-hike planning and preparation very serious. Sometimes sleeping at night with the windows open and no heat in the winter, to get conditioned to the cold. Only allowing myself to use the sleeping bag and clothes I would have on my journey.

Also using my camp stove to make meals and I tried out many different brands and flavors of freeze-dried entrees.

I perfected my hammock gear over time with lots of trial-and-error. I also think kayak camping trips where my feet were cold and wet for long periods of time, then hiking for long distances, also helped condition my dogs to being damp and abused.

All that being said, there are people that came right off the plane that had never hiked, never planned, wearing blue jeans, carrying 50 pound packs, and had never set up a tent in their life. Some figure it out and make it all the way. Good for them! But the learning curve from being an indoor civilization person, to a rugged mountain man or woman, during a 5-6 month, epic hike must be an enormous, shocking, and a difficult to overcome experience.

My reasons for this hike: To live in the thrill and adventure of it all, to take a break from "work", and the satisfaction from learning everything I can about a fixation, then making it come true.


. Show less