For me it was August of 1985. I'd made the decision a month earlier to hike the AT starting March of 86. I was living in R.I. and drove to Mt. Greylock, parked and walked north for about a mile. I've been screwed up ever since.
For me it was August of 1985. I'd made the decision a month earlier to hike the AT starting March of 86. I was living in R.I. and drove to Mt. Greylock, parked and walked north for about a mile. I've been screwed up ever since.
For me it was 1960 when my brother and I first climbed Mt. Washington.
I'm guessing around 1937 and on Mt. Washington. My mother took her six kids to the National Forest Dolly Copp Campground outside of Gorham for two months every summer, and we regularly climbed the surrounding mountains mostly on foot, but Washington by car, foot and train. A frequent excusion was to climb Washington by the light of a full moon, catch the sunrise, and then do the Presidential Range and exiting via the Daniel Webster Scout Trail to our Dolly Copp tent site.
My first AT backpack was around 1942, when we peddled out bikes to Dolly Copp, and camped for two weeks. Gas rationing had made automobile travel impossible, and by then my Mom was working as a machinist in a Maine shipyard.
After the war my mother returned to teaching, a career she had begun when just out of high school in 1918. She and her youngest child eventually graduated from college the same year in the late 1950s. Most of us drifted away from long Dolly Copp vacations, but my Mom continued camping and climbing from late spring until early autumn well into her 80s.
Weary
1972 while on a 55 mile hike along the Long Trail. We were in the area where the AT and the Long Trail are the same.
kncats
It was a Septemeber Saturday morning in 1980 at the 3 Forks road crossing. We hiked south, stopping at Stover Creek shelter for lunch and then continued on to Springer. We camped at Springer. Woke up early Sunday morning and watched the sun rise and then hiked back down to FS 42, where we got our ride back to Atlanta.
Hadn't thought about that day for years but when I saw this thread it came back to me like it was yesterday.
Thanks for the memories ...
'Slogger
AT 2003
The more I learn ...the more I realize I don't know.
You're welcome Slogger. I was out hiking today on the AT out of Damascus and was thinking about when I first walked on "The Trail". Thought it would be a good thread.
October of 1988. I took a backpacking class that was offered at the local county college. We traveled North of Rt 206 in NJ, near where the bakery was, and on to High Point. It was my first time backpacking and on the AT too. I rehiked that section last summer. Saw a mama bear and cub right near where I had started so many years ago.
"The wheel is turning and you can't slow down..."
For me it was during summer vacation with my family, 1964, @ Clingman's dome in the smokies. I was at the lookout tower, yippy, yaawn, saw a sign that said "Appalachian trail -----> " I followed the sign Looked Left (south) looked Right, left again & fell in love. I wanted to hike the trail then & there, for some reason Dad wouldn't let me. I don't understand, after all I was 10, had no gear or experience or money, so why couldn't I hike?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Anyway, I have a picture of that very spot after hiking to it from the GA border (dick's creek gap actually) in 2000.
Someday, I shall see it again, on my thru hike in ????.
Doctari.
Curse you Perry the Platypus!
I have been hiking on the AT since 1975 as a teen and never stopped. I presently live about 100 yds off of the trail in Cheshire,MA between Mt. Greylock and the Cobbles. This will be my first thu-hike this year, but I have section hiked from Delaware Water Gap to Katahdin. I once owned a house in Cheshire for many years where the trail was my back border. I consider the AT my playground. Draggin
April 6, 1973, northbound from Delaware Water Gap to Unionville, New York with two other 15-year old Boy Scouts. We did sections in PA, MA and CT the next two spring breaks, which led me to set a life goal of completing the AT someday.
I do remember seeing the white blazes leading into the dark woods of what I later learned was the Long Trail in northern Vermont when I was in elementary school in the late 60's. I walked along a bit of the LT after summiting Mt. Mansfield from the west on a 5th grade field trip, and I walked into the woods at a road crossing once. I was always impressed with how rugged the LT looked, and I found out that the northern LT really is when I thru-hiked in August 1979.
GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014
What college and where in NJ, Alligator? I went to high school in Middletown in central Jersey near Sandy Hook.Originally Posted by Alligator
GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014
Can't remember the exact name of the spot, but it was where the access trail from Cosby Campground intersected the trail just north of Cosby Knob. It was in 1997, and was my first long trip with scouts.
1953. My mother says she took me for a short walk on the A.T. in Shenandoah NP. I was 2 years old and have no memory of this (or much else for that matter...)
Was there a lookout tower then? Seems like I visited Clingman's about 1983 and it was a clearing in the woods surrounded by trees.Originally Posted by Doctari
I remember climbing on the Rosevelt monument at Newfound gap (and my parents have the picture) about 1963. First day hike on the AT was a Saturday morning in July of 1975 from Wayah Bald to Wayah Gap, 4.2 miles.
First Backpacking trip was from Hot Springs to Erwin in May of 2003, a trip I took to be out in the woods instead of someplace where they could throw me a party for my 50th Birthday.
Walk Well,
Risk
Author of "A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike"
http://www.wayahpress.com
Personal hiking page: http://www.imrisk.com
It was 1991 or 2, and my BSA Troop was overnighting it @ one of PATC's cabins. Milesburn Cabin, in Caledonia State Park, PA, is about 25' off the trail, and is a GREAT place to hang out and relax.
I have since visited 12 other PATC cabins on or near the trail & have absolutely loved most of them....
Be Prepared
Age 8, walking down South Main Street in my hometown.
We also frequently went up through the woods behind our house to Velvet Rocks Shelter.
- Tramper Al
Age 2, walking down South Main Street in my hometown.
We also frequently went up through the woods behind our house to Velvet Rocks Shelter.
- Tramper Al
Not only have I accidentally discovered 'quick reply', but I seem to have no editing (or deleting) access to my own posts. Sorry again.
- Tramper Al
So let me get this straight: You're saying that you were totally sane and normal until then?Originally Posted by L. Wolf
Hmmm.
Oh absolutely.