Would we ever hike all of the Appalachian Trail?

This morning, we went to church in Waynesboro, Virginia. Waynesboro is where the northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway meets the southern end of the Sky Line Drive. The two roads are very similar, as they both drive along a mountain ridge with many opportunities to stop and check out the mountain views.

But the Sky Line Drive is in the Shenandoah National Park. That means it would cost $25 to enter if we didn't have our national park pass. That probably keeps the traffic down, even on a weekend afternoon.

Shenandoah National Park includes 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail (AT), so we knew we would be close to this epic trail again today. When we hiked a portion of the AT yesterday, we didn't meet a single soul on the trail. But today we were fortunate to see a hardy hiker with a very big back pack. That's the best way to recognize a "through-hiker." That's a term for a person that is hiking the entire length of this 2,175 mile trail. He had a big smile, and seemed pleased when we asked to take his picture. 

He started this journey on a whim, telling his girl friend that he would probably only last three days, or maybe he would be gone for as long as three weeks. He had never hiked before, and he had never set up a tent. Now he is here, three months later and still going strong. He was smiling as he described his journey that has stretched to 900 miles so far. He summed it up by saying that it has restored his faith in the goodness of humanity. He has already passed many of these Appalachian Trail concrete posts, marked with the A and T welded together. But he has many more miles to go if he makes it to the end.

Those very old concrete pillars usually have other information as well. A detour of just 100 yards will take them to the Blackrock summit.  If we zoom in, we can see that an AT hiker should go right if heading north, and left if heading south. Almost all through-hikers start in the south in Georgia, and head north to Maine.

That hiker's lack of preparation is so different than another AT hiker we met five years ago. She was hiking daily with her 40-pound pack to get herself ready a year in advance. She was testing her gear to make sure she had all the right combination of cooking and sleeping equipment with the least weight. She was breaking in new hiking boots, then putting them away to be delivered to her at different parts of the trail. We met her in 2017 and hiked with her two different days. Then we watched her progress in the spring of 2018 when she left from the southern end of the trail in Georgia. She was planning to hike around 15 miles per day before setting up camp in one of the cleared areas along the AT each night. But not too long into her journey, she developed a stress fracture in her foot and couldn't continue. All that preparation, and her body ended her through-hike!

We met our second AT through-hiker of the day about a half-mile later. He was snacking on skittles and poptarts--two easy-to-carry foods that don't melt and provide lots of calories for hiking all day. You could tell that he was also hungry for conversation, as he told us lots of stories of his journey so far. He stopped with us as we got to the summit of Black Rock on our short hike today.

Black Rock Summit got its name from this pile of rocks that are--you guessed it--black. 

This second hiker started close to a month earlier than the first guy, but his journey has been tougher. His feet also complained about the constant hiking, and he has been suffering from plantar fasciitis since about mile 200. Since both our hikers will cross the 900-mile mark today, that's hiking for 700 miles with constant foot pain. He's tried different shoes and different insoles, but still every step is painful. All the exercise and limited diet will cause hikers to lose weight quickly, and that caused him to develop gall stones. He had to stop long enough to have the non-invasive surgery to have them removed, and he was on the trail the next day. 

The third strike came just this morning, when he found a tick on his leg. He's not afraid of the five bears he has seen so far, but the threat of developing lyme disease is frightening. He is thinking that a trip to urgent care to get antibiotics might have to happen in the next couple days. From all the details we know about his situation, you know that he was hungry to talk to someone. These two hikers are behind the pack of most of the through-hikers on this long journey, so they don't have as many conversation possibilities with fellow through-hikers. Those 15-mile-days in this green tunnel of trees can be lonely.

After three months of hiking all day long, we wonder if they still look around and enjoy the changing flora. We are certainly enjoying the mountain laurel here in Virginia. We are a little higher in elevation now, and we found some pockets of laurel that are still blooming nicely.

We've talked about the option of hiking that 2,175-mile-long Appalachian Trail. We have the time and the energy, and this would be a great time in our lives to do that. But as much as we like to hike, we're not interested in making that long hike. For one thing, we think it would be boring to get up and hike as far as you could every day. We have hiked many different short sections of the AT, and we have to say that they are a little boring. Some of the sections we have hiked had nice overlooks, but most of the day would be slogging down the trail in a green tunnel. Sometimes you have to look very hard to find a single columbine bloom to break up all that green.

So for now, we are perfectly content to find the best hikes in new areas as we travel around new territories--like today's second hike on the Doyles River Falls Trail. This trail starts about 24 miles down the Skyline Drive, the furthest point we will drive this time. We drove the most northern section in 2017, so it is nice to see this southern section of the Skyline Drive in 2022. We started our hike with just a little waterfall early on.

You might notice that this trail doesn't have just one waterfall, it is the Doyles River FALLS hike. Sure enough, we found a much bigger second waterfall that Denisa is standing on.

Mark climbed to the middle of the third waterfall.

The water is falling all along this trail! We have wandered into another of God's wonders!  It was fun to find so many different water combinations in this 3.6-mile trail.

We have to say that we like finding God's wonders in new places, rather than hiking one trail for months. Besides, we like the luxury of air-conditioning, a comfortable bed, nice warm showers, and a refrigerator of food in our motor home. We aren't crazy about trying to carry all our food and clothing, and doing without all those luxuries. So the answer to the question of "Would we ever hike all of the Appalachian Trail?" is a resounding "No--but thanks for asking!"