two buds of mine started to hike the appalachian

[Pete]

They camped out of the base of Mount Katahdin yesterday, hiked up it today then head south. For those of you that dont know the The Appalachian trail is 2,167 miles long and runs from Maine to Georgia. The trail goes thru mostly the highest part of all 13 states it runs through and it will probably take them 4-5 months. Other great trails in this country are the Long Trail, Pacific Coast Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. I would love to do any of them but time is too short. Good luck to my buddys- I hope they make it all the way!

[stevestojan]

Hopefully the don't die from dysentery...

 

oh wait, that's a the Oregon trail... nevermind.

[billsfanone]

I guess they never saw Deliverance.

[Nanker]

This guy did it from the opposite end - South-to-north, and he took a couple of years to do it.

Interesting read...

A Walk In The Woods

 

It takes longer to walk the Appalacian Trail than it does to get my car clean on Sundays. I don't have the energy to do something like that any more. I wonder if they let RVs on the trail yet.

[BillsGuyInMalta]

Hopefully the don't die from dysentery...

 

oh wait, that's a the Oregon trail... nevermind.

366240[/snapback]

You also get snake bites every other turn...

 

How I shudder when I think of how many hours I logged into that game during my childhood. For some reason, whenever we had "Computer Class" back in elementary school, the only educational game I enjoyed was The Oregon Trail. Mainly because you could customize your own tombstone when you died. Somewhere...in the Shenendehowa School District here in Upstate New York, there exists a disk that contains a computer tombstone that reads "Here Lies Mark: Butt You, Poop!"

 

I was a troubled child.

[Pete]

This guy did it from the opposite end - South-to-north, and he took a couple of years to do it.

Interesting read...

A Walk In The Woods

 

It takes longer to walk the Appalacian Trail than it does to get my car clean on Sundays. I don't have the energy to do something like that any more. I wonder if they let RVs on the trail yet. 

366250[/snapback]

I read that book and its hilarious! He didnt actually finish the hike but the book is a great read. Another author in that vein is Brian Thatcher. He is also a hilarious read. I recomend them both!

[Dennis in NC]

Another great book along those lines, oh OK, it's in the water, but these 2 guys set out to cross the USA via water. They start from NYC, go up the Hudson, the Erie Canal, and so on. A couple brief portages, but just an incredible journey.

 

The book is "River Horse" by William Heat Moon.

[erynthered]

Well, I hope they believe in the 2nd Amendment (right to bear arms).

 

 

 

Could be some critters up there

[Pete]

Well, I hope they believe in the 2nd Amendment (right to bear arms).

 

366275[/snapback]

Because bears arent armed

[MadBuffaloDisease]

Hopefully the don't die from dysentery...

 

oh wait, that's a the Oregon trail... nevermind.

Hopefully they don't freeze and run out of food, and then eat each other...

 

oh wait, that's the Donner party.

[Phil Hansen Forever]

You are most certainly correct, the AT and the PCT are wonderful to hike. Other less grandios trails include the John Muir trail from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney; the Centenial Trail in the Black Hills - from Spearfish to Edgemont; the Mid-Continent trail from Duluth, MN to Spokane, WA. There are wonderful trails all over America and few have ever ventured over them. Some of us have taken the road less traveled...and it has made all the difference.

[Pete]

You are most certainly correct, the AT and the PCT are wonderful to hike.  Other less grandios trails include the John Muir trail from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney; the Centenial Trail in the Black Hills - from Spearfish to Edgemont; the Mid-Continent trail from Duluth, MN to Spokane, WA.  There are wonderful trails all over America and few have ever ventured over them.  Some of us have taken the road less traveled...and it has made all the difference.

366282[/snapback]

Right on! America is the most beautiful country in the world! Get off your couch and go see it y'all!

[erynthered]

Because bears arent armed

366277[/snapback]

 

 

Make all the jokes you want. Thats a tough trek. A 45 is not a bad idea, no?

[Pete]

Make all the jokes you want. Thats a tough trek. A 45 is not a bad idea, no?

366286[/snapback]

matter of preference. I would want my pack to weigh as little as possible and would cut weight wherever I could. A 45 would be extra weight to me but not to you

[erynthered]

matter of preference.  I would want my pack to weigh as little as possible and would cut weight wherever I could.  A 45 would be extra weight to me but not to you

366290[/snapback]

 

 

Pete, I'm not kidding, really. I hope they protect themselves. Have they planed this out? Do they know the history? Do they know people have died making this trip they want to make?

[MadBuffaloDisease]

matter of preference.  I would want my pack to weigh as little as possible and would cut weight wherever I could.  A 45 would be extra weight to me but not to you

Well if you DID encounter a bear, you could just throw your pack at your bud, knocking him over, and then run.

[Pete]

Pete, I'm not kidding, really. I hope they protect themselves. Have they planed this out? Do they know the history? Do they know people have died making this trip they want to make?

366294[/snapback]

How many have died? I know all about hiking the AT and have done my reading. I would rather carry a fly rod- it most definately would get more use then a .45. As far as bears go you will only encounter black bears on that trail. They are afraid of people. I would make noise as I hiked-perhaps a bell. My sister hiked the continental divide for 10 days and she did not carry a 45. She did however whistle alot and occasionally rang a bell to alert the bears. I lived in New Hampshire for awhile, did lots of camping, I am quite comfortable in the woods without guns. I would rather be armed with knowledge

[MadBuffaloDisease]

I would rather be armed with knowledge

Bears find that tasty, too.

[Dr. Fong]

Man what an adventure. I wish I had done something like that when I was a younger man. It's kind of hard to do once you have a wife and kid.

[erynthered]

How many have died?  I know all about hiking the AT and have done my reading.  I would rather carry a fly rod- it most definately would get more use then a .45.  As far as bears go you will only encounter black bears on that trail.  They are afraid of people.  I would make noise as I hiked-perhaps a bell.  My sister hiked the continental divide for 10 days and she did not carry a 45.  She did however whistle alot and occasionally rang a bell to alert the bears.  I lived in New Hampshire for awhile, did lots of camping, I am quite comfortable in the woods without guns.  I would rather be armed with knowledge

366299[/snapback]

 

 

 

Your confedence is good, I still think its foolish. I'd rather be safe than dead....Read on.......

 

Some facts:

 

A visitor to the A.T. has a one-in-13-to-17-million chance of meeting a violent death.

 

 

September 1990—Thru-hikers Molly LaRue, 25, from Shaker Heights, Ohio, and her boyfriend, Geoffrey Hood, 26, from Signal Mountain, Tennessee, were killed as they woke up at a shelter just off the Trail south of Duncannon, Pa., by fugitive P. David Crews (now under death sentence in Pennsylvania). She was stabbed to death; he was shot. Crews, carrying some of their gear and spotted by a hiker, was arrested eight days later by National Park Service rangers on the A.T. bridge above the Potomac River from Maryland into West Virginia. The shelter has been replaced.

 

May 1988—Hikers Rebecca Wight (of Blacksburg, Virginia), 29, and Claudia Brenner, 31, of Ithaca, New York, were camping for a few days in Michaux State Forest in south-central Pennsylvania when Stephen Roy Carr, a fugitive who literally lived under a rock in the bordering woods, encountered them. He proceeded to stalk them as they moved their campsite to a spot off a side trail and shot at them with a rifle from the woods. Ms. Wight died at the scene, but Ms. Brenner, despite several wounds, managed to escape to safety and alerted authorities. Carr was arrested about 10 days after the crime and sentenced to life in prison, where he remains.

 

May 1981—Thru-hikers Susan Ramsey and Robert Mountford, both from Ellsworth, Maine, and 27, were killed near a shelter in southwest Virginia, 20 miles from Pearisburg, during the night, by Randall Lee Smith, who pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was paroled by Virginia in September 1996. Mr. Mountford was shot at the shelter, and Ms. Ramsey was stabbed to death a short distance away. Although he had made an effort to hide the bodies, Smith was arrested and charged within a matter of weeks.

 

April 1975—Thru-hiker Janice Balza, 22, of Madison, Wisconsin, was killed by a hatchet wielded by hiker/tree surgeon Paul Bigley, 51, after breakfast at a shelter in northeast Tennessee. He died in state prison in Nashville. He killed her for her pack, a brand he coveted, testimony revealed.

 

May 1974—Joel Polsom, 26, of Hartsville, South Carolina, was killed at a shelter in Georgia by Michigan fugitive Ralph Fox, who continued to walk south and then caught a bus to Atlanta, where he was arrested. Our records do not have further details on this case or Fox's sentence.

 

Those are the only murders of A.T. hikers—either on the Trail or as a result of an encounter on the Trail—of which ATC is aware. Other murders, of hikers and others, have occurred in the national and state parks and forests through which the A.T. passes, but away from the Trail and any Trail-related activity.

 

In 1996, some news outlets erroneously reported that two “Appalachian Trail hikers,” Julianne Williams and Lollie Winans, were murdered in Shenandoah National Park. The victims, who were murdered in the park, had not been backpacking on the A.T. but instead had planned a week of walks on side trails there. As the crow flies, the campsite at which their bodies were found was about 150 feet from the A.T. — where it bumps up against Skyline Drive at the Skyland lodge parking area — but much farther away by foot on trails. Their deaths did rock the A.T. community, and investigators spent many hours interviewing long-distance hikers in the following weeks, but otherwise that crime has not been connected to the Trail or A.T. hikers.

 

What about Rape?

The frequency of reported rape on the Appalachian Trail is about the same as the murder rate, but this is perhaps the most underreported of violent crimes anywhere.

 

The last reported rape, of a woman alone on a two-week backpacking trip, was in the spring of 1998 in southern Pennsylvania; a suspect arrested a week later was acquitted the following year. The first reported, and most horrific, was in June 1978 when a group of four high-school girls from North Carolina on a two-week camping trip to the Trail in northeastern Tennessee was attacked over the course of several hours by five or six local men, who were imprisoned for a while but later continued to compile criminal records. One of the survivors thru-hiked the A.T. more than two decades later. The Trail has been relocated away from the area.

 

Other Crimes

Trail relocations over the past 15 to 20 years have reduced, if not eliminated, incidences of roadside harassment of hikers, often a problem in the 1970s. Assaults are extremely infrequent. Occasionally, thefts of packs are reported. The most frequented reported crime associated with the Trail is vandalism of hikers' parked cars in certain isolated areas; we try to note areas of reports.

 

:

 

Trust your gut. Always.

 

 

 

Happy trails!!