I just received Dave Patrone’s recent blog post (journal) about his recent mission, a 2176 mile charity drive hike on the Appalachian trail. It begins like this…
2053 EST Franklin Georgia, Budget Motel
forgive the typos, I’m on a backpacker’s keyboard and the space button is no buenoIt’s been a week on the trail and we finally broke a hundred miles today.
I sit on a bed for the first time in days as my brothers order a pizza from Vito’s in Franklin NC. We had a few tough rainy days but we broke 100 miles today and got up to 21 miles hiked today. Our packs are heavy for your average thru-hiker (mine is 55 lbs with four days of dehydrated food and four liters of water) but we still hope to complete the Appalacchian Trail at the end of August despite all of the locals who look at us like we are crazy.
We are exhausted though and the miles have not been kind to us. Doug’s knee is killing him and his hip ball joint did something funky today. Mike’s achille’s tendon is acting and I think i just got shin splints today while we were breaknecking down the mountain (that’s what happens when you decide, from nine miles out, that you’re going into town to resupply and you hear they have good East Coast Pie there (even if it is North Carolina).
You can read this and other blog posts here. It’s not to late to make a pledge to the Boys to Men Charity Network
May 19, 2008 - 10:14 am at 10:14 am
Wow, they started really late. May 11? I’m no AT hiker (because there is no such thing as a happy thru hiker. Just wait till they hit Pennsylvania), but people generally need about 6 months to do it. They won’t be in New England until October, when it will be really cold. And if they don’t hit New Hampshire until November, i think bad weather will end their hike. Too bad they didn’t go north to south. Anyone interested in getting the smallest taste of what these guys are trying might want to read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Wood. Bryson is a really funny writer, so the book is an easy read. In his 40s (1996), he decided to do the AT, but he only ended up section hiking it. The first section is all about Georgia and North Carolina, which is where Patrone is now.
May 19, 2008 - 11:34 am at 11:34 am
Bryson is one of my favorite authors. My first book by him was The Mother Tongue, then Made in America, Down Under, The Lost Continent and lastly, A Walk in the Woods.
LOVE THAT GUY!
I actually asked if Patrone had read it before going and he said yes, but for some reason, I don’t believe him. You out there Patrone, fess up!