The Past Hikes

Just some good memories of past hikes with my college (Penn College) friends.

Hike with Nate, Virginia 2005

It was my Senior year of undergrad; we went in that small window between our last class and before my graduation. We hiked around the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia, we were on the Appalachian trail for part of the time.

First morning

Nate is ready to hike and clearly knows what direction to go

Nate, ahead of me as normal

Hike with Hugh, Pennsylvania 2007

Hugh and I took a few days off from our jobs to hike the Appalachian trial from Duncannon, PA to Pine Grove Furnace state park. I think it was like 40 miles. Along the way we were able to talk to a lot of thru-hikers which was awesome. What surprised me the most when I talked with them is that most said they had not done much hiking before they left for the AT, yet here they were after doing more than 1000 miles. Hugh and I had trail names for this trip; I was "Kang" and he was "Kodos" which you may recall is a Simpsons reference.

Rob: master of small rocky outcroppings

Note: pants tucked in to socks not only looks dumb; it also discourages ticks

Filtering some water

This is my favorite picture of Hugh

Half way point on the AT

Relaxing at the Hostel

Leaving for the AT in two weeks!
steady-state

P.S.
There is a good documentary on the AT from national geographic
it is on Netflix
search for "National Geographic: Appalachian Trail"

The Name

My trail name is "Steady-State" which is a call back to my education and has meaning for my hike as well.

Steady-state is a term used in many different disciplines but in general it refers to system whose response is not time dependent or that changes in a predictable manner with time. For example imagine that the temperature of your house is being plotted verses time in the above figure. When you start recording the temperature is increasing but there are weird spikes in the response until you get to time tss and then after that the temperature is gently moving up and down in a sinusoidal manner - the system has reached steady-state.

The name perhaps describes my personality as well.

steady-state



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Also...

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog, for praying and for the many kind offers to come see me on the trail! Please keep reading and commenting and following me when I start my journey.

I leave in three weeks!
March 14th (yes that's Pi day)
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The Why

As I have previously posted, the question of "why do you want to the hike the AT?" is ridiculous to me. I mean, really? why would I not want to do something awesome?

I picked up a good book a few months ago. It's called "Appalachian trials" by Zach Davis and it's all about the mental challenges to hiking the Appalachian trail. There is a lot of material out there about gear planning, and physical conditioning but little about mental preparation. I hear that discouragement is one of the most cited reasons for quitting and i don't want to quit so I snatched up this book about 10 minutes after seeing it advertised on whiteblaze.net.

Zach encourages the would-be thru-hiker to make three lists before starting the trail:

• I am thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail because
• If I give up on the Appalachian Trail I will
• When I successfully thru-hike the Appalachian Trail I will

He suggests reviewing these lists during the hike and definitely before deciding to quit. Now to some perhaps this whole mental preparation thing seems silly and useless - but this is a big challenge and I intend to make any preparation I can for this. You may view some these things as too harsh or exaggerated but remember I'm trying to psych myself up.

So here are my lists

I am thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail because

• I love hiking and I love the woods
• It has been a dream of mine for years
• I haven't taken any significant time off since high school
• For clarity and time to think
• I enjoy a challenge
• Adventure!
• I want to grow as a person

If I give up on the Appalachian Trail I will

• Be ashamed
• Feel like a failure
• Have to explain to everyone I know why I gave up the trail
• Have wasted a lot of time, money, opportunities
• Have to deal with endless flak from my friends

When I successfully thru-hike the Appalachian Trail I will

• Have confidence to take on future challenges
• Be a real bad-a.......I mean....rough customer
• Have awesome stories to bore my friends with over and over
• Have some new skills
• Be better at adapting to new situations
• Be better at talking with new people

steady-state

The Hike

My name is Rob, I am a 30 year old graduate student and after 9 years of college i am finally graduating! So since high school I went though 4 years of undergrad, 2.5 years of a real job, and then 5 years of grad school so before i rejoin the real world, I'm taking a break! My plan is to hike the Appalachian Trail - All of it. This blog will be an online journal of my hike.

A simulation I did in grad school

 3x5 cards: my preferred study method

Taking some vibration measurements

Here is a little about the Appalachian Trail

• The Appalachian Trail or simply “The AT” is a 2180 mile continuous foot path from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine. Those that hike all of it are called 2000 milers of which there are two types; section hikers that hike the trail one piece at a time over multiple years and then there are thru hikers that hike the entire trail in one season.
• If you hike from South to North you are North bound (NOBO)
• Hiking from North to South and you are South bound (SOBO)
• Most thru hikes take between 5 to 6 months to complete
• North bounders have a hard deadline of October 15th to complete the hike because Bexar State park (where Katahdin is) closes for the winter.

My plan

I will attempt to hike North bound, starting on Springer Mountain March 14^th. I will fly to Atlanta, take a shuttle to Springer Mountain and start hiking

Frequently asked questions

• Will you be in the woods the whole time? 
• No, I will stop in towns to resupply about every 4-7 days
• Will you carry a gun?
• No, they’re too heavy!
• Is it dangerous?
• Not practically but things can happen anywhere. The main dangers are falling, Lyme disease from ticks and extreme weather.
• What will you carry?
• A pack, tent, sleeping bag, camp stove, cloths, first aid kit, food and water.
• How far will you hike each day?
• Probably about 10-15 miles in the beginning than then 15-20 once i build up strength
• What are you doing to get ready?
• I am running, working out, planning, and going on short practice hikes.
• Why are you doing this?
• This question has never made sense to me.
• Will you keep a Blog/Journal of your trip?
• Yes, you're looking at it
• What makes you think you can do this?
• I really don't know if I can, in fact I may fail miserably but as my professor likes to say "If you know you can do it; don't do it"
• Do you have a lot of hiking experience?
• Some, but not a ton. I have been on backpacking trips in Pennsylvania,  Virginia, Arkansas and Texas but never more than about 3-4 days and not more than 40 miles on the trail.
• How will you know where to go?
• There are white markers (White blazes) spray painted on trees every so often to mark the route. I also have a guide book that tells me where to find water, how far to the next town, elevation, etc.
• Are you going alone?
• Yes, but there are a lot of other people that attempt this so I will meet people to hike with along the way. I may be by myself often but not alone. 

My tent

On the Lone Star Trail in Texas

On the Lone Star Trail in Texas

Nap time

So here's the thing: hiking for 6 months through cold, rain and pain is not easy! In fact only about 25% of the people that intend to thru-hike actually do it and 20% drop out in the first 100 miles! Hiking is hard work. Lots of people quit due to running out of money, getting injured (bad blisters, sprained ankles, Lyme disease,  etc.) but there are also a whole lot of people that give up for more psychological reasons like homesickness  being tired of doing the same thing every day, tired of being cold, tired of smelling terrible, tired of 2 straight weeks of rain. That said, may I humbly ask for a little help along the way?

How you can help

• Pray for me
• Cheer me on and encourage me! – comment on my blog
• If you are one of my friends and live close to the trail then come see me!
• Help others on the trail – it’s called trail magic, bring a hiker some fruit, a burger, a ride to town, or just a “you can do it!”

My trail name

The AT is a place of community and tradition. Many hikers use trail names to identify themselves. 

I will hike under the name Steady-State. This may change, many people are given names by fellow hikers along the way.

You can follow my progress on this blog. Additionally, I will be carrying a gps device to update my location and let my family know I'm ok. I will post a link where you can see a Google map of my progress.

More info

• Appalachian Trail Conservancy: www.appalachiantrail.org
• Forum: www.whiteblaze.net
• Some good books: AWOL on the Appalachian trail (David Miller), A Walk in the Woods (Bill Bryson), Skywalker - Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail (Bill Walker)

So for now, 

This is Rob and i am Steady-State