The Joy of Backpacking and Hiking

As Far As the Eyes Can See was written by: David Brill In 1979 David hiked from Georgia to Maine- which is known as the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail is a 2,000 mile very intense hike. And I wanted to hike it with every breath I had.

That was back in the early 90's. I began a training routine to get better familiar with the backpacking tactics. I read survival books, trail books; first aide books anything and everything that could prepare me for this journey.

A friend of mine purchased us an Appalachian Trail patch for our backpacks. The Golden Rule was you were not allowed to display it on your pack unless you have already begun to hike the trail or had walked a part of the trail. So I kept my patch safe in my copy of As Far As the Eyes Can See as a gentle reminder what I was preparing for.

My dream for walking the Appalachian Trail will always be with me, but the desire to walk the trail today at the wonderful age of 50, is not as strong as it once was. That by no means is putting any negativity out there, in my case, I seriously doubt I would walk the trail today because life is different than it was 10, 15, 20, years ago.

During the time I was preparing though, I did some wonderful hikes and had a great collection of patches on my backpack. I will be sharing some of my journal entries of those hikes.

I want to try and fill this lens with as much useful information as I possibly can, because after you read the book I have mentioned several times, you will diffidently be inspired to do some kind of hiking and maybe even perhaps the big A-T!

For additional information you can write to: Appalachian Trail Conference, P.O. Box 807, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425, USA; or call them at (304) 535-6331

Day Hikes are usually short trails that can be walked in a few hours. Backpacking trips are longer trails you will walk and most of the time it will be an over nighter. Regardless of which one you are doing The Rule Is PACK LIGHT!

You still need to carry a Day-BackPack so you will have items easy at hand when you need them. This list is what I use to carry in my day backpack as did others who hiked with me.

1. A small Journal & Pen to write about your experince when resting.
2. Small First Aide Kit, you can either make your own or purchase a very inexpensive one.
3. Compass
4. EXTRA HIKING SOCKS
5. water, food
6. Extra T-Shirt
7. ALWAYS A MAP
8. A small flash light
9. Utility Knife (I personally have the Backpackers one by Swiss Army Knife)Swiss Knife Shop

Once you begin to read books on this, you will come up with your own list. I choose these items and slowly added to them from the experiences we had on our hikes. In the first aide kit, I ended up putting an ace bandage in there because on one of our hikes someone stepped on a rooted trail wrong and twisted their foot.

One of the most important things to remember is this: Everything you pack in your backpack is additional weight you will be carrying on your back during the hike. So keep it light and trust me, EVERYTHING counts!

April 25, 1993 (Sunday-Sunny, low 70's)
Cook's Trail
Solitude: The quality or state of being alone or remote from society.

We took our first hiking trip today. The trail is 4.1 miles and there is a party of 5 of us. We did not start the hike until late morning and finished by mid afternoon. The trail was pretty smooth except for some extremely muddy areas. There was a lot of animal tracks mainly deer and raccoon, we did spot a snake.

The hike was very interesting and a good beginners trail. The trail meanders through towering hardwoods and bends its way around beaver swamps on its journey through the piedmont floodplain area. We ate our lunch by the creek just taking in all of the beauty that was surrounding us.

I asked everyone what the highlight of the hike was for them so far, the replies were all basically the same, each person loved being in Nature and feeling the solitude around them. To me, I loved the feeling of the solitude and the comfort I felt just being in Nature.

May 01, 1993 (Saturday-Partly Sunny-mid 70's)
Deep Creek Trail-Indian Creek Falls

Tranquility: The quality or state of being tranquil; free from agitation of mind and spirit

Today we took our 2nd hiking trip today. We previously went to Cherokee, North Carolina and got some maps of different trails and I found this trail in that information.

There was suppose to be a group of five of us but it ended up only being three. The trail was located at the Deep Creek Campground, above Bryson City, NC. It was suppose to be a two mile round trip. The description said it was a beautiful walk and the falls were breath-taking! It was suppose to also be classified as an easy trail.

The trail was lined with a creek and as you walked you could hear the sound of rustling waters. The trip had a few highlights: We never really knew where we were going because it was not marked very well. It was a steady uphill climb and every few minutes we would say, we are almost there. We met up with another couple who had been walking from the direction we were going, and they stopped us to ask if the entrance was close by. They explained that they had been walking for 5 hours, and we had been walking 2 ½ hours from our direction and all we could do was look at each other. We told them we had been walking about 2 ½ hours and they went on to tell us the view was beautiful once you get there! The sky was becoming cloudy and it was already 3 PM in the afternoon, so we decided to turn around. We walked for a little while then decided to stop and eat lunch.

The best part of that hike was listening to water in the quietness of the wilderness. Everyone agreed that this trail is not the best hike for beginners, but it was one of the most beautiful walks, it actually made you feel in a total tranquility state, being totally isolated from the outside world!

A large group of us had planned on doing an over night hike to a beautiful spot called Standing Indian Mountain. It was suppose to be a 5 mile hike and many people in our group had been there before. This is a description I found on line about this hike.

Standing Indian Mountain from Deep Gap - (5 mi. the Deep Gap par the Clay County line (small sign) then turn left onto FS 71, which is(5 mi. moderate, mile gravel- road ending at Deep Gap. At the gap, the Appalrt) crosses through the parking area. Go East on the AT (you pass a wilderness registration booth - if you don't, you're not on the right trail!). The trail does a long, gentle climb of the mountain for 2.5 miles, passing a trail shelter side-trail on the way. When you reach the blue-blazed Lower Ridge Trail, turn right - you are near the summit. Follow this trail to the summit with it's nice Southwesterly views. Standing Indian is the highest mountain South of the Smoky Mtns. in this area (5500 ft.)

Of course we did not have these directions because other people in the group knew where we were going!

Everybody had a backpack on that weighed approx. 35 pounds a piece. I know my pack had a light weight frame, and everything I carried was VERY light weight. Anyway, here we all are with our backpacks excited and planning the nights events. I do not remember what moon cycle we were in but we had planned on doing somekind of ceremony that night.

We walked and we walked, for I do not know how many hours. Finally, someone had asked if we were lost. Jokingly the people who had be been there before, said "Nah, we are not lost its just ahead!"
So we walked some more. By this time my 35 pounds backpack felt like it weighed 135 pounds.

It was beginning to get dark, everybodies energy was completely gone, moods were getting pretty steamy so we found an area that looked half way safe, and we set camp!

Everybody remained pretty silent the rest of the evening. We were somewhere in the middle of nowhere and it was pretty interesting to say the least. (laughs)

The next morning, half of the group decided to move on to Standing Indian Mountain and the other half decided to turn around and hike back out. I was one of the people who turned around and hiked back out.

What happened was, we just simply took a wrong turn. When you are hiking like that in the middle of nowhere, it is easy to make a wrong turn. That is why I said above that you always need to carry a map with you. Regardless, if every person knows the trail, still carry a map.

The hike back out was really interesting. We kept seeing these piles of jelly looking berries on the ground, especially around our camp site. Well, guess what Bear droppings look like?

It was a very hard hike, and my shoulders hurt for a while after that, but it was so beautiful, it took your breath away. Would I do it again, oh yeah, except next time I would carry my own map.