Journey of a lifetime

When the journey along the Appalachian Trail finally came to an end for Bailey, a 56-year-old retired teacher, coach and referee from Lexington, there was elation and exhilaration, an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and a lifetime of memories.

The Appalachian Trail is like the Holy Grail of North American hiking trails. Finish it in its entirety and it’s like having a badge of honor. Stretching an estimated 2,175 miles through 14 states along the eastern seaboard, an average of 1,600 hikers attempt to traverse the Appalachian Trail each year starting at Springer Mountain, Ga. Approximately 25 percent finish the journey that even in ideal conditions takes about between five and seven months. On Oct. 5, 2007, Bailey and a small band of friends that he met along the way became part of the select club.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail isn’t something a person simply wakes up one day and does. Instead, it takes experience and planning, conditioning and discipline. And, if a person is going to become a “thru-hiker (somebody who hikes the trail in one season),” they better have done their homework.

Bailey spent months training and researching his trip. He read books; he did several 3-to-5 day hikes in the Smokies and went on long day hikes in Bankhead National Forest.

Ultimately, it was reading obituaries that spurred him to hike the Appalachian Trail.

“I kept seeing a lot of guys my age or younger in the obituaries,” said Bailey, who currently is living in Utah. “Some of them had lifestyle issues and some of them had fitness-related issues. I decided that if I was going to go on an adventure like that, I’d better be getting it done right now.”

On March 20, hiking buddy Greg Hart and another friend dropped off Bailey at Springer Mountain, Ga., the trail’s most southern point, so he could begin his journey of a lifetime.

Bailey said most thru-hikers start at Springer Mountain in the spring and travel north, because of better weather. The trip must be completed by mid-October, before Baxter State Park in Maine, closes.Thru-hikers must set a pace that will allow them to make the trek within that time frame.

Bailey started out alone with only a 60-pound backpack, a Martin backpacker guitar and some harmonicas, but quickly met up with a group of other thru-hikers who also shared a love of music.

“We were trying to hike 10 or 12 miles a day and we’d play music at night,” Bailey said. “The music was mostly to keep your mind off your body.”

The trail is marked with white blaze and is rated between moderate to difficult to hike. Along the way, Bailey and his friends encountered snow drifts in the Smokies to drought conditions during the summer months. The group usually slept in shelters, or lean-tos, that are located along the trail near water sources about every 15 miles. Bailey likened the lean-tos to an open-ended cow barn.

“You always try to sleep near a water source,” Bailey said. “In the summer, you try to carry enough water to make it 15 miles. But it was a very dry summer and you never knew if when you got to the next water source if the spring would be dry or not.”

Hiking the Appalachian Trail is not like walking down a smooth sidewalk.

“Pennsylvania is nothing but 230 miles of rocks,” he said. “There are no level places to walk. And then when you get into New Hampshire, it makes everything you’ve seen on the trail look like you were in play school.”

Elevation changes along the trail vary from 1a low of 123 feet in New York to 6,643 feet at Clingman’s Dome in the Smoky Mountains. With that kind of difference, is it any wonder why hikers travel as lightly as possible.

“People become almost freaky about how much weight they are carrying,” Bailey said. “They will try to shave down every ounce they can until about all they have is food, water, shelter and clothes. Some people don’t even want to carry pocket change up the trail because they say it adds too much weight.”

Bailey said some hard-core hikers only carry about 30 pounds of gear, which includes only the bare necessities to survive.

“I never could figure out how to do that,” he said. “I had about a six-day supply of food. Most people carry three or four days worth of food.”

Because the trail criss-crosses highways and passes near plenty of towns, it’s easy for hikers to re-supply along the way.

Bailey and his friends hiked the trail continuously except for a one-week break around the Fourth of July. By that time, they had reached the Washington, D.C. area and flew home to the Shoals. Five days later, they flew back and returned to the same spot on the trail where they had left off.

On the trail, hikers tend to gravitate toward others who are moving at a similar pace or have similar interests.

“It was one of the greatest experiences of my life because of the people,” Bailey said. “You become a lot like family. It’s unbelievable how nice people were that I met along the way.”

And there were pleasant surprises at nearly every turn, Bailey said.

“One day we were walking and a guy came jogging up the trail with some pizzas,” he recalled. “Other places, there might be a cooler iced down with Cokes and candy bars. People in new cars will stop and pick you up and give you a ride into town even though you are nasty and smelly. Stuff like that keeps you going. It’s a tremendous way of restoring your faith in humanity because so many people are willing to help you.”

Hikers along the trail pick up nicknames, and Bailey’s was ‘Coach,’ because of his background in athletics and because he served as a de facto athletic trainer along the way, nursing other people’s minor injuries along the way.

Bailey likened hiking the Appalachian Trail to running a marathon — not too far too fast too soon.

“If you go all out at the start in a marathon, you go about 10 or 15 miles and you hit the wall and it’s over,” he said. “It’s like that on the trail. You have to know your limits. There’s a saying — it’s not about the miles, it’s about the smiles.”

He said the most important aspect of the adventure is to enjoy the journey.

“It’s not about going just so you can say that you did it,” he said. “If you are trying to race up the trail and not seeing the people and the scenery and the towns, then what’s the point?”

Bailey’s group, dubbed the Magical Mystery Tour because of their musical talents, averaged about 100 miles per week after their Fourth of July break. They took one day off per week to rest and recuperate.

“Our biggest day was 26 miles,” he said. “If you are running a marathon, it takes about two or three weeks for your legs to recover,” he said. “You don’t have that option if you are walking. You have to be consistent and bump the upper edges to make it by Oct. 15.

Hikers do take some amenities on the trail. Bailey said nearly everyone carried a cell phone and digital camera. Others carried weather radios.

“We walked for a while with an Air Force guy and he carried some satellite stuff so he could access certain information,” Bailey said.

Bailey compared nearing the end of the trail to graduating from high school.

“You are finishing something that took a lot of time, energy and work,” he said. “As you get closer to the end, you realize that there are people you will never see again. Life on the trail is pretty simple — you think about food, water, a place to sleep and about the weather extremes. That’s pretty much it.”

The end of the trail features one of the most scenic walks — a five-mile hike to Mt, Katahdin in Baxter State Park. Then, it’s a 5,500-foot climb to the summit.

“You leave everything at the base of the mountain except for a snack,” Bailey said. “When you get to the top, the really great thing is to realize that you have been lucky enough to accomplish something like that. And then, you want to get back out there and see what’s next up the trail.”

Gregg Dewalt can be reached at 740-5748 or gregg.dewalt@timesdaily.com.