Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Midway's Tale of Hiking the AT





I suppose in a positive sense, one might say I was infected, inspired in a positive way. What I caught was  a sense of urgency, enthusiasm, a sense of purpose, motivation and desire, the need to hike, not just to walk, but to hike, get close to nature, and learn.  And Midway is responsible, in that regard, infectious for all that.. Anybody who missed meeting Midway this past Saturday at The Country Squirrel Outfitters store in down town Ridgway, missed out on her sharing the experience on the Appalachian Trail (AT). Midway did that, accepted that challenge and decided to hike the trail, started in northern Georgia and hiked, hiked with a backpack weighing about thirty-five pounds, hiked across thirteen states, hiked north to Maine and arrived as a new person or in her words, “a different person a changed person.” 
            One might think that “Midway”, a tall and lean woman of athletic build, a hiking machine with dark hair cropped short, a necessity on the trail, that the name  isn't appropriate for a lady, but it's her badge of honor, a name with which she was christened while on the 2,100 mile trek. It was a name given her by her fellow “white blazers”, people who followed the trail north, taking no short cuts, “NOBO's” northern bound hikers who were sharing the path identified by white markers. By now one might be asking what her real name is. I'm not telling. She likes her name, Midway, she earned it as she was approaching the halfway mark on the trail, and she decided it fit since it also matched her age, halfway to a longevity goal she established for herself. She earned the name, and she prefers it. Ask her   yourself if you bump into her walking down town. She's visiting, making new career plans involving hiking and supplying hikers with nutrition, partnering in planning with Abbi Peters, the director of Elk County Counsel on the Arts.
            At her age, most people start dreaming about retirement, but not Midway. She decided to challenge herself, leave the comfort of her situation in California, put her career on hold, and hike the AT. Don't mistake that as a casual undertaking, a 2,100 mile walk. She was never a serious endurance athlete and never attempted anything like it, but she did “walk” around her neighborhood, on exercise “trails” and managed to build up to seven miles a day before she started her adventure. She took a hike.
Once she got started and accustomed to the demands, her daily hikes averaged fifteen to twenty miles a day.
            There was a lot Midway hadn't considered, but she became a quick learner, and she learned the skills of coping with the challenges nature and the trail had to offer, from the simple to the demanding, from setting up her tent and finding water, to scaling boulders along the way, climbing with that thirty-five pound pack on her back. She learned about dealing with the weather, the rain and wind, the thunder and lightening, and she learned about staying warm. Midway learned. She learned to find her way on a trail that wasn't always marked as often as a city dweller like me would want, and she learned to deal with a scarcity of water, food and permanent shelters. Everything she needed, she carried in her pack, and along the way, the pack was modified. She learned about the essentials, and in Thoreau's words, she learned to “simplify, simplify, simplify.”
            Midway learned she didn't need more than one change of clothing. She learned that a baggie could be priceless, and she learned how to use garbage bags as insulation. She learned that make-up wasn't a necessity on the AT, and she learned that people can be “angels” providing something she could use and just at the right moment too. She learned that there are “magic” moments on the trail, finding or seeing sights that one wouldn't expect to find in a rustic or primitive setting. She learned to live sweaty, that showers and a roof over ones head could be a blessing, that a Snickers bar was better than money. She learned that she could be a warrior, stare down a bear, maybe just curious, maybe hungry, but she learned she could scare it off by herself standing tall, arms high and wide with her walking sticks and yelling for the bear to leave. She learned she could do what eighty percent of those who tried could not do, that is, finish the trail! She set her goal and would not be denied, one step at a time, her mantra developed, and she hiked the 2,100 miles and realized that she changed herself along the way.
            I've read Bill Bricen's book, A Walk in the Woods and Cheryl Strayed's true adventure, Wild, and I was impressed and started thinking about once again trying out some backpacking for myself. But they were nothing like Midway for neither of them had completed the entire trail. I'd done quite a bit of camping and hiking as a scout some forty-five years ago, and about seven years ago, I  even went out with a few friends, sorely prepared as I was, for an overnighter on the Quehanna Trail, not far from Ridgway. It was an experience that confirmed I'd never sleep on the ground again. But after my “Midway” encounter, my new found “infection”, I'm more convinced than ever, that backpacking is something I want to give another chance, a more serious effort. I already have most of what I need, now all I have to do is go, and every time I think of Midway's enthusiasm, the sense of glory in which she lives, I know I'm getting closer to starting that adventure every day.


-Submitted by Bill Granche, CSO Staff Member

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