Pearl Four

Thru-Hiking the Appalaching Trail

By Ray Jardine

Preface

"Adventure is the result of incompetence," wrote the famous, early 1900's Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson. I think he was poking fun at his greenhorn contemporaries and their blunders.

Today, Adventure Incompetence can make fine reading. Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods" is a fine example. I love this book; it is incredibly entertaining and very well written. But I didn't learn anything about hiking from it. If a person wants to learn about hiking, he or she might skip the Adventure Incompetence type books, and spend time reading books written by more experienced hikers.

This book includes some measure of Adventure Incompetence, granted, but surely not enough to hold the attention of the reader looking for entertainment. For example, we started the hike too late in the season and endured soaring temperatures and high humidity, and hoards of blackflies and fields of poison ivy. That's not very entertaining, but it might be instructive for the hiker who wants to know what it's like to hike in the southern states in summer. And therefore why to start a long hike much earlier, or if south-bound starting in the north, later in the season; or maybe flip-flop the route, or some other plan.

Then again, this book might be significant from a historical standpoint. For indeed, the story of our 1993 thru-hike along the Appalachian Trail could be said to have played some role in the history of the AT. This is because it was the first thru-hike with lightweight gear using principles that could be applied universally.

Granted, it was not the world's first thru-hike with lightweight gear. That award surely goes to Emma "Grandma" Gatewood, who in 1955 hiked the AT with a denim gear-bag draped over one shoulder, sleeping under a shower curtain. She wore tennis shoes and carried an umbrella, but almost no one today would use the rest of her gear. It could be done, but the idea lacks universal appeal.

Earl Shaffer hiked the AT in 1948, and by today's standards his sparse equipment could be considered somewhat lightweight. His book "Walking with Spring" is a classic, and highly recommended reading. But again, his gear and methods have not gained universal appeal. Almost nobody today would thru-hike caring a hatchet, frying pan, and an old-fashioned bedroll.

Forward to 1968, when Colin Fletcher wrote his first edition of "The Complete Walker." This book became the backpacker's bible, and soon had the greater part of the backpacking community carrying 55 to 60 pounds. "Better to have something and not need it," he wrote, "than to need something and not have it." His "hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst" mantra created a bonanza for the companies marketing heavy-duty backpacking gear. And in fact, that sort of gear is the still the norm, today.

In 1991 Jenny and I wrote and published the first book on lightweight hiking, and the underlying principles were soon spread and adopted far and wide. My philosophy was just the opposite of Fletcher's: "If I need something and don't have it, then I don't need it." Yet this was not a minimalist philosophy; we carried everything needed, with nothing extra, and everything we carried was the lightest in weight according to its function. As such, we accomplished three thru-hikes carrying far less than the standard Fletcher pack-weight.

Then in the winter of 1992-1993 we were planning to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, and by then we had learned that if we made most of our own gear, not only would we save a great deal of weight, but we could make it just as durable and a lot more serviceable for our particular needs. And too, we knew that the AT's many steep grades would be much less difficult to climb with a lighter load.

And so it was that the sub-ten pound backpack load was born. That is, sub-10 plus the expendables of food and water - called "Baseline Pack Weight.

This is the story, then, of the first thru-hike with sub-ten pound Baseline Pack Weight using principles that could be applied universally.

Note: A few people were backpacking with less gear before then; and during the 1970's I, myself, spent seven years carrying sub-seven pound packs while instructing summer-long wilderness classes. Like the others, I had to use minimalist methods in order to make this work. In 1993 I figured out how to thru-hike a trail of over 2,000 miles in length without using minimalist methods. And this is what the following story is about.

Furthermore, I have written the story according to the journal that we kept daily, to log the places passed though, and some of the people met. And I have sprinkled a few placemarks, here and there, so that the reader can follow along, and find these places on goggle maps, and so see where the route weaves across the landscape, and how.

And finally, this book might be historical important for yet another reason. Our journey along the AT was our forth thru-hike, and was the first time in the history of the National Scenic Trails that someone accomplished more than three thru-hikes of more than 2,000 miles in length each.

We hadn't adopted the tarp just yet, we were still thru-hiking with a tent. (today, I would not dream of using a tent on the AT; the tarp works so much better.) But the quilt, backpack, and just about everything else - we still use to this day. However, hiking is more than merely using the gear. So much more. And that is what this book is about.

1993 Perspective

Two years prior to beginning this hike, we had written and published The PCT Hiker's Handbook:

1992: The PCT Hiker's Handbook, First Edition 1991

This is the book that popularized lightweight hiking. The first of its kind.

See our PCT Handbook page for more info.

Winter 1992-1993: In preparations for this Appalachian Trail thru-hike, we designed and sewed our first Sleeping Quilt.

This was the world's first camping quilt.

We even invented the name "Quilt" as pertaining to camping. The quilt itself was to prove a resounding success during this AT hike, and after refining the design, it was to become a popular item in our sew-it-yourself business.

See our Ray-Way Quilt Kit page.

Winter 1992-1993: In preparations for this Appalachian Trail thru-hike, we designed and sewed our first Backpacks.

Like the Quilt, these backpacks were to prove a resounding success during this AT hike, and after refining the design, they were to become popular items in our sew-it-yourself business.

See our Ray-Way Backpack Kit page.

Here is why our backpacks look so large, in this story.

Prep

After completing the CDT the preceding summer, we enjoyed a two-week vacation on a sailboat in the Caribbean islands. Returning home to Oregon, we began training for our next hike: the AT. Late fall, the land was still free of snow.

Climbing North Sister Mountain

The snow started falling, and we spent many months training in the forest and small mountains near our house in the small city of LaPine, OR.

Sometimes we went up to the nearby PCT, and enjoyed skiing some of that.

Shelter Cove Resort.

Altogether that winter, we put some 400 miles on the skis and snowshoes, with a lot of camping in the snow also.

We also got a lot of exercise shoveling snow, and feeding our woodstove with wood chainsawed from the forest. We were heating our house by woodstove only.

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