[at-l] Re: Going solo

[m2b@loa.com (Ryan Crawford)]

My first solo backpacking experience was my first time ever backpacking.  I
knew of no one around that did any backpacking so I didn't let that stop
from going.  I guess if you want something bad enough?????????(see next
paragraph), that you don't let anything stand in the way of you getting it.

I had vowed for years that you would never catch me sleeping in tent, NO
WAY!!!!!!!  After finally stooping low enough to go camping for the first
time, yes, by myself on a week long trip out to the Black Hills of South
Dakota, I stumbled into a book on backpacking and wilderness trails in the
US.  I saw about the AT but knew that there was no way I would ever be able
to do anything like that.

I ended up catching the two part series on trail side about thru-hiking the
AT.  Maine Rose wa definitely the star of the show, I'm glad I got to talk
to her at the '97 Gathering.  By the time the first episode was over I knew
that I was going to thru-hike the trail.  I didn't get started get the
equipment until it was too late to go in '96 so instead planned to give
myself '96 to get the equipment and also give myself a chance to do some
hiking.  I wanted to see if I was truly insane enough to want to do
something like the AT.

It was Friday of Memorial Day Weekend '96.  I had finished picking up some
equipment and was heading home so I could finish packing the daypack that I
was going to use as my backpack for the weekend.  On the way home I heard
the forecast for the weekend was for the chance of rain, one of the reason I
vowed you would never catch me dead or alive sleeping in tent, mosquitoes
the other reason.  As 5PM rolled around the radio station I was listening to
started up it's All 80's Request Weekend.  The DJ decide to play one of his
favorites from the 80's to start the weekend off.  He made the comment that
any time that he plays the song the sun comes out, sure enough the sun was
breaking through the clouds.  The song, "Walkin' On Sunshine."  To say the
least that has song has stuck with ever since.  Yes, it did rain some over
the weekend, night time showers.

Everything with the hike went fine.  I ended up spending my first night
sleeping with a rather strange creature.  Around sunset I started hearing
this crazy bird, I didn't know what it was.  It kept sounding like it was
saying "It's Not For Real".  It would take getting on the AT to find out it
was actually saying "Whipoorwill".  Fortunarely, it didn't last all night.

The only bad thing that came out of the weekend was I got out to my car to
find that for the first time in my life I had become the victim of crime.  I
guess it had happened there the previous year on MD Weekend.

The best advice is to just get out there and don't worry about.  I know
right now I have found myself trying out primitive camping
techniques(sleeping with no tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc. just
using what you can find in the woods to give you shelter) and I have trouble
sleeping under those conditions.  I guess I'll just have to do it for enough
consecutive nights so that I will fall asleep no matter what.  Once you get
to the point that you can't keep your eyes open you will fall asleep.