[at-l] New Member Introduction-Trailwind

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

Dennis, your story touched so many chords with my own situation, I don't
know where to start, so I'll just keep in short and get to the bottom
line.  If you start this journey, it will change you forever - so warn
your wife and kids and GO FOR IT!  I didn't have the luxury of a layoff,
or anything like that.  I just plain decided I was burning out,
approached my partners expecting to be asked to resign, but got support
to take a 6 month leave of absence, and so I ended up taking 6 months
off out of an [outwardly appearing] very successful environmental law
career, at the ripe old age of 44, with a [very loving and
understanding!!] wife and 2 young kids [one of whom was in utero while I
was in the woods!!!], and relied on my earlier background of scouting
[Eagle/OA] as a teen, plus 20 years of technical rock climbing and
hiking experience after that, plus a stint as owner of an outdoor
sporting goods store that I started up, plus a side love affair with
east coast semi-pro beach volleyball tournaments, plus a side career
officiating NCAA volleyball, all of which had kind of gone into
remission for the past decade in lieu of increasing legal career demands
[how's that for a combination?] . . . while there were plenty of rocks
here and there along the way in terms of dealing with family and friends
[fancy that, the Trail as allegory for life!], I wouldn't trade a minute
of last year on the Trail for anything in the world!

Forwarned is forearmed - but get your butt out there this spring, and
prepare to never be the same again! :)

Hike on,

Clark Wright
[thru-thinker]

Dennis Gass wrote:
> 
> Hello.  I am a 38 year old father of two beautiful children and husband
> to one wonderful wife.  My story goes something like this:
> 
> I went backpacking during the 70's as a Boy Scout when I was growing up
> in East Tennessee and really enjoyed it.  I never knew where we were
> going or carried maps, but I always had a great time on the trips, and
> advanced up through the ranks to Eagle and beyond by age 16.  As I got
> older, went to college, got married, had kids and 20 years had zipped by
> like nothing flat and I had forgotten those special times walking in the
> woods.  I live just north of Atlanta now with my family.  About 3 years
> ago my son wanted to visit a local Scout troop and the first trip was
> backpacking in the Cohutta Mtns in North Georgia.  I wanted to go along
> on the trip, and boy had the equipment changed so I wound up buying two
> of everything.  I didn't expect much of the trip, but in the early
> morning hour drive North my eyes must have grown ten times when the
> Southern Appalachians came into view.  Visions from my childhood flashed
> in my memory and we had a challenging, yet wonderful trip on the Benton
> MacKaye and I was bitten by the backpacking bug.  At that point in time
> I had only heard of the 'AT' once when I was 11 years old and it was a
> bad experience, but as I began to research trails in North Georgia and
> the southeast I learned more and more about the AT and other trails.  In
> my research I ran across a few of the websites with journals of thru
> hikers and printed every page, thousands of them, to take to work and
> read during my lunch each day and at home in the evenings.  Every day I
> would log on and read the journals posted that day for every hiker I
> could find, and I became obsessed with gear.  I did day hikes to
> Springer Mtn at least 10 times that first year just to see the plaques
> and this is a very magical place to me.  I dreamed of thru hiking the AT
> though I knew that I had accepted responsibilities that would most
> likely prohibit me from accomplishing that dream at least until I was
> well into my 50's or early 60's, but I was determined to enjoy every
> opportunity I could on the trail for weekends with my son, and we have
> done that.  I think he may dream about it as much as I do.
> 
> Over the last three years we have been backpacking a few times and will
> finish up the Georgia section within the next couple of months, replaced
> all of our gear at least once with lighter and better, some items four
> or five times :-) though I will never admit it to my wife.  Life was
> good.
> 
> A year ago my company was acquired and it was a different kind of year
> in 2001.  I had to lay off everyone that worked for me, but I was
> fortunate to have negotiated excellent packages for everyone and we all
> left with dignity, grace, heads held high and are still friends.  I lost
> my job Jan 3rd, but I feel very fortunate that they paid me a full years
> pay for 2002 because the job market here in Atlanta for a VP Info Tech
> stinks right now.   I have been looking for a job, but I don't want to
> sit around for months on end and waste this once in a lifetime
> opportunity.  In recent weeks that bug about hiking the trail has been
> getting stronger and stronger every minute.  Having worked through most
> of the honey do list, I am focusing on backpacking the AT and lowering
> my pack weight to occupy my time.  I've convinced my wife to let me go
> on the AT for at least a month, to be followed by another week leading a
> very small group of 5 scouts and one other father on a weeklong AT hike
> during the kids spring break.  This will be GREAT, but I am not giving
> up on doing even more of the trail if the job market hasn't improved.  I
> am determined to make this a plus year instead of a bad time.  My former
> employer always told me I wasn't a survivor, I am a thriver.
> 
> I got my trailname in October last year on the AT doing Neels Gap to
> Unicoi Gap with my son and a friend of mine.  I was leading the group
> and for some reason they kept fussing at me and started calling me
> Trailwind.
> 
> I appreciate all of the knowledge, encouragement and sense of friendship
> I get from the lists I am a member of.  With newly acquired digital
> scale in hand, I am off to weigh my pack items and lose some weight
> before March 1st.  See you on the trail.
> 
> Trailwind
> 
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