Now that we are living in 2014, Slipper and I are 1 year closer to our attempt of thru-hiking the Appalachain Trail in 1 season 🙂
I certainly do not want to wish my life away, but I am stoked about the hiking adventures we will experience this year in preparation for the thru-hike. Just the word: “Preparation” kinda gives us a reason-or-excuse (depending on how you look at it) to create and take advantage of each and every opportunity to just “Get Out There!”
I still smile at the faces of people who just don’t quite get it when I talk with them about hiking, backpacking and tent camping on the trail. Their eyes get as big as saucers when I tell them that we are giving ourselves up to six months to hike it. ​Their faces look like Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow as they are approaching the Haunted Forest.
My favorite movie of all time is: “The Wizard of Oz” and I like to imagine a part of the AT being like the Haunted Forest. Who knows… maybe we’ll meet up with a Cowardly Lion!
“I’ll get you, my pretty… and your little dog too!” The Witch that Slipper and I will need to conquer is the one that has kept many hikers from seeing the Wizard of AT at the top of Mount Katahdin. It is a bit hard to identify the Wicked Witch because she changes all the time- from exhaustion, to illness, to physical inability, to mental fatigue, to emotional breakdowns, to fear, to hurt, to dangerous weather… whatever she may be that causes over 80% of the people to quit their thru-hike.
We know she is out there! We know she is wicked! We know she would like to stop us! We know she will even come after us! We will make up our minds not to turn back, but to continue “Hiking It” until we get to meet The Wizard of AT
The little house along the Yellow Brick Road reminds me of the Shelter atop of Blood Mountain and is a welcomed sight to many hikers at the highest AT elevation in the state of Georgia. If Slipper and I were in this scene, we’d set up our Copper Spur UL3 just beyond the house on the plush green grass 🙂
Have a wonderful NEW YEAR and imagine Tripper and Slipper (arm-in-arm and skipping along the Appalachian Trail) singing- “We’re Off To See The Wizard… The Wonderful Wizard Of AT”
