Appalachian Trail

OUR DAD

We often joke about our Dad 'the perfectionist'.  He is the sort of person that has the best of everything, stays at nice hotels and lives a fairly comfortable lifestyle.  We've never known Dad to go camping, let alone go without having 2 showers per day. Mum always does the cooking and Dad's limit is cooking Macaroni and Cheese from the packet or baked beans. 

Then one day he announces he is setting off to walk the Appalachian Trail.  WHAT?.........what trail?  Never heard of it"...... his two daughters think to themselves.  "Has he lost his marbles?  Should we call in a specialist?"  But we soon learnt all about the mysterious trail that seemed to go on and on through countless states in the USA.  Parcels seemed to arrive every other day with newly purchased camping and survival gear as he made plans for his trek.

The weekend before takeoff we scoured the living room floor that had camping gear spread from one end to the other.  "No way is that all going to fit in the pack"  I say to my sister.  And it didn't!  Next came the elimination process of what was absolutely essential.  Try as we might we couldn't understand how come little plastic kangaroo signs were 'essential'.

Just prior to leaving, Dad had a buzz cut (really short hair cut) to compensate for not being able to wash it everyday.  It kinda made him look younger and it really hadn't grown all that much by the time he returned six weeks later.

His time on the trail was spent far from the comforts of home - at times sharing his tent, bunking down with others in the shelters and hostels even cleaning a motel room because it was the last one left and the cleaning staff had gone home for the day!  One ritual he did keep up though was shaving - we expected him to come home looking like a bum!

Being a vegetarian wasn't easy on the trail and in the towns he visited.  Our biggest surprise was to learn he had resorted to eating tuna!  We even ran a poll on the site to quiz people on what he was missing the most.  It turned out to be a home cooked vegetarian meal.

See photo's of Dad and the rest of the family

Would you do it...