Bud and Vicki Hogan's 1996 Appalachian Trail Journey
The Story Begins
Vicki and I are both 44-year-old school teachers from Oklahoma who love adventure and the outdoors. We have some "mountains" just outside of our home in Lawton where we often hike and technical rock climb. We are not health nuts nor are we in incredible physical condition, but we're not total slouches either.
I don't even remember what put the idea of the AT in my mind, I don't even recall the first time I heard of the AT, but the idea of a long distance hike started to grow in my head. It grew and grew until I knew that we would hike on the AT.
Having taught school for about 20 years, I knew that taking off a year to go for a walk was out of the question, but an extended hike during the summer vacation would be perfect. We had spent our summers traveling all over the United States, climbing, fishing, sky diving, camping and day hiking. We love to camp and hike but had never done an overnighter out on a trail in our entire lives. This ought to be an adventure.
I started to plan!! I found the AT page on the internet and got some useful information. I wrote to the ATC headquarters for books and maps. The books and maps arrived and I started to study. What gear to take, what food would we eat, where would we resupply, how safe is the trail, how far could we hike in a day, how hot, cold, or wet would it be, and how much would be the cost of this adventure? Lots of questions, to which I needed lots of answers. But, it was almost a year in advance of our adventure and it was already starting to come together.
I used the internet and e-mailed a hiker (got his name off of the Appalachian Trail Page on the internet) I got some of the best information of all from his response, trail towns and maildrops, they worked perfectly.
We began buying gear in November, slowly spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars (you know what I mean, don't you) for a tent, backpacks, boots, clothes, food and everything else that I could think of.
Thanks to all of the planning, our hike went wonderfully well. We made a few mistakes, but overall, we made good decisions.
Our hike was planned for 6 weeks, from Amacalola Falls, GA. to Damascus, VA. ten miles a day average. What a great plan. AND IT WORKED, BEAUTIFULLY!!!!
We didn't write a journal on the trail, but several months later we filled out our journal. Here is our story.
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