Madison Capital Times Article
A real post-graduate path
Hiking the Appalachian Trail
By Susan Troller
November 5, 2005
You could call it a 2,100-mile detour on the post-graduate career path. But recent college grads and longtime Madison friends Nick White and Brian Jacobson are quick to say that their four-month trek hiking the entire Appalachian Trail was no bypass, but instead an important spiritual journey. It was also lots of fun.
Both expect the lessons they learned to provide permanent mile markers on the road map of life, especially as they begin their professional and grown-up lives this month.
"Honestly, I had kind of a cookie-cutter kind of life," White observed in a recent interview in Madison along with Jacobson, his fellow traveler. "Went to school, did well, always did the next, expected thing. I wanted to take a break, and really take a look at my life."
The arduous 139-day trip by footpath from Georgia to Maine, beginning in mid-May and ending in October, provided an opportunity for the two to spend four months together following their graduations last spring from Purdue (White) and the University of Minnesota (Jacobson).
"Hiking the Appalachian Trail gave me a chance to think about what I really love, and what I don't love," White said.
White and Jacobson, both Christians, say that they found a closer relationship with God and Christ through their journey and that the hard work and thousands of empty hours spent putting one foot in front of the other provided a rare chance to examine their faith and build their spiritual lives.
Lest it sound too much like a sober walking meditation between humorless monks, White and Jacobson also made friends from across the country, goofed around, and generally traveled with the light spirits of 22-year-olds with the good fortune to have a four-month holiday.
In keeping with Appalachian Trail tradition, they took expressive trail nicknames. Jacobson became known as Cherry Bomb for his outrageous short red hiking shorts. White admitted his trail nickname, Flatus, was self-explanatory.
"It was probably the trail food we had to eat," he laughed.
Every year, about 3,000 hikers take on the challenge of the entire Appalachian Trail, which crosses 14 states, beginning at Springer Mountain in Georgia and ending on Mount Katahdin in Maine. Fewer than 15 percent of these self-identified thru-hikers finish, some dropping off the trail before the end of the first week.
The trail is definitely not a sidewalk through the wilderness. It is often narrow, steep and empty. Hiking the entire trail is a project that requires months, demanding 15 or 16 miles a day of steady trudging, day in and out. At the end of a long day of hiking through all kinds of weather and conditions, the reward is taking off a heavy pack, eating the most basic camp food and sleeping in a tent, on the ground or in a primitive, three-sided shelter.
"Basically, when it's light outside, you walk. And when it's dark, you sleep," Jacobson observed. "You are stripped back to very basic needs. Fatigue, hunger, thirst. You need food, clean water, a place to lie down. A trip like this gives you a profound understanding of what it's like for people who don't have these things. But I like the sense of adventure. And actually, I enjoy the sense that I'm not in control of everything."
Then, of course, there are things like bugs and mice, to say nothing of accidents, wild animals, extremes of weather, fear, loneliness and boredom.
The first night on the trail, White and Jacobson were lying in the dark in their sleeping bags, exhausted but still awake. Suddenly, White said, he heard a startled Jacobson call out. "Flatus, did you just touch my face?" He hadn't; it was a mouse, introducing itself to the hikers and demonstrating one of the ongoing issues on the trail.
Jacobson and White carried about four days' worth of supplies in their packs. With gear, food and water, they carried 30 to 35 pounds on their backs.
"Like most hikers, we started out with more," White said. "Originally, our packs were about 45 pounds but we wound up sending stuff home because we just didn't want to carry it."
White and Jacobson, who have been friends since they were East High School freshmen, first began thinking about the mystique of the Appalachian Trail after a high school science trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. They learned the trail extended along the spine of the mountains running north and south across the eastern United States, and when they came across a portion of it on their shorter hike, they were captivated.
"We remember talking about how you could get on that trail and walk all the way to Maine," Jacobson recalled.
After high school graduation, the friends remained in touch while Jacobson worked on a business degree at Minnesota and White studied aerospace engineering at Purdue. Their outdoor adventures included hiking in the Boundary Waters, in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in North Carolina and in Tennessee.
Although both are experienced hikers and campers, they had never done more than a week's worth of walking and had never had to think about resupplying on the trail. They learned. Both agreed that credit and debit cards were a huge help in the little towns where they stopped along the way for supplies and an occasional shower.
"During July and August, through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, it was incredibly hot," White reported. "We'd get completely soaked hiking, and then crawl into our sleeping bags at night to try to sleep. They would get soaked, too. There were times when Brian said to me, 'Man, you really smell bad.' He didn't smell too good, either."
In addition to the camaraderie between the two friends and among the other hikers they encountered, there were other rewards Jacobson and White experienced on the long-distance hike. There was the spiritual dimension of the trip, and the sheer satisfaction of accomplishing something rare among outdoor enthusiasts. And, they said, by the time they reached Mount Katahdin in Maine at the end of the trail, they were in the best physical condition of their lives.
"It's true that every single day was a challenge, but the beauty of the trail also takes your breath away," Jacobson says.
"For anyone thinking about hiking the A.T., I'd say just do it. Just go. There are people of all ages, from all walks of life. It's an incredible experience," White said.
This week, Jacobson began working as a financial analyst at General Mills in Minneapolis. And White will begin working next week at Epic Systems as a technical services engineer.
posted by Cherry-Bomb | 8:28 PM
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