Steve (a.k.a. Snickers) called home from college one day in November and announced that he'd decided to take a semester off from college and hike the Appalachian Trail. I gasped and then calmly thought to myself -- he's just having a bad week at school. In the following weeks I slowly came to accept the fact that it wasn't just a passing thought -- he really planned to hike the entire trail from Georgia to Maine! Three months and many trips to the outfitter store later, he's sloshing through snow and ice all day long with a 40-lb. pack on his back, sleeping in rustic shelters at night and having "the time of his life."
Steve started the trail with a close friend (another Steve) from scouting trips. They started their trek to Maine on Feb. 14th. About two weeks later his friend decided that this just wasn't as much fun as
Hiking ten miles a day requires a lot of energy and one of the first things we've had to learn is how to replace that energy. That means high calorie foods. In fact we probably consume 5-6 thousand calories a day.
What do we eat? A few of the staples out here are:
peanut butter -- we put this on everything. I eat a pound every 3-4 days and that's 3040 calories!
Shelters are a pleasant sight at the end of a long day. Whether our crew has trekked 8 miles or 15 miles in a day, it is always wonderful to be able to take off our packs and settle in for the night. On average the shelters are placed 8-10 miles apart; usually away from roads to keep the "weekend party animals" out.
The basic shelter has three side walls and one side open to the woods - with a roof on top. Inside these
