You Can't Get There... By Sitting Here
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This is our story. An affirmation and sometimes humorous description of all the mental, physical and emotional challenges a human being is capable of overcoming in the pursuit of a lifetime dream. It is the story of a normal, well almost normal, ordinary, well almost ordinary, married couple with the opportunity to pursue their dreams of a lifetime and finally achieve their goals on top of Mount Katahdin near Millinocket, Maine. It is our story of hiking the Appalachian Trail.
This is a fantastic hiking journey of 2,175 miles covering 14 states, from Georgia to Maine. It tells about climbing and descending 471,000 feet, the equivalent of hiking up and down Mt. Everest 17 times. It recounts the indescribable beauty of walking through a rainstorm or the peace and quiet created by a snowstorm at 5,000 feet. It tells of the emotional roller coaster you experience as you continually push your body to do more than it really wants to.
Like any book, it requires that you use your imagination. Imagine yourself hiking along with us. Imagine the snow falling on your face and tongue as you trudge up the side of a mountain with the hiker in front of you covered in white with snow. Imagine the feel of a really heavy rain as you walk into a shelter area and suddenly fellow hikers start applauding because you made it through the storm. Imagine the hair standing up on your head and neck as you lay in a simple little nylon tent at an altitude of 3,500 feet with thunder and lightning shaking the ground around you! Imagine the weariness you feel as you climb yet another 3,000 feet up the side of a mountain only to start right back down the other side to do it all over again. Imagine the fear as you get caught above tree line with no shelter of any kind while being knocked down by winds of over 80 miles per hour from Hurricane Katrina!
Think about a time in your personal life when you have faced a challenge. When we talk about climbing 3,000 feet, compare it to going up to the second floor of your house 300 times and then back down 300 times. As we talk about hiking twelve miles, compare it to your drive to a grocery store or park twelve miles from your home. Think about how long it feels in the car and imagine stepping between rocks, roots and other obstacles that whole distance with a 40 pound pack on your back!
This book is unique for several reasons. One reason is that WE are writing it! We felt so good about our thru hike on the Appalachian Trail that we wanted to share it with others. We have already put together a three hour Power Point presentation with a personal narration of the trail and people love it. When we get done with the presentation, they feel they really understand what the trail is all about and just how difficult and rewarding it can be.
Three hours is a long time to hold someone’s attention and we have been very pleased that after the three hour presentation no one has jumped up to head to the exit. The first time we weren’t sure whether it was that their bodies had fallen asleep and they couldn’t move or that they actually wanted to hear more!
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About the Book
This is an entertaining story of a normal couple, almost normal couple, who fulfilled their lifetime dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail. We started March 1st at Springer Mountain near Dahlonega, Georgia hiking through fourteen states to finish the trail and attain the designation of "ThruHiker" atop Mt. Katahdin near Millinocket, Maine on October 12th.
The story will describe the peaks and valleys of emotions we experienced as we hiked over 2,175 challenging miles. It will talk about our fear as we get caught above tree line on Mt. Lafayette in New Hampshire as life threatening winds of over 80 miles per hour from Hurricane Katrina pummel us into the rocks. You will feel the best and worst weather that Mother Nature hurled at us including 20 degrees below zero wind chills in Georgia and over 100 degree heat in New York.
You will read about the different problems we solved relying on nothing but each other and what we carried on our backs. You can laugh with us as we describe our hitchhiking adventures with our good hiking buddy, Mayfly. We hitchhiked into and out of towns so we could pick up our mail drops, replenish supplies, shower and sometimes to find a buffet to satiate our enormous appetites.
You can identify with us as we relate the many different relationships we had with the great people we met on the trail. There are wonderful anecdotes of "Trail Magic" that family, friends and total strangers created for us by giving unselfishly of themselves to help us along the trail.
We hope the story will make you feel that "you" have hiked the Appalachian Trail with us.
So, c'mon, lace up your boots, strap on your pack, grab your hiking sticks and let's hike north to Mt. Katahdin!
About the Author
We are Chuck and Norma Sink a.k.a. Appalachian Trail names of Chuckles and Gottago. We have always been active people and have shared many adventures during our 43 years of marriage.
Norma and I have been in management for forty years. We have created training manuals and prepared many presentations to increase productivity in different companies. We have been fortunate to be well received in these efforts.
After the trail we became managers for a company that has fourteen campgrounds across the country. That has given us the opportunity to move from Gatlinburg,Tennessee to Miami, Florida to Branson, Missouri to Gore, Oklahoma and we are still on the move.
After hiking the Appalachian Trail we prepared a 2 1/2 hour Power Point presentation about the trail that we have shown to over 400 people. It has been very well received and is a thrill for us to present it. A couple of the comments we heard were, "You made it so real my knees hurt the next day." "Best presentation ever given at this library."
Before hiking the trail we spent six weeks as retail consultants in Australia preparing presentations to give to management at major theme parks. We have had the opportunity to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Sydney, Australia. Another longtime dream was to bicycle the C & O Canal path from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, D.C. which we did the year before hiking the AT. We took time to ride zip lines, go snorkeling and rode mountain bikes in Mexico. We recently rode our bicycles down from the summit of 14,115 foot Pikes Peak.
We have been fortunate and wish to share the thrills we experienced on our Appalachian Trail hike. We hope you enjoy it! Thank you for letting us share our memories with you!