Feature/General
Hiking the Appalachian Trail: Highs, Lows... and Lessons
By John Kissane
March/April 2006

Father and son - John and William Kissane take on the Appalachian Trail

As we trudged out of Hickory Flats and began the long, gradual climb toward Hawk Mountain I was beginning to get a little desperate. Although not yet 5:00 p.m. daylight was receding rapidly, and William and I needed to locate a suitable campsite so we could put up our tent and fix dinner before darkness set in. We were both exhausted, yet to either side of the trail I saw nothing but steep slopes, brambles and generally inhospitable terrain. I wasn't having second thoughts about the trip, not yet anyway, but I was more than ready to shed my pack until the next morning. My 8 year old son was, too. Finally we found a relatively level spot, and neither of us had to be talked into calling it a day.

The idea for a father/son Appalachian Trail (AT) adventure came to William and me over the course of several years. In late October of 2000, when he was just five, William and I drove north of Helen and camped for the night at Andrews Cove and then visited Brasstown Bald the next morning. Autumn colors were about gone and the night was downright frigid, but it was a special trip, just the two of us. That Sunday morning, while driving from the campground to Brasstown Bald, we crossed the AT at Unicoi Gap and I took the opportunity to tell William a little about our nation's long trails which, in addition to the AT, include the Pacific Crest and the Continental Divide. But the AT, which had origins in the early 1920s and was completed in 1937, is the original. And while I hadn't hiked much in 20 years, the thought of getting back to it was a pleasant one.

Over the next few years William and I camped out several times near our home at Kenney Ridge, in western Clarke County, and began talking about hiking in the North Georgia mountains. The whole family - William and me, plus my wife Amy and William's older sister, Emma - spent a miserably wet weekend at Lake Jocassee on the North Carolina/South Carolina line one spring, but even that didn't dampen our enthusiasm for being outdoors.

What really got us excited was driving through the Smoky Mountains in November of 2003, en route to Knoxville to watch the UGA women's soccer team play a first round NCAA tournament match. I sprang William from school around noon and we headed up 441 to Clayton and into North Carolina. The sight of endless mountains captivated William. We entered the park and wound our way up to Newfound Gap, where William enjoyed putting one foot each in North Carolina and Tennessee at the same time and also noticed the AT meandering down from Clingman's Dome several miles to the west. We walked a mile or so on the trail that afternoon in a bitter cold wind and, once back in the car, talked about how neat it would be to really hike the AT. In Knoxville we saw Georgia pull out a thrilling last minute victory over Clemson, but our time in the mountains highlighted the trip. When we got home Amy and Emma embraced our idea, which was to "section hike" the entire AT over the course of the next ten or twelve years.

Blood Mountain was the greatest experience so far in our Appalachian Trail hike. Once we got to the top there were so many beautiful views and we could see mountains in every direction, even Brasstown Bald. It was hard to leave such a wonderful place. I hope to have many more trips like this, and maybe even better ones on our hike on the Appalachian Trail          ~ William Kissane

Even though William and I are doing most of the hiking, this is a family project. All four of us stayed at the Amicalola Falls Lodge the night of March 9, 2004 and drove to the parking area a mile from Springer Mountain the next morning. Amy and Emma accompanied us on foot to the AT's southern terminus atop Springer and then back down where we said our good byes. Two days later we met up again at Woody Gap, about 20 miles along the trail. That initial trip remains the most special to me because it was the start of a great adventure, and I hated to stop despite the tiring first day that ended on the approach to Hawk Mountain. Section hike #2, from Woody Gap to Neel's Gap, was a shorter, two day outing a couple months later. The highlight was an exciting early morning climb up Blood Mountain, the highest point on the AT in Georgia at 4,461 feet. After that trip William and I were hooked on hiking the AT and experiencing it together.

But our third section hike, in September of 2004, was short on fun and long on miles. It started out well enough, with my parents driving William and me up to Neel's Gap late one Friday afternoon. After hiking maybe an hour we found a nice campsite near Swaim Gap - so far, so good. We needed to cover roughly 12 miles the next day, which seemed doable, but William and I just never got in sync. One minute I'd be feeling fine and he'd decide his pack needed adjustment, so we would have to stop. Fifteen minutes later William would be cruising along and I'd feel a rock in my boot or determine that we better stop to fill our water bottles. When I said, "Let's go!" William said "No!" and vice versa, all day long. And unfortunately, the beauty of our surroundings mostly escaped us, as we grew increasingly tired, sweaty and irritable. Somewhere near Cold Springs Gap, we found a tiny campsite just off the trail and called it quits. But we were hardly "happy campers." The next morning we struggled about six miles mostly through huge poplar forests recently damaged by hurricanes. Dozens of downed trees forced us off the trail and the going was extra tough, so we were both very glad to meet up with Amy at Unicoi Gap and get home to Athens.

We didn't return to the AT last spring. Bad weather foiled us a couple times, then William suffered a minor soccer injury and hiking on a bad ankle seemed unwise. I think, too, that we both still had a bad taste in our mouths from the previous outing. But early this past October we made it back up to Unicoi Gap, hoisted our packs, and hit the trail once more. And even though we were socked in by fog and mist the entire 48 hours, we had a great time. It was cool but not cold, we got rained on but mostly at night, and several of the climbs were tough, but William and I paced ourselves just right. We got along well and agreed when to rest and when to push on. We felt like a team once again.

Our stopping point last October was Dick's Creek Gap, putting us within ten miles of North Carolina. So this spring we'll complete the AT in Georgia and move into a new state - away from the Georgia mountains and on toward the Smokies. So far we've hiked maybe 70 of the AT's 2,150 miles, so we're barely out of the starting blocks. But we've come a long way, really. I've gained a lot of respect for the ruggedness of the Southern Appalachians and even more for my son who has done things I could never have managed at his age. As William gets older we'll take longer outings, essential as we get further from home. (And I'm holding out hope that he'll gradually lighten the load of my pack!) Whether we actually make it all the way to Mount Katahdin in Maine is anyone's guess, and maybe not all that important. But right now I sure wouldn't bet against us!

John Kissane is Conservation Director with the Athens Land Trust