My Anticipated 2010 Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike & Atlantic Coast Bike Tour departure date is Monday, March 1st. As the departure approaches a focus on March 01, 2010 as the target date has become firm and only 90 days from now, the date I register on CrazyGuyOnABike. They say the devil is in the details! What does that mean!

The details: The plan; when I leave my home in Gwinnett County, Georgia I will not return for roughly 10 months. I will trek the Appalachian Trail (2,178 miles) South to North, from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Baxter State Park in Maine, reaching the summit of Mt. Katahdin sometime in September 2010. Then I will take a couple of weeks to explore Canada, perhaps visiting Quebec before making my turn around, exchanging backpack for panniers in Bar Harbor, Maine for my southbound Atlantic Coast bike ride to Key West, Florida (2,670 miles). The entire journey will take me through all 4 seasons, leaving with the last 3 weeks of winter 2010 and ending the following winter December 2010 or January 2011. The destination Key West, arrival target date is New Years 2011. I do want to get through New England in September, October and into the Southern States in November, doing Florida in December.

The objective is to stay ahead of winter while riding the touring bike south. Starting in October, the prevailing wind direction along the Atlantic coast is from the north for the most of fall and winter. The wind will be at my back, something every cyclist prays for. (Of course we know the wind can't read The Weather Almanac, so it will blow from the south from time to time.) Hurrah! This thing is going to work... The force will be with me!!!! Traveling North to South in the Fall is really going to work for me! Whereas in the spring beginning in April and going to October you can expect the wind to shift, blowing in from the south in the spring and summer.

The following includes my inspiration, thoughts and additional details of my planned thru-hike and bike tour:

Here's how this hiking/biking tour began to take shape. The book Walking the Appalachian Trail by Larry Luxenberg is the first book I purchased when I first began reading and exploring the options of my own Appalachian Trail thru-hike. The dream of my very own personal 'adventure of a lifetime' began to appear as a real possibility, an achievable goal. Always the optimist, I believe I'm capable of pulling this off. In Luxenberg's inspiring book he writes that the A.T. thru-hike, is ' more like a jumping-off point into the world of adventure.' He writes ...' In 1989, Noel "the Singing Horseman" DeCavalcante completed an A.T. thru-hike. In 1990, he paddled the Mississippi River for three and a half months. That same year, one of Noel's 1989 hiking companions, Carol "Lagunatic" Moore, happened upon Jim "the Geek" Adams, who was hiking the A.T. with his cat, Ziggy. The Geek was near the end of what he called "the ultimate triathlon vacation." He and Ziggy had paddled the Ohio and the Mississippi the previous fall. After hiking the A.T., they would complete their adventure by bicycling from Maine to their starting point in Pennsylvania.'

Having read this and other tidbits of others who were orbited into a continuing grand adventure after first completing an A.T. thru-hike, my own dream and planning began to take form and the idea quickly gained momentum. By October 2008 I begin setting my course, researching and purchasing backpacking gear. I commit to a 2010 thru-hike, I purchase a touring bicycle, a Surly Long Haul Trucker, with a plan to ship it to the State of Maine and to follow Adventure Cycling Association's (ACA) Atlantic Coast Bicycle Route from Bar Harbor, Maine to Key West, Florida, with Key West being the final destination. After contemplating the logistics back to my home in Atlanta, GA. I come to a decision to take a portion of ACA's Florida Connector map to create a loop encompassing Fort Lauderdale, Key West and Fort Myers Beach, taking a ferry from Key West to Fort Myers Beach where it is possible to join the Florida Connector. This sounds like a plan. I will continue a course picking up ACA's Southern Tier Route in the Florida panhandle to possibly Pensacola Florida before heading north towards Birmingham, Alabama then east to Atlanta completing a vast and monumental circle. Thus the final destination is home, however long that takes. I estimate a total trip time of about 10 months, give or take! I know I'll not be the first to ride a bike back from completing an A.T. thru-hike, but I may be the first to travel this long distance home. When I talk to others about my plans their first response is "that's so unbelievable, you are crazy"! Yes, the concept, the plan is amazing, but I know it is so possible! CrazyGuyOnABike is filled with the odysseys of those who have done what naysayers called impossible! In my heart and soul, I believe my trek is to be the beginning of a never ending journey, finding that my home is the trail and that home is the open road before me!

Common to the 2,000-milers is a spirit of adventure. Everyone who backpacks the A.T. experiences discomfort. I believe I have the wherewithal to shrug off the unavoidable complaints and miseries, and experience the joys along with the sorrows, blisters, cold, hunger and thirst, while at the same time enjoying panoramic views, and an abundance of good fellowship hiking northbound on the Appalachian Trail. I believe I can join the energetic wanderers, open to their dreams. Each requires a powerful impetus to keep going six months, up and down steep mountains, through all kinds of weather. Only those who can shrug off the miseries and savor the joys of the trail will last. I'm discovering that long distant hikers and long haul tour bikers have without a doubt what we call the "free spirit", they have the optimistic spark in the eye, are self-assured and full of life, they savor with pride the experience of the journey.

Hiking and biking gives you the opportunity to experience the world with all your senses, overcoming physical discomfort and feeling the rush of physical power. I've felt this time and again! I've experienced smelling the air and noticing how it changes from mile to mile. hiking/biking is about feeling the wind, the sun, the rain, the heat and the cold on your skin. It's about enjoying food as fuel for your body. It's all about focusing on the richness of the journey, not the destination. For as the philosopher says the good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. For me a journey is a never ending road, a discovery that there is so much more to bind us together than tear us apart, these are the dreams that we hold in the palms of our hands.

Asians believe that every traveler is looking for some truth about himself or herself. I'm told that you can't help but discover truths about yourself while on a long distant hike or long haul bike tour. As with any challenging endeavor, hiking and riding a bicycle long distances will push you to grow in ways more than physical. You will become aware of your ability to tolerate discomfort and frustration. You will learn that you can push yourself farther than you ever thought possible. Your emotional strength will be challenged and enhanced. You will find how easy it is to feel satisfied and to be filled up, to appreciate the simple things in life, to become aware of the joy of simplicity.

After reaching the A.T. northern terminus Mount Katahdin, with its panoramic views, which stands alone, the centerpiece of the Maine wilderness, I anticipate a visit into Quebec, Canada in the month of September 2010.

I know I will follow a course most people will never travel. But this is my choice to chase a rainbow that is my own adventure of a lifetime, a rediscovery of America. Beginning the Atlantic coast trek south on the Surly Long Haul Trucker, in the Northeast, United States, per ACA publications I'll enjoy the flavor of quiet Maine coastal towns, New England villages, the rural countryside, and bucolic Amish farmlands. Once crossing the Mason-Dixon Line, which is the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, I'll ride into the South and get some flavor for Civil War history by visiting the battlefields at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the city of Richmond, Virginia. Spurs lead into the various larger cities along this route.

Leaving Richmond, I head south through the farmlands of Virginia and encounter some swamps when crossing into North Carolina. In contrast, I'll pass through some highly developed areas in Florida to which throngs of tourists flock and where many people have retired. There are numerous wildlife refuges to see. Biking the Outer Banks, I'll have a treat biking along the sandy beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. Researching this route I'm assured it can be ridden year-round, but the northern part can be quite cool in the winter, so while pedaling south I'll have a constant navigational thought of staying ahead of winter.

At present I am right on track with physical, mental and financial preparations as the approaching target departure date nears. At the age of 56 and after having total hip replacement surgery a little over 2 1/2 years ago, I know I must make this journey now! Now rather than reaching retirement age or declining physical abilities that come with aging and wishing I had done some of the things I've always wanted to do while younger! I hear the trail beckoning me! Calling my name! My orthopedic surgeon has given me her nod of approval. I told her the exact nature of my plans, she asked me if I had read Bill Bryson's, "A Walk In The Woods", she let me know she was aware of the physical demands and encouraged me to go for it. Also noteworthy is quitting smoking in October 2007 (2 yrs.). I've been hiking, biking, going to the gym the past year and I feel good! Ahhh Haaa! Lungs are clear, I'm fine tuning the body, and clearing the static from my head! Ready for the flow experience!

So to both young and old adventures, those of you who have dared to dream dreams and make those dreams happen, I give you a high five and a thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for the powerful motivation you have shown me in your travel stories, books and journals! I am now ready to make my own trek and journey of rediscovery of America, to live my own dream! God bless every one of you as you experience yours! This life is about living every moment of every day -- mentally, physically, and emotionally -- not as a tourist, but as a participant. While on a long distant trek, what a relief it is to only have a few possessions to worry about. What will not fit in your backpack or panniers is overflow, you don't need it. What fun it is to feel the wind dry the sweat as you hike or bike down a hill. How wonderful a hot shower feels at the end of a day. How good simple food tastes. Thank you for showing me these pleasures can be mine, and that if I want something in life, all I have to do is reach out and grab it.

... MY LIFE IS NOW!

Cheers!

Eddie Tuck

a.k.a. CrazyGuyOnABike Username: friartuck

a.k.a. TrailJournals dot com Trail Name: Friar Tuck

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."



- Chris McCandless

Relation | Bookmark | Edit | | Report | Link Rating: (0) Friar Tuck Hiking Georgia,

Amicalola Falls Overlook

Amicalola Falls State Park October 18, 2009

