Trevelyan Quest Edwards - Trail Magic: Going Walkabout for 2184 Miles on the Appalachian Trail

Published by Brolga Publishing Pty Ltd
ABN 46 063 962 443
PO Box 12544
ABeckett St
Melbourne, VIC, 8006
Australia

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher.

Copyright 2013 Trevelyan Quest Edwards & Hazel Edwards

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Other Authors/Contributors: Edwards, Hazel, 1945

Dewey Number: 917.4

Cover design by Chameleon Print Design

Cover photography by Suzanne Thomas

Typeset by Wanissa Somsuphangsri

Thanks to Suzanne Thomas for photographs and to Michele Layet

How about I loan you a $50 Australian note for the airport bus?

I was stuck in Sydney Airports Lost Baggage dept, with no cash, an inaccessible credit card plus well-used walking boots and a backpack which Quarantine justifiably inspected for bugs, and an Australian triathlete offered to help me.

Id just walked THRU the Appalachian Trail of 2,184 miles (3514.8km) northwards from Atlanta to Mt Katahdin in Maine. Six months solo walking. Enroute I had experienced Trail Magic that amazingly generous philosophy of providing free support to THRU walkers.

But I hadnt expected it to extend to a stranger in Sydney Airport.

I accepted with gratitude.

And I did pay him back, not just by a mention here.

Trail Magic should be passed on to other travellers.

*

That void which motivated me to travel when I started from Darwin on April 1, had been filled by the kindnesses of strangers, natural beauty of the Appalachian Trail, history and the satisfaction that Id made it THRU hiking the mountains, muddy waterfalls and millions of steps.

Im a minimalist. Not many belongings and can live without most digital connections and gadgets, am resistant to electronic monitoring of every step, but have resorted to collecting eccentrics and a few photos. I am a lapsed cartographer, so I like maps. And the Appalachian Trail map is over 2,000 miles of hiking.

One in five finish. Admittedly most find it hard to schedule six months for walking. Others try it in any order, which is called sectioning. This trail has its own language and numerous websites. Known as A.T. youre called a THRU-hiker if you complete the Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt Katahdin, Maine trail within a year. Or you can do it in reverse from north to south along the well blazed trail. GaMe means Georgia to Maine or NoBo (northbound) whilst MeGa are the SoBos (southbound)

Then there are Trail Names. As an Australian, the locals called me Walkabout.

Ill share a little known observation. Despite tales of bears, icy-mountains, sleeping out and carrying your own supplies, it wasnt as dangerous as outback Australia. Well, thats my opinion. The A.T. has lots of roads, other trekkers and Trail Magic. The outback has poisonous snakes, crocs and vast distances! Both have their share of tall stories and storytellers.

Travelling light is the way to go. As a Luddite, with no satellite phone (I did have a Kindle for e-reading in the tent at night), I even mailed home my compass and surplus gear. But boots matter.

The replacement gear shops along the trail were generous in replacing the American brand gear of walkers, but unfortunately mine were Australian. The American boots companies regard it as brilliant advertising to have their gear on the feet of THRU walkers. My feet were Australian booted and lasted well, but still needed replacement halfway. So I bought a new pair on the trail.

Shoe Death

What is a void? Its more than a need for adventure or change of scene.

A void is a space, something missing, that needs filling. My void? Im not too sure. Hopefully, I can work it out on this trip step by step.

Why are you doing this LONG walk? I thought about my answer to this frequently asked mates question while I was walking home from my farewell night on the Darwin foreshore.

My name is Trevelyan. The next six months or however long this path of 2,000 odd miles (not kilometres) takes me to walk THRU, may be my way to fill that void.

Starting on April 1, April Fools Day seems risky, but

This is my candid account.

This is officially the first post of the trip.

So, as a voluntary minimalist with no digital devices, Im not sure exactly how Im going to do this, but along the lines of once I find a computer Ill relate all the things I can remember since the last update. I guess this will be a timeline detailing the accessibility or not of the Internet from the Appalachian Trail.

Whats happened since the farewell barbecue? Well a lot of cleaning: the unit is so clean I almost wanted to stay a couple more days to mess it up and give it a more humane edge. By 11.30 pm I was packed, fed and clean so I decided to walk to the Darwin airport for my flight to Sydney.

It was fairly humid; in fact it was really humid so I ended up walking topless and sweated non-stop. By the time I got to the airport, my feet were killing me and somehow I managed to get a carbuncle-like rash on the inside of my knee, Im guessing where my shorts were rubbing. Once I got onto the plane I collapsed into fitful sleep and slept with my legs in a weird position. Once Id got off the plane I was hobbling and exhausted.

Great, I thought. Walked 5 k with a pack and Im already broken.

Luckily there was a Formula One Motel near the airport and all I could think, when I got my bags, was to crash. I slept for three hours, woke, then went back to sleep for another four hours.

After waking up the second time, I felt a lot more human and after a stretch, felt like maybe I would be able to do this walk. I opened the window to see a Krispy Kreme Donut shop across the road which felt like America was reaching out to me.

There are things that Im good at: going bush, tackling people in field hockey, and guessing the time from the sun. All of which are important life skills. Unfortunately logistics is not in that list and by logistics I mean planning and organising. Why this is so, Im not sure, as the rest of my family are very good at logistics but I guess I am a bit of a black sheep and the organizing gene just bypassed me.