Chuck Sink

You Can't Get There... by Sitting Here Chuck Sink

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!