BECOMING
ODYSSA
Epic Adventures on
the Appalachian Trail
JENNIFER PHARR DAVIS
Copyright © 2010 by Jennifer Pharr Davis
Illustrations Copyright © 2010 by James Pharr
First Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davis, Jennifer Pharr.
Becoming odyssa : epic adventures on the Appalachian Trail / Jennifer Pharr Davis.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8253-0649-5 (alk. paper)
1. Hiking—Appalachian Trail. 2. Appalachian Trail—Description and travel. 3. Davis, Jennifer
Pharr—Travel—Appalachian Trail. I. Title.
GV199.42.A68D38 2010
796.510974—dc22
2010028097
For inquiries about volume orders, please contact:
Beaufort Books
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New York, NY 10011
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Published in the United States by Beaufort Books
www.beaufortbooks.com
Distributed by Midpoint Trade Books
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Interior design by Elyse Strongin, Neuwirth & Associates, Inc.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
Preface by David Horton, Ph.D.
Introduction by Warren Doyle, Ph.D.
1. LOVE
Abol Campground, ME, to the top of Mount Katahdin, ME—3.87 miles
2. TRUTH
The Appalachian Trail Institute, Banner Elk, NC
3. INEPTITUDE
Unicoi Gap, GA, to Springer Mountain, GA—50.9 miles
4. ADVENTURE
Unicoi Gap, GA, to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, NC—84 miles
5. ADVERSITY
Nantahala Outdoor Center, NC, to Waterville School Road, NC—103.4 miles
6. HOME
Waterville School Road, NC, to Hot Springs, NC—33.4 miles
7. FRIENDS
Hot Springs, NC, to Cherry Gap Shelter, TN—84.5 miles
8. CONFIDENCE
Cherry Gap Shelter, TN, to Damascus, VA—104.9 miles
9. OPPRESSION
Damascus, VA, to a little past Pearisburg, VA—165 miles
10. DISCOMFORT
Outside Pearisburg, VA, to Troutville, VA—92 miles
11. INSPIRATION
Troutville, VA, to Rockfish Gap, VA—132.3 miles
12. GENEROSITY
Rockfish Gap, VA, to US 522 (Front Royal), VA—107 miles
13. DIVERSITY
US 522 (Front Royal), VA, to Pen Mar Park, MD/PA—95 miles
14. ABNORMALITY
Pen Mar Park, MD/PA, to Delaware Water Gap, NJ—260 miles
15. MORTALITY
Delaware Water Gap, PA, to Bear Mountain State Park, NY—107.9 miles
16. PERSEVERANCE
Bear Mountain State Park, NY, to Mount Greylock, MA—183.9 miles
17. OPTIMISM
Mount Greylock, MA, to Hanover, NH—160 miles
18. REGROUPING
Hanover, NH, to Pinkham Notch, NH—123 miles
19. TRIBULATION
Pinkham Notch, NH, to Monson, ME—199 miles
20. TRIUMPH
Monson, ME, to Mount Katahdin, ME—118 miles
21. HOMECOMING
Summer 2005 to Summer 2008—3 years
2008 Itinerary
Acknowledgments
Dedicated to…
The Glory of God,
My Love, my Husband, Brew Davis,
My Friend, my Father, Yorke Pharr.
PREFACE
Jennifer Pharr Davis is a modern day adventurer. Most folks in today’s society do not seek out things that will test them. Most seek out things that will entertain them. As you read Jennifer’s story, you can feel her pain and vicariously enjoy and relate to all that she goes through on her trip that shapes her into the special person she has become.
Even though I knew most of the events that happened during her trip, I could not put this book down. You will feel the same. I could not wait to see what challenge the Appalachian Trail presented to her next, and how she would deal with it. I believe that this is a book that everyone can relate to—not just hikers and runners, but anyone who has ever dreamed about doing something adventurous.
There has never been anyone so young who has accomplished what Jennifer has. She is one of the toughest, nicest, and friendliest people that I have ever known. She motivates me to seek new challenges. Reading this book will motivate you to seek challenges in your life.
I feel honored to call Jennifer a friend, and look forward to seeing what she will do in the future. You will feel like she is your friend after you read this book. The story you are about to read is just the start for this young lady.
David Horton, Ph.D.
Endurance Runner, Former Appalachian Trail Speed Record Holder
Professor of Kinesiology, Liberty University
INTRODUCTION
The Appalachian Trail is a simple, slender thread of individual freedom flowing between Springer Mountain in northern Georgia and Katahdin in central Maine. That such a footpath even exists in our modern cyber world is a testament to the visionary who conceived it in the early twentieth century and the thousands of volunteer trail builders working tirelessly over the last eight decades, along with the dedicated trail maintainers of today.
It is our nation’s premier long-distance hiking trail, emulated and modeled worldwide. It is as significant to our nation’s health as our interstate, national park, and Social Security systems, and at very little cost to the taxpayer. It provides the peaceful and beautiful green to offset the sometimes chaotic, dehumanizing gray of our daily existence. Those who tread this path for a morning, afternoon, dusk, dawn, weeks, or several months are more likely to feel better about themselves, and each other, after they have taken their respective trail sojourns.
The pilgrimage is an important part of many cultures. We need to get away from the familiar and explore not only what is around the next bend but also discover the strength and beauty that we have within us. A walk-about helps us to realize that we were just conditioned and trained in school, and with this realization we can take our first steps toward freedom and self-actualization. We develop our critical thinking abilities, rediscover being curious, and find ourselves asking questions again. We begin to more closely define what is real and what is trivial to us. We become more awake to beauty and truth, right and wrong. We rediscover a childlike sense of wonder at the essence of the natural environment.
The trail is a teacher like no other. It has no required reading, assignments, projects, or grades. It has no expectations. It has no prejudice or discrimination. It doesn’t care about your socioeconomic class, age, gender, religious affiliation, race, ethnicity, education level, occupation, family name, the clothes you wear, or the car you drive. What a fantastic place for an individual to find out who she really is!
Over the past thirty-seven years, I have traversed the entire Appalachian Trail sixteen times. I have observed hundreds of people before and after their thru-hikes. In most cases, the trail has caused positive changes for these pilgrims. They are physically, mentally, and spiritually stronger and more confident about their abilities and capacities. They are more content, flexible, tolerant, patient, and adventurous.
• Walking the entire Appalachian Trail is not recreation. It is an education and a job.
• Walking the entire Appalachian Trail is not “going on a hike.” It is a challenging task—a journey with deeper ramifications. Are you willing to accept them and learn from them?
• Don’t fight the Trail. You have to flow with it. Be cooperative with the Trail, neither competitive nor combative.
• Don’t expect the Trail to respect or to be sensitive to your comfort level and desire to control your environment. In your avoidance of discomfort, you may become more uncomfortable. Fear is weight.
• Time, distance, terrain, weather, and the Trail itself cannot be changed. You have to change. Don’t waste any of your energy complaining about things you have no control over. Instead, look at yourself and adapt you mind, heart, body, and soul to the Trail. Remember, you will be a guest in someone else’s house the entire journey.
• The Trail knows neither prejudice nor discrimination. Don’t expect any favors from the Trail. The Trail is inherently hard—there is no easy. Everything has to be earned. The Trail is a trial.
• Leave your cultural “level of comfort” at home. Reduce your material wants while concentrating on your physical and spiritual needs.
• Basic needs—food, clothing, shelter? Keep it light, simple, and frugal.
• It is far better, and less painful, to learn to be a smart hiker rather than a strong hiker.
• Leave your emotional fat at home as well. Feel free to laugh, to cry, to feel lonely, to feel afraid, to feel socially irresponsible, to feel foolish, and (most importantly) to feel free. Relive your childhood and play the GAME of the Trail. Roll with the punches and learn to laugh in the shadow of adversity. Be always optimistic—things could always be worse; don’t become mired in the swamp of sorrow.
• If your goal is to walk the entire Appalachian Trail, then do it. People who take shortcuts do so because they are usually shorter, quicker, or easier. So where is the challenge and honor in that? We have enough of this in the real world.
• Expect the worst. If after one week on the Trail you can honestly say that it is easier than you expected, then you will probably finish your journey.
• We all have our own temperaments, levels of comfort, and thresholds of pain. If these are congruent with what the Trail requires, you should succeed on your pilgrimage.
What follows is an informative and inspiring narrative of a young woman’s successful traverse of the entire Appalachian Trail after she finished her undergraduate education. She took many of these snippets of long-distance hiking wisdom to heart, and she was granted great rewards of insight, beauty, and truth that will last her all her life and impact the people who have the good fortune to meet her. I’m proud to be one of those.
Becoming Odyssa is a frank and fun story of a young female pilgrim becoming more than she ever was before through hard physical effort, perseverance, and her ability to adapt and be flexible. She learns to appreciate the simple pleasure of flowing by foot, gazelle-like, through the magnificent Appalachians from Georgia to Maine. It is a journey to be appreciated and honored. Knowing what she has done since her maiden voyage of 2005, I’m confident this will only be the first book of her accomplishments in the long-distance hiking realm.
It is both an honor and a privilege to introduce you to Jennifer Pharr Davis’s story of becoming Odyssa.
Warren Doyle, Ph.D.
Director, Appalachian Trail Folk School
Founder, Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association (ALDHA)
1
LOVE
JUNE 20TH, 2008
ABOL CAMPGROUND, ME, TO THE TOP OF
MOUNT KATAHDIN, ME—3.87 MILES
Mount Katahdin is one of the toughest climbs on the Appalachian Trail, but you don’t feel it—at least, not like you would expect. Northbound thru-hikers who journey up the mountain are too consumed by the accomplishment, and Southbound hikers are too overwhelmed with anticipation to focus on the difficulty of the path. Hikers remember their emotions on the mountain more than its unique geographical features. It is a peak that has launched dreams and fulfilled goals. It is a summit that will change your life.
My wristwatch alarm went off at 3:30 am. finally. Despite my warm sleeping bag and soft foam pad, I had hardly slept at all that night, waiting to hear the rhythmic beeping that now filled the tent.
Sleepless nights were not unusual in this season of my life. I thought back to a week and a half ago when I didn’t sleep in anticipation of my wedding ceremony the next morning. Twelve days ago it was pure excitement and an unrelenting smile that kept me from sleep, but this morning, anxiety and adrenaline filled the darkness. In both cases my elevated heart rate and insomnia were the result of starting a new journey—a journey down a road that I believed I had been uniquely designed and created to explore.
Brew, my new husband, began to stir beside me. Apparently the significance of the morning had not kept him from a deep sleep, which he now struggled to depart. Luckily, in a small tent, all my jostling prevented him from falling back asleep, and in accordance with our plan we were both dressed, with headlamps on our heads, packs on our backs, and half-consumed Clif Bars in our hands, by 3:45 AM.
It took us a little over an hour to navigate the dark forest and rocky terrain at the base of Katahdin, but at 5:00 AM we emerged from the woods and arrived at an endless uphill boulder field. The terrain ahead resembled a rock quarry, with stones scattered across the mountainside, masking the trail in front of us. But with the atmosphere now dimly glowing, we tucked away our headlamps and began winding our way up the rocky slope, scanning rocks and boulders for the painted blazes that would guide our path.
On June 20th in central Maine, the sun starts to break through the clouds too early for most to appreciate. The first rays hit our backs at 5:30, and I was thankful for the warmth and light that they provided. There were several moments during the ascent when I stopped to look out over the softening sky. I was inspired by the sea of clouds beneath us and the three distant mountain peaks that sat like islands amid the dense white depths. I struggled to keep my focus on the rocky path, and instead watched the vast shadow of Katahdin serve as a sundial, rotating over the ocean of clouds below us.
I was so taken by the beauty and stillness of the morning that the reality of the task ahead didn’t sink in until we neared the top of the mountain. Walking across the rock-strewn field that led to the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, I was suddenly struck by the significance of each forward footstep that I planted in the soft, damp earth.
I had been on this same trail, in this same place, three years earlier. But my first climb up Katahdin wasn’t as lighthearted or light-footed as my current traverse. I had arrived at the mountain after the four hardest months of my life, and had viewed my climb to the rocky apex as merely the means to an end—the end of physical hardship, the end of emotional distress, the end of unsavory encounters, and the end of spiritual unrest. I swore to myself that I would never come back to this mountain, and that I would never again entertain the idea of thru-hiking.
God must have been laughing down on me as I made those shortsighted vows. What I didn’t realize at that time was that my climb up Katahdin had not marked the end of a journey, but the beginning of a new life. I had no idea that the challenges I faced as a twenty-one-year-old woman hiking the Appalachian Trail would so deeply impact who I am, what I believe, and how I want to live. And I certainly would never have guessed that my epic misadventures on the AT would lead to an enduring love of long-distance hiking.
The path was uneven, but Brew and I walked hand in hand to t
he worn wooden sign that marked the top of the mountain. It was 6:20 AM, and I was ready to set out on a new adventure, to begin a new chapter of my life, with the man I love by my side. Before I started, we took a few mountaintop photos, then I grabbed hold of my warm, sweet-smelling husband as he prayed over the next 2,175 miles. Together we asked God for safety and good health, we asked that He would strengthen our relationship, and that He would allow us to help others along the way.
After we said “Amen,” I set off down the mountain. As I went forward, I reflected on the trials and trails that had led me back to this place. A large smile spread across my face as I considered the past five thousand miles and three and a half years, and remembered the preparation for my first thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. As I transitioned from the upper plain of Katahdin to its rocky spine, I laughed as I thought about how far I had come from the insecure twenty-one-year-old who had started the trail in 2005. I was now able to look ahead and see where I wanted to go, but I was still close enough to look back and see where I had come from.
2
TRUTH
DECEMBER 2004
THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL INSTITUTE,
BANNER ELK, NC
It is impossible to fully prepare for a 2,175-mile hike. The only way to learn how to hike all day, every day, is to go into the woods and do just that. Since most people cannot or do not train for thru-hiking by thru-hiking, they have to get ready for the trail by reading guidebooks, scanning internet chat rooms, going on day hikes, and spending time at the local gym. To prepare for my first thru-hike, I decided to attend an intense three-day Appalachian Trail workshop led by Dr. Warren Doyle.
It was a cold winter morning in December 2004. I woke up at 4:00 AM and drove two hours from my home in Hendersonville, North Carolina, to reach Lees-McRae College in nearby banner elk.
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