For Holladay Church

This post is for the members of Holladay Baptist Church who want to know more about why Jen and I have decided to hike the trail. Sorry for its length, but it is necessary to adequately explain our seeming foolishness.

OK, friends and family. So when did I go off my rocker? What is the Appalachian Trail silliness all about? What in the world would cause two seemingly sane persons to decide to drop everything and play like a cow pattie, you know, hit the trail?

It was twenty years ago, February, 1987 when Jen and I first became aware of the Appalachian Trail (AT) when we read about it in National Geographic. “A Tunnel Through Time; The Appalachian Trail.” We discussed the article and talked about how much fun that would be, but our baby was 6 and our oldest was 13 with a 10 year old in between. The AT was a pipe dream.

Using cheap, heavy equipment we had taken several backpack trips in the days before children. They were primarily camping trips that involved hiking rather than hiking trips where you had to camp.

The next step was in 2002. Bill Bryson’s book on the AT came across our path. We read “A Walk in the Woods” and laughed and began to talk again about how much fun it would be. But it was still pretty much a far out there, maybe someday kind of thing. Jen was in a waiting room and saw a magazine article about the White Mountain Huts in New Hampshire on the AT. In 2003 we took our vacation and with son Nathan and his wife Amy we hiked through the presidential range of the AT staying in the huts. It was an exhilarating time except for one afternoon when my knee gave out on me.

After that experience we kept talking about hiking more of the trail, first in North Carolina where Josh was living, then in Virginia close to Baltimore where Josh moved to. In 2006 while visiting our new grand baby two things happened. We drove to the Shenandoah National Park and hiked on a side trail and we went to Harpers Ferry. Harpers Ferry is the official midpoint of the AT and the location of the AT offices.

In addition to a short hike on the trail across the Potomac river we went into a bookstore where we purchased, “Long Distance Hiking on the AT for the Older Adventurer.” After reading the book we became serious about taking the hike.

Then there was a Baptist Press article about a ministry that works with the AT community. As I looked into their website I read every day of the journal for a couple of hikers. We began to make plans to hike.

Here is our list of reasons, excuses, alibis, whatever.

1. Dream. You only go around once in life. When you have thought about something off and on as often as we have the AT, you either try it when you still can, or you get to the age when you can’t and wish you could. We don’t want to get to the place where we regret not giving it a try. If we don’t like it, we can quit. If we can’t be retired we can go back to work for another 10 years. But if we wait 10 years we will be too old to attempt it.

2. Jubilee. Thirty years is a long time. Since August 1976 we have been responsible for a church with no break. That is 1560 Sundays. Every week for over 1500 weeks I have had the next sermon and/or series of sermons on my mind. There has always been the list of people I need to see. There is always one more prospect that could be contacted. It never ends and you never get it all done. It has been thirty years of having one more thing to do than could possibly be done. Until today. I have no idea when I will preach my next sermon. However I will still be doing the Wednesday night Bible Study at Holladay until we leave in March.

3. Simplify. One of the real attractions for me is the opportunity to live a simple life for 7 months. What are you going to do today? Walk. What decisions do you have to make? Where do I stop and spend the night. What will you do tomorrow? Walk. How do you introduce yourself? “Hello, my name is Flint. I walk.” Flint is the trail name I have chosen for myself. Jennifer will be Jubilee.

4. Weight and health. After 200 miles of hiking a person gets into trail shape. I am looking forward to being in trail shape. The average male loses around 30 pounds on the trail. I have a little more than average to lose, I am hoping for 40. The combination, better shape, less weight, less work stress, will work together to lower blood pressure. I am counting on it.

5. Time together. Not unlike most couples, Jen and I have spent a lot of time meeting the needs of others rather than spending the time together. We are as much in love, more really, than we were 37 years ago when we decided to get married. But we have spent much of the last 30 years raising kids and working. We are both looking forward to spending seven months involved in meeting a joint goal. I don’t think this can do anything but strengthen our marriage.

6. Spiritual growth. In the same vein, we will be spending a lot of time immersed in our own thoughts while walking. I hope to spend a lot of those walking hours in communion with the Lord. I have a copy of the NIV Bible on my Ipod. I plan to listen to the whole Bible, at least once while walking. We will be meeting a lot of people outside the Pastor/lay person roles we have met people in for the last 30 years. I hope to be able to share the grace of the Lord Jesus with other hikers.

So if you have made it this far on the post you may be interested in knowing that this is where I plan to document our progress. If you want to follow along, send me your email with a request to receive posts as they arrive. Send your request to rodger.russell@gmail.com or you can just check on the page now and then.

God bless you all.