(Written by Dan Diehl)

AT Adventure (May 22nd, 2016)Finding Nemo (Nathan)

What started as a spark of an idea when my son announced that he would be hiking the Appalachian Trail became a reality today. After a weekend of being with my fraternity brothers, drinking too much beer, one of my brothers, Pete Boyle, was driving me to see my son on the Appalachian Trail. Our target was a little dot on the Google map labeled Wildcat shelter. There were no roads that got close to this location only the driveway of someone’s long forgotten house. So an hour and a half north of Lehigh University we pulled into a driveway and I saw a hill ahead of me, without a trail or marker, compared it to a map with a dot on my phone and said” what now?” Heck looking at the map it was only about two miles but it was straight up and unmarked. Was I supposed to just walk through the woods following the same google maps that gets me lost half the time in cities! After a few minutes of conversation with Pete we decided that the best course of action was to get back on the highway and find a point where the Appalachian Trail crossed the road. Fortunately, this was only about 2 1/2 miles away so as we drove slowly down the street we saw small white mark on the side of the road on a tree and realized we had found the trail. Pete propelled me out of the car gave me a big hug and sent me off on my way through two trees marked with white slash leading into the woods. I soon learned that these white slashes are the lifeblood of the Appalachian Trail and the only way to know where you’re going. So I began trudging up a hill with a 30 plus pound pack on my back wondering what the hell am I doing? I had last communicated with my son about 48 hours previously and he said that we could meet at this shelter. I assume that there would be markings, assumed somehow I would know where I was going so I continued to put 1 foot in front of the other as I walked up one of the steepest hills I’ve walked in the last 25 years. There was a spring in my step because I was on my way to see my son but there was also dread in my heart because all of a sudden I think I realized what I had gotten myself into. My first thoughts were 1) shit this is harder than I thought it would be and 2) how come there’s no flats that I can walk on. The problem is that half the world is up and half the world is down on the Appalachian Trail that means there’s hills going up and hill’s going down, there’s never flat. One hour into it, as I was getting close to finishing my first one and a half miles, I realized that this wasn’t just a walk in the park this was hiking and mountain climbing. I found the shelter and started to do what I imagined Nathan did every night for the last 45 days. I laid out my sleeping mat, unrolled my sleeping bag and I looked around for water. I found a nearby spring and using the purification kit that Nathan had left me I carefully read the directions, filled it with water and made myself my first bottle of water that had not come from the convenience store or a tap in probably 20 to 25 years. To say the least, I was really proud of myself! I had survived my initial exposure. My heart rate dropped from anaerobic to aerobic. It was only 3:00 and Nathan said he expected he would be there around 4 so I left my pack in the shelter and headed down the trail in the direction he was coming from. This was more like it. Hiking without a backpack is easy. So I decided to continue to walk in his direction for about 45 minutes hoping to surprise him on the trail. After about 45 minutes with no contact, I turned around and began heading back figuring that he would see me at the shelter. I was probably only about another five minutes down the trail going back toward the shelter when I was hailed from behind by my son walking rapidly with a full pack on his back. Tears in my eyes I embraced him after not seeing him for 50 days and followed him back up the trail toward the shelter. Back at the shelter we started a fire cooked a meal talked for a while I got to meet his friends Cosmo and Gary. Bedtime comes early on the trail. Everyone is very tired, everyone so happy to take the weight off their feet, to shed their packs and to lay down flat. As soon as the light begins to fade, about 8 o’clock this time of year, eyes close and snoring starts. I lay in my sleeping bag having made the adaptation from the business world to this remote location my eyes closed and I fell into a deep sleep, content that I was here with my son ready to begin my big adventure.