Posted 8:33 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011
The Appalachian Trail is about 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. It traverses 14 states through cow pastures, rocky cliffs, waterfalls and open plains. The upward treks are the equivalent of hiking Mount Everest 16 times. UW-La Crosse gradates Robert “Jake” Hoffmann and Travis Pernsteiner started hiking the trail two days after their May 2011 graduation. They finished four months later with full-grown beards, gazing down from the top of Mount Katahdin.
The Appalachian Trail is about 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. It traverses 14 states through cow pastures, rocky cliffs, waterfalls and open plains. The upward treks are the equivalent of hiking Mount Everest 16 times.
UW-La Crosse gradates Robert “Jake” Hoffmann and Travis Pernsteiner started hiking the trail two days after their May 2011 graduation. They finished four months later with full-grown beards, gazing down from the top of Mount Katahdin. They completed the journey from start to finish — an accomplishment only one in four thru-hikers can claim. They touched the sign at the summit, only to be reminded that the joy was not reaching the end. It was the adventure of the 121-day journey.
College to mountain climbing
[caption id="attachment_995" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Travis Pernsteiner, a management and economics major, left, and Jacob Hoffmann, international business, finance and German major, started hiking the Appalachian Trail just two days after their May 2011 graduation. Here they are pictured with the end point at Mount Katahdin in the background."]
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Pernsteiner admits he didn’t know what he was getting himself into or even where the Appalachian Trail was when he agreed to hike it with Hoffmann, his buddy and college roommate, about a year before graduation. Both he and Pernsteiner had run marathons and participated in triathlons, so the physical requirements seemed achievable and the time — right after college — felt right.
“I worked 30 hours a week in college and had three majors. I was pretty burned out,” says Hoffmann. “I wanted to get away and do something most people when they are 50 look back and wish they would have done.”
The two left Wisconsin for the trailhead in Georgia at 8 p.m. the night of graduation and officially started on the trail May 16. They needed to get a move on to make it to the trail end by Oct. 15 when Baxter State Park, home of the trail’s end at the summit of Mount Katahdin, closes.
Slowing down
[caption id="attachment_1000" align="alignright" width="288" caption="The two say they were most motivated by bacon cheese burgers and chocolate milkshakes at the next small town diner. “The biggest challenge was the mental game — convincing your tired body to get out of the warm sleeping bag and walk 20 miles up a bunch of mountains,” says Hoffmann."]
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Despite a rushed start, the two agreed the walk had the effect of slowing them down. They didn’t feel stressed out about the typical life stuff like fitting into society or appearances.
Their lives became simple. Hike, eat, drink and sleep were on the agenda. They averaged 18 miles per day with everything they needed slung behind their backs in 20-pound packs. They slept in tents or lean-to shelters, collected drinking water from streams and wore the same shirts and brightly colored gym shorts every day.
They began to appreciate things they took for granted before like a good water source or a comfortable place to sleep in at night. Moreover, they began to really see what was around them.
“I liked the solitude and serenity of the woods. At times it was perfectly silent and quite and I could hear the leaves rushing or an animal off in the woods,” says Pernsteiner. “That’s hard to find nowadays.”
Encounters of the animal kind
[caption id="attachment_1003" align="alignleft" width="360" caption="The two encountered wild bulls in Tennessee only 12 feet off the trail."]
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Pernsteiner recalls reaching one vast, grassy plain in Tennessee dotted with wild bulls, their pointy horns as long as baseball bats. The trail was only 14 to 15 feet from where they lay, relaxing in the sun.
“That was a little nerve wracking,” he says.
But the two weren’t nervous enough to resist taking a photo.
“I made Jake slow down to take the picture. We were like ‘wow — this is cool,’” he recalls. “But then it was time to get going. We ran when we got pass them.”
Pernsteiner adds they also came across bear cubs and plenty of deer. One night walking back to the campsite after getting water, he heard something rustling in the woods near his tent. With only his headlamp shining through the dark, he couldn’t make out what it was. He made it into the tent and told Hoffman and several other campers who had joined them.
“I was so scared. I said 'Guys…I’m not sure what that was,'” he recalls.
When they poked their heads outside to look again they found a deer attempting to reach their food slung in the tree.
Itchy, sick and grumpy
[caption id="attachment_1005" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Travis Pernsteiner, left, and Jacob Hoffmann, reach the 1,000 mile point."]
[/caption]Pernsteiner notes only two of the 121 days were bad. Worn out shoes, wet weather and stomach pains on day 91 on a rocky Pennsylvania trail had him wishing he was on a comfortable couch somewhere inside.
Hoffmann recalls the day he bought a new pair of shoes and, after walking 15 miles out of town, realized they were too small. The same day he got a bad case of poison ivy on his leg. All he wanted was some calamine lotion and new shoes, but it was 100 miles to the next small town.
“I had four days to deal with poison ivy and small shoes,” he says. “ That was a dark time."
However the most difficult part of hiking the trail was not the heat, cold, blisters, bruises, bugs or bears, reflects Hoffmann in one journal entry. It was the sacrifices he made in his personal life to keep hiking.
“Relationships suffer and fall apart, money is tight, job opportunities are lost and time — the most valuable resource of all — is taken away from all other things in the interest of ones self,” he writes.
Reaching summit
[caption id="attachment_1007" align="alignleft" width="400" caption=" Jacob Hoffmann and Travis Pernsteiner stand at the summit of Mount Katahdin with other hikers they met on the trail. From left by trail name, Frodo (Pernsteiner), Sweet Tea, Happy Feet, Samwise (Hoffmann) and Stretch. The two came up with trail names based on Lord of the Rings characters."]
[/caption]After 121 days and eight pairs of shoes, Pernsteiner was sick of pop tarts and his feet hurt. He missed home cooking, going for runs and his girlfriend. But his enthusiasm for the trail never died. He loved living out of a backpack, the new scenery along every stretch of the trail and the time to reflect.
That’s why the end — five miles straight up Mount Katahdin — was so emotional.
“I cried the last two miles. I couldn’t believe it was over,” says Hoffmann.
Through a foggy morning mist, Pernsteiner walked up to the sign at the summit and touched it. Yet, he didn’t feel a sense of completion. He thought about what might be next — competing in an ironman next summer and going back to school for his master’s degree in environmental science and sustainability.
“Maybe I still have a passion for doing something bigger and better,” he says.
Hoffmann felt a similar motivation to continue the journey. He’s already planning his next hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, a longer trail spanning from Mexico to Canada.
“Everyone has definite amount of time on this earth and I don’t want to waste it,” says Hoffmann. “Why not keep being that person who seeks adventures and does things they love? Do what makes you happy instead of what society tells you what to do.”
THE FACTS
- The two passed a total of 528 people from start to finish. The youngest was about 18 years old and the oldest — 88 years old
- Starting pack weight: 35 lbs Finishing pack weight: 18 lbs (What did they ditch? Excess food and water, socks and boxers. They carried less toilet paper and found a lighter mattress pad.)
- Their motivation to keep going? Often bacon-cheese burgers and chocolate milkshakes at small town diners