Sticks Harsha: Sticks and Stones: How to Hike the Appalachian Trail in 13 Years

Transcript

[0:00:22] JB: Some hike the 2,200-mile-long Appalachian Trail that crosses 14 states from Georgia to Maine all at once, others spread the journey out. Diane Harsha hiked the AT over the course of 13 years, weaving the trail in and out of her otherwise busy life, returning to it whenever she felt called, and completing it in her late 50s. She’s written about her journey in the new book, Sticks and Stones: How to Hike the Appalachian Trail in 13 Years. On Author Hour today, Diane discusses the experience of being on the trail, its beauty, challenges, and mysteries, and she tells us her trail name. Hi, Author Hour listeners. I’m here today with Diane Harsha, author of Sticks and Stones: How to Hike the Appalachian Trail in 13 Years. Diane, thank you so much for being with us today.

[0:01:18] DH: Good morning and thank you very much for having me, I’m glad to be here.

[0:01:22] JB: Tell us first of all, about the decision to break up the trail with a 2,200-mile-long trail over the course of 13 years?

[0:01:31] DH: Okay, well, there are people, not I, who hiked the Appalachian trail in one fell swoop. These folks are called through hikers and it generally takes from four to six months to do that. When I became interested in long-distance hiking and the Appalachian Trail specifically, I was in my early 40s. I had a full-time career, I had a family, a house, a yard, pets, all of those things and so I did not have the time or really, the – even the inclination to leave my home and job and family for that length of time. Few people can at that age. Although, let’s face it, most of us probably want to from time to time or dream of it but – I thought, well, I will just give it a go, I’ll try a weekend, see how it goes. Because I live in central Tennessee, the trailhead, the southern trailhead of the Appalachian trail is in northern Georgia, so it’s not that far from my home. It was logistically not that difficult for me to go over for a weekend at a time. That sort of how it begins, I would go for a weekend here, maybe then on a long weekend there. It just sort of snowballed from there and then of course the further up the trail I got, the further away it is from my home and it didn’t make sense to go for just a weekend or a long weekend so eventually I started taking longer trips. Trips of longer duration and more miles.

[0:03:13] JB: What does it feel like when you’ve been hiking for a hundred miles?

[0:03:18] DH: Well, it feels pretty good the first few miles and then toward the end, maybe not so much. You know, it’s a learning curve for me because I did start out with just these very short hikes that went longer and longer. There’s a lot of advantages to that I could test out gear, I knew my own weaknesses and strengths whereas you know, a through hiker has – man, they just, he or she just gets out there and does it. I was able to sort of perfect my technique I suppose as I went along and knew more of what to expect. Although, the other thing, let’s remember that I was in my mid-40s when I started. When I finished, I was pushing late 50s. Even though my expertise level might have risen, my physical abilities probably slowed somewhat. All that sort of made, I guess, for a nice healthy mix, I suppose.

[0:04:19] JB: I want to ask you about your trail name. First of all, can you tell our listeners what a trail name is and how a hiker receives one and then of course we want to hear about yours.

[0:04:29] DH: Okay, well, sure. On the Appalachian Trail, there is a long haul tradition for hikers to adopt trail names and as far as I know, this is the only sport or activity or whatever, where this is sort of an iron clad rule and the origin of this tradition has been lost to time and conflicting claims but it’s been going on for a long time. I suppose, there are some people maybe who would try to name themselves but normally, you get the name from other hikers, from your fellow hikers. Some of them are fairly obvious like someone might be called Red Hat or Whiskers or things that are fairly easy to get why they have been called that. Meticulous, I met one woman named Meticulous but then there are others that are really more mysterious and that might cough some explanation like, “Hey, why do you have this trail name of Rodeo” for example? Some of these names are bestowed fairly early on, in the first couple of weeks of through hiker’s experience. Some of them take a little bit longer to evolve and they’re generally – you know, fair warning, they stick, if you come – you know, if you think you’re going to be like super person or super woman and you end up with something like squirrel nuts, you’re just kind of stuck with it. That is sort of the evolution of the trail name tradition.

[0:05:57] JB: When did you get yours?

[0:05:59] DH: Okay, well, I did not get mine until probably almost halfway through. I was several years into it and the reason for that is because you know, I hike so sporadically that I was never with a group of people long enough for a name to sort of stick. No pun intended because my trail name is Sticks. I took a while for it to develop and as I said, it was probably five or six years into it, probably almost halfway through when I was on about a three or four-week hike and I had been with a group of people long enough for them to start calling me by this particular name. Then that is the name I started using to identify myself. When I met someone and say, “Hi, I’m Sticks” or that’s how I would sign my name in a trail register. It just stayed with me until the end of this 13-year period. I think we’re just going to have to say, if you want to know, really, how the name came about, maybe you’re going to have to read about that.

[0:07:09] JB: Okay, fair enough. As you said, the name really sticks. I mean, people still call you that or you go by that among some people?

[0:07:20] DH: Yeah, in the hiking community, that’s how I’m known and when I talk to someone via email or whatever, I’ll sign off as Sticks. My daughter and her partner are both through-hikers of several different trails and I call them by their trail names. It just sort of becomes your persona and in fact, I would say that 99% of the hikers that I met, I never even knew their real names. I still don’t know their real names. If somebody called me and said “Hey, this is Julie”, I’d say, “Who?” If she said, “Hey, this is Details” I’d say “Oh, okay.” It really is – it’s a sense of anonymity I suppose, also on the trail, you know?

[0:08:08] JB: Yeah, I was just going to ask you about that because – and you're retired now but when you weren’t on the trail, you were working for the FBI and of course as you said, you're a mother. I mean, these are really powerful identities, who did you become when you were on the trail?

[0:08:25] DH: Well, that’s an interesting question. You know? I don’t think I ever left totally one part of my life behind whether I was on or off the trail. In other words, like I’ve said is that, I feel like because I was a section hiker, as opposed to a through-hiker who is totally engrossed in his or her journey. I always felt like I had one foot off the trail and one foot on the trail. I never felt like that was a hindrance or you know, it felt like it was kind of a blessing. I kind of had the best of everything in many ways. I got on the trail, I could totally become enchanted by it but of course, a part of my heart was still with my job and with my family. Then I could come back, sort of refreshed and recharged and ready to be totally committed to my work and totally committed to my family. A couple of months would go by or whatever, a few months, the winter. I start saying, “Okay, things are still groovy here but I really need to get back on the trail and recharge.” I don’t feel like I ever left a part of me behind, I just took it with me in my heart.

[0:09:36] JB: And always had that option to get back on the trail and it was 13 years that you had that option, what was it like when it ended? Did you miss the journey?

[0:09:46] DH: Yeah, I did and I started in 2005 and I summited Katahdin in 2017. I had retired, in the meantime, I retired in 2014. You know, it had been a hobby for 13 years. A goal, right? When the goal was completed, there was a sense of deflating maybe or just a sense of, “Okay, well that was probably the best, funnest thing I’ve ever done” you know? Now what? I think a lot of through hikers will say that. Certainly, two hikers that are close to me have said that, you know, that was the best time of their life and the hardest time of their time but also the best time of their lives and I think a lot of through hikers do it at a young age because before they’re committed to other things in life and I’ve heard them say to me that it’s kind of hard when you feel like the best most exciting thing you’ve ever done, you do it at such an early age and then it’s kind of like, “Okay, now what?” The way I sort of think that was another good blessing I had was that I did have it for 13 years and yeah, I mean there is always other trails and I have hiked many times since I finished, nothing long like that but you know, there are always other trails that there is that sense of after any big journey or any big goal is completed where you sort of go, “Okay, well, wow. I wish I could start all over” and some folks do. Some folks hike it many times but not I, I’m one and done.

[0:11:18] JB: I mean you’d be in your 70s.

[0:11:24] DH: Yeah, exactly. Although some people do it at that age but no, the future trails for me will be a shorter duration and probably closer to home and perhaps not quite so difficult.

[0:11:36] JB: Apologies in advance if this question is unanswerable but why? What is the draw, do you think? Is it the fact that there is a set beginning and an end that it becomes a goal that’s achievable I mean instead of just walking into the woods? Why are people drawn to hiking the entire AT?

[0:11:55] DH: Yeah, you know I guess there’s just many different reasons for that is there are people who hike the trail and I guess for me is although I was certainly would never have been considered at elite athlete, I was always just because of my job that I was in fairly in good shape and you know, I just wanted – I felt like something that was achievable yet challenging and something that I’d read a lot about, those folks write about the AT and I just felt like it was something that I could do, enjoy nature, get some physical exercise out of it, have some peace, have some serenity and that is exactly what it turned out to be. I don’t have one minute of regret about doing it. There were difficult times when I thought, “Well, I’m not going to be able to finish this” so you know, I don’t want to in any way mitigate the challenge factor of hiking the Appalachian trail. It is not an easy path but that of course just makes it, I guess for someone like me this sort of goal we’re in that makes it even more okay, “by gosh, I’m going to do this if it kills me” and sometimes I thought it would but I’ve lived to tell the tale.

[0:13:13] JB: Were there times where you thought you might not finish it? Where you thought I’ve done enough and I don’t need to complete the whole thing or?

[0:13:21] DH: I don’t know if those thoughts really ran through my mind. I think most of the time, I thought I know this is not going to get easier. There were times I had a lot of butterflies in my stomach at the beginning of a trip, a lot of trepidation. You know, a lot of people don’t finish the trail and that’s fine, everybody hikes their own hike but there were times when I’ve gotten in tight situations on dangerous peaks and terrible weather conditions and I thought, “What the hell am I doing here? I’m retired, I don’t even have to be here. Nobody is making me do this” right? And, you know, as Bill Bryson famously said, “This is not the Army.” I can quit at any time but you know, I’d come back home and I’d get recharged and I’d say, “Okay, I am going to get back out there” and so I just kept on walking.

[0:14:10] JB: There is a line I really loved. For over 2,000 miles, the Appalachian Trail constantly contradicts itself. What do you mean by that?

[0:14:19] DH: Oh well, because it is this and then it is that, right? It’s serene and peaceful and quiet and then it’s difficult and challenging and heart stopping seemingly. It goes through fields and woods and pasture land and then it goes through right through a little town, you know? It goes on carpeted pine needle path and then it’s on a sidewalk. It’s rolling hills in the South and then it’s the forbidding incredible smoky mountains and then it’s the peaceful journey through the Shenandoah Valley and that through Virginia and then you get into the peaks of New England and then look out. You know, you get to the white mountains, which will just kick anybody’s butt and so it’s just there’s never – no two days are the same, none. The scenery constantly changes, the wildlife constantly changes, the people you meet constantly change so there’s a contradiction every day.

[0:15:29] JB: That sounds exciting but also perhaps somewhat disorienting.

[0:15:34] DH: Well, you know I guess it is disorienting in this, you have to do your homework. I mean you have to know it can be very dangerous. People die so you have to do your homework. You have to know what to expect with that day, you have to have the proper gear. You have to have enough supplies, enough food, you have to know how to treat your water. You can’t go into it with this, “Oh, I’m just going to trip along this beautiful little path for a few days” or for six months. It can be disorienting but that’s where preparation comes in.

[0:16:05] JB: You hinted at the last sections of the trail that those are some of the hardest, right?

[0:16:11] DH: They were. I think almost universally, a hiker, an Appalachian Trail hiker, an AT hiker will tell you that is the most difficult sections. The Smokies have quite a reputation also but certainly, the Whites with their extreme winters, you know the weather window is fairly short and even in the summer months, you can get snow and sleet and ice and extreme winds and you know, there is no help on the AT. There is no guide bars, there is no – you know you’re pretty much on your own. A lot of it is about the weather, if you happen to climb the presidential range, which is Jefferson, Madison, Washington, along with others in nice weather, then it can be fun although still challenging. I happened to do it when the weather was terrible and so that made it just that much more challenging and it was an extremely, extremely difficult hike, a difficult section.

[0:17:10] JB: Just trying to imagine how that affects the entire experience to know that the hardest part is last.

[0:17:17] DH: Well, you know, that’s interesting you should say that because it is not necessarily the last because there are self-bound hikers as well. You know, some people start at Mount Katahdin, which is Maine and hike south to Springer Mountain, which is in Georgia. It’s not necessary that’s at the end of your hike. Although I would say that you know, probably 60, 70% of hikers or more will do it the South to North way.

[0:17:45] JB: Favorite section, do you have one?

[0:17:48] DH: Oh gosh, there’s a lot. You know, I really liked going through the small towns. I loved going through hot springs and Damascus and the little towns in New England because you see more people and you can stop and get some real food or whatever but I’ve really enjoyed all the little towns. People were so kind and so generous but I also just loved the days that it was just me. You know, when I would not see another person and you pitch your tent in some solitary place or you’d just hear a coyote every now and then and just see the stars. There is just several places along the way that are just iconic like Grayson Highlands, which is where a herd of wild ponies roam so that was just a magical day. There is just so many places like that. You know, this is 2,200 miles of in my opinion, of the best of America has to offer and that’s nature at its best. It’s human kindness at its most generous, it’s strangers helping strangers. It’s the wild life that just lets us go by and doesn’t bother us and it’s just truly a magical, this little 18 inch wide path is a magical place to live on.

[0:19:20] JB: Thank you so much for sharing your story so we can live on it, vicariously through you. Diane, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you, or can I call you Sticks?

[0:19:30] DH: Please call me Sticks, and it’s been my great pleasure. Thank you.

[0:19:34] JB: Again listeners, the book is, Sticks and Stones: How to Hike the Appalachian Trail in 13 Years. Sticks, thank you so much for being with us and I hope to see you out on a trail someday.

[0:19:45] DH: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a great pleasure.

[0:19:49] JB: Thanks for joining us for this episode of The Author Hour Podcast. You can get Harsha’s book, Sticks and Stones: How to Hike the Appalachian Trail in 13 Years, on Amazon. You can also find a transcript of this episode as well as previous episodes on our website, authorhour.co. Make sure to subscribe to The Author Hour Podcast for more interviews and insights into life-changing books.