It's not the humidity, it's the heat

SALISBURY — It was hot, really hot, on Wednesday morning, but for Appalachian Trail through-hikers Blaine Schrader and Jess Scheuring the air felt relatively mild and lovely. They’ve been walking, walking, walking for months now in their quest to traverse the trail’s 2,175 miles, starting at the trailhead in Springer Mountain, Ga., and ending (they hope) at Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

Hope might be too strong a word, but as Schrader (trail  name: Wookie) knows, one can start off with the best intentions and still not make it all the way.  This is his third attempt to conquer the trail, which holds an almost mystical significance for nature lovers. The first two both ended when his shin splints became unbearable.

“The first time, I made it 530 miles, to Atkins, Va.,†he said Wednesday, while taking a short break on a bench outside the Scoville Library in Salisbury. “The second time I made it a little over halfway, to Pennsylvania.â€

This is a first attempt for Scheuring (trail name: Freefall) and though she is determined to finish (with the help of some prodding and encouragement from Wookie), she was feeling a bit, well, less than eager this week.

“It’s the heat,†she sighed. “It gets to you. It sucks away your will to live. But the rain helped.â€

“It lifts your spirits,†Wookie agreed.

Wookie and Freefall each started out alone, but met up, as AT hikers often do, along the way. They can’t remember when, or where.

“A couple months ago,†was the best they could come up with. It’s been a long road, so to speak. Wookie, who is 33, started out on April 10. Freefall left Springer Mountain on March 23 “but I took a lot of time off.â€

They were originally in a small but hardy band of five hikers.

“Then there were four,†Freefall said. “And then there were three. And now there are two.â€

One of their companions wanted to keep a slower pace. Freefall and Wookie are fairly eager to get to the end (Wookie is from Maine, Freefall is from New Hampshire, so in a sense they are walking home). Another of their companions stopped so his younger brother could join him.

Freefall might be having occasional thoughts about giving up, but she’s been dreaming of accomplishing this mission for half her life.

“I’ve always wanted to hike the trail,†she said. “Since I was 12.â€

She’s 24 now. Her father was her inspiration.

“He’d always wanted to walk the trail, he kind of talked it up a lot.â€

He was conspicuously absent on Wednesday morning.

“I guess he got the idea out of his system by just talking about it,†his daughter said, somewhat ruefully.

The duo were hoping to make it to Massachusetts by this evening. They are hoping that the cooling trend in the weather will continue. The bugs have been annoying, too, they agreed, but it’s really the heat “that makes me not want to walk at all,†Freefall said.

“The weather really has been pretty good, though,†Wookie said. “There hasn’t been too much rain. I had some snow in the Smokies.â€

“I got 8 inches of snow,†Freefall said. “But I was there a couple weeks ahead of him.â€

“I got 2 or 3 inches,†Wookie said. “But it’s been a good year overall.â€

If you’d like to walk in their shoes, check the Appalachian Trail Web site at appalachiantrail.org. And bring extras: like most hikers, Freefall and Wookie have brought extra pairs.

“I’m on my fourth pair of shoes,†Freefall said.

“This is my second pair, but I’m calling them my first pair,†Wookie said. “I got rid of my real first pair pretty quickly, they gave me such bad blisters.â€