Last Chance on his first journey

SALISBURY —Hiking tip: When traveling on the Appalachian Trail (AT), never get caught by a detour where the bridge you need to cross is about to be cut in half.  

On Thursday, July 9, a man was hiking on Dugway Road when he came to the Amesville bridge — which was in the process of being demolished. He looked crushed. He needed to reach the Falls Village post office (where there was a package awaiting him, with food and clean clothing). He had just walked several miles along Dugway Road and was not eager to walk back to the beginning, walk to Falls Village and then return to the Amesville bridge detour.

Lakeville Journal Executive Editor Cynthia Hochswender offered to drive him. On the way, he told us a bit of his hiking history.

Like all AT thru-hikers, he has a “trail name.” It was his wife who said his name should be “Last Chance” because, at 66, this could be his final opportunity to hike the trail, something he had been dreaming of for 39 years.

A resident of Lancaster, Pa., which is 70 miles west of Philadelphia, Last Chance is a retired employee of Pennsylvania State University. He and his wife took a river cruise through Paris and Normandy earlier this year.  When they returned, he began his trek (on May 26) from Harpers Ferry, W.Va., to Maine, which is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.  

Last Chance said he was first inspired to hike the Appalachian Trail in 1976, while salmon fishing in Maine. He had gone up to the camp store to ask what to use for bait when he encountered a hiker. The hiker was soaking wet and had been hiking for six months. He asked what day it was and was relieved to hear he was a day early to meet his wife. Last Chance was astonished that the man had been hiking for so long and said, “That’s what set the hook in me.”

Later, his wife bought him the book “Wild,” by Cheryl Strayed, about her journey along the Pacific Crest Trail. This finally pushed him to hike the AT. 

“If she can do it, I can do it,” he said. 

Although his wife supports his hiking activities, she did not join him on his long walk because “it’s not her thing.” 

She is there with him in spirit, however, through the boxes of supplies that she sends along to post offices on the trail route.

However, there are some things that just can’t be sent. Last Chance exclaimed that “ice cream and a cold Coca-Cola are the best things on the trail. It’s like heaven.”

After we got to the post office and he opened his latest parcel from home, Last Chance found some clean shorts, some foods and a postcard that said, “Some bunny misses you.”

But there were no shoes. Last Chance still has the two pairs of shoes he began the hike with —  even after crossing through Pennsylvania, where  he said that the rocks are “hideous.” Among hikers, he said, it’s known as the state where “boots go to die.” 

Many hikers wear running shoes instead of the traditional hiking boots. Last Chance explained that running shoes wear out more quickly, and that hikers can “go through five pairs” as they make their way north. 

Thanks to the Internet, hikers now can order new equipment while hiking and pick it up later in their journey. 

Last Chance does not take the wonders of modern technology for granted. He appreciates being able to use his cell phone to call his wife, “so she won’t worry about me.”

He also enjoys writing in his online trail journal, “Last Chance’s 2015 Appalachian Trail Journal” at www.trailjournals.com.

At the other end of the technology spectrum, Last Chance is grateful for that very low-tech phenomenon known as “trail magic.” This is when the kindness of others is meant to aid the hikers, such as when it was pouring rain one time and he couldn’t find a place to stay. A man asked Last Chance if he was a hiker, and told him he could pitch his tent in the yard. The man also offered him the use of the outdoor shower, which Last Chance was grateful for.

Last Chance also called this reporter a “trail angel,” for picking him up and giving him a ride to the Falls Village post office, stopping to let him buy a soda and then taking him back to the Amesville bridge. 

Trail magic can also be as simple as a cooler on the trail filled with soda, or a container of non-perishable food to which the hikers can help themselves.

When asked if he had hiked before setting off on this trip, he said yes, “but never this long or far.” 

At the start of his hike, he was off the trail for eight days after slipping and burning his legs while carrying boiled water.

Last Chance is planning to reach Mount Katahdin, Maine, by Sept. 10. After that, he will go back and hike from Georgia to his starting point in West Virginia.