Walkin' with the Ghost Whisperers: Lore and Legends of the Appalachian Trail

Trail

Prologue

April 4, 1948 began like most others. Around the globe, depending mostly on where the planet’s perpetual spinning caused the ever-present sun to touch, people ate, slept, worked, procreated, became victims or predators, wept or laughed, or shoved against Fate to latch onto a better place in the pecking order. The most significant event to make the front page that day happened at a baseball spring training camp in Orlando, Florida, when the 84 year-old manager of the Phillies, Connie Mack, challenged the 78 year-old owner of the Senators, Clark Griffith, to a race from third base to home plate. Amazingly, the race ended in a tie. On that same morning, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., barely days out of their mothers’ wombs, were just beginning to learn how to manipulate the business end of a bottle between their impatient lips. Up in Dayton, Ohio, Orville Wright’s coffin had barely begun to settle into the spring-thawed sponge six feet under. And down in Georgia, another drama that would have far-reaching consequences on generations to come began to unfold.

A bone-chilling wind swept across Mount Oglethorpe and sent shivers rippling across the lone intruder’s body. It had been a tough proposition, crawling out of the skimpy sleeping bag and into the damp predawn chill that permeated the rickety leanto, which he had called home the previous evening. He had planned to spend the night on Oglethorpe’s summit, close to the diamond-shaped metal marker—the first of hundreds of metal and white-painted blazes that would be his guiding beacon over the next few months. But the brutally cold wind had quickly thwarted his plans and chased him off the summit, back down to the old leanto that he had passed the previous afternoon on his way to the top. Crumbling and sagging under years of neglect, it wasn’t much to look at. But it had served its purpose.

A strong gust pushed him toward the battered sign that marked the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, as if to say, get going . . . time’s awastin’. Restraining his eager legs, the hiker gathered his thoughts and tried to fix the moment firmly in his memory, a picture to bolster him through whatever lay between where he stood and a distant mountain in Maine. Impulsively, he reached out and touched the nearly invisible fog-shrouded statuary that adorned the summit—the tall monument that had been chiseled out of a massive block of white gold taken from Sam Tate’s marble quarry. Georgians had erected the obelisk in 1930 to the memory of James Edward Oglethorpe, the state’s founder.

A quiet moment of reflection. A picture of his childhood friend rose, unbidden, from somewhere far within, buried these past three years in a private place seldom visited. Walter Winemiller, his hiking companion in the carefree days before the war. Walter, forever gone, one of the 6821 Americans who never left the blood-soaked ashy soil of Iwo Jima. Walter, who had planned to be at his side on this dismal morning. The hiker swallowed his rising grief, then pushed the picture back into its private place and softly murmured, This one’s for you, Walter.

Time to go. Without further ado, twenty-nine year-old Earl Victor Shaffer from Shiloh, Pennsylvania, shifted his military issue rucksack into a more comfortable position, squared his shoulders, and set his jaw. Taking a deep breath, he pointed his moccasin-boots toward Maine—and walked into history.

No newspaper reporters came to Mount Oglethorpe that historic morning to pepper the young man with questions about why he was attempting to do the impossible. At least that’s what the hikers i the know, those seasoned, venerable folks who had built the Appalachian Trail, called a continuous hike from Georgia all the way to Maine. Earl didn’t even give it a thought. More pressing things bothered him—mainly, how to get his mind straightened out after nearly five years of combat duty on Jap-infested atolls in the South Pacific, where hordes of bandy-legged soldiers had tried to get him in their rifle sights. Down deep, Earl sensed that this journey of 2000 miles would act as a catharsis and purge the nightmares from his dreams.

Thus began the Lone Expedition. Soon people he met began to question his good sense, and Earl began to refer to himself in his Little Black Notebook as the Crazy One (and the tradition of trail names was born). Came days spiced with meals of oatmeal or cornmeal mush cooked over a wood fire—no stove—and always liberally doused with brown sugar. Came endless nights spent at whatever place twilight found him, huddled beneath a Marine-issue poncho draped over a logged-out tree top, stoically enduring whatever Ma Nature had decided to serve up. And always came the twenty-mile plus days, constantly up and down, up and down, ever moving north.

On August 5, 124 days and 2050 miles after leaving Mount Oglethorpe, Earl Shaffer climbed mile-high Mt. Katahdin and proved the doomsayers wrong. A smattering of reporters latched onto his impossible achievement but gave it little space. No matter, for the nightmares had disappeared and Earl was ready to go on with his life. The demons had been laid to rest.

And for a generation of future hikers, infants even then sucking sweet milk from swollen breasts, the way had been made ready! An era had begun!

CHAPTER 1

Springboard to Adventure

What a wonderful name—Springer Mountain! It immediately brings to mind images of dedicated hikers stepping out with strides full of purpose and determination. Springer—a springboard to adventure and glory! Yet, Springer’s name predates the Appalachian Trail by at least a century and a half, and its birth is lost in the obscurity of time. Settlers with the name of Springer lived in the area in the 1800s, and a William Springer was appointed by the Georgia State Legislature about 1833 to improve the conditions of the north Georgia Cherokees. At one time, poor Springer was demeaned by being called Penitentiary Mountain. The sad fact is, Springer Mountain was once an understudy—a Johnny-come-lately.

When the Appalachian Trail was completed in 1937, hikers picked up the Trail’s first metal marker or two-by-six inch painted white blaze (or last, depending on which way they were going) atop Mt. Oglethorpe. And this mountain was just perfect for the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail! A lovely mountain with a stately monument on its summit and easily accessible by a paved road that led right to the Trail’s beginning. Things were almost too good to be true! Lying nearly fifteen miles southeast of Springer Mountain as the crow flies, Mt. Oglethorpe was a respectable mountain, rising a bit over 3200 feet into the northeast Georgia sky. A regal obelisk crowned the summit, reaching toward the heavens—a fitting tribute from the citizens of Georgia to that intrepid statesman and adventurer, General James Edward Oglethorpe, who with his small band of colonists settled the state in the early 1700’s. Mt. Oglethorpe was a grand site for the jump-off point of the Great Adventure—except for one fly in the soup. It was too accessible.

The mountain eventually fell prey to progress. Chicken farms, clear-cut logging, hog farms, and trash heaps (the surest indicator of encroaching civilization) all impacted on and detracted from the natural beauty of the area. Mt. Oglethorpe had fallen on hard times. It had to go. The keepers of the Holy Grail cast their eyes to the north.

Springer Mountain didn’t have a lot going for itself. To its disadvantage, Springer was just another hump—among many such humps—on the Appalachian Trail. The mountain had little to offer (except possibly its name), for it was only another mountain to be climbed and the experience stored away in some musty memory bank for future retrieval. On the plus side, however, at 3782 feet Springer Mountain was almost 500 feet higher than Mt. Oglethorpe. More importantly, the mountain served as the anchor for the two branches of the Blue Ridge chain, which extend northward for several hundred miles. (One giant arm sweeps eastward to grasp Mt. Mitchell, while the other stretches west to enfold the Great Smokies before rejoining its sister in southwest Virginia near the Peaks of Otter.) But the seller: The summit was inaccessible to wheeled vehicles!

By 1958, the lumber barons, chicken farmers, and trash heaps had won. The hikers threw in the towel, leaving Oglethorpe to the victors, and cast their lot with modest Springer.

In 1959, a bronze plaque, one of three which were sculpted in the early 1930s by Georgian hiker and amateur sculptor George Noble, was set into a broad rock on Springer’s summit to commemorate its elevated status as the southern terminus of the Trail. The chicken farmers and log sharks could have Oglethorpe!

CHAPTER 2

Counting Coup

The Approach Trail! The beginning of the Great Adventure for a few hardy souls. (Only about twenty percent of the burdened hikers who plan to hoof it from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail take the Approach Trail.) Most opt to ride along the snaking curves of Forest Service Road 42 to Big Stamp Gap, which gets them to within .9 mile (albeit on the wrong or north side) of the first white blaze that marks the southern terminus of the Trail. But to honestly claim, Yes, I started on Springer Mountain, they have to backtrack south to the summit and then retrace that mile. A distasteful bit of work for those champing at the bit to get started. Still, some hikers (like myself) accept the rigorous 8.8-mile Approach Trail as a must—an essential part of the whole experience. For in our minds if we choose the easier way, deep down we feel we have somehow cheated ourselves and have lost in the deal. So, puffed up with good intentions and quivering with anticipation, off we go—purists in every sense.

The Approach Trail, which begins at Amicalola Falls State Park near Dahlonega—the site of the Nation’s first gold rush—was once part of the Appalachian Trail during the days when Mount Oglethorpe held its princely status as the Trail’s southern terminus. Back then, the Trail brushed the Park’s edge and climbed steeply to cross above the falls where the water starts its roller coaster ride, plunging 729 feet down a hazy abyss before crashing into a pool of churning thunder. The Cherokees gave the tumbling waters its lovely, lilting musical name of Amicalola. Little did they realize that this majestic feature was the highest of its kind east of the Mississippi River; otherwise, the Falls might have been deified as a sacred shrine, with a celestial name to match.

The locals love the Approach Trail. For them, it can become a veritable gold mine of goodies—wonderful things grudgingly discarded from the crammed, grossly overweight packs of the uninitiated. During the prime thru-hiking season (March through May), the inhabitants of nearby hollows and gaps eagerly (and gleefully) take to the Approach Trail.

Why? Because lying there just for the taking are treasures galore! Full gallon cans of Coleman fuel . . . 16x20-foot vinyl tarps . . . gallon-size heavy metal pans . . . cast-iron Dutch ovens and skillets . . . enough extra clothing to outfit a fair-sized Goodwill Store . . . even fanny packs! And how about the six-person dome tents and tons of food (sometimes neatly contained in the original food bags)!

How can this happen? For some unfathomable reason, hikers have a tendency to toss rational thought right out the mental window when preparing for a thru-hike. (Yep, it happened to me, too!) We carefully research camping catalogs, talk with seasoned hikers, spend endless hours browsing outfitters’ racks of high-tech, high dollar clothing and equipment. And then we max out the credit cards—but with minimum guilt pangs, for we have been prudent and discriminating, choosing the objects of our patient research with something approaching a religious rite. Home we go with our precious cargo, whistling and walking on air. Dang! We’re ready to rock-n-roll! With appropriate ceremony, we carefully place our packages in a corner of the living room. Then comes the fondling, gently and affectionately as if we were caressing a beauty queen, while we pack—and repack—the gear over the course of the next several weeks.

Then it happens! The what-if’s begin to creep in, slyly at first, little twinges of doubt that bespeak of dangers to come. After all, this is Big Time, Life On The Edge! The mental tweaks soon become a ground swell of sweaty armpits and Pepcid-laced meals as we begin to think about the endless miles that await and visualize every conceivable worse case scenario that can happen up in those mountainous wilds that will soon swallow us whole! Then we meekly brave the smirks of the wise and knowing clerks at the outfitters and buy more and more. Back in the same living room corner, we attempt to cram everything into what initially looked like a large enough pack. Failing miserably, we scratch our heads, eyeball the offending pile, and go buy a larger pack. After all, everything in the pile is essential!

When a hiker arrives at the Amicalola Falls Visitor Center, one of the first chores is to hoist the pack onto the hook of the large scale hanging there with one specific purpose—a reality check. Some aspiring thru-hikers nearly faint with shock as the large needle takes a clockwise flight up into the stratosphere of high double digits. Some try to cover their equipment bingeing with machismo. Bystanders are likely to hear forced comments disguised by falsetto strutting and feigned indifference, such as, Seventy-eight pounds. Is that all? Heck, I shoulda brought that lawn chair after all.

The other side of the coin: Another hiker barely manages to lift a huge pack up to the scale and then turns sheet-white as the needle rockets toward triple digit territory. Groaning and rolling his eyes at the others awaiting their turn at the Truth Teller while covertly trying to flatten a bulging pre-hernia back into his abdomen, he blurts, "God A’mighty! Ninety-two pounds. This scale is defective. I’m not crazy enough to carry that much!" Right!

So the hike begins. Singly or in two’s or three’s, those who have decided to brave the rigors of the Approach Trail start the steep climb toward the top of the Falls. By the time that first small goal is achieved, a terrible realization strikes like a thunderbolt—the scale didn’t lie! And when, a few miles up the trail, they stand and look in distaste at the offending monster of their own making, which benignly rests against a tree, the absurdity of their situation slowly dawns and they moan, Oh my God! I’m not gonna make it. Weak-kneed, they sit in bewilderment beside the pack, oftentimes shedding tears while they pass through stages akin to severe trauma: shock, frustration, denial, and then resigned acceptance.

Tearfully, packs are emptied and the gear is sorted into two piles. One pile is returned to the pack, which now has lots of space. The other pile remains beside the trail—a short-lived monument to the school of hard knocks—until the jubilant locals arrive. God’s truth! I’ve been there!

Okay, I’ve not been entirely honest. There is another way to get to Springer—that is, if a hiker can hitch a ride on a 4-wheeler or just happens to have a main battle tank to make the arduous trip up the badly-eroded and nigh-on impassable fourteen-mile USFS Road 28 to Nimblewill Gap. The Approach Trail crosses this road 2.2 miles on the right or south side of the terminus, which gives the hiker a straight shot to Maine. But there are much more interesting ways to experience misery on the Appalachian Trail than a side trip up USFS 28!

At the beginning of my second thru-hike in 1994 (four years older but a lot wiser in the ways of the Trail), I reached the top of Springer Mountain early on a cool, rainy morning. A man in his early thirties, clad in wet denim, was doing a gotta get warm dance around a vinyl tarp, which was spread over a pile of soaked gear on the soggy ground. He didn’t look happy.

You a thru-hiker? I asked for openers. He didn’t look like one.

Hell, I thought I was, he muttered through shivering teeth. I did that damn Approach Trail yesterday; lugged all this crap over eight miles. It damn near killed me. He kept on dancing while we talked, trying without much success to get warm. I could have told him he was wasting his time while he kept his wet cotton garments on. He glared at me, like I was the cause of all his misery, and growled, This morning I almost walked away and left the whole damned mess here for whoever wanted it. But I guess I’ll go ahead and pack it back out. I’m going back to Tampa. Shittin’ place!

Good move I thought as I wished him well and turned northward. The Approach Trail had counted another coup!

Any sketch of Springer Mountain would be incomplete without telling about the unique way one thru-hiker reached the first white blaze on the long journey north.

When I read Larry Luxenberg’s book, Walking the Appalachian Trail, I knew I had to meet Robie Jumpstart Hensley. Anyone with the daring to make such a grandiose entry onto Springer Mountain had to be either a fool or a man of steel. In my mind’s eye, I imagined a tall, well-muscled replica of a cross between John Wayne and Sean Connery: Steely blue eyes, granite face, close cropped, iron-gray hair. Heck! He probably ate nails for breakfast and chased it down with rotgut Russian vodka! What I got was something entirely different.

I tracked Jumpstart down at his log house, not far from the post office where he had served as postmaster for several years before he finally retired and decided to hike the Trail. When I drove up, a short, hunched-over man with sprigs of gray landscaping his balding head was expertly maneuvering a riding lawnmower over a well-manicured lawn. The entire place was awash in color, even though it was early April. I thought, Wow! Jumpstart has a gardener! I shoulda been a postmaster. The gardener waved and parked the lawnmower. I walked over and said, Hi. I’m J.R. Tate, also known as Model-T. Robie Hensley is expecting me. Is he around?

The man wore a blue tee shirt with Jumpstart embossed in big letters on the front. On the back of the shirt, a thread-man dangled beneath an embroidered parachute. He smiled and extended his hand. I’m Robie Hensley. Good to meet you.

I reset my brain as I shook his hand and tried to cover my confusion, still unable to visualize this mild man with smiling eyes that seemed as gentle as a soft spring drizzle riding a parachute toward tree-covered Springer Mountain. I took a closer look. Behind the smile and care lines that creased his face was a fount of energy that seemed to radiate outward, frolicking and sparkling his words and movements, belying his seventy-odd years and grandfatherly appearance. I felt myself drawn to him and thought This is a man I would like to have hiked with!

Jumpstart took me on a tour of the grounds. He walked slightly bent over, and I thought I detected a slight limp. A parachute accident? He noticed my puzzled look. I had a little accident three years ago, he explained. I was pruning a tree about twenty feet up on a ladder. When I cut off a limb, it snagged on my glove and yanked me off the ladder. He chuckled wryly, I managed to get the glove off as I fell, like I was doing a free-fall (parachute) jump, and got myself lined up with the ground, but it was too late. The fall crushed three vertebrates and busted up my pelvis. The worst part though, it put a stop to my long distance hiking. Nearby, a pile of limbs, recently pruned and ready to be carted off, lay at the foot of a large tree.

I asked, Did you do that?

Yep, just this morning. Noticing my incredulous look, he laughed and said, I don’t prune with gloves on anymore. His accident hadn’t slowed him down. We looked at his vegetable garden, already cloaked in a mantle of several shades of green despite the early season. Like me, Robie enjoyed gardening, and his garden reflected a labor of love. Robie led me back to the house and I began to ask questions.

Did you really parachute onto Springer? A foolish question, one that he had undoubtedly been asked many times, but I had to start somewhere.

Sure did, he answered proudly, like I was the first person to actually ask him about it. It was on the ninth day of March in 1986. My son, Steve, flew the plane, a Cessna (182). My other son, Ted, and the plane’s owner, David Shelton, went with me. Robie got a faraway gleam in his eyes, and that day seemed to resurface as though it had all happened yesterday. We got down there and it was so foggy we couldn’t even spot Springer. Steve took us over to Blairsville and we set down and waited for the clouds to lift. Steve and Ted were dead set against me jumping, but I was determined. I figured it was safe enough. Jumpstart smiled at the memory. At one point, I thought they were going to tie me up. When the clouds finally lifted, we flew back to Springer and I could see the shelter and the small clearing I planned to land on. (Steve later wrote in the Preface to Robie’s journal of his hike, which he published in 1992: From eight thousand feet, the spot he (Robie) picked looked like a postage stamp on the side of the mountain.)

Did you have any second thoughts? I couldn’t comprehend anyone jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. And as far as parachuting onto Springer went, well, to me that bordered on sheer lunacy!

Not really. Another chuckle. But my boys talked about holding me in the plane and not letting me jump. Anyway, they saw I’d made up my mind and was going to do it, so we floated a yellow weighted streamer down to see which way and how hard the wind was blowing. The wind took it right out of the county.

How hard? I asked, excited, for I was caught up in the tale and now sat right in the plane with them!

At least forty miles per hour we figured, maybe more. Of course, that didn’t set too well with Steve and Ted. We offset about two miles from the shelter, just about where Nimblewill Gap is. At eight thousand feet I jumped, and then pulled the ripcord at sixty-five hundred feet. Once the canopy popped, I turned into the wind to check my drift and estimated the wind was blowing me backward at about twenty-two miles an hour.

My hands were sweaty and my adrenaline pump went crazy! Oh yes! I was dangling from that chute right along with Jumpstart! What’d you do?

Robie said, My daughter, Sherry, and her husband were waiting for me on Springer with my backpack. Sherry popped a red smoke grenade on the landing site and I just maneuvered the chute toward it, watching the smoke over my shoulder and backing in, holding against the wind. He said it nonchalantly, as if it were something he did every day. Would’ve made it, too, if I hadn’t hit a dead air space. My chute dumped me right into the trees, just a short stone throw from my target. My canopy got snagged between two trees and left me dangling about six feet off the ground. (In Robie’s journal, he vividly described his predicament: . . . like a grasshopper in a spider web.) Sherry and her husband helped me down and radioed Steve that I was okay. I traded the parachute for my pack and went to Maine.

Robie’s eyes refocused and his mind returned to the present. I gave a sigh of relief and felt the tenseness retreat . . . a wonderful feeling to be on firm ground!

Outside, I heard a car door slam shut. Robie said, That’s probably my wife, Lana, coming back from town. Lana turned out to be a kindly lady with sparkling eyes that reflected her friendly disposition and peaceful nature, which perfectly complemented the beautiful rainbow flower gardens in her yard.

Jumpstart—short in stature but larger than life—flanked by Model-T and Ace Bandage.

I quickly learned that she was also a hiker. Lana and Robie were wed in 1987. Shortly thereafter, Lana revealed she had harbored an urge to hike the Appalachian Trail for a long time. Her husband gladly volunteered to show her the way. Robie (now firmly entrenched in the annals of Trail lore as Jumpstart—what else?) and Lana left Springer in March of 1988 and made the long trek to Katahdin. Lana quickly picked up the moniker Ace Bandage—so named because it became her constant companion on the Trail. Not yet ready to settle down, they left the next year to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

I asked the obvious question. Did the two of you start your thru-hike by parachuting onto Springer?

Lana glanced at her hiking companion. He wanted us to do it, but . . . She left the sentence dangling, and her look said the rest. I knew exactly how she felt!

I asked Robie, Was that your first jump?

Goodness no. I had at least four hundred, maybe five, before I jumped at Springer.

How long have you been jumping?

I got my private pilot’s license, and then went on to get my commercial license when I was in my forties. Before long I began flying ‘jumpers’ out of a local airfield. It looked like fun so I thought I might give it a go. Only trouble was, when I tried to get someone to teach me the basics, the first thing they asked was, ‘How old are you?’ When I told them fifty, they said ‘Go home. You’re too old.’ One day I hit it lucky. I asked a fellow if he would teach me. He stared at me and asked, ‘You got fifty dollars?’ I’ve been jumping ever since; even parachuted into the ALDHA (Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association) meeting at Pipestem (West Virginia) one year. A broad grin lit up his face. Boy! Were they ever surprised!

Then Jumpstart went silent, lost in his thoughts for a few seconds. Some of the shine seemed to fade from his face as if his soul were suddenly in the shadow of a drifting cloud. My accident put a stop to my jumping days, he said, but there was no rancor in his words, just acceptance.

He shifted gears. When I was on the Trail, Steve used to fly over and drop food to the other hikers and me. Fried chicken and all kinds of goodies! Then when I finished that first hike, the next year we dropped stuff to the hikers together. Steve really liked playing Santa. Then the cloud returned and his shoulders seemed to sag. Steve died a few weeks ago. My heart ached for Robie and Lana at their loss, but words seemed inadequate.

A small bell sounded at the screen door. Robie brightened. That’s Sylvester, our cat. We have three. Lana, let him in and maybe he’ll do his tricks for Model-T. Sylvester can shake hands and lay down.

After Sylvester had performed, it was time to go. When I said goodbye to this intrepid man who met life on his own terms, and hugged his warm, astute, caring wife, I felt humbled by their larger than life presence in my world. Their invitation to return, given from the heart, let me know I had made two new friends. My innards seemed to glow like a golden sunset.

When I turned out of their driveway, Jumpstart had already returned to his mowing.

The old shelter on top of Springer Mountain’s summit, which gave me such wonderful refuge on my first night on the Trail in 1990, was disassembled in 1993 by the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club to make room for a new two-story shelter. The Club packed the old shelter down to the mountain’s base at Black Gap. There, nestled in a small clearing just off the Approach Trail, Black Gap Shelter was given new life. Since then, it has become a welcome respite for those who have run out of steam (and curses) after a day of misery on the Approach Trail and just can’t muster enough energy for that final push up the mountain.

When I hiked the Approach Trail on my second thru-hike in 1994, Black Gap Shelter was a pleasant surprise. Rain had just begun—it always seems to rain on the Approach Trail—and there it was, totally unexpected. At the trail junction, a weather-beaten arrow pointed down the mountainside toward the small spring where on my first thru-hike Wahoola and I had filled our water bottles and readied ourselves to brave a vicious thunderstorm that was already beginning to assault Ol’ Springer—where we were headed.

Four excited faces stared at me from the dryness of the shelter. How far you goin’? I asked. Maine! came the exuberant reply, almost in unison as if directed by a hidden conductor. A right far piece, I chuckled, dropping my pack in the space they quickly made for a fellow kinsman. I didn’t know them from Adam but no matter, for we immediately became a happy, extended family, part of an exclusive brotherhood. As the storm pushed in and thunder echoed across the north Georgia mountains, we laughed and joked and spoke about things past and of things to come. It was good to be home again!

CHAPTER 3

Rangers!

In late March 2000, I had just finished a weeklong hike with some friends (the Approach Trail to Neels Gap) and planned to spend a few days in the area to do some research for this book. Soon after leaving the outskirts of Dahlonega early that Sunday morning, I noticed a small sign at roadside: Camp Frank D. Merrill. On a whim, I pushed the steering wheel hard left and drove the ten twisting miles, made longer and lonelier by frigid, buffeting winds and sporadic intervals of spitting snow that squeezed out of the low, lead-gray clouds. I wanted to see the place that spawned the kind of killing machines that had surrounded me and yet had ignored me with such total indifference when I had braved a chilling north wind to eat a quick breakfast of gooey grits at Cooper Gap in 1990.

At the end of the desolate road, squatting at the base of the mighty Blue Ridge, a sprinkling of low-cut buildings huddled in obscure isolation. The complex—if it could be called that—was surrounded by the inevitable boundary fence that seems to sprout around all military installations much like uncut weeds along an unused path. A solitary sign by the entrance let me know I had reached Camp Frank D. Merrill, home of the 5th Ranger Battalion.

I didn’t see any notice restricting my entry or requiring that I check in with anyone, but I had to start somewhere. An erect, poster-perfect specimen with close-cropped hair in civilian garb—obviously one of those I had come to see—walked up the steps of a small post exchange just inside the main entrance. I hailed him. Is it okay if I drive in and look around some? He looked me over like I was on a spy mission for the KGB, or whatever it’s now called since the Soviet Union folded. Possibly my unkempt gray beard and neglected hair after a week on the Trail didn’t help.

Well, it’s not a restricted area, but maybe you’d better check in with the ‘staff duty,’ three buildings down. By his expression, I could tell he wasn’t too sure about turning me loose now that he had me in his sights. I assured him I would do as he suggested and drove on down the street. In my review mirror, I watched him keep an eye on me until I pulled into the Headquarters Building parking lot.

Inside, the staff duty, a clone of the poster soldier I had just met—tall, rugged, sense of purpose shining like orbs of steel from no nonsense eyes—warily gave me a visual pat-down. His nametag said Binion and he wore the rank of staff sergeant on his collar.

I gave him my best smile. Hi Staff Sergeant Binion. I’m J.R. Tate, here doing research for a book about the Appalachian Trail. I’ve seen you Ranger fellows up on the mountain near the Trail and wanted to write a little bit about you.

His look was noncommittal. Yeah, we go up there a lot. See hikers every now and then. He eyeballed me like I was a spoonful of Castor Oil that he had to swallow. Only, they don’t see much of us.

I took out a note pad and pencil. Where you from, Staff Sergeant Binion? I’ll want to put you in my book. The pale steel eyes softened into gray marble. Newnan, Georgia, a little southwest of Atlanta. You really mean to put me in your book? Then he thawed and the granite face cracked into what might have passed for a smile. My first name’s Chris. We were off and running!

The camp, I soon learned, is named for Major General Frank Merrill, a daring officer who during WWII led a group of heroic men known affectionately as Merrill’s Marauders. Their feats were later heralded in a movie of the same name (starring Jeff Chandler) in which the Marauders struggled through dense Burma jungle to rescue POWs from a Japanese camp. What Staff Sergeant Binion didn’t mention—he didn’t need to, for it was etched in the photographs that adorned the Headquarters Building walls—is that Camp Frank D. Merrill is also where elite young men who ache to live on the edge come to show what they’re made of. And it’s definitely not sugar, spice, and everything nice. Staff Sergeant Binion gave me a quick, professional rundown on the purpose of Camp Frank D. Merrill:

The camp is a way station on the journey to becoming a U. S. Army Ranger. Here, the eager young men learn how to live and fight in the mountains. They make their debut at Camp Merrill by parachuting into camp. But to get here at all, they must first survive the rigors of advanced parachute training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Once the mountains are mastered, they then move on to the sandy beaches of Eglin Air Force Base in north Florida, where they delve into the finer points of amphibious operations. (Note: Too many broken legs from parachuting into the camp, the Army decided. Now the trainees are bussed in.)

Becoming a Ranger trainee at Camp Merrill is no small feat. Graduating from the camp is tantamount to walking on water! For one thing, the mountain phase continues to weed out all but The Finest from what is already considered to be The Best. Indeed, in the twenty-odd days they will spend here (out of the total 65-day Ranger training cycle), seven days will be devoted to finding out who shouldn’t be here at all. Fifty percent of a class of some three hundred trainees who come through the gates will pass back out again during this time, crestfallen because they couldn’t measure up. Of the approximately remaining hundred and fifty, less than sixty will ultimately have the honor of wearing the patch that proudly tells the world that they are U.S. Army Rangers. (Some of the others might get a second chance—if they are lucky enough to get recycled.)

Before the coveted patch is attained, these hopefuls will be subjected to stress and adversity beyond common sense and driven right to the brink of human endurance. Indeed, the School advocates that . . . the constant pressures of operating within restrictive time limits all create this atmosphere of stress; and, that there is . . . necessity for sound decisions and the requirement for demonstrating calm forceful leadership under conditions of mental and emotional stress. Translation: The School is going to do everything it can to keep the ranks of The Finest pure.

To do this, the students are heaved out into the nearby mountains for eleven days running; usually fed one meal a day for the duration; and they might get three or four hours of sleep at night—if they’re lucky. These harassed lads routinely lose twenty to thirty pounds during the time they romp around the mountains. By the end of all three phases, most lose over forty pounds, more than twice what male hikers usually lose in six months on the Appalachian Trail!

One of my neighbors, a Ranger, related to me that he and his buddy got so hungry while in the mountains above Camp Merrill that out of desperation they boiled a pine cone, still young and tender, and forced it down. The turpentine taste—and the trots—hung around through graduation day . . . a stark gastric reminder of hell.

With my very own Ranger Mountain Training Orientation 101 finished, Staff Sergeant Binion said, We have a good museum. It’s closed, but if you’d like to see it, I’ll open it for you. I assured him that would be super!

The Museum, a small, one-room building much like the others that surrounded it, turned out to be a treasure trove. Within its walls, the entire history of the U.S. Army Rangers was recorded in pictures, plaques, and artifacts. Major Robert Rogers formed the original Rangers in New Hampshire in 1756. The first of his Standing Orders was, Don’t Forget Nothing. (It probably still applies today!) In one corner stood the actual bunk and wall space, removed from another hootch (a slang term for living quarters) at some unstated time and reconstructed here—ultra-austere digs, a place to rest one’s head, nothing more. The hootch’s wall section was covered with the names of long gone students, scribed there for posterity in their own handwriting—a rite of passage during the years 1960 to 1989. A few had scribbled macho-isms. One read, Balls of steel, men of danger, mean M__F__’s. Nearby a small tilted handwritten message dangled from a bent nail: Hang steel balls here when not in use.

Taped to the wall near the door was a copy of The Ranger’s Creed. Certain phrases jumped out at me: Never shall I fail my comrades . . . I will shoulder more than my share of the task, whatever it may be, one hundred percent and then some . . . Surrender is not a Ranger word . . . Under no circumstances will (I) ever embarrass my country . . . Heady stuff, even for a Marine!

So where is all of this leading? When I sat in Cooper Gap in 1990, surrounded by aspiring Rangers and eating my grits, I had no idea how hungry and sleepy these young fellows were. My grits must have been a maddening temptation. And the urge to catch a quick snooze while lying out of sight of the instructor’s ever-present eagle eye must have been overpowering. But, there was no indication of any discomfort. Such is the stuff these fine young men are made of.

Thinking back, I wish I could have slipped some (make that all) of my ramen to them. I thank my lucky stars that the lieutenant-instructor was present; else, I might have poured the contents of my food bag on the ground at their boots and said, Take, eat; and go in peace.

Thanks, rangers!

CHAPTER 4

Woody Gap—An Escape Hatch

For the bullheaded who are unwilling to lighten their packs on the Approach Trail and contribute to the local economy, there is an out. Just twenty miles—two days for most hikers—from Springer Mountain, the Trail crosses paved Georgia Highway 60 at Woody Gap. Hallelujah! Cross the highway; stick out the thumb; grin at the screech of brakes; and you and your monstrous pack are off to Suches, only two miles down the mountain. Yes, there is a post office with a sympathetic staff, who manage to hide the you screwed up royally looks. After all, the Suches Post Office has been the lifesaver for thru-hikers from the git-go. In 1957, Dorothy Laker, the second woman to continuously thru-hike the Appalachian Trail (Grandma Emma Gatewood did it first two years earlier), mailed nine of her thirteen tent stakes home, along with a set of deer antlers she had found and was unwilling to relinquish.

And contrary to what some of the citizenry would have you believe, the town didn’t get its name because ‘Suches’ it is, it’s all we’ve got. Nice story, but Suches was really named after a Cherokee chief.)

If things haven’t gone well in those first twenty miles—as usually happens—Woody Gap becomes the perfect escape hatch for disgruntled and disillusioned thru-hikers. In just twenty miles, blisters can give birth to new blisters. Everything can get soggy wet from north Georgia downpours. Enthusiasm can leech out of the bottom of boot soles like cat pee on a thin carpet with each tired step. Shoulders can catch on fire from carrying way too many essentials. Had enough?

The temptation to chuck it all and head for home becomes more than some can bear. Suches becomes like a dose of Valium to ease tortured bodies as reality sets in and 2148 more miles of this shit sounds like the peel of doom. The Dream dissolves in watery tears of relief and recrimination.

But that’s Suches. The thrust of this chapter lies with Woody Gap and the man whose name is memorialized on a plaque in this hauntingly beautiful place that overlooks the Yahoola Valley.

Arthur Woody had a conscience. In 1895 in nearby Fannin County, eleven year-old Arthur watched his father shoot the last white-tailed deer in North Georgia. He never got over the smirch that plagued his memory. In time, young Arthur joined the Forest Service as an axe-man and soon became a full-fledged FS Guard. Eventually he became a voice in the wilderness crying for the Federal Government to purchase vast tracts of land to save the forests. In 1918, when the government created the Georgia National Forest (later named the Chattahoochee National Forest), Arthur Woody became Georgia’s first Forest Ranger.

Ranger Woody was larger than life. Described as a giant hulk of a man; a cross between John Wayne, Jim Bowie, and Daniel Boone, he eschewed bureaucratic tomfoolery. His disdain for the official Forest Service uniform was legendary—he scoffed at the idea of a necktie and usually left his shirt unbuttoned at the neck and his trousers open at the waist, preserving his modesty by keeping them up with the help of a pair of broad suspenders.

When a Forest Service bigwig from Washington, D.C. visited the area, he was told by some of the accompanying Atlanta dignitaries who knew the recalcitrant ranger that Woody won’t wear shoes. Remarked the executive, Well, we’ve got to do something about that. As the story goes, the bigwig stopped by Woody’s home while the others attended to other business elsewhere. When they returned to collect the bureaucrat, Woody and the man were both shoeless, feet propped up on a porch rail as they drank crisp apple brandy.

Another time, when another higher-up had gone with Woody on a trip into the back woods, the man asked, Where’s the bathroom? Woody snorted, With 180,000 acres of woods around you, you don’t need one.

Arthur Woody usually got what he wanted—albeit sometimes with a mountain man’s finesse. When he asked the highway czars in Washington, D.C. to build a road from Suches to Stone Pile Gap so the mountain people could get to Dahlonega, he was told that they couldn’t build any new roads; that they could only improve existing roads. Undeterred, Woody gathered every able-bodied man, along with horses and scrapers, and he dug out a trail through the mountains. That little chore done, he called the czars and told them, I have my road. Now you can come and improve it. Today, the road leading north from Dahlonega is Woody’s creation.

A strange sight, this mountain man.

For thirty years, Ranger Woody, or Kingfish as he was often called, held sway over the Chattahoochee National Forest. He refereed feuds among the short-tempered mountain folks, but not always successfully, especially when moonshining was the issue and bullets flew faster than good sense. Always, he pushed for land acquisition to protect the forests for future generations. With what began as a purchase by the Federal Government in 1911 of 31,00 acres (at $7.00/acre) in the