James Simons, a graduate of Clemson University, and Jack Wiggins, a University of South Carolina graduate, had batted around the idea of taking on the Appalachian Trail since their senior year at Holly Hill Academy.

But it wasn't until April 9 of this year that the pair, along with two of Simons' fraternity brothers, set out on their quest to accomplish the 2,178-mile mountain trek.

"The moment where the dream became an actual goal took place where all great ideas are born -- in a bar," Simons said. "After a few drinks, Tyler Hollingsworth and I discussed the idea and proclaimed that after we both graduated college, we would set out to complete the trail."

Wiggins said after college, the group continued working seasonal jobs, and, "It looked like (hiking the trail) was really going to happen."

According to the Appalachian Trail Conservatory, many prospective 2,000-milers start at Springer Mountain in Georgia only to quit at the first town 20 miles up the trail. As many as 10 percent quit in the first week, the conservatory reports.

"I'm not sure I really knew what to expect from the trail," Simons said. "I think that the image that lot of people have about the Appalachian Trail is skewed in one way or another. Many see the idea as being immersed in the wilderness, relying on oneself and being at one with nature for half of a year.

"Once that romanticism wears off, you realize that hiking is work and it is a full time job with long hours. Many people discover this before they even get out of Georgia and quit. Fortunately, this was a commitment I had made ... long ago, and even if I didn't like what I was doing, I would continue as long as my body would allow. There were plenty of days I was not happy to be a hiker and dreaded each step, but on the whole I welcomed each new day."

'Hey, Moon Pie!'

"We met a ton of characters," Wiggins said of fellow hikers on the trail. The cast of characters had some interesting trail names, too.

"No one uses their real name, at least not for long," Wiggins said. "We'd be in a town and you'd see another thru-hiker down the aisle, and you'd yell, 'Hey, Moon Pie!' to them. All the other people in the store would shoot you funny looks. It was weird."

Wiggins' trail name was Space Cowboy. Simons' was Otter.

"There are people out there hiking because (of) a lack of really anything else to do," Wiggins said. "They found themselves on the trail with other people hiking north. They didn't have a plan to start it that way. Then, you have other people who are out there because they planned to do it all their life."

"At night, you would be at a shelter with a kid on your right who is basically homeless and just out there killing time, and then on your left there would be a retired man who has budgeted $15,000 for his trip and has every little detail worked out," he said. "It was a clash of people. It was really neat.

"We were all homeless, basically, and it was hard to distinguish. You don't know anyone's background. Everyone becomes a member of this little society. You see the same people. You become a mobile community."

The group had three bears approach the shelters where they stayed in the Smoky Mountains at night.

"You could hear them out there sniffing around. In daylight, I saw only one bear," Wiggins said. "Most people were seeing two or three a day. ... Deer were everywhere. I stopped taking out my camera to take their picture. They would be just off the trail. I did see two moose in Maine."

Wiggins said he learned to be on guard for one particular animal, however -- humans.

"People are the scariest animals in the world," he said. "After a while, you aren't worried about the bears or insects. They are doing what is natural, and those things are easy to avoid.

"Some people couldn't believe I didn't carry a gun for protection from bears and such. I said that I was more scared of people like them carrying guns in the woods. Now that was scary."

Be prepared

After spending a second night sheltered from a harsh rain and hail storm, the group was just getting up at 6 a.m. and preparing for their day's journey when an emergency arose. An older man wandered up to the shelter, confused and shivering. It was apparent he needed medical attention -- and fast.

The group dialed 911. Other hikers made the man shed his wet clothes and put on dry ones.

"They were trying to get him warm, but he sat on the ground just shivering and shaking. He was white in the face. It was getting bad," Simons said. "The first responders showed up, gave him oxygen and took his vitals. Right in front of the man, the first responders radioed the paramedics on the way that they better hurry because this man was going to freeze to death."

He said the 77-year-old Florida man, who had previously suffered two strokes, had never hiked before.

"It seems when it started raining the night before, he tried to get his tent up but couldn't. He had spent the whole night out in the cold, wet rain shivering," Wiggins said.

Simons, Wiggins and some other hikers carried the man on a gurney nearly a mile and a half to have him evacuated from the area.

Wiggins said he recalled seeing the man the day before in a shelter with his gear spread out. He said because some people don't do their homework before taking on the trail, they bring more than they can physically hike long distances with and end up leaving items behind.

"He had all this useless gear and was deciding what to leave and take," he said.

A hiker's tent is his most important piece of equipment, Wiggins said, adding that shelters fill up fast when it rains.

At one point on the trail, he said, "My tent poles broke, and it rained a lot that week. It was very frustrating. I was out of luck."

Wiggins said he had to watch the weather and try to make it to the shelters before they were at capacity or keep hiking until a shelter was available. He said he quickly learned that nothing is waterproof except metal and rubber.

During the hot summer months, the group hiked at night.

"It was a way to escape the heat, but it was fun. It was a way to switch it up," Wiggins said.

The average weight of the packs they carried was between 35 and 45 pounds. Wiggins said his pack was mainly weighed down by food.

"After a long trek on a rainy day, if I didn't have some food to look forward to, it just would be awful," he said.

Wiggins' first pair of shoes lasted to New York, and the next pair barely made it to the end.

"They were flapping. I even had them duct-taped," he said. "It rained for three days, so the duct tape came right off. I hated to get a new pair when I only had about four days of hiking left."

Trail magic

According to the Appalachian Trail Conservatory, the phrase "trail magic" was coined by thru-hikers to describe small, unexpected, remarkable events that lift a hiker's spirits and inspire awe or gratitude. There are two forms of trail magic -- the magic created by nature (like seeing a black bear with her cubs, or a hail storm that holds off until shelter is found), and the magic created by the kindness of strangers (like a family sharing their picnic lunch with a hiker, or a trail neighbor handing out cookies to hikers).

"Trail magic is awesome," Wiggins said. "A guy picked us up at a trailhead. He went to a fruit stand and bought us each a piece of cake and banana. He later gave us his card in case we got hurt or needed anything.

"People gave us things without any care to get anything back. It makes me want to do the same. I can't wait to help a backpacker, give him food or a ride. It is like karma. You see it come back to you."

In another instance, while in the "Hundred-Mile Wilderness" -- a section of the trail in Maine where, according to a posted warning sign, there are no places to obtain supplies or help for 100 miles -- Wiggins said he was wondering if he was going to have enough food to make it to the next town. He said he was sure he was going to have to go at least a day without food.

But when he got to the top of a mountain, Wiggins came across two people day hiking who offered him a sandwich.

"I about cried," Wiggins said. "They gave me a sandwich, a cake and all this other food. It was like a gift from God."

Reaching the summit

The group started and finished together, but there was a time Wiggins had to drop

back because of shin splints. Later, he took time off the trail to go to the beach with family and to attend a friend's wedding. Upon his return, he skipped ahead on the trail to rejoin the group.

"We were within a day's walk of each other in the end. We had read about walking the trail and how you start off walking with one person and end with another," Wiggins said. "We decided that we would walk at our own pace and take it as it comes."

"Jack and I were probably separated more than we were together on the trail," Simons said. "There were a few months that we were separated by a few hundred miles."

The Appalachian Trail ends at the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine.

"It has the best views," Wiggins said.

The group decided that since the weather was going to be cloudy by the afternoon, they would get up at 3:30 a.m. to see the sunrise at the summit and hopefully have a beautiful backdrop view for their end-of-the-trail photo. With the 5-mile ascent ahead of them, they donned head lamps, bundled up and started walking.

"We were up to the last mile with the sun beginning to peak out, but the wind was vicious and it was freezing cold. We got to the top, and it was cloudy. By the time we hiked back down and (were) leaving, we looked back up the mountain and it was blue skies all around. It was fun, though, and we still have the picture."

Because he jumped ahead mid-trip to catch up with the group, Wiggins still had one more section left to complete the entire trail. Alone once again on the trail, Wiggins began a southbound hike from Pennsylvania to Maryland. When he was within a few days of reaching his goal, his mom Beverly Wiggins drove up and hiked the last remaining miles with him.

"I was so proud of him and wanted to be there when he finished," Beverly Wiggins said.

Jack Wiggins completed the trail on Oct. 1.

Lessons learned

Wiggins said he thought the trek was more a mental strain than a physical one. Days when they walked 12 hours in the rain weren't the most enjoyable part of the trip, he said, but he found it was still fun to be out there. There was time to think and to reflect. Wiggins said he learned a lot about people and to be open-minded.

"In general, I think everybody's basic instinct is to be really nice to each other," Wiggins said. "There are unspoken rules on the trail, and if you break those rules, you upset the herd and you are shunned. It takes care of itself."

"I would say that hiking the trail involves equal parts of physical and mental challenges," Simons said. "When you are alone with only your thoughts for over 10 hours a day for months on end, you really start to see things in a different light."

Simons said along the way, he learned how much good is still left in the world.

"From Georgia to Maine, people would go out of their way to help hikers in any way they could. I had people put me up in their homes overnight, lend me their vehicle to run errands, buy me meals or just offer a ride into town. Complete strangers going out of their way to help others -- something you just don't see too often these days."

Simons said he also learned to simplify.

"When everything you own is strapped to your back, you realize that possessions are burdens, and the difference between a want and a need becomes very evident," he said. "The old saying that less is more is never more true than when long-distance hiking. When you have to worry about the most basic needs in life, everything else falls to the wayside.

"If I knew where I would sleep that night, that I had enough food and clean water along the way, my needs were satisfied."

Living life without regrets was another lesson Simons said he learned on the trail.

"If there is something that you truly want to do or have a passion about, you should go for it," he said. "I can't tell you how many people I met along the way that said, 'I always wanted to hike the trail, but ... .' I want to look back with no regrets."

With the trail behind them, the young men will soon be embarking on the next leg of life's journey.

"I have to get a job," Wiggins said. "My long hiking days are over. When I retire, I might thru-hike again to see how the trail has changed and if it is different."

"I think thru-hiking another trail may be in my future plans, but not in the near future," Simons said. "When I am at another juncture in my life that affords the time and means to take on such a grand adventure, I will probably have to answer."

T&D Correspondent Julie Campbell Sohm can be reached by e-mail at sohm23@embarqmail.com. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com. For more about Jack Wiggins' Appalachian Trail experience, visit jackswalkabout.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html.

The Appalachian Trail, completed in 1937:

-- Is a unit of the National Park Service.

-- Is the nation's longest marked footpath, at approximately 2,178 miles.

-- Is the first national scenic trail, designated in 1968.

-- Crosses six national parks.

-- Traverses eight national forests.

-- Touches 14 states. Houses more than 2,000 occurrences of rare, threatened, endangered and sensitive plant and animal species.

-- Crosses numerous state and local forests and parks.

-- Is maintained by 30 trail clubs and multiple partnerships.

For more information, visit appalachiantrail.org.

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