Trail Journal - by Mark Rottmann
How I became involved in GATC
By Mark Rottmann
The
seeds were planted that would sprout into my love for hiking back in 2008.
I hadn't been much of an outdoorsman up to that point. Basically my outdoor sports involved a ball of some sort, and I hadn’t camped or hiked in decades.
My brother lives in Indy and we were trying to come up with something that we could do to get together.
He came up with the idea of meeting somewhere close to halfway and camping. We could bring our oldest kids along. I guess I was receptive to the idea. As I mentioned before it had been a long time.
Our family hike to Big South Fork
We ended up meeting at Big South Fork National Recreation Area in Northern TN in Sept of 2008. All of us had a fun time and enjoyed hiking along the Big South Fork River. It was fun picking out the new gear and it opened a “new” form of recreation to me. I thought it might be fun to do more of this type of thing in GA. There has to be a lot of good camping spots and hiking trails in GA – right? I was pretty clueless.
First hike on A.T. changes my perspective
This led to our family purchasing a tent, sleeping bags and such. We went on a few camping trips in the fall of 2008 and spring/summer of 09. I had my first encounter with the AT while camping at DeSoto Falls with my daughter. We were driving up to Winfield Scott Lake and passed the Mountain Crossing store. I had read “A Walk in the Woods” a number of years earlier and thought I remembered a reference to a place where the AT went through a building. On our way back, we stopped at the store and checked it out. I really thought it was cool and actually “hiked” on the AT for about 100 ft. – “Now I can say I’ve hike on the AT”. I actually saw the signup forms for the GA AT License plate. I thought that sounded like something I could support. I had been interested/fascinated in the trail since reading the book, but had always felt it was too "out there" for me. Maybe it really wasn’t so far out there after all?
Training to hike a 14er
After signing up for the license plate, I started checking out the AT Conservancy’s website and then discovered that there was a AT Trail Club in GA. In the mean time, my brother had just turned 40 and wanted to celebrate by climbing/hiking the highest mountain in Colorado, Mt. Elbert. (He had lived out there for a year and had fallen in love with all that it had to offer for outdoor activities.) He invited friends and family to go with him. This wasn’t anything I had ever even considered doing, but was intrigued by it. I thought it sounded like a good challenge, so I decided to try it.
In order to train for the climb, I bought some GA trail books and started hitting some of the trails in the summer of 09. Places like Raven Cliff Falls, Sawnee Mountain, Stone Mountain, and Amicalola Falls. This really opened my eyes to how beautiful North Georgia was and all that it had to offer. I was able to successfully climb Mt. Elbert in Sept of 2009. It was the hardest, most rewarding physical accomplishment of my life. I was hooked. (Mt Elbert is 14,433' high, and is one of 53 mountains over 14,000' known as the 14ers.)
Becoming a member of GATC
Once back home, I wanted to continue with my training for future CO mountain
climbs and to explore more of the North GA mountains. That’s when it clicked
that the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club (GATC) would be perfect.
GATC offered a chance to actually hike on the AT through the many activities the club offered, learn more about hiking and north GA, have the chance to meet people with like interests, and also give something back. I mailed in my membership application and attended the orientation meeting in Oct. 2009.
I went on my first club hike at Stone Mountain Dec. 09. Jane Trentin and Bob Layson led the hike. It was very cold, but a lot of fun.
From there I did my first AT hike from Blue Ridge Gap to Bly Gap (lead by Rick Hartline) at the end of Feb. 10. Needless to say it was a big moment for me to be actually hiking on this historic, amazing trail. It was very cool to actually cross the border into North Carolina and have my picture taken at the Bly Gap tree.
I participated in a number of other AT hikes throughout 2010 and finally became a full member in August 2010, once I finally was able to attend a maintenance trip. I have since been assigned a section of the Hike Inn trail to maintain. I'm very excited about that.
So maybe this is my Midlife crisis? Who knows, but it is providing me a long term healthy hobby/activity and a chance to learn more about myself and nature. Sounds like a good deal.
My future goals
The main thing through all the hikes is that I’ve met so many nice people and have made some good friends (such as Keith Collier). It's very uplifting and rare in today’s world to see the club members’ dedication to something that is not self-centered. The love for the trail that is shown is quite awe inspiring.
I hope to continue to grow in my knowledge of the trail and hiking. I may even get into backpacking. My goal for 2011 is to complete the GA section of the AT by attending the monthly AT series hikes. Hopefully in the future my wife and daughters can join me.
It is so funny to look back and see how various events over the past couple of years led me to the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club and how being in the club has became a big part of who I am now.
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These photos were taken on the Feb 6, 2011 hike from Amicalola to Springer Mountain. This is the first in the GATC series to Hike the Georgia A.T. in one Year. |