“THEY ALL HAVE A TOP:” Robert Whiteside and daughter Phoebe Whiteside last Wednesday stood atop Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest mountain and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, four months and 18 days after starting their journey in Georgia at the southern end of the Trail.  (Photo courtesy of Rob and Phoebe Whiteside)

Along the way on their 2185-mile, four-and-a-half-month hike from Georgia to Maine, the full length of the Appalachian Trail, Robert Whiteside and his 18-year-old daughter Phoebe met hundreds of other hikers, but only 20-25 percent make it to Maine to become “thru-hikers.”

“You’re climbing a lot of mountains, and they all have a top,” Mr. Whiteside said.  “I reminded myself of this many times, and I used to kid some of the other hikers.  All these mountains have several false summits, where you think you’re at the top but you’re not, but if you keep moving, if you keep going you get to the top.”

Father and daughter agreed that the mental challenges of the odyssey were even more formidable than the physical demands.  “You need to really want to do it, not just to have done it,” said Phoebe, a 2015 Princeton High School graduate. “A lot of people dropped out because they liked the idea of being a thru-hiker, but they didn’t actually want to be out there every day.”

Rob, a 54-year-old businessman—260 pounds when he started, a fit 210 when he finished last Wednesday—concluded, “Quite a journey: it still astonishes me that I got through it in one piece.”

Shared Experience

The shared experience was an important aspect of the trip for both.  A cross country runner ready to begin freshman year at Swarthmore next month,  Phoebe seldom walked with her father during the day.  They started out together each morning, then Phoebe would get ahead, and her father would catch up to her at an agreed upon destination after 10-11 hours of hiking.

“Some people have this idea that we were sitting shoulder to shoulder watching the sunset together every night.  It wasn’t like that,” Rob said.  “But it was a very difficult prolonged experience, and we shared it .  There’s a lot of meaning in shared experience, especially in very difficult shared experience, and that’s part of the meaning, getting through it with my daughter, sharing the experience, having the memory.”

One of the hardest parts for Rob was “hiking with young people.  Most times I was hiking with 18-24-year-olds.  They’re faster.  They can go farther.  I was like a toddler trying to keep up with his parents on the sidewalk.  I physically couldn’t walk as fast as some of those guys.”

And the biggest personal challenge for Phoebe often involved compromising with her father in planning the day’s itinerary.  “We wanted to stay together and finish together,” she said, “but we had a very different idea of what we wanted the experience to be like along the way.”

“That was our biggest conflict,” Rob added.  “She was more ambitious for the hiking and getting the miles in and all that, and we had several sessions on top of mountain ridges sitting there arguing about it.  If it had been just me out there, I’d still be out there   I’d have taken 2-3 weeks more.  She probably would have finished 2-3 weeks earlier than we did.”

The conflict reached a happy resolution, as Rob “got stronger as we went along—no question about it.  Coming up through Virginia, I got into shape and could do 20-25-mile days, as opposed to about 15-mile days at the start of the trip.”

And Phoebe patiently settled into a pace more moderate than her cross country training might prescribe.  “I was fine with what we did.  I was happy with our pace towards the end.  We slowed down a lot in New Hampshire and Maine, especially as we got into the mountains, and I really enjoyed it.”

The Whiteside duo, completing the trip in just over four and a half months, was well ahead of the curve, according to Appalachian Trail Conservancy estimates of thru-hikers taking between five and seven months, with an average of “a week or two shy of six months,” to finish the journey.

About 15,000 hikers have reported walking the entire AT since 1937, when the trail was completed, but there are no statistics on father-daughter teams.

“Hiking the entire AT is a grueling and demanding endeavor,” according to the AT Conservancy website.  “It requires great physical and mental stamina and determination.  The terrain is mountainous for its entire length, with an elevation gain and loss equivalent to hiking Mt. Everest from sea level and back 16 times.  The treadway in many places is rocky or filled with roots or mud.  Sections that could be described as flat or smooth seldom last long.”

Preparations   

Rob, a dedicated runner when younger, had read about the Appalachian Trail when he was a boy and had always been interested.  “I’d talked about it around the house, and the girls [Phoebe and her younger sister Ellen] absorbed it.  Phoebe thought it would be a good idea, so we did it.”

The planning began about a year ago.  Phoebe graduated early from PHS, applying to colleges, gaining admission to Swarthmore and deciding to take a gap year so she could hike the Trail.  Rob had been involved in running a company, but was winding the business down, and found that the window of opportunity was open for himself and his daughter at the same time.

In preparation, Phoebe handled logistical planning while Rob started walking.  “I walked around town.  Princeton’s wonderful for walking—a lot of trails.”  Much of the planning involved learning about necessary supplies and equipment, “but at some point,” he said, “”you’ve just got to start.”

Neither Phoebe nor Rob was an experienced camper.  “I’d been camping and hiking,” Phoebe said, “but never long distances.”  Rob added, “That was one of the things that worried me  I’d never done a lot of camping, and if you’re going to get through this you need to like to camp.  I didn’t know whether I liked it all that much, but it turns out I like camping just fine.”

On the Trail

The daily routine on the trail involved an early start—5:30 wake-up for Rob, a bit later for Phoebe—and setting out on the trail by 6:30.  Starting in early March, they encountered severe cold weather in the South, hiking through snow storms on a couple of days, 16 degree temperatures and high winds on other days.

Phoebe generally worked out their schedule five days in advance, planning from town to town in order to figure out how to buy and maintain sufficient food and supplies.  “You could only carry so much weight,” Rob explained.  “You could only carry so much food.  That was the biggest logistical thing to work out—the food re-supply.”

Though they were not together for most of the day, usually they were able to keep in touch through texting or through other hikers.  “When a hiker passed me by I might  say, ’Hey, my daughter’s up ahead.  Will you let her know I’m slow today?’”

At night Rob preferred to pitch his tent.  Phoebe chose the convenience of the AT three-sided lean-tos, when available,constructed for 6-8 people and located on the Trail every 5-20 miles.  Occasionally they would take advantage of their proximity to a motel or hiker hostel.

Good Luck 

 Rob and Phoebe, despite the many hardships of the trip, considered themselves lucky that they never lost track of each other, that there was not much prolonged rainfall, they avoided lyme disease and giardia (an intestinal infection), and they met no dangerous animals or people.

“It’s treacherous out there,” Rob said.  “There’s a lot of nice trail, but it’s not the tow path.  People have this vision that you’re walking on a pristine path through the woods, but lots of times it’s full of rocks and roots.  You have to pay attention all the time to where you’re walking and what you’re doing.”

He pointed to a scar on his forehead and continued, “I took two bad falls, pretty bad face-plants, where I had to get bandaged up, and then dozens of smaller falls.  To fall that often and not get hurt is lucky.  We were both lucky.  Luck is a big part of getting through.”

According to Phoebe, they averaged 16.1 miles per day overall—starting out at about 12-15 miles per day, then 20-25 miles through the mid-Atlantic States, slowing down to about 15 per day in the rugged terrain of New Hampshire and Maine.

Back home again on Hawthorne Avenue Monday, after their culminating ascent of Mount Katahdin in Maine last Wednesday, then a day on public transportation Thursday, father and daughter reflected on the experience.

“It’s easier than living in the normal world and having to go to work or school,” Phoebe said.  “It’s very simple.  It’s food, water, shelter, walk.  It’s nice and you get close to the people you’re hiking with.”

“That’s the best part of the trail,” Rob added. “But your big decision for the day is just where am I going and how far am I walking.”

Plans for the Future

Whether Rob and Phoebe will venture out on the Appalachian Trail again, either together or separately, is uncertain.  “I definitely want to keep doing backpacking,” Phoebe said. “I want to do another long trail.  I don’t know when—probably not until after college.  There are other scenic trails that would be fun.”

Rob was more hesitant.  “I don’t know.  It’s too soon,” he said.  “I was really ready to be done, because it’s a tough deal and when you get to the end, you know—enough.  But already we’re both missing it a little bit.”Rob smiled, “I might pitch my tent in the back yard occasionally.”

“I definitely miss it,” Phoebe added.  “I miss being out there every day.  I miss the friends I made on the trail.”

“It does make you realize you don’t need as much stuff as you have,” she continued.  “I came home and I found it overwhelming how many personal possessions I have—too much stuff.  I’m selling some of my clothes.”

“We have a beautiful country,” Rob observed.  “There’s a lot of wonderful things to see out there.”