Iowa City residents conquer Appalachian Trail

Iowa City residents Meghan Oglesby and Jake Teesdale, together as a couple for eight years, say they really got to know each other during their recent 5-month, 2,181-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail.

And, they say, in the ultimate test of compatibility, after being together round the clock for 146 days, they like each other even more now than when they started.

“You run out of stuff to talk about, but you learn more about your hiking companion than you ever thought you could,” said Oglesby, 27.

They left Springer Mountain, Ga., at the southern tip of the trail, on March 9 and finished Aug. 1 at the trail's northern terminus, Mount Katahdin in Maine.

Along the way they braved heat and cold, thirst and hunger, rocks and mud, scrapes and bruises, bugs and snakes and heavy packs and hard beds. They wore out several pairs of shoes and “hit the wall” numerous times.

But their greatest hardship, according to Oglesby, was the general lack of bathing facilities.

During one stretch from Vernon, N.J., to Great Barrington, Mass., they went eight days without a shower.

“I was almost ready to go home. I couldn't imagine being gross any longer,” she said.

Teesdale, 28, said the trip was inspired by his reading of the popular 1998 book, “A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail,” by travel writer Bill Bryson. They both quit jobs as restaurant cooks to clear their schedules for what they thought would be a grand opportunity to appreciate nature.

While they did behold many spectacular vistas, “most of the time you are just looking down for a place to put your feet,” Oglesby said.

“Most of the trail is not developed at all. Basically, it is a scenic, single-file footpath, like a deer path in the woods,” Teesdale said.

Hiking it entails considerable climbing and treacherous footing, he said.

“You knew if you climbed from 2,000 to 4,000 feet it was going to hurt,” Oglesby said.

The worst footing was in New England, where the trail often consisted of long, steep stretches of jagged, slippery rock.

Their packs weighed between 25 and 30 pounds and included a tent, sleeping bags and pads, a one-burner stove, clothing, food, water and their guide book, which told them distances between the primitive shelters in which they spent most of their nights.

Occasionally they paid to sleep in a hostel, where they could get a good meal and a shower and sleep on a bed with an actual pillow, rather than the clothes bags that cushioned their heads on the trail.

For four days, they engaged in the practice of “slacking,” in which their packs were transported for them. They also took about 10 “zero days,” in which they just stayed put. The average for thru hikers - people going all the way - is 18 zero days, they said.

While Teesdale lost 40 pounds on the hike, Oglesby said she became more muscular but not much lighter.

The hikers said they frequently encountered “trail magic” - acts of kindness and gifts of food and drink, often left anonymously.

More than 3 million people visit the trail each year, but only about 600 “thru hikers” completed the entire trail last year. Fewer than 25 percent of thru hike attempts are successful.

“We were more than ready to be done hiking, but it was a good feeling to know we'd made it that far,” Oglesby said.