STARKVILLE — With 32 pounds strapped to his back, a walking stick to his side and an itinerary mapping out his journey, John Giesemann has trekked through the wilderness of some of the oldest mountains on the continent and had some run-ins with black bears.
“I was on the trail 84 days before I saw a bear,” Giesemann said. “I heard this snort when I was walking along on a ‘flat section,’ and I looked up, and this bear and her cub running off down the side.”
After retirement from Mississippi State University where he was a professor in the Extension Service, Giesemann needed something to do. He has served as an assistant Scoutmaster with Scouts BSA, formerly Boy Scouts of America, and has always had a passion for hiking.
The Appalachian Trail, or AT, just happens to be the shortest trail among three main trails for hikers in North America, but don’t be fooled. It is 2,200 miles long. It falls behind the Pacific Crest Trail at 2,650 miles long and the Continental Divide Trail at 3,100 miles long.
However, of the three, the AT has the largest difference between elevation loss and gain of 515,000 feet. That is a 115,000 difference from the Continental Divide at 400,000 feet.
“I read an article one time that said, ‘Don’t let anyone call you a wimp for hiking the AT,’ which is the shortest of the three,” Giesemann told Starkville Rotary Club on Monday. “I tell people if there’s a section from here to here that’s ‘flat,’ well, that’s a relative term.”
When Giesemann, a professor emeritus, is on the AT, he averages roughly 10 miles a day but has made it 16 miles a day.
The trail covers 14 eastern states from Georgia to Maine, and nearly a quarter of the trail is in Virginia. In total, he has completed 1,200 of the AT. His last stop was Pine Grove, Pennsylvania.
“Why do I do it?” Giesemann asked. “I just like to hike. I read a lot of stuff where people talk about why they hike and the lessons they learned, but I just like to hike. I don’t do it for any philosophical reasons or anything. People ask me what I learned. I didn’t learn anything; I just like to hike.”
Stopping for a good night’s rest is crucial for all hikers, and Giesemann said he likes to find shelters that are maintained mostly by volunteers. There are 262 shelters with an average of 8.5 miles between them on the trail, though Giesmann is not above spending a night under the stars.
“I’m one of the few people that, basically when I hike, I just go from one shelter to another,” Giesemann said. “… The first 90 days I went, I only didn’t sleep in a shelter (for) three nights. One of those nights, I just threw down and cowboy camped. The other two, they didn’t have a shelter that I wanted to walk that far during the day (to), so I made my own little campground.”
Naturally a trek through the wilderness will come with wildlife encounters. Giesemann has run into many different species.
“I’ve seen a lot of deer, squirrels, birds,” Giesemann said. “We saw an owl one time. This girl was standing there, and I was coming through. She said, ‘Shh, look,’ and there was a barn owl sitting in a tree. I don’t know how in the world she saw that because I would’ve missed it. … I see mostly deer, though.”
When it comes to meals, he will prepare for about six to seven days on the trail and send himself food to a P.O. Box in a place on his itinerary or he will go to a grocery store and fill up there. He needs to keep his food load light, so he ends up with light pre-packaged food like protein bars and Little Debbie cakes.
All together, his pack which includes food, water, shelter and other survival basics, only weighs 32 pounds.
He allows himself one luxury item, a chair that he sometimes needs to admire the view. As a true born-and-raised Tennessean, Giesemann said his favorite part of the AT would be the Smoky Mountains in his home state.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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