By Paula Day

The trail is vertical. One day the hikers were “burned to a crisp,” the next day, pelted by sleet and snow.

So goes the report from Father Bill Hoffman, somewhere on the Appalachian Trail bordering North Carolina and Tennessee.

The Gainesville pastor, on sabbatical, and parishioner John Avery have completed two weeks of a five-month, 2,150 mile hike scheduled to end the third week of September at Mount Katahdin, Maine.

The two men left Easter Sunday from a recreational area on the trail near Fontana Dam, N.C. They previously had hiked the famous trail from its beginning at Springer Mountain near Ellijay, Ga., to that point in order to check their equipment and have a “leg up” on what is usually considered a six-month trek.

The first three days were sunny, bright and hot. Trees at the higher altitude were barely showing buds and offered no shade. When John Avery’s wife, Barbara, rendezvoused with them at Newfound Gap on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, she decided to add a hefty amount of sunburn lotion to the supplies she would bring them at their next stop. To help lighten their packs, the men carry food enough for three days. At pre-designated sites they will pick up additional supplies that will be delivered in person or be waiting for them at the mail dropoff.

Freezing temperatures, sleet, snow and a 40-knot wind had replaced the blazing sun when Mrs. Avery next met the trekkers.

A year-and-a-half went into planning the trip. Father Hoffman is fulfilling a childhood dream; Avery set his sights on the trail 10 years ago.

The report so far from the hikers is they are getting used to the weight, but the “hills are vertical.”