By Emma Stone
To area resident Alan Brown, turning 70 seemed like the perfect opportunity to embark on a grueling challenge: hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Brown was born in Florida and grew up in Texas and Oklahoma. After high school, Brown joined the Navy during the Vietnam War and was assigned to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
He, then, lived in Virginia for 38 years where he heard stories of people hiking the Appalachian Trail.
“After I retired in 2009, I bought a travel trailer and I started travelling the country doing volunteer work,” said Brown.
One of his volunteer projects was spent working at the O.W.L Center in Dubach. During his time, he attended a local church where he met his future mother-in-law. Brown married his wife, Pam, and they have spent the next 10 years living south of Ruston, but he had an idea to finish hiking the entirety of the Appalachian Trail.
“I have hiked pieces of the Appalachian Trail, because my son is an Eagle Scout,” said Brown. “I’ve done a fair amount of hiking, just smaller hikes here and there. I’ve, also, canoed a lot up in the boundary lakes in Minnesota.”
For Brown, exploring has always been a passion, so he began training for the challenge, but the next hurdle was where to start.
The Appalachian Trail runs 2,220 miles from Georgia to Maine. For most hikers, it takes six to nine months to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.
Brown decided to hike the trail in sections in accordance with the advice from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
“They told me they had so many people starting off in the Georgia area, so I altered my start point to the halfway point of the trail, which is roughly Harpers Ferry, West Virginia,” said Brown.
Because of Brown’s background, he is more familiar with the Virginia area, so this would be a good start for him, but his next challenge would be where to train.
Louisiana’s highest elevation point reaches 535 feet, so Brown struggled with finding the right terrain to prepare himself.
“I’ve been going out to Lincoln Parish Park and hiking their trails with or without a pack,” said Brown. “The highest elevation is like 500 feet there, so it’s not like I’m climbing mountains.”
Due to his age, Brown is determined to finish the trail in the next couple of years, but advice he has heard from people does make him wary.
“2,000 people a year start hiking the trail, but something like 80% dropout within the first 100 miles or so,” said Brown. “People say to go ahead and pack what you need, then sit down, and take out half of it.”
Brown began his hike yesterday at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, and will end in the Southern region of Virginia in four days.
“I just love adventure; I love to travel, and I like to go places where I’ve never been and do things I’ve never done, so this fits right in,” said Brown.
