Father-son duo trek 2,189-mile Appalachian trail

After braving multiple hours-long hikes in cold rain, foot blisters, joint aches, deer ticks and pesky food-thieving mice, a father and son accomplished what only slightly more than 15,000 people in the world have been able to achieve: They hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. 

At about 2,185 miles of treacherous terrain and unpredictable weather, completing the whole trail was no easy feat for Ocoee residents Brian Workman, 45, and his 19-year-old son, Andrew. 

The adventurous duo started their trekking adventure March 19 at Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia and finally finished a little more than five months later Sept. 11 after summiting the 5,267-foot high Mount Katahdin in Maine — the official endpoint of the trail. 

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED 

Preparing for the expedition took much longer than five months. Brian Workman spent six years planning and saving enough money to last them for the journey. 

The gear alone cost the hiking duo about $2,000 each, and Brian Workman saved up a total of $12,000 for expenses, estimating they would each spend about $1,000 a month. However, the reality came out to about $1,700 a month, which included food, hostel fees and the nine pairs of shoes they wore out. 

The duo also spent a full year training their bodies to ensure they would be able to support their own weight while lugging around food, gear and other necessary supplies in their backpacks for eight to 10 hours a day. 

“I would alternate between bicycle rides to increase my endurance, and then I would also do what we call rucking, which involves putting a pack on your back with weights in it and walking around,” Brian Workman said, adding that he’d carry 30 pounds in his pack while his son carried 45. “So I would walk around Starke Lake and do the whole loop, which is about six miles, five or six days a week for a year.” 

THE THINGS THEY SAW 

Despite the year of training, trekking through 14 states for 177 days at an average of 12 miles a day through fields, rivers, rocky footpaths and forests had its struggles. 

“I learned that it never gets easy,” Brian Workman said. “I thought it would get easier at some point, but it was hard every day. Something hurts every day.” 

But the struggle was all made worthwhile by the natural beauty, wildlife and picturesque views they experienced as they made their way through national parks, cascading waterfalls, endless cornfields, pristine forests and majestic mountains. 

“The outside world almost doesn’t exist when you’re doing the trail,” Brian Workman said. “You’re not worried about the news; you’re not worried about Trump; you’re not worried about any of that.” 

The highest peak they reached on the trail was Clingman’s Dome — a 6,643-foot high mountain near the border of Tennessee and North Carolina in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. During their sometimes 20-mile hikes through the parks, they spotted numerous bears, deer, martens and, unfortunately, deer ticks. 

While passing through Pennsylvania, it occurred to Andrew Workman to start routinely inspecting his body for ticks after hearing of fellow hikers who had been bitten. 

“I wasn’t checking for ticks super thoroughly before, but once I did, I found one right here,” Andrew Workman said, pointing to the back of his knee. “They love that spot on the leg, and it was a deer tick nymph, which is like a teenager tick that is the most potent for Lyme disease. So a couple weeks later, I started developing a rash that indicated I got it, which made hiking a lot harder because your joints ache and you just feel like an old person and you’re a lot more tired.” 

THE THINGS THEY LEARNED 

Ticks and Lyme disease aside, body aches and fatigue became a regular part of their every conscious moment. 

“The hardest part is the morning when you first get on your feet because it hurts so much,” Andrew Workman said. 

Some hikers combated the aches with painkillers. One man with the trail nickname of “Chopsticks,” carried a plastic bag containing what looked like 200 to 300 pills of ibuprofen. But the Workmans instead endured the pain by keeping their energy up with lots of calories in the form of granola bars, beef jerky, coffee, Cliff bars, cheese sticks, RITZ crackers with peanut butter, tapioca pudding, Pop-Tarts, fruit snacks and more Honey Buns than might be considered healthy. To thwart bears and mice from stealing food, the duo secured it in trees. 

“Everything we ate — I really don’t want to see for a long time,” Brian Workman said, adding that the minute he got home he nearly teared up while eating a brisket sandwich from Harry & Larry’s Bar-B-Que. 

But the limited food options and physical demands of the trek are not, Brian Workman said, why only 25 to 30% of people who attempt the trail succeed — it’s the mental battle. 

“The physical part of it is not why people quit — it’s because they get too inside their head and they can’t handle getting rained on and then having their feet stay wet for three days,” Brian Workman said. 

But Brian Workman was mentally prepared for the trek, as he had dreamt of the trail since his high-school days after reading an article in Reader’s Digest. 

“It was a lifetime experience for me,” the father said. “I had thought about it since high school, and I’m 45 now, and it was just overwhelming — that emotion of finishing it. We went up (Mount) Katahdin, and we finished and took our ending picture, you know where you’re just like, ‘This is the end, yay!’ And then I just sat down and cried.” 

For Andrew Workman, the experience was more a lesson in endurance. 

“You learn a lot about yourself,” he said. “You have to remember there’s a bigger goal, and you can’t think short-term, you’ve got to think long-term, but you have to balance it, because if you look too far down the road, then it might look like you’ll never get there, but you will.”