My name is Hud Hartson, and I live
in Midlothian, Texas, about 20 miles Southwest of Dallas. I majored in
Criminal Justice at Dallas Baptist University and had every intention of
joining the Dallas Police Department last fall. For those of you who
followed my hike in 2003, and knew that my Dad had surgery for brain cancer
about three weeks after I got home from my AT thru-hike, Dad passed away
July 7, 2004. I applied to the Police Academy in September but the stress of
being Dad's main caretaker for eight months preceding his death was a little
too great, and Mom needed help for the winter with the cattle (we live on a
ranch); so I withdrew my application for the time being.
I got a part-time job at Mountain Sports in Arlington, Texas, not far
from home, and I guess being around all that familiar gear made me itch to
get back on "a trail", any trail. I met up with a guy named Baltimore Jack
early into my 2003 hike, who had already hiked the AT eight times. We got
along good, both of us being "purists", meaning we hike every inch of the
Trail on our thru-hike and do not blue blaze or yellow blaze, so we
continued pretty much together for the rest of the Trail and have kept in
touch since then.
Jack and I had decided to try the PCT since neither Jack nor I have hiked
that Trail. Too much snow last winter. We decided it might not be a safe
trip so we decided to go back to the AT. You old friends know that I took
way too many zero days in 2003, and it took me from March 8 to October 9 - 8
months! - to hike the entire Trail. During that time, my then girlfriend who
was hiking with me, hurt her knee and we holed up in Helen, Georgia, for
about a week; and then I got deathly sick just outside of Erwin, Tn. and
Miss Janet had to come get me on the Trail and take me back to her hostel
house in Erwin where it took me about seven or eight days to get well. Then,
I stayed in Damascus for Trail Days about two weeks and got off the Trail in
Massachusetts after getting an invitation from Digger Dave Dave to go to a
Boston Red Sox game (I played college baseball so I have a real love of the
game and of old stadiums). Digger is (or was) a stockbroker from Boston who
started out hiking the AT when I did but had to leave the Trail after
getting a job offer too good to pass up.
Anyway, you can see that I kind of vacationed along with hiking which I
will not be doing this year. If you read my 2003 Journal, you know that I
introduced you to some pretty colorful characters during my hike. It's
always fun to run into old friends and meet new ones so feel free to
reacquaint yourself with all the hikers I wrote about in the 2003 Journal as
I suspect a lot of them will crop up on this trip as will hostel owners and
people in the towns that I am looking forward to seeing again.
I hope you will stay tuned. I will post one week of my journey at a time
as I did in 2003. I promise it will be a lot of fun reading for you, and I
promise not to run out of water my second night out like I did before.
