Travels with Artsy and Twinkle Toes on the A.T.

About the Book

Travels With . . . is a daily log of a hike along the Appalachian Trail by Twinkle Toes who started his hike in 1991 and finished it in the year 2002. About midway in his hike, he was joined by his wife, Artsy, who gave him invaluable help enabling him to complete his trek. There was no attempt made to embellish the tale or to artificially add to its content. Others, especially the younger hikers, would find the hike to be not as difficult as did the author. He gave descriptions as he found them for himself so that the grades of difficulty encountered would be more applicable to an older hiker.

Starting in 1991, the ultimate goal was to complete the whole Trail in a few years. Even though the Trail was well billed as being difficult, he did not realize just how difficult it was for him. By the time that he had completed a couple of weeks of hiking, he came to the early conclusion that the Trail was just too difficult and that he had waited too late in life to tackle it. He then notified his children that he had no intention of coming back.

Little did he know of the magic of the Trail, of the intangible compulsion that kept drawing him back. Rarely was he able to say that he was having fun. It was exciting, interesting, memorable, and adventurous, but rarely fun! His children would sometimes ask, “Dad, don’t you read what you wrote last year? You were miserable!” No intelligent answer would come to mind. He would just have to say that it was something that he just had to do.

By the end of 1996, all thoughts of finishing the trail had vanished. Then, he married Artsy, who had lost her husband after a long illness. When getting to know each other and describing the things in life that they enjoyed, Artsy remarked that she had always wanted to hike on the Appalachian Trail. She had no ambition to complete it, just to hike on it! That remark ignited the fuse again and they both volunteered to join a work crew doing repair work in the Smoky Mountains. Seeing that they worked well together and saw just what the Trail had to offer and the scenery that was available, they started their plans to so some hiking the following year. There were still no plans of finishing the Trail, just to do some hiking on it. As you will see, one thing led to another, one year to another, and in 2002, they were able to complete Twinkle Toes hike. As Twinkle Toes will readily admit, it was a lot more fun with Artsy along!