Key Dates
1942 — Born, Gadsden, Alabama, the eighth child of a man who boasted of getting in at least two fights a week until he was 40 years old. [Now there’s a story, no, several stories.] I thought I was the seventh child until, on my 75th birthday, I received an email — our missing sister had found us!
1953 — Moved to Charlotte, N.C., after Dad went broke mining coal.
1959 — Fell in love with a high school classmate, Donna Joy Hyland. We were a couple from then until her death on July 16, 2022.
1960 — Graduated from Garinger High School in Charlotte without flying colors — I failed four subjects in high school. Got a job writing sports for The Charlotte News making $1 an hour, double what my father had paid me for working at his sweat shop. Working for Dad, manufacturing clothes hangers, was dirty, deafening, dangerous, and hot. Let me put it this way: If OSHA inspectors had been around in those days they would have put my father under the jail.
1960-1962 — On active duty in the Navy, including 20 months aboard the USS Los Angeles, a heavy cruiser. I was a Journalist Third Class when I got out which is not the same thing, let me point out, as third class journalist.
1962 — Got engaged. Enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With my high school grades, why did UNC admit me? I found out one afternoon early in my freshman year, when I was hitching home to Charlotte. I introduced myself to the driver and he repeated my last name: “Stith,” he said. “You just got out of the Navy, didn’t you?” And then he told me the story.
1963 — Married my high school sweetheart.
1964 — Bo was born.
1966 –Graduated from UNC with a BA in journalism; went to work reporting for The Charlotte News; Jack and Mark, our twins, were born.
1967 — Doctors in Chapel Hill tested Jack and told us that he is mentally handicapped. Autistic too, it turned out. My father told me, “Everyone has a cross to bear, and this is yours.”
1971 — Moved to Knightdale, N.C, to work as an investigative reporter for The News & Observer in Raleigh. Bought Snowbird, in the mountains of North Carolina near the Tennessee line.
For the next 25 years, life went by. Our three boys grew up. Bo graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and Mark from UNC at Chapel Hill. Both married terrific women and began raising families. When he was 20 years old Jack moved to a group home. Donna still brings him home most weekends. She ran our home and served our community. I worked.
1996 — Won a Pulitzer Prize.
2005 — Inducted into the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame.
2008 — Retired from The N&O, age 66. Worked full time, then part-time for various law firms for the next six years.
2015 — Thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine, 2,189.2 miles in 149 days — and that doesn’t include the miles I accidently hike backwards.
2016 — Began blogging My Stories
2017 — Opened an email and discovered our long lost half sister, who was 96 and living in Los Angeles. What a birthday present! I turned 75 that day.
2018 — Our first great grandchild, Ella Jane Waddelow, was born.
2022 — Our second great grandchild, Hazel Josephine Stith, was born.
2022 — My sweet wife, Donna, died. We had been together since we were 17.
Hikes, kayak trips:
NOTE: All A.T. hike miles are taken from “The A.T. Guide” for 2015, “A Handbook for Hiking the Appalachian Trial” by David “AWOL” Miller. Since the length of the A.T. changes slightly — it gets a little longer each year — the miles shown here for hikes after 2015 might slightly understate the miles I actually hiked. I used the 2015 mileage for all hikes so a reader could fit the hikes together if they chose to.
2009 — Lynn Muchmore introduced me to backpacking, hiking part of the Mickelson Trail [Edgemont to Custer] in South Dakota. Over the next few years I hiked more than 3,200 miles of Appalachian Trail, a thru-hike, 2,189.2 miles, by myself and another 1,021.8 miles with friends, or my grandsons, or alone.
2010
July 19-23: Hiked 33.4 miles of the A.T. with Lynn, Mark Ogden and Tony Goldman, Clingmans Dome [199.6] to Fontana Dam [166.3].
2011
Sept. 7-11: Hiked 37.7 miles with Lynn, Mark, and Tony from Chestnut Branch Trail, near Davenport Gap [236.7] to Hot Spring [274.4].
October: hiked 30.6 miles with Rob Waters and Wade Rawlins from Wallace Gap, W. Old Murphy Road [106.7] to Nantahala Outdoor Center, US 19 & 74, [137.3].
2012
May 18: White water rafting on the Nantahala River in Western, NC, with two of my grandsons, Cole and Curtis Stith.
May 19-20: Hike 29 miles from the Nantahala Outdoor Center [137.3] to Fontana Dam [166.3] with Grandsons Christian, Cole and Curtis Stith.
Sept. 9-21: Hiked rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, down the North Kaibab Trail to the Phantom Ranch and back up Bright Angel Trail. Also, hiked Coyote Gulch and the Escalante Slot Canyons in Utah, all with Lynn, Tony and Mark.
2013
March 2-9: Hiked 52.9 miles with Christian, from Springer Mountain, GA, the southern end of the Appalachian Trail, to Unicoi Gap, GA 75 [52.9] and 53.8 miles with Cole and Curtis, from Unicoi Gap [52.9] to Wallace Gap, W. Old Murphy Road, NC [106.7].
July 28 – Aug. 3: Hiked 43.4 miles through Maryland, from Pen Mar County Park, PA,[mile 1064.4 ] south to the Virginia line [1021.0] just south of Harpers Ferry, VA, [1023.4] with my grandson, Eli Gordy-Stith.
October 25-27: Hiked 23 miles with Rob and Wade, from VA 16, Mt. Rogers Visitors Center near Sugar Grove [531.6]south to Fox Creek, VA 603 [510.2].
2014
March 18-23: Hiked 90.3 miles with Rob Waters from Carver Gap, TN143/NC 261, [379.0] north to Damascus, VA [469.3].
Aug. 1-3: Hiked 40.9 miles with Andy Curliss, from Fox Creek, VA 603, [510.2] south to Damascus [469.3]
Aug. 11-14 – Hiked 55 miles with Eli from US 522 at Front Royal, VA, [968.4] north to Harpers Ferry [1,023.4].
2015
Feb. 15 – July 14: — Thru-hiked the A.T. [14 states, 2,189.2 miles — and that doesn’t include the miles I hiked backwards] in four months and some few odd days. OK, OK, exactly four months and 29 days, but that includes 13 zeros.
2016
March 25-31: Hiked a 105.4 miles from Waynesboro, VA, [862.6] to Front Royal, US 522, 968.0] through the Shenandoah Valley National Park. Hiked the first half alone, the second half with Eli.
April 22-27: Hiked 53.7 miles with Rob Waters from Allen Gap, N.C. 208/TN 70 [mile 289.2] north to Uncle Johnny’s, River Road/Unaka Springs Road in Erwin, TN [342.9].
April 27-30: Hiked With Lynn and Mark 23.8 miles from Carver Gap [379.0] south to AT skirts Red Fork Road [mile 355.6].
June 6-13: Kayaked the Neuse River with Mike Johnson, from Falls of the Neuse near Raleigh to Oriental, on the North Carolina coast, about 225 miles. See “Are You Boys Armed?”
2017
May 20-26: Kayaked the Roanoke River with GRRRR [Karl Smith] from Weldon to Plymouth, N.C., 113 miles. [See “PIZ ZA! PIZ ZA! PIZ ZA! Paddling the Roanoke.”
July 7-12: Hiked 100.2 miles with Viking, from PA 325 [1164.6] south to Pen Mar Road, PA [mile 1064.4 ]. [See “The (Warm) Iceman”].
Oct. 16-23: Hiked the Nankoweap Trail in the Grand Canyon National Park with Jim [Nine!] and David McDonald, Lenny Frye, and Canyon John Laneve. See “Nankoweap Trail: Don’t Look Down,” Parts 1, 2, 3. Estimated mileage, 40.
2018
May 10-16: Hiked 103 miles, Pearisburg, VA, [634.9] south to Mt. Rogers Visitor Center [531.6] with the Viking and Dan Coffaro.
Aug. 6-22, hiked 200 miles [including the 10 miles to the Whitney Portal] of the John Muir Trail with Iceman.
2019
May 20-23, hiked 57.9 miles, from Daleville, VA, [727.8] south to Rocky Gap, VA 601 [669.9] with Iceman and, part of the way, with the Viking; his sister Tara Graham, and GRRRR.
Sept. 5-12, paddled 15-foot canoes and portaged from lake to lake in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, with GRRRR. Algonquin is remote and beautiful, a boating version of the John Muir Trail.
Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, kayaked with Brother Dave to Bear Island, a barrier island 2.6 miles off the coast of North Carolina, and camped for two nights. The first night, when the lightning thundered, the wind blew, the temperature dropped, the rain poured — and my tent leaked — was the toughest night I had ever spent in the wild.
2020
The coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation of two section hikes I had planned for the spring, but I did get in one hike when the A.T. reopened.
Oct. 7-10, hiked 52 miles, from U.S. 60 [806.4] north to Waynesboro [861.7] with the Viking. We hiked 8.0 miles the first day, in part because we had to shuttled to the trailhead that morning from Waynesboro and got a late start but mainly because, for the first time on a hike, I got wobbly. I was exhausted. The other splits: 16.1 on Day Two; 15.4 on Day Three and 12.5 on the last day, in the rain. It was a short mileage day because we ran out of trail before we ran out of afternoon. To make up miles lost on Day One we Blue Blazed several miles, a first for either of us, reducing the hike from 55.3 to 52 miles.
2021
March 21-22, hiked 13.4 miles on the A.T., from Stecoah Gap [Mile 150.7] to the Nantahala Outdoor Center [Mile 137.3] with my great niece, Julia Ellise Stith. We started at 11 a.m. on the 21st and finished at 1:10 p.m. on the 22nd. I fell twice, because I had the wobbles again, just like last October. Those hikes taught me something. They taught me that I’m going to have to lose weight and get in shape or give up backpacking. At 78, I can’t just get up off the sofa and go hiking: you can hike old and you can hike fat, but you can’t hike old and fat.
Oct. 24-29, hiked 78.6 miles on the A.T., from U.S. 60 [806.4] south to Daleville, VA, [727.8], the first part with Raven and the last part with the Viking.
I had lost 31.75 pounds since the hike with Julia last March — and it made a big difference. I got tired, doesn’t everyone? But not wobbly. I did fall, once, landed face down on a rock, bent my glasses and skinned up my face a little. But, no, it wasn’t an “old man” fall. I tripped on a rock. Falls happen when you’re taking 30,000-plus steps a day over rough terrain.
2022
April 19-23, hiked 93.1 miles in just under five days, from PA 325 Clark’s Creek [1164.6] to Palmerton, PA, [1257.7] with the Viking and his sister, Tara. Ken Dunn joined us the last two days. I know, I know, I shouldn’t mention this but in case you haven’t already done the math, that’s an average of 18.6 miles a day on exceedingly difficult trail — there’s a reason thru-hikers called Pennsylvania “Rocksylvania”.
2023
April 14-16, kayaked to Bear Island, off the North Carolina cost, and camped two nights with GRRRR. It was my second camping trip to the island but I still had a hard time following the route through the marsh. GRRRR, the navigator on our Roanoke River and Algonquin paddles, got us there.
April 19-24, My second Grand Canyon back country [Tuckup Canyon] hike with John Laneve, AKA Canyon John; Jim and David McDonald; and Lenny Frye plus three new [to me] hikers — David’s wife, Kristen; Steve Lantz and Terry Adams. My left knee flared up [torn meniscus, I think, dating back to 2018] and I only hiked about 10 miles, counting a short hike in Kanab, Utah. I had to walk straight-legged, sort of like Festus Haggen, the “Gunsmoke” TV character. I was able to hike down into Tuckup Canyon twice, once carrying water and then again to camp but I was unable to do near as much day hiking and I wanted. I came home in a wheelchair, not because I couldn’t walk, I could walk, barely, but a wheelchair boarding enabled me to get seats with lots of leg room, allowing me to keep my leg straight, on the flight to Dallas, and then, from Dallas home.
May 16-18, Beauty Spot Gap [354.7] south to Uncle Johnny’s Nolichucky Hostel [342.9], and easy 11.6 miles. Viking, Tara and I did about six one afternoon after we were shuttled to the trail head, and finished up the next morning. My knee didn’t bother me.
May 21-23, Rocky Gap [669.9] south to Pearisburg, VA [634.9] 35 miles just under two days, with Dan Woods, an old friend who hiked a little ways with me in New York, on my thru-hike.
At the end of the hike, maybe 200 yards to go, I had to cross a four-lane highway. Made me a bit nervous so I waited until nothing was coming except for a tractor trailer truck that was a long way away. I took off running, or trying to, although there was absolutely no need. And I fell. Landed on my face. Bent my glasses and drove one of the hinges into my eyebrow.
The truck was still coming.
I picked myself
up and grabbed the pole I had dropped. The truck was a lot closer now.