Lipscomb alumnus joins elite group of hikers
Chris Pepple |
When you say that Larry Alexander and Jane Hollingsworth joined an elite group of hikers, you may wonder what could be “elite” about anyone who spends over five months living on bug-infested trails while rarely showering and occasionally getting refused service at eateries because of their appearance and smell. Larry Alexander, a Lipscomb alumnus from the class of 1995, and Jane Hollingsworth, newly hired full-time David Lipscomb Campus School basketball coach and P.E. teacher, however, can now say they are among the small number of hikers who have traveled the strenuous 2175 miles of the Appalachian Trail in one season. Since 1935, only 2276 hikers have accomplished this goal.
Alexander and Hollingsworth began their 161-day journey on April 1 on Springer Mountain in Georgia and finished September 8 on Mount Katahdin in Maine. They traveled through 14 states along the way. As they hiked, they encountered wildlife, wild weather and a few wild hikers. Nothing, however, stopped them for long. They did have a few “zero days” when they didn’t hike, but replenished supplies or rested sore feet and aching muscles instead. Most days, though, started early and ended late with Alexander and Hollingsworth covering anywhere from 15 to 25 miles a day.
Both Alexander and Hollingsworth kept a trail journal and recount many of the best and worst days of the trip. Alexander’s journal includes the following entries:
Wednesday, April 19, 2006: Smoky Mountains—Jangles (Jane’s trail name) and I had hiked almost a mile on the ridge line when we saw up ahead that it was very windy. I took my leather hat off and tucked it in my rain jacket. Both sides of the narrow ridgeline were major drop offs and I knew if my hat blew off it would end up back in Georgia.
With everything secure, I marched into the wind. I was confident the extra weight of my backpack would keep me anchored. I had stood up to the force of rivers with my backpack on. This should be no problem. I got about ten feet out and suddenly marble-sized hail started hitting me from the side. I was certain they were traveling at the speed of bullets. Just as the pelting had begun, a gust of wind came and knocked me off my feet. The next thing I know I'm lying face down on the ground crouching under my backpack like a turtle. With bolts of lightening shooting through the air, I first looked up to see Jangles fighting to stay upright. She had her trekking poles anchored down and was holding on for dear life.
Friday, June 9: Virginia—When Jangles and I caught back up with Silverfoot (another hiker), she was petrified. "A mother bear just charged me!" she exclaimed. Most would start looking for an alternate route at this point, but not me.
The little boy inside of me who likes to dangle off cliffs and who always runs to the front porch during a tornado warning took over. I headed up the trail looking for the mother and sure enough, there she was eating berries on the right side of the trail. She was by far the largest bear I had seen on the journey. I stood there looking for the cubs, and then I heard their cries. To my left, high up in two trees, were perched four cubs. The realization that I was now between a mother bear and her four whimpering cubs quickly dawned on me. I backed off fast as the mother bear walked just as fast towards me.
Tuesday, June 27: Pennsylvania—Jangles, Mouse (another hiker) and I did eventually hit the flooded rocky trail, wading ankle deep as we went. Five miles into it, we ran into a section hiker heading south. It confused me at first, because he had stayed at the shelter last night and was originally heading north. “This is more than I can handle,” he said. “I’m heading back home.”
The three of us just looked at each other and headed on, curious at what had shaken this man. Two miles up, we got our answer. It was a flooded creek that was now waist high along the trail crossing. There was a thin clothesline that stretched across the water, but compared to the raging current and white-capped cascade just beyond, it looked pretty weak. This, of course, didn’t stop me from walking out into the fast flowing waters.
Monday, August 21: Maine—My pace slowed considerably upon the slick rock as I carefully tried to secure each step. As careful as I was, I was due my first major slip of the day and eventually my moment arrived. The initial slip was uneventful. My feet flew out from under me. I intentionally fell backwards, allowing my backpack to break my fall. I was a professional at this by now, but then the unexpected happened—I kept sliding. I was on a massive wet rock that happened to be the most perfect slip and slide. This would have generally been fun, and was for the first few feet, until the fog gave way to the view of the cliff I was darting towards. I instantly took my trekking poles and began stabbing at the rock looking for some imperfection to slow me down.
After reading the journal entries, don’t think that misery surrounded the entire hike. “There is a real camaraderie among most of the hikers on the trail, a real community of hikers that keep up with each other and take care of each other,” Alexander states. “You know all of the trail news about the twenty people before and after you on the trail. I never felt alone.”
Alexander and Hollingsworth bonded with seven other hikers and banded together for a large portion of the trip. The group often ate together, laughed together and entertained each other along the way. “Every hiker goes by a trail name. Beyond that, we usually know what state or country they come from, but that’s it. Our connection comes from the trail. We can honestly say we have hiked many miles in each others shoes.”
Alexander also wrote about “trail angels” often in his journal. One entry describes an early encounter with the hospitality of people who live in the vicinity of the trail: “The morning was tough, but not unreasonable. Spring had finally swept in and everything was in bloom. It was a nice change. Jane and I stopped at a picnic table near a road for a second breakfast and to our surprise a trail angel drove up and delivered a basket full of fruit and Snickers. She said her son was a former thru-hiker who met his wife on the trail. Ever since that experience she became a trail angel.” Trail angels often brought food or offered rides to a nearby town. A few offered lodging for a night.
Returning home caused a little culture shock for Alexander. “It has been hard to get readjusted to home,” he claims. “In my world on the trail, everything moved slowly. You had to stay smart and plan ahead carefully for meals and snacks. You had to calculate it just right so you weren’t carrying extra weight, but you didn’t run out of supplies.” Coming back home meant a change in mentality for Alexander. He had to adjust to a faster-paced world again with daily conveniences he had learned to live without.
So why take over five months out of your life to attempt such an adventure? Both Alexander and Hollingsworth completed the hike as a fundraiser for ChallengePoint, a ministry focused on strengthening the Christian community by providing training in leadership and teamwork through adventure-based programs. Supporters of ChallengePoint were asked to donate money for every mile walked. Alexander and Jim Ellis, co-founders of ChallengePoint, know that the organization is in an “adolescent phase” with innumerable opportunities ahead for expanding their already popular ministry programs.
Since its start in 1998, ChallengePoint, operating as a mobile ministry, has impacted the lives of over 12,000 people in 14 states. “The past eight years have shown me there is a definite need for this ministry,” Alexander states. “The fact that ChallengePoint has operated solely on the sacrifice of volunteers who are committed to a common goal is very uplifting to me. This is our first time to reach out for financial support, so I’m very excited to see what God is going to do with ChallengePoint next.”
ChallengePoint keeps teaching people to work together for the glory of God as the center of their ministry. "There are many ministries out there that bring people into the Body. Our goal is to teach people how to work within the Body. It’s all about relationships," Alexander adds.
Alexander graduated from Lipscomb University with a major in both psychology and exercise science. Following graduation, he combined his majors and went to work in the area of adventure-based counseling for the juvenile justice field. During the following years, he received advance training from Project Adventure, Experiential Educators Association and Wilderness Medical Associates. Through his connection with the University of Tennessee Christian Student Center in Knoxville, he had youth ministers ask him to lead teambuilding retreats with their youth groups. “It went over so well,” Alexander claims, “that we decided to turn it into a regular weekend ministry, but it even kept growing from there.”
Today, ChallengePoint is a 501(c)(3) organization offering multi-day teambuilding retreats, one-day adventure treks, five-day backpacking excursions and one-day workshops. Their programs have become an intricate part of summer church camps across the southeast. “Teen ministries have been our primary focus, even though we also work often with mission teams, adult groups and colleges including Lipscomb,” states Alexander.
The board members hope to raise enough money to purchase land for the organization. Jim Ellis, who is a Masters level architect by trade, has developed a retreat center based on the program needs of the ministry. As Alexander points out, “Having our own facilities is the next step in ChallengePoint becoming the ministry that it was envisioned to be.”
So why a 2175-mile hike? Alexander says completing the Appalachian Trail hike is like getting your master’s degree in hiking. “I wanted our fundraising project to be a challenge for us. Our participants would expect nothing less. It needed to push us outside of our comfort zone.” And Alexander knows ChallengePoint is worth the effort. Volunteers have seen the vision of the founders and stuck with them to help build up the organization from infancy into adolescence. Now two people have hiked 2175 miles to keep it growing and going strong.
“It doesn’t seem real still,” Alexander adds in reference to his accomplishment.
Hollingsworth writes in her journal, “As one journey will soon come to an end, another one will begin. Where that leads me and who it may lead me to I don’t know…but it’s just part of a big mystery, a bigger story, that will be exciting to see unfold.” So it will be with ChallengePoint.
--Chris Pepple