W
hen we vacationed in Tennessee a year earlier, the lovely day-hiketurned-marriageproposal made a honeymoon hike along nature’s beautiful trails seem like a romantic, inviting, sweet breeze. But this trail was no breeze. I didn’t think I could walk any longer. I had 40-plus pounds of weight in my backpack, and 100 pounds swirling in my head. The majesty of the wilderness was gone, and all I could see was the narrow trail straight uphill for several more miles. All I could think about was how long it would take until we reached our shelter. I had never done a hike like this. This trail, the Smoky Mountain section of the Appalachian Trail (AT), is also known as the hardest section of the AT for a very good reason. It is unforgiving. Now, staring up at 10 more miles until our shelter’s destination, and already early evening, I knew it would be a long night. I just didn’t know how long.
PA R T T W O BY LISA METROPOULOS
74 IHM HEALTH & WELLNESS MAGAZINE
I had planned our wedding in the Smoky Mountains for a year, blissful and wide-eyed. I had every special detail carefully woven into the ceremony. When my then-fiancé and I discussed a honeymoon, we both immediately thought of doing a hike. We love the outdoors, and he had undergone wilderness training and taken a couple of expeditions as a bachelor. I remember telling him he hadn’t seen or experienced anything yet like what he would with me. We would do the 74 miles of the Appalachian Trail through the Smoky Mountains. I would do the wedding ceremony preparations, and he would do all the preparations for the hike. A hard lesson in personal management I
