Going extreme

from Cullman County Good Life Magazine - Winter 22

Got ya’ ‘covered’

Col. Don Fallin is hiking to extremes for Johnny Mac

Retired Army Col. Don Fallin of Cullman displays a Johnny Mac flag after hiking 70 miles across the Andes to the terraced Inca city of Machu Picchu, upper left.

Story by Seth Terrell Photos by or provided by Don Fallin

Somewhere around 12,000 feet in elevation, high in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Don Fallin felt the crush of altitude sickness settle in. He and his trekking teammates had planned on taking their preventative Diamox tablets to ward off the headaches and nausea that are the most common symptoms, but what surprised them was how quickly they’d reached such altitude, how early it had sneaked up on them.

But Machu Picchu, the site of the ancient Incan society – and their goal – awaited far ahead, and with it the mythical allure that would make the temporary setback worth it.

With the help of proper regimens of fitness training, Diamox and time, Don and the crew pushed through altitude sickness and forward along the Salkantay-Inca Trail with the hope of completing the two most arduous treks in a seven-day period.

“By day two, we were at 15,000 feet, followed by a pass at 17,200 feet to traverse on day three,” Don says from the comfort of his Cullman dining room.

The retired Army colonel gives a bright smile as he scrolls through the photographs of his grueling trek on his iPad. He pulls out a map of the trail and with a pointing finger begins sorting the topography, matching photos with reference points as the recent experience comes alive once more in every recollection.

“Here’s one of the places where we made camp,” he says.

Looking at the photograph alone is enough to unsettle an innocent viewer: In the near-distant background, behind the band of hikers, an avalanche is poised to storm down the Peruvian mountain slope. There are other photos too, of razor-sharp ridges and scrabbled, narrow trails that are doubly breathtaking – at once harrowing and beautiful.

The men who join Don in the photographs, often seen posing near the ruins or against the backdrop of snowcapped peaks, are part of his team who help raise money for the Johnny Mac Soldier’s Fund.

The Johnny Mac Fund began in 2014, named for U.S. Army Col. John “Johnny Mac” McHugh, who was killed by an IED in 2010, leaving behind his wife and five children.

“Team Johnny Mac” is comprised of veterans, friends and graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point: Don, Andy Peterson, Lance Bagley, Tim Scott, Keith Brown, Erich Peterson, Nicholas Peterson and Tyler Bragg. It was Don’s friend and classmate at West Point, Bob “Ice” Eisiminger, who first introduced him to the fund and its great work. In 2017, Don connected with Mary Ellen Picciuto, a classmate of Johnny Mac at West Point who serves as president of the fund that bears his name.

The fund was originally established with Johnny Mac’s children in mind, but has since gone on to raise $33 million over the last seven years – money awarded to children of families across the country who have lost loved ones during active service in the U.S. military. The fund’s support is given to students in the form of education scholarships. Along with Mary Ellen and his classmates and supporters from West Point, Don began envisioning a fundraising effort that would both bring attention and provide a thrilling journey.

“The more pain you endure on an event, the more money you raise,” Don says, laughing.

His vision became the Endurance Challenge. The first trek for Team Johnny Mac commenced with Don hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. He had completed a few day hikes and was an avid walker but had never attempted such a long-term trek.

“I had heard about the AT,” he recalls, “but when I really saw what it would take … it was daunting.”

The hike along the famed trail stretched from Springer Mountain, Georgia, up through the Smoky Mountains and Roane Highlands of North Carolina and Tennessee, following the ridges overlooking the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, then twisting north through Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, across Vermont and New Hampshire to eventually arrive at Mt. Katahdin, Maine, the AT’s northern terminus.

Along the way, Don relied on the support of his wife, Megan; he planned the hike itinerary so he could leave the Sunset over the towering Andes was a reward for Don’s hiking team after crossing a 17,100 foot pass earlier on day three of their Machu Picchu trek. Lower left, the team is already suffering altitude sickness as they strike out for day two on the Salkantay trail section of the trek; the 17,100-foot pass is just out of the picture to the right of the peaks. They pitched camp at about 15,100 feet at the end of day two, lower right. They started the trail at an elevation of about 7,500 feet, meaning they gained some 7,600 feet in 48 hours, kicking in the altitude sickness. In 72 hours they gained nearly 10,000 feet.

The team climbs the ancient steps of the Gringo Killer, above. It’s part of the Inca Trail approach to Sun Gate, a famous overlook with Machu Picchu visible behind them in the center photo. Often called the “Lost City of the Incas,” the terraced city was built as early as 1420–1530 near the base of the conical, 8835-foot Huayna Picchu, upper right. In his basement equipment room, Don, second from lower right, also keeps medical supplies for his extreme trek. These include the VAissued Acetazolamide, a generic substitute for the brand name for Diamox, which is used to prevent and reduce symptoms of altitude sickness. Bottom photos by David Moore.

trail and go into town every four to five days to resupply, check in with her as she worked tirelessly updating supporters and promoting both the hike and the Johnny Mac Fund on social media.

The journey truly became a family affair as Don stopped off near Bear Mountain, N.Y., to visit his son, Sean, then a cadet at West Point. Megan joined Don at the end of the hike and together they made it to the 5,269-foot peak of Mt. Katahdin.

“The view from Mt. Katahdin,” Don says, “was epic.” The continuing journeys of Team Johnny Mac have taken Don and his fellow hikers to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, which raised nearly $70,000 in 2021. The 2022 trek was scheduled to take them to Mount Elbrus in Russia, but the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops in early 2022 put that plan on hold. As Don scrambled to organize a new location and trek for 2022, the Salkantay-Inca Trail and the mystique of Machu Picchu caught his attention.

Continuing his story of the 70-mile journey the Andes, Don lands on a whimsical photo of an alpaca taken just before Team Johnny Mac reached the ruins of Machu Picchu. Equipped with 20-30 pound Osprey backpacks, and La Sportiva hiking boots, the team couldn’t have done it without the extraordinary help of trail guides called porters, and their pack mules; the hikers ate well and lived well along the trail.

“Most hikes are a bit more austere,” Don says, “but on this one we were really taken care of.”

There is an overwhelming sense of awe

that bleeds through the photographs taken from the summits and passes and vistas. An even deeper sense of wonder is palpable as Machu Picchu takes shape against a cobalt sky. There they stand in the center of the ancient cityscape that is ringed by fog and clinging to the clouds 8,000 feet above sea level as though conjured from the ether.

The members of the team all agree that the trek to Machu was much harder than Kilimanjaro. But in the difficulty, lies purpose.

“You learn through pain,” Don says. “The key to life, really, is being able to put one foot in front of the other.”

Pain, in fact, is no stranger to Don. A veteran of eight combat tours in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, his military career, as a colonel assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) Special Mission Unit has taken him all over. Through his many years of service, he has compiled a list of injuries that include a fractured femur and three TBIs (traumatic brain injury) as well as a badly injured hip from slamming into a truck due to high winds while making a parachute jump. He carries his own heartrending stories of combat, of bravery and loss and the kinship common only to war veterans. But Don exudes a pleasant humility that returns him back to his central focus.

“This is all about answering the question, ‘how do you have purpose?’ and ‘how do I give back?’”

Though Don keeps many of his war stories close to a bullet-proof vest, he is ever reminded of the deepest acts of selflessness

Don shot this sunrise photo as his climbing group approached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak at 19,341 feet. While the climb itself does not require technical experience, the Lemosho route was a grueling eight-day hike. Combined with his recent hike to Machu Picchu and trek of the Appalachian Trail, Don has raised in excess of $100,000 for the Johnny Mac fund. If you are interested in supporting his efforts, contact him at: donald.fallin@gmail.com.

and bravery he has witnessed among his fellow soldiers. It’s this continued renewal of faith in people that inspires him to now continue his Johnny Mac journey.

“I was so fortunate to work with the people I did,” Don says, “And this is just a small way that I can give back and show my gratefulness.”

He remembers an important realization he came to while hiking the AT: “That experience reminded me what a great country we have and great people within it.”

But there is another source of inspiration, too. Throughout his life, Don has always been a competitor.

Before heading off to West Point, he grew up in Fairview where his father, Troy, and his recently passed stepmother, Dessie, have lived for years. After prep school, Don found himself at West Point through the support of other people who believed in him. It was this support along with a healthy dash of hard work that sparked the competitor within. And it was this same recipe he passed on to his son, Sean, a West Point graduate and infantry platoon leader at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault); and onto his daughter Casey, who works in an intelligence support role for the Department of Defense and the InterAgencies and who is married to a West Point graduate Major Rob Beery. Along with Megan, Don, these days, finds himself in the midst of a family of go-getters and hard workers, hoping to keep up.

“I didn’t want to lose the edge in a competitive family,” Don says with a grin, “so that’s another reason I started trekking.”

Though the Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund and its network of supporters provide much moral and financial support to Don and his fellow hikers, the Cullman area has remained a strong home-front for the efforts.

“As this thing has gotten going, I have had so much support from the Cullman area,” he says. “People want to help and to give because they are just so excited.”

Financial support from the Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund has gone to help 82 scholarship recipients from Alabama alone, all children of military personnel killed in duty during the global war on terror. Through the fund and through the efforts of Team Johnny Mac, these children will not only have a chance to further their education and improve their lives, but they’ll also be able to honor the legacy of their fallen family member.

The experiences of hiking Kilimanjaro and now Machu Picchu by way of the Salkantay-Inca Trail will certainly be hard to top, but Don has set his eyes on the next

trek – he and Team Johnny Mac hope to scale Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest summit in the world, outside of the mighty Himalayas.

In fact, the team has considered eventually scaling all of the Seven Summits, the seven highest peaks on each of the seven continents. There will be plenty of Diamox, and plenty pain and hard work, but beholding the beauties and wonders of the world from such lofty heights would make the experience worth every step.

If that comes to pass, at each location, Don will carry with him a flag once flown in Afghanistan, a memorial tribute to Johnny Mac and to all the veterans who’ve given their lives. With each scaled summit, and with each exhausted victory, the legacies of their lives and sacrifices lives on.

Good Life Magazine

Atop New Hampshire’s 6,288-foot Mt. Washington, Don follows cairns. These stacks of stone mark the Appalachian Trail where it climbs above the treeline.