Photo provided A photo of Dale Nowlin on the Appalachian Trail.
A Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. school board member is hitting the Appalachian Trail this summer to benefit the Bartholomew County School Foundation.
Dale Nowlin has hiked the Appalachian Trail almost every year for a decade, with a goal of trekking the entire 2,190 mile path.
It typically takes six months to hike the whole trail, Nowlin said, so he has been doing it in sections. When he goes, he has been able to lop off 200 miles each time. After the 200 miles have been achieved over about a two and a half week period, his wife, Isabel, picks him up at whatever his destination may be at the time.
The retired math teacher has gone from Georgia all the way up to New Hampshire and has just more than 300 miles to go to reach the path’s endpoint in Maine.
The year he began the hike, Nowlin raised money for Campus Life Youth for Christ. He wanted to do something similar this year for the foundation and spoke with Director Nicole Cunningham about how it could be done.
“She talked about targeting specific funds within the school foundation,” Nowlin said.
Out of their conversations eventually came “Dale on the Trail” where Nowlin plans to hike 200 miles and raise $3,000 for the foundation.
“The school foundation is a phenomenal organization and it’s grown quite a bit over the years,” Nowlin said. “It helps teachers and students in so many different ways.”
One fund that donations will go towards will provide eyeglasses for who need but cannot afford them and the other is to fund tuition for students in high school doing dual credit courses.
Nowlin had taught a Calculus dual credit course at North for a number of years, recalling that “there are kids that just can’t afford the tuition” for such classes that can give students a head-start towards their college degree.
“Dale on the Trail” helps combine Nowlin’s passion for hiking and helping students.
“I love just being out in the woods, I love the challenge. I typically go out by myself but you meet really great people on the trail,” Nowlin said. “I enjoy the alone time, but I also enjoy the camaraderie of being with other hikers.”
In 1997, Nowlin received a teacher creativity grant from the Lilly Foundation, which led to his first backpacking experience, he said.
“That actually gave me the money to invest in backpacking equipment,” Nowlin said. “I did a geology course in Rocky Mountain National Park and backpacked there and then did a nature course in Smoky Mountain National Park and backpacked there.”
Nowlin camps out on the trail but typically avoids his least favorite sleeping arrangement— what are known as Appalachian Trail Shelters, which are three-sided wooden structures. Nowlin said that’s because of “the crowds, the mice and the smell of other hikers.”
So instead he carries his own tent, along with a little stove, food, a change of clothes and water.
When out on his excursions, Nowlin said he keeps a book and trail map on his phone, and an old-fashioned paper map “just in case.” Sometimes he listens to music, but cell service can be spotty, plus he has learned to keep his ear attuned to his surroundings.
“It’s the birds of nature, the sounds of the trail, although there are a couple of times where I’ve hiked fairly close to a rifle range, not exactly the sounds of nature here, so I typically don’t listen to anything.”
In the past, Nowlin had kept trail journals to document his progress, but now he just posts updates on Facebook instead.
“(The journaling website) has either become more complicated, or I have become less technologically savvy, but it became too cumbersome.”
This is part of a typical entry Nowlin wrote back in 2013:
“I knew it was a bear hunting dog because I had heard people talk about the radio collars they wear. I was a little concerned about this hunting dog approaching me until I noticed how vigorously he was wagging his tail. He was supposed to be tracking bears, but he was much more interested in socializing.”
Mile-marker 1878 is where Nowlin left off and will begin this summer, right at the start of what is called the 100-Mile Wilderness.
Those who wish to donate should go to bcsfstars.org and before submitting payment click on “add additional instructions” under the donation amount and type “Dale on the Trail.” People can also write a check with “Dale on the Trail” on the memo line and mail it to BCSF, 1200 Central Ave., Columbus, IN 47201.
After the hike, people can visit https://tinyurl.com/epzuumuf where they can make a single pledge or pledge per mile.
