Ryan Whalen (right) and his dad Mike set out on the Appalachian Trail last month for a 30-mile hike.
Ryan Whalen has seen firsthand the terrible toll Alzheimer’s Disease can take, and a few weeks ago he set out to make a difference.
Set out is a pretty accurate term, really, as Mr. Whalen, the food service director at the Warren Center nursing home on Metacom Avenue, took a long hike on the Appalachian Trail to raise money to fight the disease. He and his father, Mike Whalen, left the New York/Connecticut border on Saturday, April 12, and after a rain-shortened hike finished the northbound walk four days later. But he plans to do more in the coming months.
“I don’t know if (my dad’s) coming,” he joked.
He first had the idea for the hike last November. He was driving to Connecticut with his brother and his wife, who had just read a book about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in California.
“I said it’d be kind of cool to do the Appalachian Trail (which runs from Georgia to Maine). My brother said I’d never do it. I called my dad two weeks later.”
As they planned out the trip, a 54-mile hike from Connecticut’s New York border to the Massachusetts border, he started thinking about Alzheimer’s. Genesis Health Care, the center’s parent company, is active with the Alzheimer’s Association, and Mr. Whalen thought the hike might be a good chance to help the cause.
“So I said, ‘Man, why don’t we turn the hike into something pretty cool and try to raise money?’”
Dad was fine with it, and Mr. Whalen started an online fund-raising page which to date has brought in about $1,600.
On Saturday, April 12, father and son arrived at the trailhead, took a few photos and headed in. The weather was beautiful and warm at first, but it started getting cold soon. By the time they woke up on the fourth morning, their water had partially frozen and it had started to rain — a raw, bitter rain that reached two inches. Along the way, they met several hikers who offered companionship and advice to the newbies.
“They made fun of us pretty much every night. Our packs without water were about 50 pounds. Theirs,with water, were less than 40. But we learned a lot; I figured out that we didn’t need the night vision goggles that we brought along.”
As the weather worsened and forecasts called for snow wind and temperatures from 10 to 15 degrees, the two decided to hike back to the trailhead where’d they started and leave the rest of the hike for another time. They made it to Kent, Ct., where their abbreviated trip ended, with 30 miles under their belts.
Still, Mr. Whalen said he’s happy to have raised a little bit of money for the Rhode Island chapter of the Alzheimer’s Assocation. And he plans to do more of the hike, and continue raising funds, with his dad.
“It was an amazing experience.”