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Southern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail
Many are called but few are chosen.
The expression is often used to distinguish between those for whom religious belief is less of a commitment than others. It also distinguishes those who finish hiking the Appalachian Trail from those who don’t—and most don’t finish.
The hike can take up to six months for some as they make their way between Georgia and Maine. A small number traverse the distance in less time, but most don’t. In either case, the season and prevailing weather conditions at the start isn’t the same at the end. Entering the trail head in Georgia during late November suggested reaching northern Maine by early summer. Cold weather settled in along the length of the Appalachian Trail. Much of the hike posed challenging conditions for the hardiest of hikers especially at the higher elevations along the way.
Some making the attempt find serious hiking isn’t for them. Many have this epiphany early on. The trail offers numerous opportunities to stop off in small towns and arrange for transportation home. Todd Adams and Achmed Al Hami found several quitters who were both eager to end their adventure and sell their gear. Going home in defeat unencumbered by all the equipment was liberating in more than one way.
A warmer article of clothing here, a better piece of equipment there, more interesting food in all cases, offered them both an inexpensive means of improving their odds for going the distance. Those abandoning the trail in disgrace quickly scattered to the four winds. There was a low risk these “quitters” would be interviewed by the authorities. It also meant they could avoid stepping off the trail to buy whatever they needed in town. The longer they avoided civilization, the better.
There was another advantage to being out on the trail. The longer they hiked, the less likely they’d encounter anyone who had the slightest idea about what they were fleeing. To hike the Appalachian Trail is to meet people who are, at least temporarily, “off the grid.” Adams and Al Hami were openly hiding—if there is such a thing—in plain sight along the Appalachian Trail.
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Hiking the Appalachian Trail had never been their original plan, not even a contingency. They weren’t hikers. They were gym rats. Working out at the gym—even faithfully—helped overall fitness levels. The best preparation for long distance hiking in the wild? More hiking in the wild.
While making his way to Springer Mountain, Adams did an on-line crash course in hiking the Trail. He learned what equipment to buy, what to avoid, and how many miles to walk each day based on fitness levels and prior experience. Adams never spent a single night in a tent as a child or teen even in his parents’ backyard. Now he was obsessed with all the facets of a 2,100-mile northbound hike along the Appalachian Mountains. He was convinced the two of them could do this. He knew it.
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Near Williamsburg, Virginia
Both Eddy O’Conner and Joe McRory were skeptical, at best. They knew Alice Linda’s strength was thinking outside the box. They pressed Linda to justify this crazy notion of Adams and Al Hami, like Butch and Sundance, were somewhere in the country on a long-distance hike. As the debate continued, Linda refined her thesis. Adams and Al Hami needed time to affect their escape. Where could they go to gain the time and distance from the pursuit of law enforcement organizations? In her mind, the two were doing exactly what no one would expect them to do. They’re hiking either the Pacific Crest Trail in the west or the Appalachian Trail in the east. Linda would have it no other way.
O’Conner and McRory saw the futility in their continuing attempt to dissuade Linda from her hiking theory. Instead, they shifted the discussion to which trail Adams and Al Hami were more likely to hike. There was something unreal about O’Conner and McRory arguing the respective merits of either option.
Finally, all three agreed to report the discussion to the Director of the CIA in the morning.
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Mclean, Virginia
The Director convened a panel of trusted subordinates, experienced in managing operations and agents, to challenge the theory. At times, the questioning was hostile. A weaker personality would have withdrawn under the withering questions. Linda, however, held firm. She was convinced Adams and Al Hami were to be found walking one of the two north-south trails popular with hikers.
Finally, the Director took the time to visit her counterpart at the National Center for Counterterrorism. The senior staff of the Center briefed the Director of the CIA. They were clearly unaware the tip they received came from her. The Director of National Intelligence took sole credit.
The Center Director reported the Las Vegas simulation had come to an end. The fraternity pledges, threatened with long imprisonments as their punishment for acts of terrorism, fell over one another describing the mission their fraternity brothers commissioned. Video surveillance from each of the properties at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road provided a visual of the Santa figures. Ironically, the teams bivouacked in the Metro PD parking lot were less than pleased to learn the same Santa holiday decorations were located immediately overhead of their Command Center without their knowledge.
Once the Center and the FBI placed the hot items in their custody, federal investigators traced their origin to a small number of commercial 3D printing firms in Chicago. The burner phones were traced to small neighborhood stores scattered around the city. The C4 explosive was attributed to a mining supply firm in Las Vegas which sold it to a family mining operation in the Mojave Desert. Belatedly, the family realized the C4 was missing and gladly paid a substantial administrative fine for failing to secure controlled explosives.
In effect, the Center and the FBI wrapped up their respective pieces of the investigation and left Las Vegas as they found it. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The outcome might have been far worse. Only one item remained outstanding: Where were Adams and Al Hami?
The Center Director thanked his staff and sent them back to the Situation Room. He was alone with the Director of the CIA. Years later, when a renowned journalist from the Washington Post authored the definitive, sourced story of the country’s first dirty bomb, the Center Director would insist the case was worked and solved entirely within the resources of the National Center for Counterterrorism. No involvement of the CIA would ever surface—which is how the law says it should be.
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Along the Appalachian Trail
A joint federal task force took up residence at two points on the Appalachian Trail. One group started at the southern trail head working their way north. The second group started at the border between Georgia and North Carolina working their way south.
The President and the Director of the Office of National Intelligence wanted Adams and Al Hami apprehended quickly, and if possible, quietly. Cost and resources were not an issue. The U.S. Air Force tasked two of its drones to work either end of Georgia’s portion of the Appalachian Trail. A cover story was developed to explain the federal presence. The exercise was advertised as a proof-of-concept for federal and state park services to collaborate in future search and rescue missions on the trail.
By late November and early December, deciduous trees along the trail lost their leaves. The absence of overhead foliage improved the ability of drone operators working out of the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to locate hikers on the trail. This information was relayed to FBI ground forces who welcomed the novel opportunity to train and operate in non-urban settings.
The drones proved more useful in daylight hours. Surveillance after sunset and before daybreak was limited to infrared technologies tracking the heat signatures of life forms on the trail. Drone operators learned night surveillance was a bit tricky, because wild life on the ground produced heat signatures as well. Distinguishing between wildlife and humans should have been a straightforward issue. It wasn’t.
The higher elevations provided hikers with outstanding vistas of surrounding hills and valleys alongside the trail. To improve the effectiveness of night surveillance, the drones operated at lower altitudes and operators paid rapt attention to on-board radar and topographic maps of the assigned zones. When circumstances were right, a hiker could both see and hear a drone flying slightly above, at the same elevation, or even below their elevation on the trail. Hemlock, spruce, cedar, and pine trees—all evergreens—obscured video surveillance while offering some protection from the evening snow falls typical of the season, especially at the higher elevations. It wasn’t unusual for hikers to camp under the broad canopy of large evergreens. Along with thermal blankets, popular among the hikers, campers reduced their heat loss and thermal radiation.
Night time operations were proving to be less effective than anticipated. Along with precipitation, common in late fall and early winter at higher elevations, the task force curtailed night surveillance.
It didn’t take long for Adams to spot the drones. They lacked a radio, or any electronic equipment, because of the weight involved. Food was more important than the news when ounces play a deciding role in what to carry and what to leave behind. They both agreed to camp during the day and traverse the trail only at night despite the additional risks night hiking imposed. So during the daylight hours, they moved well off the trail and set up camp under those large evergreen canopies. Just to be safe, they remained secluded under their thermal blankets hung above them as tarpaulins.
For the next several nights, the sky was clear and the moon bright. They couldn’t ask for better conditions. True, it was bone chilling cold without any of the sunlight to occasionally warm cold bodies. The night noises were, at times, frightening, but the prospect of apprehension was even more worrisome. They could pick-up the pace and cover 18 to 20 miles of trail each of those nights. Fortunately for them, they were several miles into North Carolina and beyond the northern zone established by the task force. Believing daylight hiking was safe again, they spent the next nights camping. If circumstances changed, it would be back to night hiking.
Adams and Al Hami elected to skip the trail shelters and lodges and avoided joining camp sites established by other hikers. They bypassed small towns where hikers veered off the trail to eat a huge meal, take a hot shower, and sleep in a comfortable bed. They started to daydream about fast food entrees.
Their legs proved stronger every day, and they could sustain long distances with each day’s efforts without any ill effect. Both were pleased to find the advice offered new hikers to start their long journeys slow was based in fact. Each was now able to quickly establish and maintain a consistent daily pace, while their minds free associated with memories stimulated by the terrain, weather, and smells of the trail and surrounding forests. They paid just enough attention to maintain trail safety and otherwise block the skeletal and soft tissue feedback generated by the hiking experience. Surprisingly quickly, they spent most of each day in the zone.
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Alice Linda and Joe McRory were assigned to the northern most group of the joint task force. After two weeks in a temporary command center with nothing to show for her strategy, Linda decided to take matters into her own hands. She borrowed a federal van and drove into town where she started shopping. Her plastic was seen flashing in several stores whose inventory reflected their proximity to the trail. McRory came along for the ride. No one was more surprised than he to find himself standing on the trail as a fully outfitted hiker.
McRory just stood there adjusting the metal frame on his back and the contents strapped to it. He was the proverbial fish out of water. Linda, who hiked often with her parents throughout her childhood, was better fit to the task ahead. She looked at McRory with her usual disdain.
“You are such a girl.”
For once, McRory didn’t offer any comment or rebuttal.