Johnstown Rotarian will hike the Appalachian Trail to help fight polio
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When Owen Standley set out to lose a little weight, walking 2,200 miles along the Appalachian Trail was not the plan.
But when Standley, 34, of Ferndale, Cambria County, joined his wife in a diet and exercise plan, it included a journaling assignment to list something he thought he could never achieve. “So I wrote, ‘Hike the Appalachian Trail,’” he said.
That was October 2019.
On March 9, Standley – a member of the Rotary Club of Johnstown-Sunset, who readily admits he was not a hiking enthusiast before making this decision – will set out on a “thru-hike” along the length of the Appalachian Trail to raise money for the Rotary Polio Plus Fund, dedicated to the worldwide eradication of polio.
“I’m not wired to do things solely for my own gratification,” Standley said. “And as much as I wanted to do this for enrichment and soul-searching, I wanted to make my hike for a cause.”
The Rotary’s ongoing fight to eradicate polio is certainly a worthwhile cause.
“Since they started in 1979, we’ve seen a 99.9% reduction in polio cases,” he said. “I can see a significant concrete change and I can play a part to help close the gap and actually make a difference.”
Standley hopes to leverage $100,000 in donations into $300,000 via an ongoing 2-to-1 match through Rotary’s partnership with the Gates Foundation.
But how does a first-time hiker train for a grueling trek along the spine of the Appalachians?
“I call them insanity hikes,” Standley said of his training regiment, which included thru-hikes on the 70-mile Laurel Highlands trail, which he has completed in just over 52 hours; the Blairsville-to-Ebensburg Ghost Town Trail; and the world’s steepest vehicular incline, the Johnstown Inclined Plane near his home.
“The biggest thing is hills,” he said. “Consistently, this trail is running atop mountains.”
That also means the weather can turn on a dime. Even though Standley is starting out at the southern terminus in Georgia, he still referred to his March 9 start as a “crap shoot.”
“You’re in the Smokey Mountain range, you’re above the frost line,” he said. “You prepare, you wear layers, wear synthetics so they don’t hold moisture. You have to have good socks, good gloves.”
You also have to have good logistics: Standley will set out with a Garmin locator beacon that gives him access to unlimited text messaging and email that is sent via satellite rather than relying on cell phone reception.
“That’ll be the big challenge, being away from my wife and keeping my logistics locked down,” he said.
Standley plans to try and make 25 miles each day, a pace that would let him finish the trail in 88 days.
“But I also have to take into account the possibility of injury, a rest day, bad weather,” he said.
Standley would also like to connect with some of the Rotary’s members at the General Assembly in Harrisburg to arrange a quick press conference and draw some attention to his cause.
“I don’t know what’s going to transpire from all of this,” he said. “It’s all exciting and new, thinking about what could happen.”
For more, see HikeForPolio.org.