NILES Former area man finds trials, joy along trail

Despite the hardships, the retired schoolteacher did find pleasure in the journey.
NILES -- Arden Lee Coley, formerly of Niles, recently completed the Appalachian Trail as a through-hiker, meaning he walked the trail in one session.
Coley, a 1965 Niles McKinley graduate and the son of Emma Joe and the late Arden G. Coley, started at Springer Mountain, Ga., on March 5.
The 55-year-old retired special education teacher completed the 2,174-mile trek to Mount Katahdin, Maine, on Aug. 24, about two weeks ahead of his schedule.
Known on the trail as "Chili Pepper," Coley, who now lives in Marietta, Ga., took on the journey, a lifelong dream, after much research and planning. Original plans called for the trip to last six months.
But the trip was not easy. On the first day, Coley stepped on some icy rocks, injuring his knee. He also spent four weeks sidelined with a blood clot in his calf.
When doctors approved his return to hiking, Coley had to take time every week to 10 days to get blood tests done, to monitor the clot.
Finding water supplies also proved difficult at times for Coley, as were battles with poison ivy and the weather.
Not all hardship
Despite the hardships, he did find pleasure in the journey, his mother said.
"One day he said to me, 'Mom, I can't tell you how hard this is, but on the other hand, I can't tell you how rewarding, how magnificent the wondrous beauty and the breathtaking vistas are,'" she said.
Coley also took time to visit historical sites and documented his travels with a daily log and pictures.
His mother visited him in Boiling Springs, Pa., roughly the midpoint of the trail.
"At the time of our visit, 'Chili' had lost 30 pounds and looked great with a full mountain-man beard," she said.
During the visit, she said, he told her of the "Trail Angels" -- people who invite hikers into their homes to sleep, eat, shower, do laundry and so on.
Coley occasionally took breaks from hiking, spending a day in a local town with other hikers. By the end of his journey, he had compiled a list of 260 hikers he met on the trail.