Mark Bailey has lived a life of adventure, but considers hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) the most dangerous and unhealthy thing he's ever done. That's saying a lot from a man who has sailed around the world three times as a ship's engineer and voluntarily spent a night in a Philippines prison to avoid the New People's Army in 1981. Bailey's path to the AT began following retirement from a career on the high seas. He first logged some time on roads, spending three years touring North America on a Gold Wing motorcycle, camping on the side of the road and staying in hostels. Following an accident in Buffalo, New York that wrecked his bike, Bailey decided to leave the roads for a while and take up long distance hiking. He discovered the AT on the internet and, in the spring of 2000, began a thru-hike from the southern terminus on Springer Mountain, Georgia. Months later, Bailey dropped out in Hanover, New Hampshire from chronic fatigue, an unusual circumstance given his familiarity with long hours of hard manual labor in a ship's engine room. Even more unusual was that Bailey's life of adventure ground to a halt not from towering waves, bike wrecks, or civil unrest, but from the bite of a tiny tick.
I first met Bailey while thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 2007, where through much of southern California I passed and was passed by him and Billy Goat, his hiking partner. Bailey introduced himself to me by his familiar trail moniker, Captain America (adopted from his years touring on the Gold Wing), keeping his and Billy Goat's true names a secret like a couple of comic book superheroes. I instantly found Bailey to be likable, captivating those around him with stories of his world adventures and looking a little like Charles Darwin with a long wispy white beard, a ruddy face, bushy brown and gray eyebrows, and a mop of dark hair partly covered by a black stocking cap. In fact, the only recognizable difference between him and Darwin was his GoLite jacket. The last time I saw Bailey that year was with Billy Goat, camped high on a ridge above Silverwood Lake, California on a very windy evening. The two of them were enjoying the sunset, and Bailey was singing the praises of his Granite Gear pack. Knowing that I'd probably be getting ahead of them for good, I dug out a scrap of paper from my pack and took down Bailey's phone number and email, tucking the information safely in a Ziploc, but not very confident that I'd ever get any email or a call. Mark Bailey just didn't seem like the kind of guy who did a lot of that.
I ended up running into Bailey the following year at the Appalachian Long Distance Hiker's Association annual gathering in West Virginia. I almost didn't recognize him. Gone was the snowy white beard and the trail clothes. Bailey was short-haired and clean-shaven, dressed in a checked shirt and slacks and looking very much like a businessman on vacation. He gave a presentation that weekend on his trip through Canada along the International AT. Bailey's trip along the IAT had ended rather suddenly and for reasons that weren't exactly clear in the presentation. Talking with him afterward, I learned that Bailey had been experiencing bouts of chronic fatigue for years and it was one such bout that forced him to take time off. When I asked him how such an accomplished hiker and adventurer such as himself could struggle with chronic fatigue he looked at me and asked, "Have you ever heard of Lyme disease?"
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Mark Bailey's Story
- Falling Through a Black Hole
- The Nightmare
- Lyme by the Numbers
- Lyme Disease
- Treatment
- Identifying the EM Rash
- Unclear Diagnosing Guidelines
- Preventative Antibiotics
- An Ounce of Prevention
- Skin Inspections
- Conclusions
- Helpful Links
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# PHOTOS: 10
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