The Decision: Venturing into the Appalachian Wilderness

My idea to hike the Appalachian Trail sparked from a conversation with my grandmother, who often takes it upon herself to educate me on my native american heritage. We argued for a while about the value of the youth today and how work ethic, manners and the idea of 'pride for one's own self' was passed on from tribe generation to tribe generation
Vision Quests are a Native American 'rite of passage' tradition similar to that of the Spartans. It goes like this. You send the child into the wilderness with nothing but their own instincts and talents with them to survive. The hope is that by fending for themselves, the child will be able to push his own maturity over the line of adolesence and into adulthood.
Not unlike these scenarios, and one emulated in the novel and film 'Into the Wild', I wish to be stripped of my essentials that are handed to me day to day by society and roam the wild by myself. I'm going to take on a portion of the Appalachian Trial, starting at the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and spend a week discovering who I am without everything and everyone from my normal everyday life around.
Spring break is the deadline for the start of my quest, and so I will take it upon myself to train in Athens, Ohio for my adventure. The goal in mind is sixty miles of the trail (a mere fraction of the more than two thousand mile length), but with the time I have to work with, it will be an adventure.
Athens is a great area to develop wilderness survival skills, and with nearby facilities, shops and of course the internet, I will hopefully be well prepared for my voyage.

For information concerning vision quests, the movie Into the Wild or Shenandoah National Park visit the linked websites!

Vision Quests- http://www.themystica.org/mystica/articles/v/vision_quests.html
Into the Wild- http://www.intothewild.com/
Shenandoah National Park- http://www.nps.gov/SHEN/index.htm