Forget male-pattern baldness - the ability and desire to undertake incredible physical and mental feats might be hereditary as well.
Taking cues from his father, who hiked the Appalachian Trail while he was in college, Tufts junior Chris Martin braved bears, hunger, heat exhaustion and "foot rot" this summer to hike America's famous, 2,175 mile-long trail.
And what's more, he did it alone.
The Appalachian Trail begins on Springer Mountain in Georgia and carves across the East Coast to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The trail traverses some of the country's largest mountains and, among serious North American hikers, it is a badge of honor.
Though Martin had made the decision to hike the trail when he was a freshman in high school, he was unable to realize his dream until this summer, when the pressure of time forced him to seize a passing opportunity.
"This summer was really my last chance to do it, time-wise," he said. "Next summer I'll have to get an internship, and the summer after that I'll have to get a job, so it had to be now."
Martin's trip began on May 14, when he flew from Logan Airport in Boston to Charlotte, N.C. After spending one night in Charlotte with his grandparents, Martin was driven to Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia, where he began the 8.5 mile approach to the head of the Appalachian.
The junior wasn't spared roadblocks on his first day of hiking, when he came to a place where the trail appeared to split. His guidebook indicated that he should cross a river, but when he did so, he was unable to find the white "blazes" which mark the Appalachian Trail for hikers.
Martin doubled back to the trail, set his pack down, and tried the other route, which was also unmarked. On the way back to his pack, Martin lost his way.
"I've never been so scared in my life," he said. "I was lost in Georgia, with no food or supplies. Finally I just started shouting 'Help! Help! Is anyone there?' People answered, and I was able to find my way back to the trail and to my pack ... Getting lost was the part of the trip I was most nervous about, and it had to happen on my first day."
Though Martin had been on several hiking trips with his family, he had done very little backpacking before this summer, and he was unsure of what supplies he would really need. His pack - which contained his tent, food and other supplies - weighed 68 pounds when he began the trip.
After a few days of hiking, Martin realized that his pack was too heavy for him to carry on his back for the duration of the trip. At his first stop in Hiawasse, Georgia, Martin sent home clothes, several days' worth of food, his deck of cards, a storage bottle of fuel, a hardcover journal, and a reading book.
By the end of his trip, Martin estimates that he had pared the weight down to between 30 and 35 pounds.
"Every ounce matters," he said. "I even cut the handle off of my toothbrush to save weight."
Martin said that he was in decent shape prior to the trip, but that he was unprepared for the difficulty of the Appalachian Trail and the effect that hiking it would have on his body.
"In many places the Appalachian Trail was less like a trail than a rock scramble," he said.
After a few days, Martin began to lose sensation in his toes, which eventually spread to the rest of his feet. His feet also suffered from blisters and the painful condition of "foot rot" due to their prolonged exposure to moisture. Martin said that the most difficult physical complication he encountered was heat exhaustion.
"Twice I ran out of water, and I started to feel very tired, dizzy and nauseous," he said. "All at once my muscles felt really sore and I got a horrible head-ache ... Those were probably my least favorite parts of the trip."
At the beginning of the trip, Martin hiked about 20 miles a day. Over the course of the summer he worked up to an average of 25 to 30 miles a day.
"By the end of the trip my body was like a machine," he said. "There were days when I didn't think I could reach my camp by nightfall, and my mind just sort of disconnected from my body."
Because Martin was burning so many calories each day, he needed to eat foods that were high in fat and sugar. Every four or five days, Martin hitch-hiked into a nearby town to load up on supplies and food.
"With food, the idea was to take in as many calories as possible," he said. "When I stopped at the Delaware Water Gap one night, I ate one and a half large pizzas, a loaf of banana bread, three ears of corn, a peanut butter fudge pie and a pitcher of Coke."
While on the trail, Martin snacked constantly on food like Snickers bars, peanut butter, cheese, pepperoni and Gorp, a trail mix he made. When he reached the halfway point on the trail, he ate a half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting, which he said is a tradition among Appalachian Trail hikers.
In spite of Martin's constant intake of high-fat, high-calorie snacks, he lost 30 pounds over the course of the trip.
Throughout the summer, Martin occasionally met up with other hikers. On long-distance hikes, he said, hikers refer to each other by special "trail names." Martin called himself "Mowgli."
He said he hiked through New Hampshire's White Mountains with two hikers called "Bandana Ben" and "Warpzilla," who were carrying their friend's ashes to the top of Mount Katahdin.
But while Martin enjoyed meeting different people on the trail, he said that his best times were spent hiking alone.
"The trip for me was a cathartic experience," he said. "I wanted to think, and it's a lot easier to think when you're alone."
Martin used the time with himself to strengthen his religious faith.
"At first I thought about stupid stuff, like commercials and TV shows. But after about a month on the trail I started to think about things that are more important. Hiking really made me feel like there was a higher power guiding me through the trail," he said.
Martin said that he often knew instinctively when he had accidentally taken a wrong turn and lost the Trail.
"There were several times when I had taken a side trail. I'd just feel instinctively that it wasn't right, I'd turn around and realize I had taken the wrong path," he said.
In addition to seeing some of the most beautiful scenery in America, Martin encountered 13 black bears, five rattlesnakes and three moose on his trip.
Of all the sites he passed, Martin said he most enjoyed hiking the Roan Highlands and Grayson Highlands in Tennessee.
"The Roan Highlands were grass mountains - you could just see for miles," he said. "The Grayson Highlands were craggy mountains, but they were covered with pink rhododendrons when I hiked them."
On Aug. 19, with his parents trailing behind him, Martin reached the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine and finished his trip.
"I almost started to cry when I got to the last mountain," he said. "I just realized the magnitude of what I had done on my own."
Though Martin said that he felt very proud when he reached the summit, he remarked that he valued the journey over the destination.
"I can't summarize this trip by one climb," he said. "There were a lot of really incredible moments. There were a lot of days where I just felt really, really good."
