Date: 2018-07-28
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Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Transition. It should be easy. Coming back into my twenty-two year ¢regular¢ life after only four months separated from it sounds easy. I would not use the word easy though just as I would not mutter the word ¢flat¢ while talking about the trail. There is just something that seems to be missing. I¢ve always been a homebody. I really do enjoy being home, having coffee in the morning and finding projects to keep myself busy. Carpentry, landscaping even cleaning! I am content being ¢normal.¢ With that, I suppose that is part of the reason why I ventured out to the Northern Georgia mountains to hike over 2,000 miles back towards home to Maine. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to try something so incredibly difficult but so amazingly endearing. Most importantly, I wanted to learn more about myself while doing something I love so much. Hiking has been a passion for me since I set out to climb Mt Washington with my high school friend Max Janik. This day hike gave me a physical challenge along with a small taste of the mental fortitude needed in hiking. We even camped out that night inspiring me further. From there, the spark lit and I caught wind of the NH Four Thousand Footers list. This gave me an individual challenge to conquer and I do well with those. I climbed Mt. Moosilauke, Owl¢s Head and eventually ended the list with friends atop Mt Carrigain. Late high school into college the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail came about and I could not let it go. I knew I was going to complete this monumental challenge. As David Miller says in his book AWOL on the Appalachian Trail ¢The reasons for a thru-hike are less tangible than many other big decisions in life. And the reasons evolve. Toward the end, possibly the most sustaining rationale to finish a thru-hike is the fact that you have started one¢ (2). I can speak from experience in saying that I had no overwhelming reason to hike the AT except for the fact that, I really wanted to do it. Simple.  With all the planning that I did came the quick realization that none of it really helped. I could figure out an itinerary, look for THE BEST gear or figure out everything about the trail. The reality of it is that I learned more from day 1 than I did the entire few years of preparation. Plans change dramatically along the course of four months, hikers learn what gear works for them and swear by it, and the trail provides in more ways than one for all hikers on such an arduous journey. What I did not prepare for enough was the mental aspect of a thru hike. To be fair, I¢m not sure how I would have done so but, nonetheless, this was easily the hardest part. It¢s said that the mental aspect is 95% of a thru hike and that is absolutely true. Imagine waking up every morning for 120ish days regardless of weather, attitude or physical capabilities to hike anywhere from eight to twelve hours over some of the most difficult terrain in the United States. Doing so with a 20-30lb pack adds another level of difficulty. I quickly learned the mental fortitude it would take to complete this journey. Still, there were days I would get so mad, frustrated or sick of hiking that I found myself throwing my trekking poles and swearing at the trail. There were days where my hands were so cold I couldn¢t do anything except grasp my trekking poles enough to continue moving. There were days where the climbs seemed to never end and the trail seemed to want me to continue falling and hurting every part of my body. But, as my new found friend, Hazmat, said to Two Clicks and I once: ¢The trail doesn¢t care.¢ Once you TRULY realize this, the mental aspect continues to attempt to break you but you begin learning ways of dealing with it. Pains never go away and the terrain never gets easy but strategies like rewarding yourself, finding the sunshine in the rain and accepting misfortune as just another step of the trail begin to help you break through the difficulties. All these lessons translate over to everyday life too. I was thrown into the trail so quickly it all seems like a blur even today. As my first journal noted, I signed the sheet at Amicalola State Park, was given a snickers bar then began up the approach trail to Springer Mountain. I had only a bit of backpacking experience but within the first few weeks I learned what gear worked, got my systems down and conformed to the diet I was eating. You become a machine on the trail. As a fellow friend on trail, Green Grass, had said ¢I¢m turning calories into miles.¢ It becomes a monotonous game of eating, sleeping, hiking, hiking, and more hiking then repeating the cycle. There are days of full exposure to views and your surroundings then there are days of walking through the ¢green tunnel¢ where the goal is to just put in the miles and get another day closer. These days of monotony require stimulus. I had mentioned the contrast in stimulus in society vs hiking and it reigns true today. Society constantly batters you with stimuli that require interaction and reaction. On trail, often the only stimulus is the trail itself. Your body begins creating its own. AWOL says ¢I make no effort to control my thoughts or make sense of them. I¢m just allowing myself a session of melancholy reminiscing. Alone, cruising serenely through the woods, is a situation that nurtures emotional liberation¢ (62). A drastic misconception is that you will figure out your life on trail. Sure, you have plenty of time to think and sometimes plan out portions of your life. However, the more time you have to think, the more uncertainty you have about everything you are thinking about. It¢s as if you need more time to think while knowing it will do no good. Conclusions are not often met in your mind. Instead, the time thinking allows you to learn more about yourself if you listen closely enough. You find your limitations along with the massive amount of strength you unknowingly have. You figure out what drives you and pushes you to reach a goal. You quickly realize the people who are important in your life. And most importantly, you learn to listen to yourself and your body despite the noise of life. The physical aspect of the hike is of course challenging as well. We all joked that every night we would go to bed absolutely sure our bodies would never recover from the day of hiking. But, every morning in our hobble to the privy or shuffle to pack, our bodies would once again come back to life and push the physical capabilities we thought we had. For myself, I was lucky to not experience to many lasting injuries. The only ¢major¢ injury I experienced was a sprained ankle in North Carolina. However, I was lucky to not experience anything more serious with the constant falling I did, some of which were pretty bad. I took pride in being proactive about a few things and so did Two Clicks. Him and I did at least five minutes of static stretching every night. I can¢t tell you how much I truly encourage this. If you can avoid injuries to your muscles before they happen then why wouldn¢t you commit five minutes of camp time to it? The other thing I highly recommend is cleaning your feet. For me, this helped me avoid blistering by wiping off the sweat, dirt and grime every night. I only experienced roughly three blisters on the whole trail none of which were serious at all. With this also comes drying your feet. I added the extra weight of Gold Bond Foot Powder the entire trip to at least dry my feet at the end of the day. Trust me, it¢s worth the small weight penalty! Hiking 2,190.9 miles is no simple task physically. It was extremely important to take care of my body and listen to it. You will become an animal as a hiker. Mountains won¢t slow you down as much and the trail just becomes miles your feet need to cross. The down hills will hurt but the strength you gain will surprise you. I couldn¢t talk about my thru hike without acknowledging the support system I had back home and even across the entire trail. My parents and Abby were my top supporters. They answered my phone calls at all hours of the day, sent me equipment and gear needed to continue and worked out constant logistics back home. Let¢s not forget the strength it took them to trust me and my skills even when they hadn¢t heard from me in a while or there was a major storm coming. Even after the bear incident, I called home to update them. They had no immediate way of assisting and had to deal with the realities of trail and the dangers I faced with uncertainty. I give them major props for their help and encouragement throughout the four months. I truly think that a strong support system is a major reason why most hikers who finish are able to do so. Along with that came the remainder of my support system. Family, friends and strangers in town. You all helped me so much and I can¢t begin to thank you enough for that. The encouragement on my posts, journal or through text helped push me to the finish and assisted me on the worst of days. The trail magic received was a morale boost and a look into humanity. I saw the best in people and learned that the world is full of amazing individuals. I also want to give a special shout out to those who came and met me on trail. Thank you to Skip, Ann, Mike, Max, Mrs Youngs, and course my parents and Abby. This was always a huge boost! Also, the social aspect of the trail is phenomenal. The AT is known as the social trail for the amount of people hiking on it so often. It is so accessible to so many people that it only felt remote at certain times. One of the strongest bonds I experienced was the bond between other thru hikers. Typically, and I don¢t mean to be rude, I could tell someone that was thru hiking from a mile away. There¢s a look to them, a drive you can sense and a bond instantly held. Walking into towns, thru hikers would greet each other as if they had been best friends since they were children even if they had never met before. Experiencing the same challenges as well as celebrating the same accomplishments built a bond that only strengthened along the way. It was truly amazing. Thank you to all the hikers I met and especially the ones I hiked significantly with. You all know who you are and how special the connection became. I coin my hike with a statement Two Clicks once said ¢We are homeless with money.¢ Having grown up in a pretty normal setting it was eye opening to see the world from a new perspective. From middle class to carrying everything on my back. I was lucky enough to experience life, even for just a short time, with a different point of view. This is not something you can experience unless you fully commit to living a new lifestyle. Lucky for me, I fully committed for four months. I experienced, as I said, the best of humanity. Free food, rides into town, encouragement and support along with the amazing thru hikers surrounding me. With this though, I also experienced some struggles while hiking. Towns that did not want hikers there, individuals who looked down on me for what I was doing and uncertainty of where I could sleep especially while in towns. In some ways I feel as though I can better relate to those who are not as fortunate as myself. This is absolutely one of the most important things I learned while hiking. It¢s something that college can¢t teach you just from reading books. I EXPERIENCED IT. As soon as I touched the sign on Katahdin, I realized the immensity of what I had just done. Hiking 2,200 miles was an extreme challenge that most people will never accomplish- and most people have no intention of attempting. Hell, I had only hiked at most roughly 30 miles in one backpacking trip before this too. The thru hike was a day to day challenge. Katahdin was never the finish line and it couldn¢t be. If I focused on Katahdin every day then I would have been even more miserable at times then I already was. As a Type A kind of guy, goals are something I like to accomplish often with speed. This hike helped me delve into being Type B at times which has significantly improved my life already. I began not planning my days ahead more than a day or two. I would go with the flow and stop for food or end a day short if necessary. I didn¢t look at the elevation gain for the next day and if I did, it didn¢t psych me out anymore. I lost a lot of my anxieties on trail and just let it happen. I was okay with being wet or cold because I knew that eventually I would be dry and warm. I didn¢t try to outrun the storm but instead learned to appreciate the adversity and look at the bright side. All of these realizations have, and will continue to, help me be a better man in my everyday life. Since being home, transition has been interesting. Lucky for me, I never really stop so I¢ve been able to keep myself occupied. The first day back home, I woke up to three deer in my backyard as I poured a cup of coffee. It was like the trail was sending a final farewell and welcoming me back to my everyday life. Since then I began cleaning and organizing my gear so that hopefully I¢ll be able to get back out for a multi-day hike sometime and enjoy being a day hiker once again. I took a few days of rest and have since gotten back into running along with the slow process of building my upper body strength back up after such a lack of use. I will say though, my endurance and lower body strength is the best it¢s ever been as you can imagine. I started back working as an EMT and have been looking for full-time employment as well. I have edited my journals to print and create a book with, have gathered memorable items to create both a scrapbook and shadow box and have been rereading AWOL on the Appalachian Trail along with other thru hiker journals to reminisce. Two Clicks and I were able to get out to Crawford Notch last week to provide trail magic to hikers in the area. It was amazing and we both knew mostly everyone that came through both Southbounders and Northbounders! A few of the hikers going north were people I had last seen back in North Carolina! It¢s been a crazy transition. I miss the physical aspect of hiking and drinking fresh mountain spring water. I miss the accomplishments of hitting my goals every day despite the conditions. I miss the comradery and friendships both on and off the trail. And what I miss the MOST is sleeping outside in my tent with the fresh air and simplicity of my small little spot in the world. It¢s funny how I wanted the hike and all its difficulties to end but now severely miss those challenges. I want to give a shout out to Two Clicks who is currently beginning the Long Trail only two weeks after finishing the AT. He will be hiking the entire 280ish miles from the MA/VT border to Canada and repeating 105 miles of the AT in Vermont along the way! Here are a few of the valuable lessons I learned along the way that translate to both trail life and normal everyday life:1. Nothing is waterproof¢Just learn to push through the lack of comfort. The sun will always come out again.2. You don¢t need to plan out your every step. Planning is great at times but often letting life just happen is more fun and less stressful.3. You are stronger than you think both mentally and physically. Push yourself.4.  You will complain about the cold until you complain about the heat. Learn to live in the moment because if you don¢t- you¢ll miss those moments.5. The mountains don¢t care. Keep pushing.6. Don¢t worry about tomorrow- tomorrow will take care of itself. (Thanks Dad)7. Trust yourself. You know best.8. Call your mom (and dad and girlfriend).9. Appreciate those around you. 10. Nature is an amazing healer and one of the best teachers. Appreciate it.11. You can and will survive with less Things. Learn to appreciate what you have. You don¢t need to feed into consumerism.12. Never stop learning. Complacency kills.13. Don¢t choose a life, live one.