Date: 2023-08-02
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Miles today: 0.0

5-12 months hiking the Appalachian trail. What did I gain? Well, a waist (missing in action for a number of years). Awkward tan lines. A resting pulse in the low 40¢s. A basement full of gear. An esoteric skill set that may only be applicable in the event of an apocalypse. An extra shoe size.I also met some amazing people. Saw some stunning sights. Gained a much deeper appreciation for the history and culture of the Appalachian mountain range. Learned to recognize some bird calls. Approximately 4000 hikers per year attempt a thru-hike, and approximately 1000 complete that journey within 12 months. In the context of the more than 3 million visits to the Appalachian Trail each year, this is almost a rounding error - although thru-hiking garners a disproportionate share of discussion, airtime, and attention. However, the intensity of the experience, combined with its length, also gave me an opportunity for reflection. I summarized some of these feelings after I finished my southern leg last fall, and thought I would build on them with the benefit of an additional 3 months hindsight.Gratitude - there is nothing like stripping out all of life¢s luxuries and being away from home for an extended period of time to highlight how much there is to be grateful for. At first it¢s all about running water, hot showers, and real food, but as time progresses the gratitude shifts its focus to family and friends, health, trail maintainers, and the kindness of total strangers. It is a gift of phenomenal proportions to have the health, support, and wherewithal to be able to disappear into the woods and hike for 5-6 months. And when you are hiking 8-10 hours per day, you have plenty of time to reflect on that.  Caution - 5,000,000 steps in the wilderness. What could go wrong? Well, a lot. There were parts of the trail where it was clear I was no longer in Kansas (looking at you, Kinsmans). There is no way to complete the Appalachian Trail without taking risks outside of your normal experience. Sometimes way outside your normal experience. Preparation - the right gear, being in shape - help. Observation and being willing to learn help. So does making sure you always have a backup plan.Courage - there are so many kinds of courage. Many of the people I met on the trail were on a journey of recovery - loss of a loved one, health issues, psychological trauma. A number were working through injury, determined not to be stopped. Most were battling the mental grind of getting up each day to march forward, cold, wet, cold and wet, hot, thirsty, hot and thirsty, and always hungry. And almost all of us faced physical challenges that at some point made us uncomfortable, and required mental toughness to overcome. This is in fact a journey of the spirit in addition to a journey of the body. I admire my fellow hikers more than I can express. Humility - honestly, luck plays an outsized role in whether a hiker completes a thru-hike. Hike-ending injuries can occur in a flash. Family priorities can intrude overnight. Illness can rear its head, whether hiking related (Lyme, water-borne) or new health concerns. While I am proud to have completed my thru-hike, I personally know enough determined and capable hikers that had to quit to be circumspect about my accomplishment. There, but for fortune, could have gone I. I am also gobsmacked by just how much I did not know when I started last August. Which makes me suspect that there is still, after 5-12 months of hiking, a lot to learn.Community - I am awed by the AT community - other thru-hikers, hostel owners, shuttle operators, trail angels, volunteer trail maintainers, small businesses in small trail towns - who collectively operate to support and nurture the hikers on the Appalachian Trail. I have had so many caring and positive encounters on the way, of people paying it forward on a daily basis. Too many to thank - but thank you. It has indeed taken a village for me to finish.Persistence - it is amazing what can be accomplished by focus and repetition. There was not a mountain I could not climb as long as I kept putting one front in front of the other (hey, sometimes they were tiny steps and I was pretty slow, but I did not go backwards). In a life defined by sunlight hours, I found that you can get a lot done before sunrise. And I found that putting miles on the scoreboard almost every day helped move me steadily towards the end. And as a side note on persistence: my respect for multi-year thru hikers (¢MYTHs¢) who complete their 2000 mile status, sometimes over a period of 20 years of 2 week hikes, is immense. There is no luck here, but love of the trail and pure determination. Hats off to everyone who achieves this goal.Joy - I was struck by the number of times I felt deep, concentrated joy. A stunning sunset. A bird trilling at dawn. The Southern Appalachians clothed in fall colors. A loon on a flat lake with 3 babies on its back. Dry clothes and hot soup in a hut after a cold, wet, tough hike. Exiting the 100 Mile Wilderness. Touching the sign at the top of Katahdin. It was the purity that struck me, the joy untarnished by anything else in the world at that moment. These moments are the ones I carry away with me as I return, concentrated pearls of warmth in my memory.**In the end, every thru-hiker has a different hike. I had rain, stream flooding, rattlesnakes, fall foliage, and lighter thru-hiker traffic. I didn¢t have blizzards, giardia, Lyme, the bubble, or bears (to speak of). If I did the same hike next year, I am convinced my experience, and memories, would be different.  So this has been the tale of my thru-hike. Your mileage might vary.