{"id":11464,"date":"2020-06-24t17:54:35","date_gmt":"2020-06-24t17:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/what-it-means-to-hike-the-entire-appalachian-trail\/"},"modified":"2020-06-24t17:54:35","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24t17:54:35","slug":"what-it-means-to-hike-the-entire-appalachian-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/what-it-means-to-hike-the-entire-appalachian-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"what it means to hike the entire appalachian trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

by ali wilt<\/strong><\/p>\n

it\u2019s four in the morning on an early-march day, and 22-year-old jacob \u201cvalhalla\u201d myers awakes in a hammock next to a group of people he has just met. a storm is set to move in, so they\u2019re getting an early start on tackling blood mountain, the highest peak on the georgia section of the appalachian trail. <\/p>\n

\u201cwe\u2019re walking up the mountain, in pairs essentially,\u201d said myers, a sapphire, north carolina, native and employee at a concierge business. \u201cthe entire world is asleep right now, and you can just see people marching single-file, in a line, their headlamps bouncing off in the distance, illuminating the sides of these mountains. it was the first moment of \u2018what the hell are we doing?\u2019 it\u2019s too magical for me to properly describe.\u201d <\/p>\n

that trek up and over blood mountain is just a miniscule, if mystical, portion of the roughly 2,200 mile-long appalachian trail, stretching across the eastern united states from georgia to maine, and thought to be the longest hiking-only trail in the world. <\/p>\n

each year, according to the appalachian trail conservancy (atc), thousands attempt to thru-hike the entire trail. about 1 in 4<\/a> makes it the whole way. <\/p>\n

and making it the whole way was myers\u2019 mission, after preparing for about a year and a half for his thru-hike. but when covid-19 first struck the globe early this year, halting the daily activities of, well, everyone– appalachian trail thru-hikers exited the trail and left behind their dreams of conquering it. at least for now.<\/p>\n

in early march, sandra marra, president and ceo of the appalachian trail conservancy, asked registered thru-hikers to leave the trail in an email. later, marra issued a public statement<\/a> about the importance of this recommendation.<\/p>\n

so, on march 16, after 17 days and over 200 miles of hiking, myers exited at newfound gap on the north carolina-tennessee border, in what he describes as a \u201cmorbid, soul-crushing heartbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cthey (the atc) told us all, \u2018we need you to be considerate of these very sensitive and fragile trail towns with no hospitals and retirement-age folks,\u2019\u201d myers said. \u201cand i could relate to that because that\u2019s the kind of place i grew up in…i knew i was getting off for a morally sound reason.\u201d <\/p>\n

still, myers\u2019 rich tales from his short time on trail speak to the magnificence of such a journey. in past seasons, hikers fortunate and skilled enough to successfully complete an appalachian trail thru-hike, such as 24-year-old kyle \u201cnarnar\u201d o\u2019grady, got to experience this magnificence in its entirety.<\/p>\n

growing up in burlington, vermont, o\u2019grady became interested in hiking and backpacking in high school, which is when he first learned about the appalachian trail. by the time he was 22 and fresh out of college, o\u2019grady felt \u201ccompelled\u201d to pursue his long-time goal of thru-hiking it.<\/p>\n

preparing for a thru-hike<\/h2>\n

it took o\u2019grady about four and a half months to complete the over 2,000 miles of the appalachian trail, but he was no novice. the atc estimates that an average thru-hiker takes five to seven months to finish the trail. regardless, a thru-hike does not happen without some preparation.  <\/p>\n

\u201ci had never done a hike this long…but i\u2019d backpacked for a number of years,\u201d o\u2019grady said. \u201ci had kind of been preparing ever since i started hiking…i always had this goal in the back of my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

o\u2019grady never set out on a particular plan to prepare himself for the trail, unlike myers. having set his thru-hike start-date of feb. 29, 2020 \u2014 eight months in advance \u2014 myers trained extensively. each morning of last summer, he ran 2.5 miles of hills, rain or shine. on the weekends, myers would try to get in an extra-long day of training.<\/p>\n

\u201ci would go to a place i had never been in the woods and just hike, and that worked really well. the variety that the at offered was exactly like what i had done, going to these foreign places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

collecting just the right durable, lightweight, weatherproof gear for a thru-hike is a challenge in itself \u2014 and one that does not come without cost. the total retail price of everything on myers\u2019 gear list<\/a>, itemized on thetrek.com, comes to a whopping $2,731.74. <\/p>\n

stories from the trail<\/h2>\n