Why Do This?
April 8
2024
It all begins with an idea: I’m going to hike the Appalachian Trail. How does a brown girl originally from Chicago and current New Yorker get such an idea you might wonder? Well, there’s a story behind it of course. Isn’t there always?
I was out at a bar in my neighborhood - my neighborhood being Crown Heights, Brooklyn for anyone who might be curious - and I noticed this crazy looking guy coming out of the shop next door. He was wearing brightly colored everything but it all seemed to be covered in a layer of dirt. His hair and beard had reached mountain man status and he was carrying a pack with multiple trappings strapped, buckled, tied, and fastened to the outside of it. There was something intriguing about him, maybe otherworldly even, and I must have been staring cause he waved. So I waved back. I asked him what the pack was all about and he said: “Oh I’m hiker trash. I’m thru-hiking the AT right now.” For any of you uninitiated like I was then, a thru-hiker is someone who undertakes to walk a long distance trail from start to finish all at once. The AT or Appalachian Trail is one such long distance trail that spans roughly 2200 miles from Georgia to Maine. It passes through 14 states, has the total elevation gain and loss equivalent to climbing Mount Everest 16 times, and takes most thru-hikers between 4 and 6 months to complete. Unbeknownst to me, it passes fairly near New York City with there being an actual Appalachian Trail stop somewhere along the Metro-North. My mind was blown. I immediately offered to buy him and his friend a drink because I had to know more. His friend Ken actually turned out to be the owner of said shop, Outlandish, a place specializing in hiking gear that had just opened up. The other worldly guy was simply known to me as Goose - that was his trail name. I never learned his real one. He was self-proclaimed hiker trash and from that moment on, that’s all I wanted to be too.
And now here I am at Amicalola Falls in Georgia getting ready to undertake the single craziest thing I have ever done. I have spent the last 8 months researching gear, falling down Youtube rabbit holes, and visiting Outlandish almost every week to figure out how to do this. I quit my job, broke my lease, and put all my stuff in an over-priced storage unit. My pack is light, my trail runners are brand spanking new, and I am terrified. Will I ever figure out how to set my tarp up without it sagging awkwardly? What if I get eaten by a bear?! Am I even cut out to be a thru-hiker? I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. This is where the real story begins.