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We used to summer in andover, Maine,

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and the trail used to
run right by, so I spent

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my whole childhood walking
up and down the trail,

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fishing and...

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One day, I asked my father
where this trail went

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and he's like, "this trail
goes all the way to Georgia."

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And I'm like, "you're kidding."

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"Yep, if you go that way

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"you'll go to Georgia, if you go that way,

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"you go to mount katahdin."

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And ever since then it
was always in the back

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of my mind that I've
gotta hike this trail.

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April 10th, 2014,

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amicalola lodge.

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Down here in northern Georgia.

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Sleeping bag at the very bottom.

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Big jacket and my rain jacket.

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And rain pants, don't need those yet.

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Hopefully, won't need them too much.

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Though I'm sure I will.

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- Oh man, that's a jinx.
- And,

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let's see, food.

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Strap on my tent.

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See some bulge in some spots.

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All right.

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Amicalola state park,

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start of the approach
trail, weighing the pack.

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Weight is...

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Looks like about 44, 43.

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And so my journey of
nearly 2200 miles began

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with these steps towards
the appalachian trail.

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For the next six months,

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I followed the trail through 14 states.

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My ultimate destination,
Maine's mount katahdin.

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To reach the trail's official start point

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on springer mountain, I first
climbed the approach trail

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in amicalola falls state park.

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The park derives its
name from a cherokee word

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meaning tumbling waters.

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I looked online to see what people thought

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of the approach trail.

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Seems some people thought
it was really hard

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and some people thought
it was a piece of cake.

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I guess it depends on

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how in shape you are.

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I reached the top of springer

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already wondering what
I'd gotten myself into.

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My goal to hike the
entire appalachian trail

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now seemed like a crazy, impossible dream.

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But the story of this trail
is of an impossible dream

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that came true.

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The appalachian trail, as an idea,

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came from a guy named Benton mackaye.

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Benton mackaye was born in 1879

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in stamford, Connecticut.

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Even though a young mackaye once wrote,

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he would later attend Harvard university.

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After graduating in 1905
with a master's in forestry,

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mackaye went on to teach at Harvard

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and to work for the government
as a regional planner.

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In 1915, he married
suffragist and peace advocate

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Jessie Hardy stubbs, known as Betty.

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But it seems the difficult
life of an activist

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took a severe toll on
Betty's mental health.

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In 1921, she suffered her
final nervous breakdown.

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To help his wife recover,

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mackaye planned a trip to the countryside.

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While the couple prepared to depart

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from grand central station,

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Betty fled and jumped to her death

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into New York's east river.

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Mackaye was heartbroken.

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Encouraged by friends, he
distracted himself from grief

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00:04:28,018 --> 00:04:31,510
by putting his idea for an
appalachian trail on paper.

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His proposal was published
October of that year.

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Mackaye's original idea
for the project included

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the footpath, shelter
camps for hikers to stay at

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00:04:41,656 --> 00:04:45,365
and two types of communities
where people could live,

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community groups, camps
where people could stay

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for recreation, recuperation and study

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and food and farm camps which
would provide employment

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for those wanting to work off the land.

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His concept for the trail was to build

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a long-distance hiking trail

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that would allow people to do long hikes

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but also would connect rural communities

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along the trail path.

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So not many people realize
that the second part

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of what I just said,
was part of his vision.

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He wrote,

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One such menace was rapid urbanization.

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The high
value of land in the city

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leads to crowded skyscrapers

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00:05:34,584 --> 00:05:37,200
and people are compelled
to live in crowded quarters

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while opportunities for
recreation and healthful living

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are limited.

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In the early 20th century,

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America's urban population was surpassing

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the rural population for
the first time in history

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and what were once regional cities

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were transforming into
sprawling metropolitan areas.

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Mackaye knew that metropolitan growth

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could lead to cultural homogenization

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and stifle the sharing of ideas.

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He clearly wanted this
trail to be away from cities

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and away from civilization,
which of course

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was a lot easier to do
in 1920, 1921 when he was

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thinking about this and writing about this

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than it would be today.

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Soon after its publication,

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mackaye's proposal caught the eye

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of several prominent
outdoor organizations.

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And that's how the
appalachian trail conservancy

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was created. It was a
meeting in Washington, D.C.

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Of trail leaders from a variety of places,

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particularly new england and
the Washington, D.C. area.

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They created the
appalachian trail conference

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which was our original name.

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Under this new organization,

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the first sections of dedicated
trail were built in 1924.

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While some of its most
important characters

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would be introduced later,

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the story of the
appalachian trail had begun.

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There's some really
actually very beautiful parts

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of Georgia

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that

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were awesome

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00:07:04,507 --> 00:07:07,715
and I was imagining how much
better looking they would be

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in two or three weeks.

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- When spring was there?
- I was like, aw,

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it's so gray right now, I'm
sure this is a great view

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when there's, you know,
actually looks like

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00:07:16,686 --> 00:07:17,926
there's trees on it.

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When there's
a color besides brown?

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- Yeah!
- Most northbound thru-hikers

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start in march and early April.

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Georgia was tough just
because it was cold and wet

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and there was always the
danger of hypothermia.

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Our last night in Georgia it actually,

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there was like a show
cover when we woke up

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so our tent had a little
bit of show on it.

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And taking down the tent at
that point in the morning

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00:07:40,543 --> 00:07:43,535
when it's like 16 degrees
or something like that,

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you can't feel your fingers.

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One place of relief
from the cold is neel gap,

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00:07:48,468 --> 00:07:51,505
home of the mountain crossings
outfitter and hostel.

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00:07:51,805 --> 00:07:53,199
Mount crossings
is an outdoor store,

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it's located directly
on the appalachian trail

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00:07:55,850 --> 00:07:58,387
just under 31 miles
from springer mountain,

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which is the Southern
terminus of the trail.

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00:08:01,272 --> 00:08:04,230
It's the first outdoors
store that hikers come to.

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Neel gap is one
of the southernmost points

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where hikers can resupply
food and equipment.

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The majority of resupplies
are done in trail towns.

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I thru-hiked back in 2000,

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no one had cell phones
back then so, you know,

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people like calling the
day before they hit town

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to make reservations in
hotels is really weird.

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There's a lot more shuttle
services in and out of town

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so there's less
hitchhiking it seems like.

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00:08:30,385 --> 00:08:31,737
He's like, "I'll give
you guys a hitch back

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00:08:31,761 --> 00:08:34,298
"as long as you guys
aren't gonna hurt me."

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I'm like, "we're hiking
the appalachian trail,

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00:08:37,726 --> 00:08:40,559
"I don't think any of us
have the energy to hurt you."

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The trail towns
are very hiker friendly.

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00:08:44,149 --> 00:08:45,149
Mostly.

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Have you had any favorite trail towns?

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I think hiawassee might
have been my favorite,

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maybe just because it was
the first one I went into.

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As long-distance
hiking has become more

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and more popular, a
cottage industry of hostels

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has grown along the trail.

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For many years, hiawassee was home

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00:09:14,929 --> 00:09:16,419
to the blueberry patch hostel

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00:09:16,723 --> 00:09:18,509
which provided a place to stay and eat

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for no more than an optional donation.

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00:09:21,853 --> 00:09:23,809
But all good things must come to an end

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and after many years, the
owhers decided to close

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00:09:27,150 --> 00:09:30,517
the blueberry patch
hostel for good in 2015.

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00:09:34,199 --> 00:09:36,110
A few days after leaving Georgia

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00:09:36,409 --> 00:09:38,525
and crossing into north Carolina,

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00:09:38,828 --> 00:09:40,614
I had another great breakfast

185
00:09:40,914 --> 00:09:43,576
when I hit deep gap on easter Sunday.

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The easter feast volunteers
know what hikers want.

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Their omelets are appropriately sized

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for people who spend their
days walking over mountains.

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Now we're gonna
hand this to you but it takes

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00:09:54,761 --> 00:09:57,343
two hands, you gotta hold
your plate with two hands.

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The at easter feast is put on

192
00:10:00,100 --> 00:10:02,557
by thru-hiker Jerry
Parker with the assistance

193
00:10:02,852 --> 00:10:05,218
of his daughter, Megan,
a thru-hiker herself.

194
00:10:05,522 --> 00:10:08,639
Mr. Parker immortalized his 1979 hike

195
00:10:08,942 --> 00:10:12,230
with the beer drinker and ice
cream eater's guide to the at,

196
00:10:12,529 --> 00:10:15,066
the first-ever thru-hiker guidebook.

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00:10:15,365 --> 00:10:18,607
I had just an old f-150
Ford pickup truck and I

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00:10:18,910 --> 00:10:21,276
initially went by myself
and sat on the tailgate

199
00:10:21,579 --> 00:10:23,911
and I fed people, either we cooked eggs

200
00:10:24,207 --> 00:10:25,207
or we cooked hotdogs.

201
00:10:25,291 --> 00:10:28,749
I conscripted Megan at, she
thinks it was the age of 12,

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00:10:29,045 --> 00:10:31,252
she's 28 now.

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00:10:31,548 --> 00:10:32,668
I conscripted her to help me

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00:10:32,924 --> 00:10:35,131
and then my sister, who
is the cook over there,

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00:10:35,426 --> 00:10:38,168
she joined us not too many years after.

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00:10:38,471 --> 00:10:39,865
- Maybe a year or two?
- A year or two after that.

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00:10:39,889 --> 00:10:42,551
- Not long.
- And so from the three of us,

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00:10:42,851 --> 00:10:44,557
we've just sort of grown exponentially.

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00:10:44,853 --> 00:10:46,293
In addition to omelets,

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00:10:46,437 --> 00:10:48,143
the easter feast volunteers

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00:10:48,439 --> 00:10:52,773
freely provide sandwiches,
homemade desserts and more.

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00:10:53,069 --> 00:10:56,402
It was the best trail magic
I received during my hike.

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00:10:56,698 --> 00:10:59,360
Trail magic is really anything you do

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00:10:59,659 --> 00:11:02,196
that's nice for the
appalachian trail hikers,

215
00:11:02,495 --> 00:11:04,702
anyone going through, if
they need food or shelter,

216
00:11:04,998 --> 00:11:07,831
water or a ride or a band-aid,

217
00:11:08,126 --> 00:11:09,966
anything you do to help
someone along the trail

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00:11:10,170 --> 00:11:11,956
is considered trail magic.
Right.

219
00:11:12,255 --> 00:11:14,746
And the people that do that
are called trail angels.

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00:11:15,049 --> 00:11:16,710
- Trail magic.
- Trail magic is like

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00:11:17,010 --> 00:11:19,296
the greatest thing
that happens in a day.

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00:11:19,596 --> 00:11:21,757
I think that really
makes the trail what it is,

223
00:11:22,056 --> 00:11:26,015
it's not just hiking
repetitively every single day,

224
00:11:26,311 --> 00:11:28,677
it's just random acts of
kindness like, you know,

225
00:11:28,980 --> 00:11:30,595
a beer or gatorade, some bag of chips,

226
00:11:30,899 --> 00:11:32,139
some people just leave water.

227
00:11:32,442 --> 00:11:33,852
- Yeah.
- Some people, you know,

228
00:11:34,152 --> 00:11:36,609
they give you a ride unexpectedly
when you didn't even,

229
00:11:36,905 --> 00:11:39,008
weren't even banking on a ride
into town or you need one,

230
00:11:39,032 --> 00:11:40,467
like, all right, cool, I'll take it.

231
00:11:40,491 --> 00:11:42,732
We were in... = Franklin.

232
00:11:43,036 --> 00:11:45,448
Franklin and this
couple just picked us up

233
00:11:45,747 --> 00:11:48,705
and took us to their
house and fed us dinner

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00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,161
and we thought that was
the most amazing thing.

235
00:11:51,461 --> 00:11:52,781
They let us kayaking on their...

236
00:11:52,921 --> 00:11:54,523
Yeah, they gave us...
= on their lake house.

237
00:11:54,547 --> 00:11:55,753
- Yeah.
- With their dog.

238
00:11:57,634 --> 00:11:58,694
Then fed us breakfast and dinner.

239
00:11:58,718 --> 00:12:01,004
And then, two days
later, or three days later,

240
00:12:01,304 --> 00:12:03,044
it happened again at the noc.

241
00:12:03,348 --> 00:12:05,714
Like this other couple just...
Picked us up,

242
00:12:06,017 --> 00:12:09,601
took us out to dinner,
gave us a tour of asheville

243
00:12:09,896 --> 00:12:11,761
then drove us back.
It was great.

244
00:12:12,065 --> 00:12:13,665
I think we've had more nights in a bed

245
00:12:13,691 --> 00:12:16,558
than in a shelter. - No, no.

246
00:12:16,861 --> 00:12:18,981
I didn't expect the community
aspect of it out here,

247
00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:24,115
I expected kind of a backcountry,
solitary kind of thing,

248
00:12:24,452 --> 00:12:26,317
that kind of experience.

249
00:12:26,621 --> 00:12:27,861
I've been overwhelmed with the

250
00:12:28,164 --> 00:12:30,280
generosity people have out here.

251
00:12:33,253 --> 00:12:35,619
Oh gatorade, wonderful, thanks a lot.

252
00:12:35,922 --> 00:12:38,208
With so many what I
call alumni out there,

253
00:12:38,508 --> 00:12:39,902
there's so much more trail
magic 'cause you have

254
00:12:39,926 --> 00:12:42,212
15,000 people that have thru-hiked.

255
00:12:42,512 --> 00:12:45,549
And when I did it, I was
only the 884th person

256
00:12:45,848 --> 00:12:48,635
ever to thru-hike in
the first 50, 60 years.

257
00:12:48,935 --> 00:12:52,723
And Megan was 898th just
to get to Harpers ferry.

258
00:12:53,022 --> 00:12:55,434
There's so many people out
there that have hiked the trail

259
00:12:55,733 --> 00:12:56,853
or have connections with it,

260
00:12:57,151 --> 00:12:59,688
we're all gathered at every
road crossing from here,

261
00:12:59,988 --> 00:13:00,693
from Georgia to Maine,

262
00:13:00,989 --> 00:13:02,900
we're just trying to help somebody out.

263
00:13:03,199 --> 00:13:04,689
Oh, let me help you!

264
00:13:04,993 --> 00:13:07,484
And that really didn't exist,
you know, when I was there.

265
00:13:07,787 --> 00:13:10,494
It's pretty much a utopia out here,

266
00:13:10,790 --> 00:13:12,701
as far as people go.

267
00:13:13,001 --> 00:13:14,311
One imagines Benton mackaye

268
00:13:14,335 --> 00:13:16,917
would be happy to hear the term "utopia"

269
00:13:17,213 --> 00:13:19,374
spoken with regards to the trail.

270
00:13:19,674 --> 00:13:22,541
He was fond of the word.
In a 1927 speech, he said,

271
00:13:28,433 --> 00:13:31,721
But as much as he believed in
it, mackaye rarely went out

272
00:13:32,020 --> 00:13:35,183
to scout, map and build the trail himself.

273
00:13:35,481 --> 00:13:38,689
In 1926, judge g. Arthur Perkins

274
00:13:38,985 --> 00:13:42,603
was appointed to fill a new
england vacancy in the atc.

275
00:13:42,905 --> 00:13:44,486
Perkins rallied new volunteers

276
00:13:44,782 --> 00:13:46,568
to the floundering trail project.

277
00:13:46,868 --> 00:13:50,326
The most important was a
27-year-old maritime lawyer

278
00:13:50,621 --> 00:13:51,827
named myron Avery.

279
00:13:52,123 --> 00:13:54,580
Soon after being
introduced to the project,

280
00:13:54,876 --> 00:13:57,492
Avery pushed for a new
Washington, D.C. meeting

281
00:13:57,795 --> 00:14:00,707
to rework the appalachian
trail conference's purpose.

282
00:14:01,007 --> 00:14:04,966
The new goal was to,

283
00:14:10,850 --> 00:14:13,216
The focus was now on creating a footpath,

284
00:14:13,519 --> 00:14:15,555
building the new communities
that mackaye hoped

285
00:14:15,855 --> 00:14:18,767
would connect to the trail
was no longer a priority.

286
00:14:19,067 --> 00:14:22,935
Avery became atc chairman in 1931.

287
00:14:23,237 --> 00:14:25,068
With his signature measuring wheel,

288
00:14:25,365 --> 00:14:27,731
he led many of the expeditions to scout

289
00:14:28,034 --> 00:14:30,867
and cut the appalachian trail footpath.

290
00:14:31,162 --> 00:14:33,949
It was Avery who
introduced the white blazes

291
00:14:34,248 --> 00:14:37,115
that are still the signature
markers of the at today.

292
00:14:37,418 --> 00:14:40,626
He specifically required
that blazes should be,

293
00:14:46,719 --> 00:14:48,801
I think he had a passion for excellence.

294
00:14:49,097 --> 00:14:53,932
He had a strong commitment to
hiking and outdoor recreation

295
00:14:54,227 --> 00:14:55,717
and the appalachian trail was unique,

296
00:14:56,020 --> 00:14:59,228
it was the first long-distance
hiking trail in the world,

297
00:14:59,524 --> 00:15:00,809
you know, of this length.

298
00:15:01,109 --> 00:15:04,772
And so I think he had a vision for

299
00:15:05,071 --> 00:15:07,562
how do you make this trail sustainable

300
00:15:07,865 --> 00:15:10,151
and he pushed and pushed and pushed

301
00:15:10,451 --> 00:15:13,409
and often made people angry because,

302
00:15:13,704 --> 00:15:15,820
you know, it was kind of
myron's way or no way.

303
00:15:16,124 --> 00:15:18,285
I mean, he said here's the
vision, let's go do it.

304
00:15:18,584 --> 00:15:21,451
He didn't ask for a lot of
ideas from other people.

305
00:15:21,754 --> 00:15:24,166
One trail club
supervisor said of Avery,

306
00:15:44,235 --> 00:15:46,942
The friendly town of
Franklin, north Carolina

307
00:15:47,238 --> 00:15:49,570
encourages hikers to stop by the brew pub

308
00:15:49,866 --> 00:15:51,777
inside the local outfitter

309
00:15:52,076 --> 00:15:54,158
and add their trail names to the wall.

310
00:15:55,413 --> 00:15:58,951
Whether personally chosen
or bestowed by others,

311
00:15:59,250 --> 00:16:01,161
most hikers go by their trail names

312
00:16:01,461 --> 00:16:03,497
in lieu of their real ones.

313
00:16:03,796 --> 00:16:08,085
I included my own recently-bestowed
trail name, no pants.

314
00:16:10,011 --> 00:16:13,174
I got caught in a torrential
downpour, soaking my clothes.

315
00:16:13,473 --> 00:16:16,840
At the nearest shelter, I
hung the wet articles to dry

316
00:16:17,143 --> 00:16:20,886
but continued on, accidentally
leaving one item behind.

317
00:16:21,189 --> 00:16:24,773
Fortunately, another group
of hikers found my pants

318
00:16:25,067 --> 00:16:27,900
and arrived at the next shelter
looking for someone with

319
00:16:28,196 --> 00:16:29,196
no pants.

320
00:16:29,322 --> 00:16:32,735
My pants were returned and
I now had my trail name.

321
00:16:35,786 --> 00:16:36,786
I'm forest.

322
00:16:38,498 --> 00:16:39,613
I'm flojack.

323
00:16:40,833 --> 00:16:41,993
And...

324
00:16:43,169 --> 00:16:45,330
Mother earth gave us our trail names.

325
00:16:45,630 --> 00:16:46,630
Mm-hmm.

326
00:16:46,881 --> 00:16:48,371
My trail name is bee sting.

327
00:16:49,592 --> 00:16:50,903
Did you get
a bee sting early on?

328
00:16:50,927 --> 00:16:54,636
I got stung about six
times up in Maine in one day.

329
00:16:54,931 --> 00:16:56,296
My trail name is indy.

330
00:16:56,599 --> 00:16:57,964
My trail name is frank.

331
00:16:58,267 --> 00:17:00,098
My trail name is Mac daddy.

332
00:17:00,394 --> 00:17:03,136
After looking at several trail names,

333
00:17:03,439 --> 00:17:06,772
my wife and I conferred

334
00:17:07,068 --> 00:17:09,024
with respect to the name resolute.

335
00:17:10,404 --> 00:17:13,646
The dictionary definition
of resolute is to pursue

336
00:17:15,034 --> 00:17:18,572
and keep pursuing an
admirable purpose or cause

337
00:17:18,871 --> 00:17:23,535
and I had started having heart
trouble almost two years ago

338
00:17:23,834 --> 00:17:26,576
and took about a year
and a half to get through

339
00:17:26,879 --> 00:17:28,039
the treatment for that.

340
00:17:28,339 --> 00:17:31,297
So felt like that resolute

341
00:17:32,218 --> 00:17:36,302
described coming back
from a heart condition.

342
00:17:36,597 --> 00:17:39,634
And then an irony of
my story is I found out

343
00:17:39,934 --> 00:17:43,017
the stint that they used

344
00:17:43,312 --> 00:17:46,224
in my heart for my microvascular disease

345
00:17:46,524 --> 00:17:48,139
is called the resolute stint.

346
00:17:48,442 --> 00:17:50,728
I did not know that
until after I'd chosen,

347
00:17:51,028 --> 00:17:52,518
already chosen the name resolute.

348
00:17:52,822 --> 00:17:55,063
- What's your trail name?
- I don't have a trail name.

349
00:17:55,366 --> 00:17:56,760
I think they're kind of silly
and I don't really feel like

350
00:17:56,784 --> 00:17:57,273
having one.

351
00:17:57,577 --> 00:18:00,193
I don't like dislike trail names but

352
00:18:01,247 --> 00:18:03,613
I just feel too ambivalent
to start calling myself

353
00:18:03,916 --> 00:18:04,996
by something like that.

354
00:18:05,293 --> 00:18:06,812
So you go by your regular name?

355
00:18:06,836 --> 00:18:08,313
Yep, my name's Tobias
and that's what I'm doing.

356
00:18:08,337 --> 00:18:09,773
And myself and I have two other friends

357
00:18:09,797 --> 00:18:12,038
and none of us have trail names and we're,

358
00:18:12,341 --> 00:18:14,957
the longer the trail goes along,
we become fewer and fewer,

359
00:18:15,261 --> 00:18:18,424
the nameless, but it works.

360
00:18:21,809 --> 00:18:24,596
North of Franklin is Fontana dam

361
00:18:24,895 --> 00:18:27,056
and great smoky mountains national park.

362
00:18:27,356 --> 00:18:31,019
Here the trail follows
about 71 miles of ridgeline

363
00:18:31,319 --> 00:18:34,402
over some of the highest peaks
in the eastern United States.

364
00:18:34,697 --> 00:18:36,653
So I was really looking
forward to the smokies.

365
00:18:36,949 --> 00:18:38,385
Like really looking forward to them.

366
00:18:38,409 --> 00:18:40,525
And every day people are
bashing on them and like

367
00:18:40,828 --> 00:18:44,070
there's gonna be snow,
there's all these rules so

368
00:18:45,166 --> 00:18:46,952
I'm looking forward to the smokies but

369
00:18:48,586 --> 00:18:50,106
we'll see if they actually are as good

370
00:18:50,296 --> 00:18:51,502
as I think they're gonna be.

371
00:18:51,797 --> 00:18:54,209
One of the rules
unique to the great smokies

372
00:18:54,508 --> 00:18:56,920
is the backcountry permit requirement.

373
00:18:57,219 --> 00:19:00,962
Since 2013, the park has
become the only part of the at

374
00:19:01,932 --> 00:19:03,422
that hikers must pay to enter.

375
00:19:03,726 --> 00:19:06,217
Great smoky mountains
is, as I understand it,

376
00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:09,683
the most-used park in the country

377
00:19:09,982 --> 00:19:13,349
so you can understand why
there are certain restrictions

378
00:19:13,653 --> 00:19:17,020
on people if there's so
many people using it.

379
00:19:17,323 --> 00:19:19,439
But as a hiker you want some freedom

380
00:19:19,742 --> 00:19:23,530
and with the restrictions
you pretty much must

381
00:19:23,829 --> 00:19:25,109
spend your night at the shelter.

382
00:19:25,331 --> 00:19:28,038
If the shelter is not filled,

383
00:19:28,334 --> 00:19:30,825
then you must fill in to get it full

384
00:19:31,128 --> 00:19:32,664
before you camp outside.

385
00:19:32,963 --> 00:19:34,883
And then, you know, you
have the section hikers

386
00:19:35,132 --> 00:19:38,044
who come through and they have
that whole reservation thing.

387
00:19:38,344 --> 00:19:40,835
So, you know, they can roll
into the camp really late

388
00:19:41,138 --> 00:19:42,491
and then be like we have reservations

389
00:19:42,515 --> 00:19:46,178
and, you know, thru-hikers have to get out

390
00:19:46,477 --> 00:19:49,685
and set up tent outside
which happened like twice.

391
00:19:51,273 --> 00:19:53,264
With its towering peaks,

392
00:19:53,567 --> 00:19:56,354
the popularity of the
smokies is no mystery.

393
00:19:56,654 --> 00:20:00,272
Clingmans dome is the roof
of the appalachian trail.

394
00:20:00,574 --> 00:20:04,158
At 6,643 feet above sea level,

395
00:20:04,453 --> 00:20:06,444
it is the highest peak in the smokies,

396
00:20:06,747 --> 00:20:08,362
the highest peak in Tennessee

397
00:20:08,666 --> 00:20:11,078
and the highest peak on the trail.

398
00:20:11,377 --> 00:20:13,618
On clear days, visibility from the top

399
00:20:13,921 --> 00:20:17,209
of the observation
tower reaches 100 miles.

400
00:20:17,508 --> 00:20:19,348
I was a little bit
shocked at clingmans dome,

401
00:20:19,427 --> 00:20:20,758
I was like what the fuck?

402
00:20:21,053 --> 00:20:24,090
Who put that thing of star
trek on top of that mountain?

403
00:20:24,390 --> 00:20:26,381
It looks like a ufo something.

404
00:20:26,684 --> 00:20:28,004
It was a little bit annoying but,

405
00:20:28,102 --> 00:20:30,434
I mean, okay, that's okay.

406
00:20:32,940 --> 00:20:34,350
I hated the smokies.

407
00:20:35,401 --> 00:20:37,232
Not particularly the smokies,

408
00:20:37,528 --> 00:20:39,168
the weather.
The weather in the smokies.

409
00:20:39,196 --> 00:20:40,596
Yeah, I mean, the smokies are nice.

410
00:20:40,698 --> 00:20:42,658
- Stayed wet for nine days.
- We packed 34 people,

411
00:20:42,867 --> 00:20:45,654
34 or 35 people in a
shelter in the smokies

412
00:20:45,953 --> 00:20:47,553
when it's only supposed to be 15 people.

413
00:20:47,621 --> 00:20:48,932
- 12 or something.
- 'Cause it was pouring rain

414
00:20:48,956 --> 00:20:51,237
and we didn't want people to
get cold and rainy out there.

415
00:20:51,333 --> 00:20:52,743
Just shoved 'em all in there.

416
00:20:54,128 --> 00:20:55,928
Though this
wasn't my experience,

417
00:20:56,046 --> 00:20:59,334
the upper elevations here
usually see between 55

418
00:20:59,633 --> 00:21:01,498
and 85 inches of rain a year,

419
00:21:01,802 --> 00:21:05,010
enough to be classified
as temperate rainforests.

420
00:21:14,607 --> 00:21:16,518
It's just awful when
everything you own is wet

421
00:21:16,817 --> 00:21:18,937
and when your shoes are wet,
your feet hurt even worse

422
00:21:19,153 --> 00:21:21,269
and you slip on stuff, it's not fun.

423
00:21:21,572 --> 00:21:23,278
You hike the appalachian river.

424
00:21:23,574 --> 00:21:25,360
Yeah.

425
00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:29,473
The most difficult
thing is, I would say,

426
00:21:29,497 --> 00:21:32,239
trying to like break
down camp in the rain.

427
00:21:32,541 --> 00:21:34,461
You know, being hungry
and not being able to cook

428
00:21:34,668 --> 00:21:35,953
and just ugh.

429
00:21:36,253 --> 00:21:37,253
It can be difficult but

430
00:21:38,422 --> 00:21:40,317
soon as you put the pack
on and start hiking, man,

431
00:21:40,341 --> 00:21:42,181
it's just, I don't know,
just get into the zone

432
00:21:42,218 --> 00:21:43,708
and just keep going.

433
00:21:44,011 --> 00:21:45,501
And eventually it gets better.

434
00:21:45,805 --> 00:21:48,512
I think 1t rained at least 30 days

435
00:21:48,808 --> 00:21:50,594
out of my first 30 days.

436
00:21:50,893 --> 00:21:54,556
So it was just constant swampy feet

437
00:21:54,855 --> 00:21:57,392
and our feet were just gnarly and

438
00:21:57,691 --> 00:22:01,934
it was mud and rain, it
was nasty but super fun.

439
00:22:02,238 --> 00:22:04,445
The funny thing is now,
any time it's a rainy day,

440
00:22:04,740 --> 00:22:06,731
I just feel like I'm
supposed to be out hiking.

441
00:22:07,034 --> 00:22:08,865
= it had rained on us for about

442
00:22:09,161 --> 00:22:12,119
the entire second half of
one day and all the next day

443
00:22:12,414 --> 00:22:16,373
and we got to a shelter, the
shelter was kind of leaky

444
00:22:16,669 --> 00:22:17,869
and everything I owned was wet

445
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:19,606
but we kind of rigged up
my tarp to stop the wind

446
00:22:19,630 --> 00:22:21,211
and the rain from getting in

447
00:22:21,507 --> 00:22:24,374
and I just took out my
pad and my sleeping bag

448
00:22:24,677 --> 00:22:27,794
and laid down and I was in
this little bubble of warmth

449
00:22:28,097 --> 00:22:30,088
in like a very, very, very hostile world.

450
00:22:30,391 --> 00:22:33,554
And it was very like,
very physical moment.

451
00:22:33,853 --> 00:22:36,390
Like I was really happy with
the state that my body was in.

452
00:22:36,689 --> 00:22:37,303
If that makes sense. - Yeah.

453
00:22:37,606 --> 00:22:39,597
I've rarely appreciated
being warm so much.

454
00:22:41,068 --> 00:22:42,628
And that was cool, I really liked that.

455
00:22:42,695 --> 00:22:44,481
And I fell asleep like a baby.

456
00:22:44,780 --> 00:22:46,340
To escape the bad weather,

457
00:22:46,532 --> 00:22:48,147
catching a ride at newfound gap

458
00:22:48,450 --> 00:22:49,815
is the way to the nearest town.

459
00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:53,031
When we went through the smokies we had

460
00:22:53,330 --> 00:22:54,991
six and a half days or rain.
Yeah.

461
00:22:55,291 --> 00:22:58,579
And one day and two hours in
the morning of sunshine.

462
00:22:58,878 --> 00:23:01,085
So gatlinburg was a respite.

463
00:23:04,592 --> 00:23:07,629
I hope you enjoy
your visit to gatlinburg.

464
00:23:07,928 --> 00:23:09,589
- Shatlinburg.
- Shatlinburg,

465
00:23:09,889 --> 00:23:10,949
that's what we've named it.

466
00:23:10,973 --> 00:23:13,089
It was a huge contrast
between that and the trail,

467
00:23:13,392 --> 00:23:15,474
it was like a trail town crossed with like

468
00:23:15,769 --> 00:23:17,760
a boardwalk at a beach or something

469
00:23:18,063 --> 00:23:20,270
with an amusement park
mixed in, it was weird.

470
00:23:20,566 --> 00:23:21,806
It was so overwhelming.

471
00:23:23,861 --> 00:23:27,274
Scary,
sit-down theater attraction

472
00:23:29,199 --> 00:23:31,406
what do you call that
alcohol that they put in jars?

473
00:23:31,702 --> 00:23:32,702
- Moonshine.
- Moonshine?

474
00:23:32,786 --> 00:23:34,276
- Moonshine!
- I got really, really,

475
00:23:34,580 --> 00:23:37,196
really drunk, like really drunk.

476
00:23:37,499 --> 00:23:39,660
Yeah, there was a lot of moonshine.

477
00:23:46,926 --> 00:23:48,695
In gatlinburg we had
people taking our picture

478
00:23:48,719 --> 00:23:49,863
while we were hitchhiking. Yeah.

479
00:23:49,887 --> 00:23:51,114
Like they'd just pull up on the corner

480
00:23:51,138 --> 00:23:53,845
and taking pictures of us with
their iPhones or whatever.

481
00:23:54,141 --> 00:23:56,473
They look at you like you're
like a bear or something.

482
00:23:58,062 --> 00:23:59,742
Happy to get back on the trail

483
00:23:59,772 --> 00:24:00,227
after being there? - Oh yeah.

484
00:24:00,522 --> 00:24:00,977
- Yeah.
- Absolutely,

485
00:24:01,273 --> 00:24:03,264
couldn't get back on
the trail soon enough.

486
00:24:05,778 --> 00:24:07,898
My hike through
the great smoky mountains

487
00:24:08,197 --> 00:24:09,607
was made especially memorable

488
00:24:09,907 --> 00:24:12,068
by the time of year I was there.

489
00:24:12,368 --> 00:24:16,031
So I just came there
when spring arrived.

490
00:24:16,330 --> 00:24:17,365
That was awesome.

491
00:24:17,665 --> 00:24:19,496
There's nothing like
spring in the smokies.

492
00:24:19,792 --> 00:24:21,407
These mountains are old,

493
00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:23,621
relatively undisturbed

494
00:24:23,921 --> 00:24:25,752
and the climate is favorable.

495
00:24:26,048 --> 00:24:28,460
So as a result you have
a diverse and spectacular

496
00:24:28,759 --> 00:24:30,465
display of wildflowers.

497
00:24:30,761 --> 00:24:33,468
You never know what you're
going to find around each bend.

498
00:24:36,350 --> 00:24:40,593
My favorite flower, I think,
is the white fringed phacelia,

499
00:24:40,896 --> 00:24:42,432
endemic to the Southern appalachians,

500
00:24:42,731 --> 00:24:46,519
so found nowhere else in the
world and yet within its range,

501
00:24:50,030 --> 00:24:54,273
it's a small flower,
yet somewhat fragrant.

502
00:24:54,576 --> 00:24:56,441
And so when you pass
by, the air has a hint

503
00:24:56,745 --> 00:24:58,576
of the sweet smell of phacelia.

504
00:24:58,872 --> 00:25:00,612
There's nothing like
spring in the smokies.

505
00:25:01,959 --> 00:25:03,103
For about a week and a half,

506
00:25:03,127 --> 00:25:06,085
we were around the north
Carolina-Tennessee border

507
00:25:06,380 --> 00:25:07,500
just bopping back and forth.

508
00:25:07,673 --> 00:25:09,033
North of the smokies,

509
00:25:09,258 --> 00:25:11,465
the north Carolina-Tennessee
section of trail

510
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,127
is known for its vast
balds, such as Max patch.

511
00:25:15,431 --> 00:25:17,171
That whole walk through Max patch,

512
00:25:17,474 --> 00:25:19,354
I mean, even if you're
just gonna day hike it or

513
00:25:19,643 --> 00:25:21,850
section hike that part,
that's just awesome.

514
00:25:22,771 --> 00:25:24,682
We cowboy camped up on Max patch.

515
00:25:24,982 --> 00:25:26,313
- Oh yeah.
- That was really cool.

516
00:25:26,608 --> 00:25:27,608
That was really cool.

517
00:25:27,860 --> 00:25:28,962
There were a bunch of stars out.

518
00:25:28,986 --> 00:25:30,601
Being able to lay out under the stars

519
00:25:30,904 --> 00:25:32,394
and watch the sunset on one side

520
00:25:32,698 --> 00:25:33,883
and the moon rise on the other

521
00:25:33,907 --> 00:25:35,987
and then being able to wake
up and watch the moon set

522
00:25:36,076 --> 00:25:39,284
on one side and the sunrise
on the other was just amazing.

523
00:25:39,580 --> 00:25:41,662
Camping on Max patch
has to be the highlight

524
00:25:41,957 --> 00:25:43,242
of the trip so far.

525
00:25:53,469 --> 00:25:54,529
The towns have been really great.

526
00:25:54,553 --> 00:25:57,260
Everyone is really, in most
towns, are really supportive

527
00:25:57,556 --> 00:25:59,888
and you can tell they love
that the hikers come through.

528
00:26:00,184 --> 00:26:02,015
And like hot Springs was amazing,

529
00:26:02,311 --> 00:26:04,518
I can see how people get stuck there.

530
00:26:04,813 --> 00:26:06,041
Have there been any highlights

531
00:26:06,065 --> 00:26:08,647
as far as towns go, maybe
hot Springs or Damascus?

532
00:26:08,942 --> 00:26:09,522
- Hot Springs.
- Hot Springs.

533
00:26:09,818 --> 00:26:12,605
Like full stop, hot Springs
was the greatest town ever.

534
00:26:12,905 --> 00:26:15,396
Hot Springs
has everything hikers need.

535
00:26:15,699 --> 00:26:19,487
Food resupply, an outfitter,
bars and restaurants

536
00:26:19,787 --> 00:26:21,448
are located directly on the trail

537
00:26:21,747 --> 00:26:23,078
as it runs down main street.

538
00:26:23,373 --> 00:26:24,768
It's not like there's that much stuff,

539
00:26:24,792 --> 00:26:26,373
it's just all hiker friendly.

540
00:26:26,668 --> 00:26:28,148
It was just everything was designed

541
00:26:28,337 --> 00:26:29,702
perfectly for a hiker.

542
00:26:30,672 --> 00:26:32,458
Everything was close together and,

543
00:26:32,758 --> 00:26:34,840
you know, I just, I
really enjoyed that place.

544
00:26:35,135 --> 00:26:38,844
Well, people talk about how
the big benefit is the trail

545
00:26:39,139 --> 00:26:43,223
but to me, part of the trail
is the zero and the nero days.

546
00:26:44,770 --> 00:26:46,977
Going into the towns, to me,
is part of the experience

547
00:26:47,272 --> 00:26:48,272
and part of the memories.

548
00:26:48,565 --> 00:26:50,376
We've run into people
who just got like sucked in

549
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,561
and couldn't leave, they
were there for like nine days

550
00:26:52,861 --> 00:26:54,146
or something absurd.

551
00:26:54,446 --> 00:26:56,646
I think I kinda got sucked
into the hot Springs bubble

552
00:26:56,907 --> 00:26:58,738
ish, you know, I spent
too much time there

553
00:26:59,034 --> 00:27:00,899
and started getting like
oh, I might move here.

554
00:27:01,203 --> 00:27:03,034
But then getting out of it I'm like, no,

555
00:27:03,330 --> 00:27:05,537
that would be stupid,
there's like one street.

556
00:27:08,001 --> 00:27:10,001
The way I look at it is
when you start the trail,

557
00:27:10,129 --> 00:27:12,370
you're just a normal person,
but then you grow this

558
00:27:12,673 --> 00:27:15,710
like thick layer of like
just toughness and wild

559
00:27:16,009 --> 00:27:18,421
and you just become an animal.

560
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,133
And then when you go and
see your friends and family

561
00:27:22,432 --> 00:27:23,717
or spend too much time in town,

562
00:27:25,227 --> 00:27:28,139
the other side of you
kind of takes back over.

563
00:27:28,438 --> 00:27:30,679
So after a
short while in hot Springs,

564
00:27:30,983 --> 00:27:32,644
it was time to be on my way,

565
00:27:32,943 --> 00:27:34,899
north towards the roan highlands.

566
00:27:37,990 --> 00:27:39,310
Roan highlands were incredible.

567
00:27:39,575 --> 00:27:41,315
Yeah, all those balds.

568
00:27:41,618 --> 00:27:43,199
Right after roan mountain, Jane bald

569
00:27:43,495 --> 00:27:46,737
and hump mountain were
just like amazing climbs.

570
00:27:49,084 --> 00:27:50,870
And I saw snow up there. Really?

571
00:27:51,170 --> 00:27:52,170
Yeah.

572
00:27:52,462 --> 00:27:54,748
On may third or something, it was crazy.

573
00:28:02,931 --> 00:28:04,421
Come on, come on, come on!

574
00:28:07,519 --> 00:28:10,056
Every may,
the trail days festival

575
00:28:10,355 --> 00:28:12,516
is held in Damascus, Virginia,

576
00:28:12,816 --> 00:28:14,898
just north of the Tennessee border.

577
00:28:15,903 --> 00:28:18,986
As in hot Springs, the appalachian
trail runs right through

578
00:28:19,281 --> 00:28:21,613
the middle of Damascus, making the town

579
00:28:21,909 --> 00:28:24,025
an ideal home for the festival.

580
00:28:32,461 --> 00:28:33,461
I got a new pack.

581
00:28:33,587 --> 00:28:34,076
Go Gregory. - For free!

582
00:28:34,379 --> 00:28:34,868
- Yay!
- For free,

583
00:28:35,172 --> 00:28:36,452
she got it for free. - Oh, nice.

584
00:28:36,506 --> 00:28:37,621
Yeah, so that was rad.

585
00:28:39,885 --> 00:28:40,885
The parade was awesome,

586
00:28:41,011 --> 00:28:42,571
seeing everyone whooping and hollering.

587
00:28:42,804 --> 00:28:43,463
Woo!

588
00:28:43,764 --> 00:28:45,450
And all the people of
Damascus come out to watch us

589
00:28:45,474 --> 00:28:48,307
and spray us with water guns
and all that kind of stuff.

590
00:28:52,898 --> 00:28:54,698
It was just kind of
fun to see all the years

591
00:28:54,733 --> 00:28:55,939
of people that were there.

592
00:28:57,152 --> 00:28:58,952
Trail days
brings together hikers

593
00:28:59,112 --> 00:29:00,727
both past and present.

594
00:29:07,704 --> 00:29:09,224
I mean, everybody knew
everybody, pretty much.

595
00:29:09,248 --> 00:29:09,737
- It was cool.
- Everybody was like-

596
00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:11,040
hey, what's up?

597
00:29:11,124 --> 00:29:12,894
It was cool 'cause
like I saw like everybody

598
00:29:12,918 --> 00:29:14,704
who I'd met on the trail before,

599
00:29:15,003 --> 00:29:15,492
we were kind of spread out at this point,

600
00:29:15,796 --> 00:29:17,661
they're all here together. So,

601
00:29:17,965 --> 00:29:19,943
everybody's around, you
know, just a great community

602
00:29:19,967 --> 00:29:21,958
and, yeah, just one big party.

603
00:29:25,013 --> 00:29:26,753
Skinny as a fucking rail, man.

604
00:29:27,057 --> 00:29:28,660
They're eating
themselves at that point.

605
00:29:28,684 --> 00:29:29,684
That's right.

606
00:29:34,648 --> 00:29:36,388
Trail days was...

607
00:29:38,902 --> 00:29:40,438
A lot of people enjoyed themselves.

608
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:44,760
It was a little bit of a debauchery.

609
00:29:45,033 --> 00:29:46,489
It would've been my scene

610
00:29:46,785 --> 00:29:48,696
if I were a little bit younger.

611
00:29:48,996 --> 00:29:49,485
Yeah.

612
00:29:49,788 --> 00:29:51,391
Cause it was a
lot of people just like

613
00:29:51,415 --> 00:29:53,952
super messed up on a
lot of different stuff.

614
00:29:54,251 --> 00:29:56,251
There was nothing even
going on, it was just like

615
00:29:56,503 --> 00:29:58,084
a lot of tents in a field.

616
00:29:58,380 --> 00:30:00,233
But we stayed in the
quieter part of tent city

617
00:30:00,257 --> 00:30:01,897
so there was like this big baseball field

618
00:30:02,050 --> 00:30:04,331
all the way to the left and
then there's this big fire pit

619
00:30:04,386 --> 00:30:05,655
and that's where the drum circle is

620
00:30:05,679 --> 00:30:06,964
and that's where it gets crazy.

621
00:30:11,977 --> 00:30:13,329
But I'm super impressed with the people

622
00:30:13,353 --> 00:30:15,093
in the drum circle, like the fourth night,

623
00:30:15,397 --> 00:30:16,833
you know, they're just
like, they're still dancing.

624
00:30:16,857 --> 00:30:18,768
I mean, I think it was Thursday night,

625
00:30:19,067 --> 00:30:21,149
one of my friends, ninja
face was on the drums

626
00:30:21,445 --> 00:30:23,606
and his hand was just swollen up after.

627
00:30:23,905 --> 00:30:24,564
Oh wow.

628
00:30:24,865 --> 00:30:26,092
That's how intense he was going at it.

629
00:30:26,116 --> 00:30:27,116
Wow.

630
00:30:32,372 --> 00:30:36,411
The bonfire drum circle
definitely exhibits

631
00:30:36,710 --> 00:30:39,076
one kind of very excited energy

632
00:30:39,379 --> 00:30:41,916
that people have for being out here but

633
00:30:42,215 --> 00:30:45,298
I think that it would be
cool if they could capture

634
00:30:45,594 --> 00:30:48,552
that community vibe that you
get when you're seeing people

635
00:30:48,847 --> 00:30:50,883
and meeting people in that more like

636
00:30:51,183 --> 00:30:53,595
relaxed kind of setting
instead of, you know..

637
00:30:55,645 --> 00:30:58,933
For six hours around a raging bonfire.

638
00:30:59,232 --> 00:31:01,210
But that's reminiscent of
our society too, you know?

639
00:31:01,234 --> 00:31:03,065
We put a lot of emphasis
on like yeah, rage!

640
00:31:03,362 --> 00:31:04,802
But nice like, hey, let's, you know,

641
00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:06,566
sit and talk to this person.

642
00:31:06,865 --> 00:31:08,821
So did you
guys go to trail days?

643
00:31:09,117 --> 00:31:10,402
Or miss that?

644
00:31:10,702 --> 00:31:11,191
We skipped it.

645
00:31:11,495 --> 00:31:14,077
We ended up getting there a few days early

646
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:16,760
but when we rolled into
town there were like

647
00:31:16,917 --> 00:31:19,875
already police officers hustling people.

648
00:31:20,170 --> 00:31:22,410
And then it just kind of seemed
like it was a giant party

649
00:31:22,464 --> 00:31:24,344
and we had been in Damascus
for a couple of days

650
00:31:24,466 --> 00:31:25,922
so it was just like time to leave.

651
00:31:26,218 --> 00:31:26,923
Yeah.

652
00:31:27,219 --> 00:31:28,529
But then like right after that you go to

653
00:31:28,553 --> 00:31:30,293
the Grayson highlands
so we got to enjoy it

654
00:31:30,597 --> 00:31:32,633
like basically by ourselves.

655
00:31:40,107 --> 00:31:42,564
One of my favorite
places in the whole country

656
00:31:42,859 --> 00:31:44,859
I only found out about
because I walked through it.

657
00:31:44,903 --> 00:31:47,770
Grayson highlands has got
these bald mountain tops

658
00:31:48,073 --> 00:31:49,108
with rocky outcroppings.

659
00:31:51,493 --> 00:31:53,533
When I went through, the
rhododendrons were blooming

660
00:31:53,829 --> 00:31:55,865
so there's bright purple flowers.

661
00:31:56,164 --> 00:31:58,325
And there's just, you know, wild ponies.

662
00:31:58,625 --> 00:32:00,785
We're sweaty all day so
we're totally covered in salt

663
00:32:00,961 --> 00:32:03,828
all the time and we had this one pony

664
00:32:04,131 --> 00:32:05,541
that just kept licking us.

665
00:32:05,841 --> 00:32:07,151
I'm walking along,
before we get to the ponies

666
00:32:07,175 --> 00:32:09,382
there was a day hiker
just coming down the hill

667
00:32:09,678 --> 00:32:12,590
and she's like, "don't ever trust a pony."

668
00:32:12,889 --> 00:32:13,503
We're just like what?

669
00:32:13,807 --> 00:32:15,718
She goes, "don't ever,
don't you turn your back

670
00:32:16,017 --> 00:32:16,722
"on those ponies.”

671
00:32:17,018 --> 00:32:18,018
She was so serious.

672
00:32:18,895 --> 00:32:20,123
So we're kind of laughing about that,

673
00:32:20,147 --> 00:32:22,067
we get up there, we're
hanging out at the shelter

674
00:32:22,107 --> 00:32:24,723
and, you know, the ponies come along

675
00:32:25,026 --> 00:32:27,392
and we turned our backs on the ponies

676
00:32:27,696 --> 00:32:28,355
and they start to make off with like,

677
00:32:28,655 --> 00:32:30,816
you know, a sweaty pair of socks.

678
00:32:31,116 --> 00:32:33,402
So she was right, never
turn your back on a pony.

679
00:32:33,702 --> 00:32:35,567
I was really like I will stay here,

680
00:32:35,871 --> 00:32:37,281
I will not go back home.

681
00:32:37,581 --> 00:32:38,946
Fuck Germany, fuck everything.

682
00:32:39,249 --> 00:32:42,036
I'll just stay here,
build a hut somewhere.

683
00:32:42,335 --> 00:32:44,997
Go fishing trout in a stream and

684
00:32:45,297 --> 00:32:47,083
have some horses and go horse riding.

685
00:32:50,218 --> 00:32:52,378
But not every
part of the trail experience

686
00:32:52,471 --> 00:32:54,052
is so idyllic.

687
00:32:54,347 --> 00:32:56,804
The total experience has
been pretty incredible.

688
00:32:58,268 --> 00:32:59,662
You know, it's just, it's
definitely the hardest thing

689
00:32:59,686 --> 00:33:00,175
I've ever done.

690
00:33:00,479 --> 00:33:01,873
I mean, I don't know
anyone who's done a thru-hike

691
00:33:01,897 --> 00:33:04,263
that hasn't been in pain
at some point, you know?

692
00:33:04,566 --> 00:33:06,056
There are no pain-free thru-hikes.

693
00:33:06,359 --> 00:33:07,359
Yeah, various injuries.

694
00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:08,858
Knees, ankles.

695
00:33:09,154 --> 00:33:11,190
Left knee right now, right knee earlier.

696
00:33:13,158 --> 00:33:14,864
I had some sort of illness for a while

697
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,196
where I was throwing up a lot.

698
00:33:17,496 --> 00:33:19,361
Lasted like two weeks but

699
00:33:20,957 --> 00:33:22,868
other than that, you got some blisters,

700
00:33:23,168 --> 00:33:25,168
some foot things going on now.
Yeah, foot things,

701
00:33:25,295 --> 00:33:29,038
blisters, hot spots that open
up right now which bother me.

702
00:33:29,341 --> 00:33:30,046
I mean, I don't know if you've had

703
00:33:30,342 --> 00:33:33,004
that many type of blisters but it hurts.

704
00:33:33,303 --> 00:33:34,663
Every step you take...
Every step.

705
00:33:34,804 --> 00:33:35,418
It hurts.

706
00:33:35,722 --> 00:33:37,033
Little tendonitis in the ankles,

707
00:33:37,057 --> 00:33:38,137
little shin splits here,

708
00:33:39,351 --> 00:33:40,386
it's a little sore here.

709
00:33:40,685 --> 00:33:43,267
I think it's because you
keep walking every day.

710
00:33:43,563 --> 00:33:44,052
Well, yeah.

711
00:33:44,356 --> 00:33:46,688
I lost a few toenails
then my back got infected

712
00:33:46,983 --> 00:33:49,474
from pack rash and I
just waited through it

713
00:33:49,778 --> 00:33:51,422
for a week and then
went to the free medics

714
00:33:51,446 --> 00:33:53,061
at trail days. - So bad.

715
00:33:53,365 --> 00:33:55,105
It was so gross.
And it turned out

716
00:33:55,408 --> 00:33:57,069
being like an infected boil.

717
00:33:57,369 --> 00:33:59,280
And then they just had
to pop it and Lance it.

718
00:33:59,579 --> 00:34:02,992
And gave me some antibiotics

719
00:34:03,291 --> 00:34:04,477
and I just had to take them for a week.

720
00:34:04,501 --> 00:34:06,787
I sprained my ankle
coming out of the smokies

721
00:34:08,171 --> 00:34:09,832
and had to take some time off.

722
00:34:12,342 --> 00:34:14,082
And then as soon as my ankle healed

723
00:34:14,386 --> 00:34:16,297
I got an upper respiratory infection.

724
00:34:17,389 --> 00:34:19,971
But both of those times, actually, like

725
00:34:21,351 --> 00:34:22,351
having to

726
00:34:24,020 --> 00:34:26,477
do what my body was telling me to do

727
00:34:26,773 --> 00:34:28,934
and not what my brain was
telling me to do, you know?

728
00:34:29,234 --> 00:34:30,554
My body is telling me not to hike

729
00:34:30,652 --> 00:34:33,394
and my brain was saying
your friends are moving on,

730
00:34:33,697 --> 00:34:36,234
you know, you've got miles
to go, you've got, you know?

731
00:34:37,534 --> 00:34:39,991
Having that like internal struggle of like

732
00:34:40,287 --> 00:34:41,868
doing what you're supposed to do

733
00:34:42,163 --> 00:34:44,324
and doing what you want to do,

734
00:34:44,624 --> 00:34:47,115
it was actually, it was
really, really hard for me

735
00:34:47,419 --> 00:34:49,284
to see people like move on without me.

736
00:34:51,673 --> 00:34:52,673
But..

737
00:34:55,176 --> 00:34:56,837
My friends are right here.

738
00:34:57,137 --> 00:34:58,573
One of the most common illnesses

739
00:34:58,597 --> 00:35:01,555
among hikers is the norovirus.

740
00:35:01,850 --> 00:35:05,058
Though it usually only
lasts for about 48 hours,

741
00:35:05,353 --> 00:35:08,595
the resulting nausea,
vomiting and diarrhea

742
00:35:08,898 --> 00:35:09,978
make hiking difficult.

743
00:35:11,234 --> 00:35:14,192
Noro is spread through
contact with fecal matter

744
00:35:14,487 --> 00:35:16,694
and is most common in
sections of the trail

745
00:35:16,990 --> 00:35:17,990
without privies.

746
00:35:21,077 --> 00:35:22,908
When hiking the appalachian trail,

747
00:35:23,204 --> 00:35:26,116
finding a convenient bathroom
is not always possible.

748
00:35:26,416 --> 00:35:28,352
Have you had any injuries
or any parts that have been

749
00:35:28,376 --> 00:35:29,395
a little bit tough to get through?

750
00:35:29,419 --> 00:35:30,419
I crapped my pants.

751
00:35:31,588 --> 00:35:35,046
Coming out of hot Springs, I
just ate too much greasy food

752
00:35:35,342 --> 00:35:38,254
and I was about 10 miles from
hot Springs and basically

753
00:35:38,553 --> 00:35:40,134
the trail was cut into a hill

754
00:35:40,430 --> 00:35:43,843
and so it was straight
down, trail, straight down

755
00:35:44,142 --> 00:35:47,054
and I just had to crap and I couldn't,

756
00:35:47,354 --> 00:35:49,265
like there's no way to get off and so like

757
00:35:49,564 --> 00:35:52,021
you just hold it as much as you can

758
00:35:52,317 --> 00:35:55,184
and just hope and pray that
there would be a campsite soon

759
00:35:55,487 --> 00:35:58,695
and eventually there was
but it was not soon enough.

760
00:35:58,990 --> 00:36:01,902
And so, you know, there's no
one to clean up after you,

761
00:36:02,202 --> 00:36:04,193
you have to clean up your own shit.

762
00:36:04,496 --> 00:36:05,536
Out here, what can you do?

763
00:36:05,747 --> 00:36:07,783
You can't throw them
away, you have to wash it,

764
00:36:08,083 --> 00:36:09,435
you have to clean up after yourself.

765
00:36:09,459 --> 00:36:11,139
And so it was just
sitting there being like

766
00:36:11,169 --> 00:36:12,875
I'm miserable and I wish I could quit

767
00:36:13,171 --> 00:36:14,536
but I am 10 miles from anything

768
00:36:14,839 --> 00:36:16,249
and have to clean up after myself.

769
00:36:16,549 --> 00:36:18,005
So you clean up after yourself and

770
00:36:19,219 --> 00:36:20,755
go to bed early.

771
00:36:21,054 --> 00:36:24,262
People on the trail know
how to take care of themselves

772
00:36:24,557 --> 00:36:26,263
and know how to like solve problems

773
00:36:26,559 --> 00:36:28,140
and are flexible and like,

774
00:36:29,270 --> 00:36:32,637
it's like little things like
just don't really get to people

775
00:36:32,941 --> 00:36:34,781
on the trail because
there's been so many other

776
00:36:34,818 --> 00:36:37,480
bigger problems that everyone
has had to deal with.

777
00:36:37,779 --> 00:36:39,144
I mean, there's a lot of...

778
00:36:41,491 --> 00:36:44,324
You know, repetition and
monotony on the trail as well

779
00:36:44,619 --> 00:36:47,281
so I mean, it's just, kind
of have to embrace it.

780
00:36:47,580 --> 00:36:49,320
- Yeah.
- All.

781
00:36:49,624 --> 00:36:51,144
For a lot of thru-hikers,

782
00:36:51,292 --> 00:36:54,125
our tolerance for monotony
is especially tested

783
00:36:54,421 --> 00:36:57,037
in the 550 mile trek through Virginia.

784
00:36:57,340 --> 00:37:01,003
Here, many become afflicted
with the Virginia blues.

785
00:37:02,345 --> 00:37:04,802
There was trail days and
then the Grayson highlands

786
00:37:05,098 --> 00:37:06,898
right after that and it
was just like, oh god,

787
00:37:07,016 --> 00:37:09,177
I don't know how the Virginia blues exist.

788
00:37:09,477 --> 00:37:12,059
But after like a month of being here,

789
00:37:12,355 --> 00:37:13,355
I got 'em pretty hard.

790
00:37:13,523 --> 00:37:15,059
Virginia blues, it's a real thing.

791
00:37:15,358 --> 00:37:16,598
It does exist.

792
00:37:17,694 --> 00:37:19,964
You know, I think a lot of
people start to get a little bit

793
00:37:19,988 --> 00:37:22,354
bored in Virginia and that
contributes a lot to it.

794
00:37:22,657 --> 00:37:24,989
It's summertime, a lot of
people are used to going

795
00:37:25,285 --> 00:37:27,241
on vacations, going to the beach,

796
00:37:27,537 --> 00:37:29,297
so you're thinking about
all the other places

797
00:37:29,372 --> 00:37:30,372
that you'd rather be.

798
00:37:30,540 --> 00:37:32,371
Virginia is so big
that such a long stretch

799
00:37:32,667 --> 00:37:34,498
of the at runs through Virginia

800
00:37:34,794 --> 00:37:37,331
so it gets kind of boring
because you don't have

801
00:37:38,381 --> 00:37:40,087
the state lines, sometimes the state lines

802
00:37:40,383 --> 00:37:43,216
are like milestones and you
think you're getting to places

803
00:37:43,511 --> 00:37:46,127
but in Virginia I thought
I'm stuck here forever.

804
00:37:46,431 --> 00:37:48,351
But Virginia
isn't all green tunnel,

805
00:37:48,516 --> 00:37:50,427
the trail crosses the James river

806
00:37:50,727 --> 00:37:52,809
by way of the James river foot bridge,

807
00:37:53,104 --> 00:37:55,891
named appropriately for hiking advocate

808
00:37:56,191 --> 00:37:59,228
and 1987 thru-hiker, William t. Foot.

809
00:37:59,527 --> 00:38:01,438
Further to the north lie the keffer oak,

810
00:38:01,738 --> 00:38:05,322
the largest blazed tree
on the appalachian trail,

811
00:38:05,617 --> 00:38:07,983
and the rock monoliths dragon's tooth..

812
00:38:10,997 --> 00:38:14,489
And mcafee knob, the
most-photographed spot on the at.

813
00:38:22,217 --> 00:38:23,944
It's just like everyone
tells you Virginia's flat

814
00:38:23,968 --> 00:38:25,424
and Virginia's definitely not flat.

815
00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:26,300
Like at all.

816
00:38:26,596 --> 00:38:29,633
I mean, you don't go up
in super high elevations

817
00:38:29,933 --> 00:38:32,140
but you still go up and down
and up and down every day.

818
00:38:32,435 --> 00:38:34,300
Yeah, I heard a lot
that it was gonna be flat

819
00:38:34,604 --> 00:38:37,220
coming into here, Virginia was
definitely not flat at all.

820
00:38:37,524 --> 00:38:39,355
So that rumor definitely is persisting.

821
00:38:39,651 --> 00:38:42,609
It should be time to
put it to bed for good.

822
00:38:42,904 --> 00:38:45,190
Virginia had a reputation of being easy

823
00:38:45,490 --> 00:38:47,481
so I thought, okay,
here's my 25 mile days.

824
00:38:47,784 --> 00:38:49,820
There weren't nearly as
many of 'em as I expected

825
00:38:50,119 --> 00:38:51,399
plus some of them there's rocks.

826
00:38:51,621 --> 00:38:53,828
And I just expected a cake walk,

827
00:38:54,123 --> 00:38:55,579
I was disillusioned by that.

828
00:38:55,875 --> 00:38:58,332
But that being said, I like
the trail towns of Virginia,

829
00:38:58,628 --> 00:39:00,118
I thought Virginia was pretty.

830
00:39:01,381 --> 00:39:02,381
I enjoyed Virginia.

831
00:39:02,674 --> 00:39:04,585
For me,
Virginia was where my hike

832
00:39:04,884 --> 00:39:07,375
began to feel less like a vacation

833
00:39:07,679 --> 00:39:10,011
and more, for better and worse,

834
00:39:10,306 --> 00:39:11,341
like a new lifestyle.

835
00:39:11,641 --> 00:39:14,428
It's nice not having contact with

836
00:39:14,727 --> 00:39:16,513
all the news and hearing about everything

837
00:39:16,813 --> 00:39:17,873
that's going on in the world.

838
00:39:17,897 --> 00:39:20,889
One of the things about the trail

839
00:39:21,192 --> 00:39:23,183
that I really enjoyed
is just the simplicity,

840
00:39:23,486 --> 00:39:25,406
you know pretty much what
you're doing every day,

841
00:39:25,613 --> 00:39:26,773
you're getting up and hiking,

842
00:39:26,865 --> 00:39:28,856
have a good idea of where you're going.

843
00:39:30,785 --> 00:39:33,322
You might stop short, but you've got

844
00:39:33,621 --> 00:39:36,988
this one trail to follow.

845
00:39:40,420 --> 00:39:45,335
I think it's nice to have
a break from the rat race.

846
00:39:46,426 --> 00:39:49,668
You're with nature, with mother earth

847
00:39:49,971 --> 00:39:54,260
and have only your body to listen to,

848
00:39:54,559 --> 00:39:57,801
nothing forcing messages at you,

849
00:39:58,104 --> 00:40:00,390
only things that are living.

850
00:40:02,483 --> 00:40:04,474
Thus every day is so beautiful.

851
00:40:04,777 --> 00:40:06,517
It's life.

852
00:40:12,911 --> 00:40:14,951
If there is a
flat section of Virginia,

853
00:40:14,996 --> 00:40:16,861
it's through shenandoah national park

854
00:40:17,165 --> 00:40:18,565
near the northern end of the state.

855
00:40:18,791 --> 00:40:20,782
It was really, really flat compared to

856
00:40:21,085 --> 00:40:23,417
what we've been doing recently so

857
00:40:24,964 --> 00:40:27,546
we could just like bust a lot of miles

858
00:40:27,842 --> 00:40:28,922
to the next restaurant.

859
00:40:30,011 --> 00:40:32,377
And that was pretty
much what kept me going

860
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:33,169
through the shenandoah.

861
00:40:33,473 --> 00:40:35,555
The shenandoahs is pretty pampering,

862
00:40:35,850 --> 00:40:37,932
all the camp stores and everything.

863
00:40:38,227 --> 00:40:40,559
Coffee, sandwich, snacks.

864
00:40:40,855 --> 00:40:41,344
It's nice.

865
00:40:41,648 --> 00:40:43,709
The waysides, that was
great, they had great burgers,

866
00:40:43,733 --> 00:40:44,848
you know, sodas.

867
00:40:45,151 --> 00:40:46,629
I ate as much as I could
through shenandoah.

868
00:40:46,653 --> 00:40:48,564
A lot of places to eat
which was really nice.

869
00:40:48,863 --> 00:40:50,103
Yeah, that was the best part.

870
00:40:50,323 --> 00:40:52,939
The wildlife was pretty crazy,
the deer coming up to you.

871
00:41:03,753 --> 00:41:06,085
Even with all
the park-protected animals,

872
00:41:06,381 --> 00:41:08,087
the existence of skyline drive

873
00:41:08,383 --> 00:41:10,544
makes shenandoah less of
a wilderness experience

874
00:41:10,843 --> 00:41:12,504
than other parts of the trail.

875
00:41:12,804 --> 00:41:15,637
The at crosses this road frequently.

876
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,102
When skyline drive was
initially being proposed,

877
00:41:27,402 --> 00:41:29,313
it was a source of great controversy,

878
00:41:29,612 --> 00:41:32,069
controversy that led to
a permanent falling out

879
00:41:32,365 --> 00:41:34,401
between Benton mackaye and myron Avery.

880
00:41:34,701 --> 00:41:37,659
After a while they
had a very sharp split

881
00:41:37,954 --> 00:41:40,491
because mackaye was a dreamer

882
00:41:40,790 --> 00:41:43,406
and was like let's protect
this trail everywhere

883
00:41:43,710 --> 00:41:46,952
and Avery was the okay,
let's get this done.

884
00:41:47,255 --> 00:41:52,045
They wound up splitting over
the proposed skyline drive

885
00:41:52,635 --> 00:41:55,092
in what was already
shenandoah national park.

886
00:41:55,388 --> 00:41:57,508
Through a
depression-era new deal program

887
00:41:57,807 --> 00:42:00,924
called the civilian
conservation corps, or ccc,

888
00:42:01,227 --> 00:42:03,263
the federal government
had assisted in building

889
00:42:03,563 --> 00:42:04,848
the appalachian trail.

890
00:42:05,148 --> 00:42:06,854
To oppose skyline drive

891
00:42:07,150 --> 00:42:09,607
would risk losing the federal
government as an ally.

892
00:42:09,902 --> 00:42:13,611
Mackaye opposed that road,
Avery said it was okay.

893
00:42:13,906 --> 00:42:15,946
The road was following,
gonna follow the route where

894
00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:18,532
the appalachian trail
had actually been put

895
00:42:18,828 --> 00:42:20,284
and they had to move the trail

896
00:42:20,580 --> 00:42:22,445
in order to accommodate the road.

897
00:42:22,749 --> 00:42:24,629
In a later
interview, mackaye said,

898
00:42:32,925 --> 00:42:35,792
The last known correspondence
between Avery and mackaye

899
00:42:36,095 --> 00:42:38,928
depicts them amidst the
argument over skyline drive.

900
00:42:39,223 --> 00:42:42,056
When mackaye wrote to criticize
Avery's support of the road,

901
00:42:42,351 --> 00:42:43,716
Avery wrote back,

902
00:42:48,816 --> 00:42:51,478
Given their different
personalities and approaches,

903
00:42:51,778 --> 00:42:54,235
the falling out between the man of ideas

904
00:42:54,530 --> 00:42:57,442
and the man of action
may have been inevitable.

905
00:42:57,742 --> 00:42:59,778
And yet the combination
of ideas and action

906
00:43:00,078 --> 00:43:03,070
each man provided did
something extraordinary.

907
00:43:04,415 --> 00:43:07,373
And on August 14th, 1937,

908
00:43:07,668 --> 00:43:10,535
a ccc team completed the final stretch

909
00:43:10,838 --> 00:43:12,453
of the appalachian trail.

910
00:43:12,757 --> 00:43:14,748
The dream had become reality.

911
00:43:16,594 --> 00:43:19,552
Technically, a thru-hike involves
walking every white blazed

912
00:43:19,847 --> 00:43:22,589
part of the trail but many
hikers opt to mix things up.

913
00:43:22,892 --> 00:43:24,372
I got to aqua Blaze the shenandoahs

914
00:43:24,435 --> 00:43:26,676
and that was a really cool experience.

915
00:43:29,774 --> 00:43:30,894
In hiker speak,

916
00:43:31,150 --> 00:43:33,266
aqua blazing is when a section of trail

917
00:43:33,569 --> 00:43:34,649
is bypassed on water.

918
00:43:36,614 --> 00:43:39,606
Blue blazing is when hikers
bypass part of the at

919
00:43:39,909 --> 00:43:41,615
on a different trail.

920
00:43:41,911 --> 00:43:44,027
And bypassing part of
the trail in a vehicle

921
00:43:44,330 --> 00:43:46,050
is called yellow blazing.
Yellow blazing-

922
00:43:46,124 --> 00:43:47,935
- it's when you follow the
yellow lines in the road.

923
00:43:47,959 --> 00:43:49,937
Following the yellow lines
in the road, it's basically,

924
00:43:49,961 --> 00:43:51,826
in some people's minds cheating.

925
00:43:52,130 --> 00:43:54,086
Other people's, it's hike your own hike.

926
00:43:54,382 --> 00:43:56,919
Hitchhiking is still hiking.

927
00:43:57,218 --> 00:43:58,821
And then there's pink blazing.

928
00:43:58,845 --> 00:44:01,632
Pink blazing is when you
find that you're attracted

929
00:44:01,931 --> 00:44:05,298
to someone and you change
the course of your hike

930
00:44:05,601 --> 00:44:06,601
to match theirs.

931
00:44:08,146 --> 00:44:10,853
In a passionate way.

932
00:44:12,358 --> 00:44:13,878
And sometimes make a fool of yourself.

933
00:44:15,027 --> 00:44:17,484
The hard thing about
pink blazing is it's like,

934
00:44:17,780 --> 00:44:19,987
well are they following
you, are you following them,

935
00:44:20,283 --> 00:44:21,844
or are you just hiking around each other?

936
00:44:21,868 --> 00:44:23,608
But it's not that
serendipitous, like, oh,

937
00:44:23,911 --> 00:44:26,027
it just so happens that
we're all at the same shelter

938
00:44:26,330 --> 00:44:27,695
again for night seven in a row!

939
00:44:27,999 --> 00:44:30,741
Like at some point, you know
someone's following someone.

940
00:44:31,043 --> 00:44:33,500
I think it started out
where we were following them,

941
00:44:33,796 --> 00:44:35,752
like we're never gonna
hike more than 15 miles

942
00:44:36,048 --> 00:44:37,901
in the smokies and then we
were doing like three 18s

943
00:44:37,925 --> 00:44:38,925
to keep up with them.

944
00:44:39,051 --> 00:44:40,821
And then by the end they were
following us and we're like...

945
00:44:40,845 --> 00:44:42,301
They were doing like 12 mile days

946
00:44:42,597 --> 00:44:44,258
and chilling. - To stay with us.

947
00:44:44,557 --> 00:44:46,798
Whether it's friendships
or like people you hike with,

948
00:44:47,101 --> 00:44:49,137
I think it's way less solo hikers now

949
00:44:49,437 --> 00:44:51,317
and like people who have
started hiking together

950
00:44:51,439 --> 00:44:53,805
and they're either like
real couples or friendships.

951
00:44:54,108 --> 00:44:57,475
I don't know any straight
woman out here who's like...

952
00:44:57,778 --> 00:44:58,797
Completely by themselves.

953
00:44:58,821 --> 00:45:00,732
- Completely by themselves.
- Yeah.

954
00:45:01,032 --> 00:45:02,050
Even if she wants to be.

955
00:45:02,074 --> 00:45:03,074
No.

956
00:45:03,117 --> 00:45:04,477
- No, like, but seriously!
- Maybe.

957
00:45:04,744 --> 00:45:06,221
Maybe you don't wanna be, I don't know.

958
00:45:06,245 --> 00:45:06,734
- I don't know, yeah.
- Be interesting.

959
00:45:07,038 --> 00:45:08,903
Makes it a lot
harder to pink Blaze.

960
00:45:12,293 --> 00:45:14,875
Tell me about it!

961
00:45:15,171 --> 00:45:17,628
I'm chomping at the bit, I'm
ready to get out of Virginia

962
00:45:17,924 --> 00:45:19,524
and start knocking out the states again.

963
00:45:19,592 --> 00:45:20,081
You know, you go through,

964
00:45:20,384 --> 00:45:22,466
West Virginia's only like four miles.

965
00:45:22,762 --> 00:45:23,906
North of Virginia,

966
00:45:23,930 --> 00:45:26,592
the trail moves into Harpers
ferry, West Virginia,

967
00:45:26,891 --> 00:45:30,804
the site of abolitionist
John brown's 1859 raid.

968
00:45:31,103 --> 00:45:33,219
Brown attempted to raid the town's arsenal

969
00:45:33,522 --> 00:45:36,855
in order to start an armed
revolution and end slavery.

970
00:45:37,151 --> 00:45:39,062
He was thwarted and hanged.

971
00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:42,820
But in terms of hikers,

972
00:45:43,115 --> 00:45:45,447
the most significant
place in Harpers ferry

973
00:45:45,743 --> 00:45:48,780
is the office of the
appalachian trail conservancy.

974
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:50,695
Since its founding in 1925,

975
00:45:50,998 --> 00:45:53,865
the atc has been the leading organization

976
00:45:54,168 --> 00:45:56,375
in building and maintaining the trail.

977
00:45:56,671 --> 00:45:59,788
From 1925 to 1937 we
helped build the trail.

978
00:46:00,091 --> 00:46:04,334
For the next 30 years we came
up with a sustainable plan

979
00:46:04,637 --> 00:46:07,720
for using our trail club
affiliated partners

980
00:46:08,015 --> 00:46:11,348
and our own abilities to
put trail crews on the trail

981
00:46:11,644 --> 00:46:13,635
to actually manage, maintain,

982
00:46:13,938 --> 00:46:15,644
rehab, relocate the trail

983
00:46:15,940 --> 00:46:18,852
and we've got, I think, a
great system for that now.

984
00:46:19,902 --> 00:46:22,439
The atc also
keeps a photo archive

985
00:46:22,738 --> 00:46:24,194
of the hikers that pass through.

986
00:46:24,490 --> 00:46:28,403
All right, looks like
you've hiked 1,000 some miles.

987
00:46:32,707 --> 00:46:34,351
The trail through Harpers ferry

988
00:46:34,375 --> 00:46:35,956
goes past Jefferson rock.

989
00:46:37,253 --> 00:46:39,209
Its namesake, Thomas Jefferson,

990
00:46:39,505 --> 00:46:40,995
would say of the view from the rock,

991
00:46:41,299 --> 00:46:44,757
"this scene is worth a
voyage across the Atlantic.”

992
00:46:45,052 --> 00:46:46,212
North of Harpers ferry,

993
00:46:46,512 --> 00:46:50,380
the trail runs along the
c&o canal into Maryland.

994
00:46:52,018 --> 00:46:54,760
Maryland is home to several state parks,

995
00:46:55,062 --> 00:46:57,724
including the war
correspondents memorial arch

996
00:46:58,024 --> 00:46:59,059
in gathland state park

997
00:47:00,026 --> 00:47:02,187
and Washington monument state park.

998
00:47:02,486 --> 00:47:05,694
Completed in 1827, this
Washington monument

999
00:47:05,990 --> 00:47:08,948
predates the one in D.C. by 61 years.

1000
00:47:09,243 --> 00:47:11,325
People think that Maryland is easy.

1001
00:47:11,620 --> 00:47:12,951
Maryland is not easy.

1002
00:47:13,247 --> 00:47:16,489
None of this trail I've
been on so far is easy.

1003
00:47:16,792 --> 00:47:18,472
The sad truth is that most of the people

1004
00:47:18,544 --> 00:47:20,205
that start a long hike,

1005
00:47:21,839 --> 00:47:24,080
an expedition length backing trip,

1006
00:47:24,383 --> 00:47:25,694
the sad truth is that most of them,

1007
00:47:25,718 --> 00:47:28,175
for one reason or another,
do not complete it.

1008
00:47:28,471 --> 00:47:29,823
I definitely thought about quitting.

1009
00:47:29,847 --> 00:47:31,803
I'm not going to quit but, you know,

1010
00:47:32,099 --> 00:47:33,635
anybody that says that there's no way

1011
00:47:33,934 --> 00:47:35,787
that they would ever think
about quitting a trail,

1012
00:47:35,811 --> 00:47:36,811
that's just not true.

1013
00:47:37,104 --> 00:47:38,832
Like you're gonna think
about quitting at some point,

1014
00:47:38,856 --> 00:47:40,083
it's just a matter of
how you deal with it.

1015
00:47:40,107 --> 00:47:42,067
Some days are really
hard, it was kinda like eh,

1016
00:47:42,193 --> 00:47:44,309
I didn't see too many people today.

1017
00:47:44,612 --> 00:47:46,590
You know, I've gone enough
miles to start thinking about

1018
00:47:46,614 --> 00:47:49,481
like, eh, it's enough miles for me.

1019
00:47:49,784 --> 00:47:50,944
You know, maybe I'll go home.

1020
00:47:51,118 --> 00:47:53,484
I don't know what it is
that makes you just keep going

1021
00:47:53,788 --> 00:47:58,373
but it's maybe stubbornness,
stupidity, I don't know.

1022
00:47:58,667 --> 00:48:00,827
I sometimes
found that listening to music,

1023
00:48:01,045 --> 00:48:02,956
podcasts or audio books helped.

1024
00:48:03,255 --> 00:48:05,246
I listen to a lot of books.

1025
00:48:05,549 --> 00:48:09,007
Right now I'm listening to
Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

1026
00:48:10,096 --> 00:48:13,213
And that kinda gets me in my head

1027
00:48:13,516 --> 00:48:14,676
so I'm just trucking along

1028
00:48:14,975 --> 00:48:16,636
and not really thinking about stuff.

1029
00:48:16,936 --> 00:48:19,177
Reaching
milestones like the at mid-point

1030
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:20,811
can be another strong motivator.

1031
00:48:21,107 --> 00:48:23,348
I really was like hustling
to get this halfway point

1032
00:48:23,651 --> 00:48:26,233
'cause I feel like it's a milestone,

1033
00:48:26,529 --> 00:48:28,315
it's like you've made it that far.

1034
00:48:28,614 --> 00:48:30,217
So it gives you a little juice, hopefully,

1035
00:48:30,241 --> 00:48:31,697
to continue on, you know?

1036
00:48:31,992 --> 00:48:33,053
Near the mid-point

1037
00:48:33,077 --> 00:48:34,942
is the appalachian trail museum.

1038
00:48:35,246 --> 00:48:36,926
And you kind of like look at the history

1039
00:48:37,164 --> 00:48:38,745
and it gave me like a second wind,

1040
00:48:39,041 --> 00:48:41,157
or like more motivation
I guess you could say.

1041
00:48:41,460 --> 00:48:43,496
The museum
has exhibits on the trail

1042
00:48:43,796 --> 00:48:45,332
and its most famous thru-hikers.

1043
00:48:45,631 --> 00:48:47,917
The first thru-hiker was
a guy named Earl shaffer.

1044
00:48:48,217 --> 00:48:50,424
He was a veteran of world war il.

1045
00:48:56,725 --> 00:48:58,886
Before the
war, shaffer and his friend,

1046
00:48:59,186 --> 00:49:02,349
Walter winemiller, dreamed
of hiking the trail together.

1047
00:49:02,648 --> 00:49:04,388
But Walter was killed at lwo jima

1048
00:49:04,692 --> 00:49:05,898
and shaffer wrote,

1049
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,988
In 1948, after reading an
article about the trail,

1050
00:49:17,288 --> 00:49:19,825
shaffer decided to revisit his old dream

1051
00:49:20,124 --> 00:49:21,955
and walk the army out of his system,

1052
00:49:22,251 --> 00:49:23,582
both mentally and physically.

1053
00:49:24,545 --> 00:49:27,662
In his memoir, walking
with spring, shaffer,

1054
00:49:27,965 --> 00:49:29,876
who used the trail name crazy one,

1055
00:49:30,176 --> 00:49:31,757
describes a challenging journey.

1056
00:49:32,052 --> 00:49:35,465
At that time the trail
was not easy to follow

1057
00:49:35,764 --> 00:49:38,005
in many places, it was
not that well marked.

1058
00:49:38,309 --> 00:49:41,767
Three years after the war
ended, the volunteers,

1059
00:49:42,062 --> 00:49:43,662
level of volunteerism that was available

1060
00:49:43,898 --> 00:49:47,231
during the war was minimal, so
he had to hunt for the trail.

1061
00:49:47,526 --> 00:49:49,286
I mean, it wasn't like
today where you follow

1062
00:49:49,445 --> 00:49:51,561
one white Blaze after another.

1063
00:49:51,864 --> 00:49:56,654
J far yonder lies a long,
high, lonesome trail >

1064
00:49:58,037 --> 00:49:59,877
while he
was making his way north,

1065
00:50:00,122 --> 00:50:02,784
the appalachian trailway
news published an article,

1066
00:50:03,083 --> 00:50:06,075
co-written by myron Avery,
explaining why a thru-hike

1067
00:50:06,378 --> 00:50:07,993
would be virtually impossible.

1068
00:50:08,297 --> 00:50:10,959
When shaffer finished, he
was thoroughly cross examined

1069
00:50:11,258 --> 00:50:14,091
by trail officials to prove
that he had truly walked

1070
00:50:14,386 --> 00:50:15,751
the entire trail.

1071
00:50:26,941 --> 00:50:29,853
Shaffer would go on to
complete two more thru-hikes,

1072
00:50:30,152 --> 00:50:32,484
a north-to-south hike in 1965

1073
00:50:32,780 --> 00:50:35,362
and another northbound hike in 1998,

1074
00:50:35,658 --> 00:50:37,819
when he was 79 years old.

1075
00:50:38,118 --> 00:50:42,908
J and point the way to
heaven's vestibule j

1076
00:50:45,292 --> 00:50:48,125
j far yonder lies a long,
high lonesome trail >

1077
00:50:48,420 --> 00:50:50,206
by then, large sections of trail

1078
00:50:50,506 --> 00:50:53,339
had been rerouted away from flat roads

1079
00:50:53,634 --> 00:50:55,499
and over more hills and mountains.

1080
00:50:55,803 --> 00:50:58,169
Shaffer felt that this made
the trail too difficult.

1081
00:50:58,472 --> 00:51:00,428
He ended his last thru-hike saying,

1082
00:51:06,438 --> 00:51:08,599
Between his hikes, shaffer stayed involved

1083
00:51:08,899 --> 00:51:12,016
with the trail community,
including serving for five years

1084
00:51:12,319 --> 00:51:14,776
as atc corresponding secretary.

1085
00:51:15,072 --> 00:51:17,108
He died of cancer in 2002.

1086
00:51:18,993 --> 00:51:22,156
In Benton mackaye's original
appalachian trail proposal,

1087
00:51:22,454 --> 00:51:24,410
he argued for the mental health benefits

1088
00:51:24,707 --> 00:51:25,867
of being in nature.

1089
00:51:26,959 --> 00:51:30,122
Since then, various psychological studies

1090
00:51:30,421 --> 00:51:32,628
have supported his notions.

1091
00:51:32,923 --> 00:51:35,585
As Earl shaffer walked
the trail to find peace

1092
00:51:35,884 --> 00:51:38,045
after suffering trauma and loss,

1093
00:51:38,345 --> 00:51:40,176
others have followed in his footsteps.

1094
00:51:41,223 --> 00:51:45,091
I got medically retired
out for PTSD out of the army

1095
00:51:45,394 --> 00:51:46,394
and...

1096
00:51:48,981 --> 00:51:50,541
There's like the warrior walk out here,

1097
00:51:50,649 --> 00:51:52,935
I've seen a couple of
other army dudes out here,

1098
00:51:53,235 --> 00:51:56,477
veterans and shit like that,
just trying to calm down.

1099
00:51:58,699 --> 00:52:00,564
I guess maybe you might
calm down a little bit

1100
00:52:00,868 --> 00:52:02,199
and see things a little brighter

1101
00:52:02,494 --> 00:52:03,972
after you get smacked
down by mother nature

1102
00:52:03,996 --> 00:52:06,078
like every day for a few
months, it might help you,

1103
00:52:06,373 --> 00:52:07,488
I'm not sure but

1104
00:52:07,791 --> 00:52:09,227
it's something to do, right, you know?

1105
00:52:09,251 --> 00:52:13,745
For 18 years I've been a
corrections chaplain in Ohio,

1106
00:52:14,048 --> 00:52:16,130
you know, married with five kids and

1107
00:52:16,425 --> 00:52:19,633
I'd just always looked
at it, despite my desire,

1108
00:52:19,928 --> 00:52:21,714
and thought how does anybody ever do that?

1109
00:52:22,014 --> 00:52:22,503
You know?

1110
00:52:22,806 --> 00:52:24,467
How do you resign from life

1111
00:52:24,767 --> 00:52:27,179
for five or six months and just go out and

1112
00:52:28,228 --> 00:52:29,343
pursue that?

1113
00:52:30,773 --> 00:52:33,139
Then, eight months ago last...

1114
00:52:34,902 --> 00:52:38,235
September 21, my wife died.
I'm sorry to hear that.

1115
00:52:38,530 --> 00:52:39,530
You know, and that,

1116
00:52:41,283 --> 00:52:44,616
it just changes everything so

1117
00:52:44,912 --> 00:52:46,948
it went from something I
felt like I wanted to do

1118
00:52:47,247 --> 00:52:49,408
to something I felt like I needed to do.

1119
00:52:49,708 --> 00:52:53,075
I actually, I had been
pretty depressed for a while

1120
00:52:53,379 --> 00:52:56,416
before coming out here and
always known of the trail

1121
00:52:56,715 --> 00:52:59,127
as kind of like an option
of something I could do.

1122
00:52:59,426 --> 00:53:00,546
I wanted something big to do

1123
00:53:00,636 --> 00:53:03,469
and typically when I'm
upset I go on a long walk.

1124
00:53:03,764 --> 00:53:06,346
So I decided to go on a really long walk.

1125
00:53:06,642 --> 00:53:07,642
So now I'm here.

1126
00:53:08,394 --> 00:53:11,386
Inspired by shaffer's 1948 hike,

1127
00:53:11,689 --> 00:53:15,147
long-distance backpacking began
to slowly gain popularity.

1128
00:53:15,442 --> 00:53:18,559
The numbers of thru-hikers
picked up very slowly.

1129
00:53:18,862 --> 00:53:22,855
The next person to do it was
a guy named gene espy in 1952.

1130
00:53:28,455 --> 00:53:32,619
In 1955, 67-year-old
Emma "grandma" gatewood

1131
00:53:32,918 --> 00:53:35,250
became the first woman
to thru-hike the trail.

1132
00:53:35,546 --> 00:53:38,458
Wearing tennis shoes and
carrying a bag rather than

1133
00:53:38,757 --> 00:53:42,375
a backpack and sleeping on a
lot of people's front porches,

1134
00:53:42,678 --> 00:53:45,135
not seeking publicity but
she got a lot of publicity.

1135
00:53:45,431 --> 00:53:47,467
She became a national figure.

1136
00:53:47,766 --> 00:53:50,883
I think that she gets probably more credit

1137
00:53:51,186 --> 00:53:54,269
than anyone else for popularizing the idea

1138
00:53:54,565 --> 00:53:56,146
of hiking the whole appalachian trail.

1139
00:53:56,442 --> 00:53:58,148
By the end of the 1960s,

1140
00:53:58,444 --> 00:54:02,232
less than 100 people had hiked
the entire appalachian trail.

1141
00:54:02,531 --> 00:54:05,819
Over 700 people hiked in the 1970s alone.

1142
00:54:06,118 --> 00:54:09,281
Since then, the number of
thru-hikers each decade

1143
00:54:12,499 --> 00:54:15,366
more and more people are
finding reasons to thru-hike.

1144
00:54:15,669 --> 00:54:18,160
So why'd you guys wanna do the trail?

1145
00:54:18,464 --> 00:54:19,954
That's a tough question.

1146
00:54:20,257 --> 00:54:23,249
I guess the main reason is I've never,

1147
00:54:23,552 --> 00:54:25,112
I've started a lot of things in my life

1148
00:54:25,137 --> 00:54:27,253
but I've never really completed something.

1149
00:54:27,556 --> 00:54:30,172
And I figured this would
be a pretty good thing

1150
00:54:30,476 --> 00:54:32,307
to start and finish.

1151
00:54:32,603 --> 00:54:34,706
The idea of hiking the
appalachian trail terrified me

1152
00:54:34,730 --> 00:54:36,015
so naturally I had to do it.

1153
00:54:36,940 --> 00:54:39,181
Well, I didn't really have
a whole lot of other things

1154
00:54:39,485 --> 00:54:40,600
to do, really.

1155
00:54:40,903 --> 00:54:43,360
I graduated college about a year ago

1156
00:54:44,406 --> 00:54:46,366
and I was an english major
so jobs weren't exactly

1157
00:54:46,533 --> 00:54:48,273
thrown my way or anything like that.

1158
00:54:48,577 --> 00:54:50,192
I just like to hike.

1159
00:54:50,496 --> 00:54:53,363
I know everybody's got like
a really big back story

1160
00:54:53,665 --> 00:54:56,372
sometimes but I just like to hike.

1161
00:54:56,668 --> 00:54:57,854
Regardless of their reasons

1162
00:54:57,878 --> 00:54:59,243
for starting the trail,

1163
00:54:59,546 --> 00:55:01,707
many hikers agree on their
least favorite section.

1164
00:55:02,007 --> 00:55:05,295
Pa was by far my least favorite state

1165
00:55:05,594 --> 00:55:07,300
right now, I guess at this point.

1166
00:55:07,596 --> 00:55:10,429
Every rock in northern
Pennsylvania is a point.

1167
00:55:10,724 --> 00:55:12,589
And all of 'em are like
that close together

1168
00:55:12,893 --> 00:55:15,430
and they're like embedded
into the ground so...

1169
00:55:15,729 --> 00:55:17,594
- And they move.
- No flat place to step,

1170
00:55:17,898 --> 00:55:20,389
it's all just spikes on the
bottoms of your feet all day.

1171
00:55:20,692 --> 00:55:21,397
I wanted to quit pretty much

1172
00:55:21,693 --> 00:55:23,093
the whole way through Pennsylvania.

1173
00:55:23,362 --> 00:55:25,398
My feet still hurt from the rocks.

1174
00:55:25,697 --> 00:55:27,938
I destroyed multiple pairs of inserts.

1175
00:55:28,242 --> 00:55:29,844
You're just worried
about rolling your ankle

1176
00:55:29,868 --> 00:55:31,763
the whole time and there's
not really much of a view

1177
00:55:31,787 --> 00:55:33,573
and the view you get is just farmland.

1178
00:55:33,872 --> 00:55:35,078
But the people were nice,

1179
00:55:35,374 --> 00:55:36,814
we had some really good trail magic.

1180
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:38,560
In fact, most of the trail

1181
00:55:38,627 --> 00:55:41,289
in Southern Pennsylvania
is through flat farmland.

1182
00:55:41,588 --> 00:55:44,751
- The last 50-ish miles?
- Yeah.

1183
00:55:45,050 --> 00:55:48,463
70 miles or so, that's rocksylvania.

1184
00:55:48,762 --> 00:55:51,122
The beginning of it I didn't
feel like was too bad actually.

1185
00:55:51,181 --> 00:55:52,325
- It wasn't terrible.
- And it was

1186
00:55:52,349 --> 00:55:54,385
super well maintained, I thought.

1187
00:55:54,685 --> 00:55:57,097
About 80 miles
north of the Mason-Dixon line

1188
00:55:57,396 --> 00:56:01,014
is the town of duncannon,
home to the Doyle hostel

1189
00:56:02,234 --> 00:56:04,350
and to the cabin, the only strip bar

1190
00:56:04,653 --> 00:56:06,268
located directly on the at.

1191
00:56:07,364 --> 00:56:09,946
North of duncannon is
the worst of the rocks.

1192
00:56:10,242 --> 00:56:12,053
The way the northbounders
would talk about it

1193
00:56:12,077 --> 00:56:15,285
was like, you know,
Pennsylvania was the worst!

1194
00:56:15,581 --> 00:56:17,446
At some point your sort
of just expected to see

1195
00:56:17,749 --> 00:56:19,114
northbounders impaled on the rocks

1196
00:56:19,418 --> 00:56:21,534
when you went through it
just 'cause it was so bad,

1197
00:56:21,837 --> 00:56:23,122
apparently, but I mean,

1198
00:56:24,548 --> 00:56:25,708
we were like, oh, this is it?

1199
00:56:25,799 --> 00:56:26,799
Oh, okay.

1200
00:56:28,510 --> 00:56:31,172
If I had any fun
with the rocks of Pennsylvania

1201
00:56:31,471 --> 00:56:34,133
it was during the climb up
the zinc superfund site,

1202
00:56:34,433 --> 00:56:37,049
the location of a former
zinc smelting operation

1203
00:56:37,352 --> 00:56:40,139
that left the side of
blue mountain defoliated.

1204
00:56:43,859 --> 00:56:45,315
Climbing the superfund site,

1205
00:56:45,611 --> 00:56:48,068
I felt as if I was living
through a true adventure.

1206
00:56:48,363 --> 00:56:49,853
My life is a video game.

1207
00:56:50,157 --> 00:56:52,273
Like I get to be out here in the world

1208
00:56:52,576 --> 00:56:53,065
and I'm walking it.

1209
00:56:53,368 --> 00:56:55,484
You know, it's like a
different adventure every day.

1210
00:56:55,787 --> 00:56:57,547
The site is located just outside

1211
00:56:57,664 --> 00:56:58,824
the town of palmerton.

1212
00:56:59,124 --> 00:57:01,035
When I hiked in 2014,

1213
00:57:01,335 --> 00:57:04,418
palmerton was a popular hiker rest stop.

1214
00:57:04,713 --> 00:57:06,874
But that was soon to change.

1215
00:57:09,551 --> 00:57:13,385
There are people out here
that are like serious hikers,

1216
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:14,385
people that are just enjoying it,

1217
00:57:14,681 --> 00:57:16,922
but then there's partiers.

1218
00:57:17,225 --> 00:57:19,216
Like there's people that you run into

1219
00:57:19,519 --> 00:57:21,680
that are just out to drink, you know,

1220
00:57:21,980 --> 00:57:25,438
hang out, smoke, not get
up and hike 'til 11 or 12

1221
00:57:25,734 --> 00:57:27,725
then, you know, not put in serious miles.

1222
00:57:28,028 --> 00:57:30,485
But that's whatever
you wanna do, you know?

1223
00:57:30,781 --> 00:57:32,191
To each their own, but, yeah.

1224
00:57:32,491 --> 00:57:33,571
I'm not out here to party.

1225
00:57:33,867 --> 00:57:36,358
Like there's a big party
culture on the trail.

1226
00:57:36,662 --> 00:57:38,422
Occasionally, that party culture

1227
00:57:38,705 --> 00:57:39,911
becomes a problem.

1228
00:57:40,207 --> 00:57:44,291
For 40 years, palmerton
allowed hikers to stay for free

1229
00:57:44,586 --> 00:57:45,951
in the town hall basement.

1230
00:57:46,254 --> 00:57:49,371
In 2015, the town ended that service

1231
00:57:49,675 --> 00:57:51,211
because of hiker behavior.

1232
00:57:51,510 --> 00:57:53,430
A lot of places
unfortunately, like in New York

1233
00:57:53,595 --> 00:57:56,302
and closer to new england
where there had been

1234
00:57:56,598 --> 00:57:58,964
camping available at
stores and stuff like that,

1235
00:57:59,267 --> 00:58:00,745
like behind garden centers and whatever,

1236
00:58:00,769 --> 00:58:02,430
but it was all closed to us.

1237
00:58:02,729 --> 00:58:04,290
The northbounders ruined it all for us.

1238
00:58:04,314 --> 00:58:05,375
- Or, you know, whoever.
- People ruined it.

1239
00:58:05,399 --> 00:58:06,889
- Yeah, yeah.
- Other hikers.

1240
00:58:07,192 --> 00:58:08,336
- Being irresponsible.
- Laundromats were like,

1241
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:10,567
no, some guy got naked
here, you can't clean

1242
00:58:10,862 --> 00:58:12,182
your clothes here anymore. Yeah.

1243
00:58:12,406 --> 00:58:15,569
In waynesboro, Virginia, there
was like a free ymca shower

1244
00:58:15,867 --> 00:58:17,573
and a free park where we could camp at

1245
00:58:17,869 --> 00:58:20,451
and some hikers got
drunk like a few nights

1246
00:58:20,747 --> 00:58:24,035
before I got there and ended
up like burning a tent down and

1247
00:58:25,502 --> 00:58:28,118
left like trash everywhere
that people had to clean up.

1248
00:58:28,422 --> 00:58:30,913
I don't really get how
people get so entitled.

1249
00:58:31,216 --> 00:58:33,207
Like we're just walking in the woods,

1250
00:58:33,510 --> 00:58:35,375
we can't come out and then, you know,

1251
00:58:35,679 --> 00:58:38,512
expect people to just give us things and

1252
00:58:38,807 --> 00:58:41,139
expect to be able to just get trashed

1253
00:58:41,435 --> 00:58:43,266
and make as much noise
and party everywhere.

1254
00:58:43,562 --> 00:58:44,872
Like some people really think that.

1255
00:58:44,896 --> 00:58:47,512
It seems like I've heard
more stories this year about

1256
00:58:50,277 --> 00:58:53,610
bad hikers and it's really
disheartening because

1257
00:58:54,865 --> 00:58:57,402
they're giving the other ones a bad name

1258
00:58:57,701 --> 00:58:59,737
and for the most part
people are really helpful,

1259
00:59:00,037 --> 00:59:02,744
really friendly, abide by the rules.

1260
00:59:04,416 --> 00:59:08,329
And it's just sad that some
hostels are having a hard time

1261
00:59:08,628 --> 00:59:10,914
with a bad egg or two.

1262
00:59:11,214 --> 00:59:12,214
- Yeah.
- Yeah.

1263
00:59:13,383 --> 00:59:14,383
New Jersey was great

1264
00:59:14,634 --> 00:59:17,046
'cause you get out of Pennsylvania
and it's just instantly

1265
00:59:17,345 --> 00:59:18,345
like way better.

1266
00:59:24,603 --> 00:59:26,434
While it has its share of views,

1267
00:59:26,730 --> 00:59:30,393
New Jersey is one of the lowest
states on the east coast.

1268
00:59:30,692 --> 00:59:32,307
Its highest point of elevation,

1269
00:59:32,611 --> 00:59:34,442
the appropriately-named high point,

1270
00:59:34,738 --> 00:59:37,946
is only about 1,800 feet above sea level.

1271
00:59:38,241 --> 00:59:40,607
The trail here runs close to civilization

1272
00:59:40,911 --> 00:59:43,197
but wild animal sightings are common.

1273
00:59:43,497 --> 00:59:44,703
Oh my gosh!

1274
00:59:44,998 --> 00:59:48,490
New Jersey has definitely
got some serious bear activity.

1275
00:59:48,794 --> 00:59:51,627
Black bears,
the only bears found near

1276
00:59:51,922 --> 00:59:53,503
the appalachian trail.

1277
00:59:53,799 --> 00:59:57,007
Unlike the grizzlies found
in the western United States,

1278
00:59:57,302 --> 00:59:59,008
black bears are rarely aggressive.

1279
00:59:59,304 --> 01:00:00,864
Bears will poke around here and there

1280
01:00:01,014 --> 01:00:03,005
but most of the time they're afraid of you

1281
01:00:03,308 --> 01:00:05,594
more than you are them and you
kinda yell and they'll run.

1282
01:00:05,894 --> 01:00:07,038
I've had a couple encounters where

1283
01:00:07,062 --> 01:00:08,518
they don't really wanna back off,

1284
01:00:08,814 --> 01:00:10,975
they get accustomed to people, our food.

1285
01:00:11,274 --> 01:00:13,481
There were these kinda comical

1286
01:00:13,777 --> 01:00:15,813
posters about a problem bear in the area.

1287
01:00:16,863 --> 01:00:19,730
So we sorta laughed at them,
somebody had a sharpie marker

1288
01:00:20,033 --> 01:00:22,649
and drew a pair of glasses
on one of the illustrations

1289
01:00:22,953 --> 01:00:24,443
so we were kinda laughing about it.

1290
01:00:25,372 --> 01:00:27,704
We get to the shelter, we take
all the proper precautions,

1291
01:00:27,999 --> 01:00:30,206
we hung our bags up on cables.

1292
01:00:30,502 --> 01:00:32,743
In the middle of the night
we hear this like ting ting

1293
01:00:33,046 --> 01:00:34,911
ting ting weird sound.

1294
01:00:35,215 --> 01:00:38,423
So immediately I think that
mice are getting into our packs.

1295
01:00:38,718 --> 01:00:40,321
So I wake up and I turned my headlamp on.

1296
01:00:40,345 --> 01:00:42,336
I'm like, "guys, guys, I think the mice

1297
01:00:42,639 --> 01:00:44,425
"are getting into our packs!"

1298
01:00:44,724 --> 01:00:46,284
And from the other side of the shelter,

1299
01:00:46,476 --> 01:00:48,057
another hiker turns his headlamp on

1300
01:00:48,353 --> 01:00:49,956
and he's got a view outside of the shelter

1301
01:00:49,980 --> 01:00:52,187
and he just goes, "that's a big mouse!"

1302
01:00:52,482 --> 01:00:55,770
And it turns out there was
a rather large black bear

1303
01:00:56,069 --> 01:00:58,481
just tugging on the cables.

1304
01:00:58,780 --> 01:01:00,820
And it had figured out that
if it tugged hard enough

1305
01:01:00,907 --> 01:01:02,738
it would break the crimp in the cable.

1306
01:01:03,034 --> 01:01:05,275
So all the sudden our
food falls to the ground.

1307
01:01:05,579 --> 01:01:07,740
It grabs our food bag,
we go into bear mode

1308
01:01:08,039 --> 01:01:10,621
so we're like taking our
pots and pans and just

1309
01:01:10,917 --> 01:01:12,748
yelling at it trying to scare it off.

1310
01:01:13,044 --> 01:01:16,377
The bear didn't care, it ended
up laying down in front of us

1311
01:01:16,673 --> 01:01:17,913
and eating our food.

1312
01:01:18,216 --> 01:01:21,629
So we got some camp fuel
and we lit the fire.

1313
01:01:21,928 --> 01:01:22,963
And it still didn't care,

1314
01:01:23,263 --> 01:01:25,675
it ate all of our food by firelight.

1315
01:01:27,100 --> 01:01:30,467
So we waited there,
kinda terrified all night

1316
01:01:30,770 --> 01:01:33,011
and there was another
guy sleeping in a tent

1317
01:01:33,315 --> 01:01:35,075
and we were able to get
him up to the shelter

1318
01:01:35,150 --> 01:01:37,391
just 'cause there's safety in numbers.

1319
01:01:37,694 --> 01:01:39,810
And the rest of the night we hear the bear

1320
01:01:40,113 --> 01:01:42,570
pulling on the bear cables
where his stuff is hung.

1321
01:01:43,825 --> 01:01:46,487
And then in the morning
as the sun's coming up,

1322
01:01:46,786 --> 01:01:49,493
we can see the bear still
pulling on the cables,

1323
01:01:49,789 --> 01:01:51,789
it sees that we're watching
it and it just gives up

1324
01:01:52,083 --> 01:01:53,664
'cause it can't get the food down.

1325
01:01:53,960 --> 01:01:55,621
And then it thrashed his tent.

1326
01:01:55,921 --> 01:01:56,921
It just tore it apart.

1327
01:01:58,173 --> 01:02:01,757
So basically we made
Spears and we tied our

1328
01:02:02,052 --> 01:02:04,759
leatherman knives to the
ends of sticks and stuff

1329
01:02:05,055 --> 01:02:08,388
and then we all hiked out,
you know, close together.

1330
01:02:08,683 --> 01:02:11,550
In the woods,
you're never completely alone.

1331
01:02:11,853 --> 01:02:13,844
Snakes, I've seen so many snakes.

1332
01:02:14,147 --> 01:02:14,806
- Snakes.
- Yeah.

1333
01:02:15,106 --> 01:02:17,893
I've seen an overabundance of the

1334
01:02:18,193 --> 01:02:20,559
black rat snakes all over the place,

1335
01:02:20,862 --> 01:02:22,542
like most of them have
been over four feet,

1336
01:02:22,614 --> 01:02:25,196
I think the biggest one
I saw was like six feet.

1337
01:02:25,492 --> 01:02:27,983
The black rat
snake may look intimidating,

1338
01:02:30,538 --> 01:02:32,494
however they are not venomous.

1339
01:02:32,791 --> 01:02:34,782
Rattlesnakes and copperheads are.

1340
01:02:35,085 --> 01:02:35,665
I was about four miles out from camp,

1341
01:02:35,961 --> 01:02:39,294
nobody was behind me,
and I hike in chacos

1342
01:02:39,589 --> 01:02:41,749
and I looked down and there
was a copperhead at my feet

1343
01:02:42,008 --> 01:02:44,750
and it like strikes at my foot

1344
01:02:45,053 --> 01:02:47,260
and I like just was
inches away from getting

1345
01:02:47,555 --> 01:02:48,761
bit by this copperhead.

1346
01:02:49,057 --> 01:02:51,594
I was on a lake with my camera

1347
01:02:51,893 --> 01:02:53,533
taking a picture and suddenly a guy said,

1348
01:02:53,770 --> 01:02:55,055
"please don't move."

1349
01:02:56,439 --> 01:02:58,270
I didn't move, I had my camera like that,

1350
01:02:58,566 --> 01:03:01,683
I looked between my legs
and was a copper rattlesnake

1351
01:03:01,987 --> 01:03:03,852
between my legs.

1352
01:03:04,155 --> 01:03:05,895
I stopped breathing, you know?

1353
01:03:06,199 --> 01:03:08,906
When it was three feet away, I breathed,

1354
01:03:09,202 --> 01:03:12,194
I turn back, there were
three other ready to strike.

1355
01:03:12,497 --> 01:03:15,785
I was in a den rattlesnake,
and I didn't see it coming!

1356
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:18,640
Maybe it's not hard to imagine

1357
01:03:18,753 --> 01:03:20,289
why some people think of the woods

1358
01:03:20,588 --> 01:03:23,000
as a place where danger
lurks around every corner.

1359
01:03:23,300 --> 01:03:24,980
The most shocking
comment I got was like,

1360
01:03:25,135 --> 01:03:26,466
"aren't you gonna bring a gun?

1361
01:03:26,761 --> 01:03:27,466
"It's so unsafe out here."

1362
01:03:27,762 --> 01:03:30,799
I'm like no, that's, a.
That's like 10 pounds

1363
01:03:31,099 --> 01:03:33,019
that I don't wanna carry.
Yeah, I have a little

1364
01:03:33,226 --> 01:03:35,057
Swiss army knife.
And b. That's just like

1365
01:03:35,353 --> 01:03:37,514
adding more risk of it going off.

1366
01:03:37,814 --> 01:03:39,270
- Yeah.
- And the whole thing

1367
01:03:39,566 --> 01:03:41,127
about the trail is you
wanna bring people together.

1368
01:03:41,151 --> 01:03:41,856
Yeah.

1369
01:03:42,152 --> 01:03:43,872
I saw one guy with a
gun and I was like...

1370
01:03:44,154 --> 01:03:44,643
Yeah.

1371
01:03:44,946 --> 01:03:46,132
I have an American friend
that kept on telling me

1372
01:03:46,156 --> 01:03:48,738
to get a gun for the bears.

1373
01:03:49,034 --> 01:03:50,649
But I didn't take it seriously.

1374
01:03:51,703 --> 01:03:53,183
We have bigger snakes in Australia.

1375
01:03:53,413 --> 01:03:54,853
- Yeah.
- They're more poisonous but,

1376
01:03:54,998 --> 01:03:56,534
lyme disease, I was scared,

1377
01:03:56,833 --> 01:03:57,492
I'm scared of that.
Yeah, we're worried.

1378
01:03:57,792 --> 01:03:59,407
I still am scared of lyme disease.

1379
01:03:59,711 --> 01:04:01,022
Transmitted through tick bite,

1380
01:04:01,046 --> 01:04:04,334
lyme disease is an infection
whose symptoms include:

1381
01:04:11,973 --> 01:04:14,180
Lyme disease can be
prevented with bug spray

1382
01:04:14,476 --> 01:04:16,216
and treated with antibiotics

1383
01:04:16,519 --> 01:04:18,180
but it has forced many a thru-hiker

1384
01:04:18,480 --> 01:04:19,890
temporarily off the trail.

1385
01:04:20,190 --> 01:04:21,805
I got one deer tick bite

1386
01:04:22,108 --> 01:04:23,588
so we'll see if that turns into lyme,

1387
01:04:23,818 --> 01:04:25,228
otherwise we'll be fine.

1388
01:04:25,528 --> 01:04:28,144
All of my female friends
were like bring a gun,

1389
01:04:28,448 --> 01:04:31,315
bring mace, like don't trust humans.

1390
01:04:32,660 --> 01:04:34,992
Fortunately,
violence committed by humans

1391
01:04:35,288 --> 01:04:37,119
is incredibly rare.

1392
01:04:37,415 --> 01:04:40,407
There have been less than 15
murders or attempted murders

1393
01:04:40,710 --> 01:04:44,248
reported along the appalachian
trail since its inception.

1394
01:04:44,547 --> 01:04:48,256
By comparison, the FBI
estimates there were over 15,000

1395
01:04:48,551 --> 01:04:52,794
murders committed across the
United States in 2015 alone.

1396
01:04:53,098 --> 01:04:56,090
In normal life, you
accept all these different

1397
01:04:56,393 --> 01:04:58,975
like potential causes of death.

1398
01:04:59,270 --> 01:05:01,352
You know, like you drive
your car all the time.

1399
01:05:01,648 --> 01:05:03,128
Same thing when you get on the trail,

1400
01:05:03,316 --> 01:05:06,274
it's like you accept the
fact that a bear could,

1401
01:05:06,569 --> 01:05:08,464
you could have some sort
of encounter with a bear

1402
01:05:08,488 --> 01:05:09,928
or you could get struck by lightning

1403
01:05:09,989 --> 01:05:11,909
or you could get squashed
by a tree but you just,

1404
01:05:12,117 --> 01:05:14,859
you accept the risks
and you don't constantly

1405
01:05:15,161 --> 01:05:16,761
live with them in the
front of your mind.

1406
01:05:17,038 --> 01:05:19,654
It's just a different
way of living, you know?

1407
01:05:19,958 --> 01:05:22,290
If there's scary things,
there's scary things.

1408
01:05:25,630 --> 01:05:27,191
Animal sightings
are all but guaranteed

1409
01:05:27,215 --> 01:05:28,955
in New York where the trail passes

1410
01:05:29,259 --> 01:05:31,591
right through the bear mountain zoo.

1411
01:05:35,181 --> 01:05:37,172
Also located directly on the trail

1412
01:05:37,475 --> 01:05:40,308
is a train that goes
straight into New York City.

1413
01:05:40,603 --> 01:05:42,003
I went to New York City for a day

1414
01:05:42,230 --> 01:05:45,973
but I got the hell out of there
as soon as I got in there.

1415
01:05:46,276 --> 01:05:48,062
I took the train in, I took the bus out.

1416
01:05:49,154 --> 01:05:51,215
Kinda like I'm
ready to get back in the woods

1417
01:05:51,239 --> 01:05:52,945
type thing? - Too expensive.

1418
01:05:54,325 --> 01:05:57,032
Can't ask anybody anything,
let's get outta here.

1419
01:05:57,328 --> 01:05:59,410
People go much more out
of their way on the trail

1420
01:05:59,706 --> 01:06:01,742
to be nice to you,
just random strangers,

1421
01:06:02,041 --> 01:06:03,269
which is not something you really get,

1422
01:06:03,293 --> 01:06:05,033
I think, in day-to-day life.

1423
01:06:05,336 --> 01:06:07,042
But it is a really big
part of the trail.

1424
01:06:07,338 --> 01:06:10,705
You meet all these
perfectly nice strangers

1425
01:06:11,009 --> 01:06:13,049
that will give you a place
to stay and give you food

1426
01:06:13,303 --> 01:06:16,010
and you trust them
within just meeting them

1427
01:06:16,306 --> 01:06:19,013
and that doesn't really
happen in the real world.

1428
01:06:19,309 --> 01:06:22,472
You don't take time to have conversations

1429
01:06:22,770 --> 01:06:26,183
and to get to know someone as
quickly as you do on the trail

1430
01:06:26,483 --> 01:06:30,101
because you don't have those
distractions around you.

1431
01:06:30,403 --> 01:06:32,234
The good in people comes out, I think.

1432
01:06:34,949 --> 01:06:36,985
I think most people
are naturally good but

1433
01:06:38,077 --> 01:06:39,942
in the city it's kind
of hard to be good,

1434
01:06:40,246 --> 01:06:41,406
I think, sometimes, honestly.

1435
01:06:45,210 --> 01:06:48,623
Like if I was in D.C. and
someone offered me a bananas

1436
01:06:48,922 --> 01:06:51,959
and oatmeal cream pies,
I'd probably walk away.

1437
01:06:52,258 --> 01:06:53,498
Call the cops, like, hey.

1438
01:06:53,801 --> 01:06:55,321
But on the trail it's
a whole different life.

1439
01:06:55,345 --> 01:06:57,802
As it's
closeness to the city implies,

1440
01:06:58,097 --> 01:07:00,804
the trail in New York is
often near civilization.

1441
01:07:01,100 --> 01:07:04,968
I was annoyed by the
constant sound of cars

1442
01:07:05,271 --> 01:07:06,852
as I was hiking through New York.

1443
01:07:08,316 --> 01:07:11,023
It seemed like I was
always near a freeway

1444
01:07:11,319 --> 01:07:14,937
and I think that detracted
from the wilderness experience.

1445
01:07:15,240 --> 01:07:16,842
You rather preferred
sleeping in the like

1446
01:07:16,866 --> 01:07:18,902
complete silence in
the middle of the woods

1447
01:07:19,202 --> 01:07:21,818
than somewhere where you
can hear the highway.

1448
01:07:23,206 --> 01:07:25,162
Though it's not always easy,

1449
01:07:25,458 --> 01:07:29,371
the atc works to preserve the
wilderness around the trail.

1450
01:07:29,671 --> 01:07:33,255
We were very involved
in having a proposed

1451
01:07:33,550 --> 01:07:37,008
huge casino development
in Southern New York

1452
01:07:37,303 --> 01:07:39,544
which would've been directly below

1453
01:07:39,847 --> 01:07:41,337
and very visible from the trail,

1454
01:07:41,641 --> 01:07:44,383
having that project rejected
by the state of New York,

1455
01:07:44,686 --> 01:07:46,768
which did approve some new casino sites.

1456
01:07:47,063 --> 01:07:49,975
This one was probably the
best-financed proposal

1457
01:07:50,275 --> 01:07:52,061
and it had the most opposition

1458
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:54,316
and a large piece of that
was because it would've

1459
01:07:54,612 --> 01:07:57,945
really degraded the
appalachian trail view shed.

1460
01:08:02,287 --> 01:08:04,568
Most thru-hikers
travel through Connecticut's

1461
01:08:04,622 --> 01:08:07,659
51 miles during the
hottest months of the year.

1462
01:08:07,959 --> 01:08:10,245
Connecticut, for me, was actually

1463
01:08:12,171 --> 01:08:14,787
the least favorable state that I was in

1464
01:08:15,091 --> 01:08:16,651
and partly that was due to the weather,

1465
01:08:16,801 --> 01:08:20,134
it was hot and humid when
I went through Connecticut.

1466
01:08:20,430 --> 01:08:22,136
The mosquitoes were bad.

1467
01:08:22,432 --> 01:08:23,432
Connecticut sucked.

1468
01:08:23,558 --> 01:08:25,558
Yeah, there were no...
Connecticut was the worst.

1469
01:08:25,810 --> 01:08:28,091
There were no views, it was
just pointless up and downs.

1470
01:08:28,313 --> 01:08:29,678
- Puds all day.
- The entire way.

1471
01:08:29,981 --> 01:08:32,688
- And the people hated us.
- Nobody wanted us there.

1472
01:08:32,984 --> 01:08:34,336
North of Connecticut,

1473
01:08:34,360 --> 01:08:36,601
the 90 miles of trail in Massachusetts

1474
01:08:36,904 --> 01:08:38,314
offer a similar experience.

1475
01:08:38,615 --> 01:08:40,446
Where you were like in the lowlands

1476
01:08:40,742 --> 01:08:43,028
and walking through swamps
and you couldn't stop,

1477
01:08:43,328 --> 01:08:44,328
it was awful.

1478
01:08:44,579 --> 01:08:47,992
Yeah I woke up with
my face, my upper lip

1479
01:08:48,291 --> 01:08:51,374
out past my nose one
morning from a spider bite.

1480
01:08:51,669 --> 01:08:53,876
In, that was in Massachusetts.
Pine swamp shelter.

1481
01:08:54,172 --> 01:08:56,379
- Pine swamp shelter.
- I'll never forget it.

1482
01:08:56,674 --> 01:08:58,027
That was in
Massachusetts, you said?

1483
01:08:58,051 --> 01:08:59,731
- I think so.
- Pine swamp was Connecticut.

1484
01:08:59,844 --> 01:09:00,503
- Oh was it?
- Oh wow, Connecticut.

1485
01:09:00,803 --> 01:09:02,239
Another reason to not like Connecticut.

1486
01:09:02,263 --> 01:09:04,049
Just another strike for Connecticut.

1487
01:09:06,684 --> 01:09:09,676
Massachusetts, I probably
would cut that state out

1488
01:09:09,979 --> 01:09:12,099
altogether, I don't know if
it's just when I was there

1489
01:09:12,190 --> 01:09:16,559
or what but the mosquitoes
were just horrendous

1490
01:09:16,861 --> 01:09:19,193
and I almost quit.

1491
01:09:19,489 --> 01:09:20,649
After coming all of that way.

1492
01:09:20,948 --> 01:09:22,748
The highest
peak in Massachusetts

1493
01:09:23,034 --> 01:09:24,034
is mount greylock.

1494
01:09:27,747 --> 01:09:32,081
At 3,400 feet, greylock is
one of the tallest mountains

1495
01:09:32,377 --> 01:09:33,583
in Southern new england

1496
01:09:33,878 --> 01:09:35,493
but it's little more than a hill

1497
01:09:35,797 --> 01:09:37,833
compared to the peaks to the north.

1498
01:09:38,132 --> 01:09:40,123
The trail in Vermont often reaches around

1499
01:09:40,426 --> 01:09:43,133
4,000 feet above sea level.

1500
01:09:43,429 --> 01:09:46,045
Mount killington, the
state's second-highest peak,

1501
01:09:46,349 --> 01:09:48,715
ascends 4,229 feet.

1502
01:09:51,145 --> 01:09:54,012
The southernmost 105
miles of appalachian trail

1503
01:09:54,315 --> 01:09:57,227
in Vermont are the same
as Vermont's long trail,

1504
01:09:57,527 --> 01:10:00,314
which stretches from
Massachusetts to Canada.

1505
01:10:00,613 --> 01:10:04,105
Completed in 1930, the
long trail predates the at

1506
01:10:04,409 --> 01:10:05,649
by seven years.

1507
01:10:05,952 --> 01:10:07,512
Vermont was probably the best so far,

1508
01:10:07,578 --> 01:10:08,909
just the mountaintops in Vermont,

1509
01:10:09,205 --> 01:10:11,205
it's really true to the
green mountain state thing.

1510
01:10:11,249 --> 01:10:13,329
They were gorgeous, there
were plants I'd never seen,

1511
01:10:13,501 --> 01:10:14,911
it was soft at the top.

1512
01:10:15,962 --> 01:10:18,123
I think Vermont was the best hiking,

1513
01:10:19,090 --> 01:10:21,877
the best trail, you could
hike and not worry about

1514
01:10:23,761 --> 01:10:25,592
I broke my finger in Vermont.

1515
01:10:25,888 --> 01:10:28,755
Vermont, for the most part,

1516
01:10:29,058 --> 01:10:31,891
looks like it hasn't been maintained

1517
01:10:32,186 --> 01:10:33,186
pretty much ever.

1518
01:10:33,438 --> 01:10:35,278
I mean, it looks like
they built the boardwalks

1519
01:10:35,481 --> 01:10:37,042
40 years ago and that was what happened,

1520
01:10:37,066 --> 01:10:38,266
that was it, that's the trail.

1521
01:10:38,401 --> 01:10:39,461
Some of 'em are so loose, you know,

1522
01:10:39,485 --> 01:10:41,942
you step on one side
and the other side comes

1523
01:10:42,238 --> 01:10:44,604
completely up, spikes and all!

1524
01:10:44,907 --> 01:10:47,273
She steps on one side and I
wasn't paying any attention.

1525
01:10:47,577 --> 01:10:50,239
And the other end flies up

1526
01:10:50,538 --> 01:10:52,119
and it hits me in the shin

1527
01:10:52,415 --> 01:10:54,827
and I just toppled over.
Face plants.

1528
01:10:55,126 --> 01:10:56,536
'Cause we were like moving along

1529
01:10:56,836 --> 01:10:58,676
and I was holding my
trekking poles in one hand

1530
01:10:58,838 --> 01:11:00,874
and I went to try and
ditch my trekking poles

1531
01:11:01,174 --> 01:11:03,381
before I fell and instead
I just got my hand

1532
01:11:03,676 --> 01:11:07,168
tangled up in it and
when I hit the board...

1533
01:11:07,472 --> 01:11:08,472
Ugh.

1534
01:11:08,514 --> 01:11:09,992
It like snapped this
finger all the way back.

1535
01:11:10,016 --> 01:11:12,723
You know, it was like swollen
but I checked it for movement

1536
01:11:13,019 --> 01:11:14,975
and made sure all the
joints bent and I was like,

1537
01:11:15,271 --> 01:11:16,311
okay, whatever, it's fine.

1538
01:11:16,439 --> 01:11:19,146
'Cause at that point I was
like bleeding all over my shin

1539
01:11:19,442 --> 01:11:21,774
and it was like already all swollen.

1540
01:11:22,069 --> 01:11:24,731
And the next day I woke up

1541
01:11:25,031 --> 01:11:27,147
and my finger was...
He's like wake up, wake up!

1542
01:11:27,450 --> 01:11:28,635
And I'm like what? It was huge.

1543
01:11:28,659 --> 01:11:30,137
And he's holding his finger
over my face and I'm like

1544
01:11:30,161 --> 01:11:32,243
oh god! - It was crazy.

1545
01:11:32,538 --> 01:11:34,153
It was like purple and yellow, I mean,

1546
01:11:34,457 --> 01:11:36,288
it was twice the size that it normally is.

1547
01:11:36,584 --> 01:11:39,576
It was hugely swollen.
But, yeah, boardwalks.

1548
01:11:39,879 --> 01:11:41,482
It's funny you
said you didn't think Vermont

1549
01:11:41,506 --> 01:11:43,484
was very well maintained
'cause the guy who came through

1550
01:11:43,508 --> 01:11:45,794
before said he thought it was
the best maintained state.

1551
01:11:48,596 --> 01:11:50,507
I remember it
basically as vermud.

1552
01:11:50,807 --> 01:11:51,992
Yeah, it was just muddy.

1553
01:11:52,016 --> 01:11:53,535
It's probably different for everybody,

1554
01:11:53,559 --> 01:11:54,578
you know, depending on what time of year

1555
01:11:54,602 --> 01:11:56,638
you go through there, I'm sure.

1556
01:11:56,938 --> 01:11:59,224
But I mean, when we went
through there, it rained

1557
01:11:59,524 --> 01:12:02,266
once a day and most of the
boardwalks were under water.

1558
01:12:06,614 --> 01:12:08,534
The trail
crosses into New Hampshire

1559
01:12:08,741 --> 01:12:10,777
through the town of Hanover...

1560
01:12:13,496 --> 01:12:15,202
Home of dartmouth college.

1561
01:12:15,498 --> 01:12:17,559
It sometimes can get the
reputation as being like a

1562
01:12:17,583 --> 01:12:19,164
snobbish town 'cause of dartmouth.

1563
01:12:21,254 --> 01:12:22,940
But everybody there was
just really nice to me.

1564
01:12:22,964 --> 01:12:24,829
I had a trail angel
that allowed me to stay

1565
01:12:25,132 --> 01:12:26,338
at her house for two days.

1566
01:12:26,634 --> 01:12:28,044
I actually got two free doughnuts

1567
01:12:28,344 --> 01:12:30,335
at the diner there in town.

1568
01:12:30,638 --> 01:12:33,254
You can get a free slice of
pizza at the ramunto's place.

1569
01:12:33,558 --> 01:12:37,301
Just a really nice town for
me, I had a good experience.

1570
01:12:37,603 --> 01:12:39,889
Hanover, with
its numerous trail angels,

1571
01:12:40,189 --> 01:12:41,850
is a perfect rest for hikers

1572
01:12:42,149 --> 01:12:44,891
before they enter the white mountains.

1573
01:12:48,364 --> 01:12:50,446
Nowhere else on the appalachian trail

1574
01:12:50,741 --> 01:12:52,231
has the potential for bad weather

1575
01:12:52,535 --> 01:12:54,215
like the white mountains of New Hampshire.

1576
01:12:54,287 --> 01:12:56,573
Once you got up on some of those peaks,

1577
01:12:56,873 --> 01:12:58,553
there's basically a chance of thunderstorm

1578
01:12:58,708 --> 01:13:01,415
after 2 P.M. any day,
anything can happen really.

1579
01:13:01,711 --> 01:13:03,063
So there's a couple of times in the whites

1580
01:13:03,087 --> 01:13:05,669
where I was forced off the
peak either by lightning or,

1581
01:13:05,965 --> 01:13:08,456
you know, raining sideways or hail,

1582
01:13:08,759 --> 01:13:10,590
even on like an 80-degree day.

1583
01:13:11,470 --> 01:13:13,131
Coming down into the Madison hut

1584
01:13:13,431 --> 01:13:14,637
it started sleeting on us.

1585
01:13:14,932 --> 01:13:16,388
It was bad, super icy.

1586
01:13:16,684 --> 01:13:19,676
I think it took us like a half
hour to do 0.2 or something,

1587
01:13:19,979 --> 01:13:21,310
something crazy like that.

1588
01:13:21,606 --> 01:13:24,723
New Hampshire, the whites,
was the most difficult

1589
01:13:25,026 --> 01:13:28,439
thing I've ever done, physically
and mentally in my life.

1590
01:13:28,738 --> 01:13:32,196
We had about seven days
of rain and temperatures

1591
01:13:32,491 --> 01:13:34,231
in the high 30s and low 40s.

1592
01:13:34,535 --> 01:13:37,527
It was tough but I loved it though.

1593
01:13:37,830 --> 01:13:39,224
It was just like being in a giant cloud,

1594
01:13:39,248 --> 01:13:41,614
that was the whites for me.

1595
01:13:44,587 --> 01:13:46,267
Even when the weather is good,

1596
01:13:46,505 --> 01:13:47,711
steep and rocky terrain

1597
01:13:48,007 --> 01:13:50,419
makes for some of the most
difficult hiking on the at.

1598
01:13:53,596 --> 01:13:55,461
The whites were very challenging.

1599
01:13:55,765 --> 01:13:57,801
It's harder to go long miles in the whites

1600
01:13:58,100 --> 01:14:00,091
because of the steep terrain.

1601
01:14:00,394 --> 01:14:04,558
But my favorite views were
definitely in the whites,

1602
01:14:04,857 --> 01:14:06,177
particularly the Southern whites,

1603
01:14:06,233 --> 01:14:08,019
I thought were just absolutely gorgeous.

1604
01:14:08,319 --> 01:14:10,310
Some of the
most impressive views

1605
01:14:10,613 --> 01:14:12,478
are seen from franconia Ridge

1606
01:14:12,782 --> 01:14:15,068
and from the mountains of
the presidential range,

1607
01:14:15,368 --> 01:14:17,609
most famously, mount Washington.

1608
01:14:22,792 --> 01:14:25,374
At 6,289 feet,

1609
01:14:25,670 --> 01:14:28,537
mount Washington is the
highest of the white mountains.

1610
01:14:28,839 --> 01:14:31,171
In the winter, the peak
can see temperatures

1611
01:14:31,467 --> 01:14:34,174
as low as -36 degrees fahrenheit

1612
01:14:34,470 --> 01:14:38,839
with a windchill of -94, colder
than the surface of Mars.

1613
01:14:39,141 --> 01:14:42,474
But in the summer, it is a
popular tourist destination.

1614
01:14:43,813 --> 01:14:46,976
I enjoyed mount Washington

1615
01:14:47,274 --> 01:14:50,562
although I felt a bit on display

1616
01:14:50,861 --> 01:14:51,880
'cause there's so many tourists

1617
01:14:51,904 --> 01:14:54,020
and they're all looking at you sideways.

1618
01:14:55,533 --> 01:14:57,740
You get to the top of mount Washington

1619
01:14:58,035 --> 01:15:00,492
and you're on top of this amazing mountain

1620
01:15:00,788 --> 01:15:02,904
and there's like electronic doors

1621
01:15:03,207 --> 01:15:05,368
and like people payinglfor
overpriced pizza.

1622
01:15:05,668 --> 01:15:07,249
And it was really funny.

1623
01:15:07,545 --> 01:15:09,745
To see less
commercialized white mountains,

1624
01:15:09,964 --> 01:15:11,500
on foot is the only way to travel.

1625
01:15:11,799 --> 01:15:13,664
Once you get above treeline it's

1626
01:15:13,968 --> 01:15:16,926
so fun and exciting that
you don't really even notice

1627
01:15:17,221 --> 01:15:18,586
how hard it actually is.

1628
01:15:18,889 --> 01:15:21,426
I thought Southern Maine was
way harder than the whites.

1629
01:15:23,602 --> 01:15:26,389
The most challenging
part of the trail is Maine.

1630
01:15:26,689 --> 01:15:29,601
And when you're a southbound,
the further challenge is

1631
01:15:29,900 --> 01:15:32,642
starting with that,
it's a baptism by fire.

1632
01:15:32,945 --> 01:15:35,778
It's just so brutal,
the terrain is so brutal.

1633
01:15:36,073 --> 01:15:37,676
I think it took me
like an hour and a half

1634
01:15:37,700 --> 01:15:39,031
to do the mahoosuc notch.

1635
01:15:41,912 --> 01:15:44,528
The mahoosuc notch was like this amazing

1636
01:15:44,832 --> 01:15:45,832
jungle gym for hikers.

1637
01:15:46,042 --> 01:15:47,748
I loved it, other people hate it.

1638
01:15:48,044 --> 01:15:50,205
For me it was just one
of the most fun miles

1639
01:15:50,504 --> 01:15:52,085
I've ever hiked anywhere.

1640
01:15:52,381 --> 01:15:54,621
The most difficult section
is mahoosuc notch, you know?

1641
01:15:54,675 --> 01:15:57,337
And that year, I learned
at monson shelter,

1642
01:15:57,636 --> 01:16:01,049
that a blind man did it
with the help of two others.

1643
01:16:01,348 --> 01:16:03,160
I don't know if you know
the mahoosuc notch, you

1644
01:16:03,184 --> 01:16:06,676
have big holes and a guy
was trusting his fellow,

1645
01:16:06,979 --> 01:16:10,187
put your hand there, your
feet, if not, you fall.

1646
01:16:14,153 --> 01:16:15,689
He's quite crazy, I think.

1647
01:16:15,988 --> 01:16:18,445
What I didn't like was
mahoosuc's arm afterwards

1648
01:16:18,741 --> 01:16:20,381
where you have to go up that massive hill

1649
01:16:20,451 --> 01:16:21,657
straight after the notch.

1650
01:16:23,829 --> 01:16:26,241
I mean, it's hard but you
climb over all these peaks

1651
01:16:26,540 --> 01:16:27,825
and you have awesome views.

1652
01:16:30,169 --> 01:16:31,813
It's really beautiful
and it's quite different

1653
01:16:31,837 --> 01:16:33,543
to the rest of the trail, I found.

1654
01:16:33,839 --> 01:16:35,999
Those roots and rocks are a
bit challenging in the rain

1655
01:16:36,092 --> 01:16:38,048
but apart from that, I
thought it was stunning

1656
01:16:38,344 --> 01:16:40,710
and Maine really does a beautiful pond.

1657
01:16:41,013 --> 01:16:42,173
I love the ponds up here.

1658
01:16:49,021 --> 01:16:51,512
Some of the most
spectacular ponds in Maine

1659
01:16:51,816 --> 01:16:54,148
are seen from the peaks
of the bigelow mountains

1660
01:16:54,443 --> 01:16:55,774
such as Avery peak,

1661
01:16:56,070 --> 01:16:58,436
named for the great trail builder himself.

1662
01:16:58,739 --> 01:17:02,732
Upon the trail's 1937
completion, myron Avery wrote,

1663
01:17:17,508 --> 01:17:21,922
In 1952, myron Avery
died at the age of 53.

1664
01:17:22,221 --> 01:17:24,883
The task of preserving
the trail passed to others

1665
01:17:25,182 --> 01:17:27,218
and new challenges presented themselves.

1666
01:17:27,518 --> 01:17:29,634
After world war il, and
certainly as we pushed on

1667
01:17:29,937 --> 01:17:32,303
into the 1960s, the 1970s,

1668
01:17:32,606 --> 01:17:34,392
there was a lot of subdivision

1669
01:17:34,692 --> 01:17:37,434
of rural lands, farmland, forest land,

1670
01:17:37,736 --> 01:17:39,772
places where the at had been for,

1671
01:17:40,072 --> 01:17:41,983
in some cases, several decades.

1672
01:17:42,283 --> 01:17:45,696
That has resulted inlthe
necessity to have a

1673
01:17:45,995 --> 01:17:48,987
publicly-owned and
permanently-protected footpath.

1674
01:17:49,290 --> 01:17:51,497
In 1968, congress passed

1675
01:17:51,792 --> 01:17:53,657
the national trails system act.

1676
01:17:53,961 --> 01:17:55,667
Upon signing the act into law,

1677
01:17:55,963 --> 01:17:58,705
president lyndon Johnson
spoke of a desire to,

1678
01:18:03,762 --> 01:18:06,219
The appalachian trail and
the pacific crest trail

1679
01:18:06,515 --> 01:18:08,426
became the first two
trails to be designated

1680
01:18:08,726 --> 01:18:09,932
for federal protection.

1681
01:18:10,227 --> 01:18:13,560
As of 2018, there are 11
national scenic trails

1682
01:18:13,856 --> 01:18:14,856
in the United States.

1683
01:18:14,982 --> 01:18:17,689
Congress, in 1978, came back and said,

1684
01:18:17,985 --> 01:18:21,773
to the national park service,
you need to protect this trail

1685
01:18:22,072 --> 01:18:25,360
for the use of future
generations and you need to do it

1686
01:18:25,659 --> 01:18:27,650
by buying land because
that's the only way

1687
01:18:27,953 --> 01:18:29,784
we can guarantee that protection.

1688
01:18:30,080 --> 01:18:31,308
And they said we're gonna give you money

1689
01:18:31,332 --> 01:18:33,869
to do a very ambitious
land acquisition project.

1690
01:18:34,168 --> 01:18:35,437
And that's what the park service

1691
01:18:35,461 --> 01:18:37,577
and to some extent the us forest service

1692
01:18:37,880 --> 01:18:40,792
and also certain states like Pennsylvania

1693
01:18:41,091 --> 01:18:43,582
and Massachusetts and
Maryland and New Jersey

1694
01:18:43,886 --> 01:18:46,878
have collaborated with the
federal government to do

1695
01:18:47,181 --> 01:18:48,967
to the point where today

1696
01:18:49,266 --> 01:18:52,804
the trail is 2,189 miles long.

1697
01:18:53,103 --> 01:18:56,391
Over 99% of that is on public lands

1698
01:18:56,690 --> 01:18:58,100
and is permanently protected.

1699
01:18:58,400 --> 01:19:00,766
The national
park service and the atc

1700
01:19:01,070 --> 01:19:03,561
have a special government
to nonprofit relationship.

1701
01:19:03,864 --> 01:19:06,697
When they made that
big decision to accept

1702
01:19:06,992 --> 01:19:09,950
government money and allow
the government into the trail

1703
01:19:11,956 --> 01:19:13,662
they were concerned that,

1704
01:19:13,958 --> 01:19:17,667
you know, the government would
come in and control things.

1705
01:19:17,962 --> 01:19:21,625
And so they signed this
agreement, you know, back in 1984.

1706
01:19:21,924 --> 01:19:23,360
According to the agreement,

1707
01:19:23,384 --> 01:19:26,592
the national park service only
handles government functions

1708
01:19:26,887 --> 01:19:29,344
that can't be delegated,
including those regarding:

1709
01:19:35,813 --> 01:19:38,304
The government allows the atc to remain

1710
01:19:38,607 --> 01:19:40,689
the primary managers of the trail.

1711
01:19:40,985 --> 01:19:43,852
In 2005, the appalachian
trail conference

1712
01:19:44,154 --> 01:19:45,194
decided to change its name

1713
01:19:45,489 --> 01:19:47,195
to the appalachian trail conservancy.

1714
01:19:47,491 --> 01:19:50,449
We wanted to be clear thatlour mission went
beyond

1715
01:19:50,744 --> 01:19:53,030
just the management of the trail

1716
01:19:53,330 --> 01:19:54,786
and the maintenance of the trail

1717
01:19:55,082 --> 01:19:57,744
but also went to the long-term
protection of the trail,

1718
01:19:58,043 --> 01:19:59,749
the conservation of the trail.

1719
01:20:00,045 --> 01:20:03,833
Atc has had a major role, leading role,

1720
01:20:04,133 --> 01:20:07,591
in lobbying congress and a
number of administrations

1721
01:20:07,886 --> 01:20:11,094
to make protecting the
appalachian trail a high priority

1722
01:20:11,390 --> 01:20:14,382
and to get the best possible
route for the trail.

1723
01:20:17,187 --> 01:20:18,999
During Benton
mackaye and myron Avery's

1724
01:20:19,023 --> 01:20:22,231
argument over skyline
drive, Avery rightly noted

1725
01:20:22,526 --> 01:20:23,846
that the road was not interfering

1726
01:20:24,028 --> 01:20:27,111
with the wilderness trail
because the appalachian trail

1727
01:20:27,406 --> 01:20:29,442
was never a path through true wilderness.

1728
01:20:29,742 --> 01:20:31,198
The one thing about the trail

1729
01:20:31,493 --> 01:20:34,826
I probably didn't really understand was

1730
01:20:35,122 --> 01:20:38,956
it's just not as remote as you
think it's gonna be, for me.

1731
01:20:39,251 --> 01:20:41,833
I was really in the
mindset of you gotta bring,

1732
01:20:42,129 --> 01:20:45,087
you know, a back up for
this and well what if you're

1733
01:20:45,382 --> 01:20:48,044
out there and this, and
the reality of it is,

1734
01:20:48,344 --> 01:20:50,551
you know, every five to
10 miles there's a road

1735
01:20:50,846 --> 01:20:53,963
that leads a couple miles to
some kind of a town or store.

1736
01:20:54,266 --> 01:20:55,952
The longest
stretch of wilderness on the at

1737
01:20:55,976 --> 01:20:58,934
is the 100 mile wilderness
in northern Maine.

1738
01:20:59,229 --> 01:21:01,686
If you could take one
section of the trail

1739
01:21:01,982 --> 01:21:05,520
and encapsulate it as
the broader experience

1740
01:21:05,819 --> 01:21:07,650
of what the trail is like,

1741
01:21:07,946 --> 01:21:10,813
I think this is probably the best example

1742
01:21:11,116 --> 01:21:13,983
because you've got your,
you know, your rock climbs,

1743
01:21:14,286 --> 01:21:16,117
you have the roots, the mud,

1744
01:21:16,413 --> 01:21:19,120
the fording, it has it all in 100 miles.

1745
01:21:19,416 --> 01:21:21,782
The only major
fords on the at are in Maine

1746
01:21:22,086 --> 01:21:23,951
and multiple rivers cross the trail

1747
01:21:24,254 --> 01:21:26,085
in the 100 mile wilderness.

1748
01:21:30,260 --> 01:21:31,260
Oh no!

1749
01:21:32,805 --> 01:21:34,485
I was gonna say, you
made that look so easy

1750
01:21:34,515 --> 01:21:35,004
with shoes on.

1751
01:21:35,307 --> 01:21:35,796
I shouldn't
have let go of the rope

1752
01:21:36,100 --> 01:21:37,385
is the thing. - Aw, damn.

1753
01:21:38,977 --> 01:21:41,810
- The rocks and the roots.
- Yeah.

1754
01:21:42,106 --> 01:21:43,506
It's been taking a lot out of me.

1755
01:21:43,690 --> 01:21:44,896
I think everybody's shoes are,

1756
01:21:45,192 --> 01:21:48,025
like the tread is not
as great as it has been.

1757
01:21:48,320 --> 01:21:50,811
So everybody's just
slipping all over the place.

1758
01:21:51,115 --> 01:21:52,730
Walking over 2,000 miles

1759
01:21:53,033 --> 01:21:55,319
takes its toll on both
equipment and the body

1760
01:21:55,619 --> 01:21:58,201
and many thru-hikers go
through the wilderness

1761
01:21:58,497 --> 01:21:59,907
eager to finish their journey.

1762
01:22:00,207 --> 01:22:01,967
I think it could have
been done in 50 miles

1763
01:22:02,167 --> 01:22:04,078
and skip a lot of the lakes.

1764
01:22:04,378 --> 01:22:06,289
The lakes are cool and all but

1765
01:22:06,588 --> 01:22:09,421
I feel like at this point
people would rather just

1766
01:22:09,716 --> 01:22:11,081
go straight through.

1767
01:22:13,929 --> 01:22:15,669
By early October, it's time for

1768
01:22:15,973 --> 01:22:19,090
northbound hikers to finish
or risk the winter weather.

1769
01:22:24,648 --> 01:22:26,309
"Man is born to die.

1770
01:22:28,610 --> 01:22:29,850
"His works are short lived.

1771
01:22:30,154 --> 01:22:34,397
"Buildings crumble, monuments
decay and wealth vanishes

1772
01:22:34,700 --> 01:22:37,032
"but katahdin, in all its glory,

1773
01:22:37,327 --> 01:22:40,911
"forever shall remain the
mountain of the people of Maine."

1774
01:22:41,206 --> 01:22:43,071
So wrote governor percival Baxter,

1775
01:22:43,375 --> 01:22:46,242
the man who, in 1930,
bought mount katahdin

1776
01:22:46,545 --> 01:22:48,877
and its surroundings
for the state of Maine.

1777
01:22:50,007 --> 01:22:52,874
Today, the highest peak of
Maine's highest mountain

1778
01:22:53,177 --> 01:22:55,088
is named in his honor.

1779
01:23:01,143 --> 01:23:03,600
Baxter peak is also the northern terminus

1780
01:23:03,896 --> 01:23:05,136
of the appalachian trail.

1781
01:23:07,191 --> 01:23:08,431
I hope this works.

1782
01:23:10,736 --> 01:23:13,227
Named by the
penobscot indigenous people,

1783
01:23:13,530 --> 01:23:16,567
katahdin means "the greatest mountain.”

1784
01:23:16,867 --> 01:23:18,357
The trail here is strenuous

1785
01:23:18,660 --> 01:23:20,867
but every hand-over-hand
scramble is worth it.

1786
01:23:27,461 --> 01:23:29,201
As early as September,

1787
01:23:29,505 --> 01:23:32,622
katahdin's upper reaches
can be covered by hoarfrost.

1788
01:23:35,802 --> 01:23:38,384
This was the weather when I
first climbed the mountain.

1789
01:23:43,685 --> 01:23:46,927
The next year, I returned
to climb the mountain again,

1790
01:23:47,231 --> 01:23:49,768
accompanying my dad for the
end of his own thru-hike.

1791
01:23:50,067 --> 01:23:52,729
- Woo!
- Yeah.

1792
01:23:55,322 --> 01:23:56,858
Up on the tablelands.

1793
01:23:57,157 --> 01:23:59,443
At the tableland,
the terrain levels off

1794
01:23:59,743 --> 01:24:03,861
for the northernmost 1.6 miles
of the appalachian trail.

1795
01:24:07,626 --> 01:24:08,832
Congratulations!

1796
01:24:13,882 --> 01:24:15,964
After nearly 2,200 miles,

1797
01:24:16,260 --> 01:24:20,299
the journey of many a thru-hiker
ends here at Baxter peak.

1798
01:24:23,559 --> 01:24:24,559
Yup!

1799
01:24:51,712 --> 01:24:54,374
I had never done any kind
of long-distance backpacking

1800
01:24:54,673 --> 01:24:57,631
before this and most of these
other people haven't either

1801
01:24:57,926 --> 01:24:59,006
and

1802
01:24:59,303 --> 01:25:01,009
just to

1803
01:25:01,305 --> 01:25:04,217
push myself when things got hard,

1804
01:25:04,516 --> 01:25:07,599
I used to quit everything I've ever done

1805
01:25:07,894 --> 01:25:08,894
except for college.

1806
01:25:10,188 --> 01:25:13,897
So it was nice to see
that I could push myself

1807
01:25:14,192 --> 01:25:15,712
to actually finish something for once.

1808
01:25:15,944 --> 01:25:17,338
What are you gonna miss about

1809
01:25:17,362 --> 01:25:20,900
life on the trail when you go back to

1810
01:25:21,199 --> 01:25:22,609
the world? Well, I'm gonna miss

1811
01:25:23,869 --> 01:25:27,202
how nice people are, people
are so wonderful on the trail.

1812
01:25:27,497 --> 01:25:29,909
People out here are awesome.

1813
01:25:30,208 --> 01:25:33,291
I mean, you get the variety
that have done nothing

1814
01:25:33,587 --> 01:25:35,868
with their lives that just
choose one day to go out there,

1815
01:25:36,048 --> 01:25:38,255
there are college kids procrastinating,

1816
01:25:38,550 --> 01:25:40,916
there are also old war vets
that are on their third time

1817
01:25:41,219 --> 01:25:44,006
hiking this trail and they're
all mashed up into this

1818
01:25:44,306 --> 01:25:44,795
lovely little group.

1819
01:25:45,098 --> 01:25:46,534
I mean there's so many
different walks of life

1820
01:25:46,558 --> 01:25:49,015
represented here, people
that you wouldn't normally

1821
01:25:49,311 --> 01:25:52,144
talk to or get a chance to meet
or commune with like at all.

1822
01:25:52,439 --> 01:25:53,958
And I think that that's
the most valuable part

1823
01:25:53,982 --> 01:25:55,001
of the whole trail experience.

1824
01:25:55,025 --> 01:25:57,016
I think I'm friends with a lot,

1825
01:25:57,319 --> 01:25:58,399
a lot more different people

1826
01:25:58,487 --> 01:25:59,847
than I would be in the real world,

1827
01:26:00,113 --> 01:26:02,650
in terms of like age difference and like,

1828
01:26:02,949 --> 01:26:04,860
I don't know, personality type or...

1829
01:26:05,160 --> 01:26:06,240
Yeah.

1830
01:26:06,536 --> 01:26:07,536
Whatever.

1831
01:26:07,579 --> 01:26:09,661
- Political beliefs.
- Yeah, die free!

1832
01:26:10,624 --> 01:26:11,329
We love him!

1833
01:26:11,625 --> 01:26:13,911
Like one of my closest
friends on the trail

1834
01:26:14,211 --> 01:26:17,419
is this like really intense libertarian,

1835
01:26:17,714 --> 01:26:20,034
he's gonna hate me for saying
this, bro from New Hampshire.

1836
01:26:20,092 --> 01:26:21,298
And it's like,

1837
01:26:21,593 --> 01:26:23,113
me and him could not be more different

1838
01:26:25,722 --> 01:26:28,384
and we're tight, he's great.

1839
01:26:28,684 --> 01:26:30,094
We get on really well.

1840
01:26:30,394 --> 01:26:32,305
There's not a lot of fluff, you know?

1841
01:26:32,604 --> 01:26:34,219
There's not a lot of extraneous

1842
01:26:34,523 --> 01:26:37,310
unimportant societal, you know,

1843
01:26:37,609 --> 01:26:42,023
facets that often times
I think get in the way of

1844
01:26:42,322 --> 01:26:43,983
more genuine human interaction.

1845
01:26:44,282 --> 01:26:46,273
Trail magic
is another vital part

1846
01:26:46,576 --> 01:26:47,065
of the trail community.

1847
01:26:47,369 --> 01:26:50,281
This is awesome, a blessing today.

1848
01:26:50,580 --> 01:26:52,260
I learned that all the things I was told

1849
01:26:52,374 --> 01:26:54,911
when I was a child about
strangers are totally wrong.

1850
01:26:55,210 --> 01:26:56,210
Always take...

1851
01:26:56,461 --> 01:26:57,997
Don't do what your mother tells you.

1852
01:26:58,296 --> 01:26:59,661
Yeah, you always accept candy,

1853
01:26:59,965 --> 01:27:02,581
always accept rides in white panel vans.

1854
01:27:04,678 --> 01:27:06,447
If someone invites you to
take a shower at their house,

1855
01:27:06,471 --> 01:27:07,677
the answer is yes. - Yes!

1856
01:27:07,973 --> 01:27:12,262
After 40 years of work, I got
where I almost hated people.

1857
01:27:12,561 --> 01:27:15,974
I've had so many nice people
that I met on the trail,

1858
01:27:16,273 --> 01:27:20,107
so many, it's kinda
renewed my faith in people.

1859
01:27:20,402 --> 01:27:21,754
That's been a great
thing and it's made me,

1860
01:27:21,778 --> 01:27:23,188
it's making me a better person.

1861
01:27:23,488 --> 01:27:28,073
Over the last couple days
in the 100 mile wilderness

1862
01:27:28,368 --> 01:27:31,405
I was thinking back and reflecting,

1863
01:27:31,705 --> 01:27:36,165
thinking about all the people
who are responsible for

1864
01:27:36,460 --> 01:27:39,202
making the appalachian
trail what it is today.

1865
01:27:39,504 --> 01:27:43,292
Of course, Benton mackaye
who conceived the idea.

1866
01:27:43,592 --> 01:27:46,755
And myron Avery who
performed one of the

1867
01:27:47,053 --> 01:27:51,467
truly superhuman feats in
conservation slash recreation

1868
01:27:51,767 --> 01:27:55,055
history with the initial
building of the trail.

1869
01:27:55,353 --> 01:27:58,766
But all the thousands and
thousands of volunteers

1870
01:27:59,065 --> 01:28:01,306
who come out every
year, year after year,

1871
01:28:01,610 --> 01:28:04,397
decade after decade
to maintain the trail,

1872
01:28:04,696 --> 01:28:06,402
maintain the shelters

1873
01:28:06,698 --> 01:28:08,359
and make it what it is today.

1874
01:28:08,658 --> 01:28:13,448
And as I finish my thru-hike,
I feel a strong calling

1875
01:28:14,498 --> 01:28:15,908
to give back to the trail.

1876
01:28:16,208 --> 01:28:19,416
Having hiked 2,200 miles almost,

1877
01:28:19,711 --> 01:28:23,078
I still have a lot of energy
and a lot of enthusiasm

1878
01:28:23,381 --> 01:28:26,464
for the trail and I'm determined to

1879
01:28:26,760 --> 01:28:31,504
go and help out, make this
trail an even better trail

1880
01:28:31,807 --> 01:28:35,095
for the next generation
of hikers to come along.

1881
01:28:35,393 --> 01:28:37,600
Hikers give
back to the at community

1882
01:28:37,896 --> 01:28:40,387
by becoming involved with the 31 clubs

1883
01:28:40,690 --> 01:28:41,690
that maintain the trail.

1884
01:28:41,858 --> 01:28:44,315
98% percent of the work
is being done by volunteers

1885
01:28:44,611 --> 01:28:45,611
through these clubs.

1886
01:28:47,614 --> 01:28:49,024
We couldn't do,

1887
01:28:49,324 --> 01:28:51,440
we couldn't do what we
do without the clubs.

1888
01:28:51,743 --> 01:28:54,155
Not only do they manage
the trail on a daily

1889
01:28:54,454 --> 01:28:56,615
and weekly basis, but
they're our eyes and ears

1890
01:28:56,915 --> 01:28:58,576
that are out there on the trail.

1891
01:28:58,875 --> 01:29:00,285
They're suggesting where the trail

1892
01:29:00,585 --> 01:29:02,041
might need to be relocated.

1893
01:29:02,337 --> 01:29:03,648
They're looking at the boundaries,

1894
01:29:03,672 --> 01:29:05,913
they're watching for
inappropriate uses of the trail.

1895
01:29:06,216 --> 01:29:07,752
As trail use increases,

1896
01:29:08,051 --> 01:29:10,383
volunteers become more
and more important.

1897
01:29:10,679 --> 01:29:12,840
Well that certain wear
and tear on the trail,

1898
01:29:13,139 --> 01:29:15,380
but more importantly,
just imagine the impacts

1899
01:29:15,684 --> 01:29:17,220
on overnight use.

1900
01:29:17,519 --> 01:29:18,975
On, you know, shelter sites,

1901
01:29:19,271 --> 01:29:21,057
camp sites, backcountry sanitation,

1902
01:29:21,356 --> 01:29:23,722
I mean, all of those are
gonna be bigger challenges.

1903
01:29:27,529 --> 01:29:29,269
One, two three.

1904
01:29:30,657 --> 01:29:34,570
Okay, that's good, now just slide it,

1905
01:29:35,704 --> 01:29:36,739
slide it towards...

1906
01:29:40,917 --> 01:29:43,033
The future
of the appalachian trail

1907
01:29:43,336 --> 01:29:45,918
depends on the trail
clubs and trail community.

1908
01:29:46,214 --> 01:29:48,500
This trail's beautiful,
I need to pinch myself.

1909
01:29:48,800 --> 01:29:50,540
Things like that can be taken away,

1910
01:29:50,844 --> 01:29:52,505
we need to make sure
that doesn't happen.

1911
01:29:52,804 --> 01:29:55,420
- We have all kinds of
threats: Subdivisions,

1912
01:29:55,724 --> 01:29:59,182
new towns being developed in
valleys next to the trail,

1913
01:29:59,477 --> 01:30:02,685
gas pipelines, wind towers,
these are things we face

1914
01:30:02,981 --> 01:30:05,222
almost daily, so the
integrity of the trail

1915
01:30:05,525 --> 01:30:09,188
is always at stake and atc, communities

1916
01:30:09,487 --> 01:30:10,727
that work closely with the atc,

1917
01:30:10,947 --> 01:30:13,313
our trail clubs and other
conservation groups,

1918
01:30:13,617 --> 01:30:16,154
are united to try to protect this trail

1919
01:30:16,453 --> 01:30:17,533
for future generations.

1920
01:30:17,829 --> 01:30:20,115
In his plan
for a barbarian utopia,

1921
01:30:20,415 --> 01:30:22,701
Benton mackaye envisioned
it as a means of connecting

1922
01:30:23,001 --> 01:30:24,457
a massive community.

1923
01:30:24,753 --> 01:30:25,868
But while the modern trail

1924
01:30:26,171 --> 01:30:29,334
is not the one mackaye
first outlined in 1921,

1925
01:30:29,633 --> 01:30:31,294
it is more than just a footpath.

1926
01:30:32,510 --> 01:30:35,217
Over the years, a
different sort of community

1927
01:30:35,513 --> 01:30:36,513
has grown around it.

1928
01:30:36,681 --> 01:30:37,681
- Ooh!
- Ah!

1929
01:30:43,730 --> 01:30:45,708
And it's this
community that continues

1930
01:30:45,732 --> 01:30:48,599
to make adventures on the
appalachian trail possible.

1931
01:30:53,031 --> 01:30:55,613
= I had no idea that I could

1932
01:30:55,909 --> 01:30:59,652
do something and love
something that hurt so much.

1933
01:30:59,955 --> 01:31:02,287
Basically every single day

1934
01:31:03,333 --> 01:31:05,790
I was just totally excited to be out here.

1935
01:31:06,086 --> 01:31:07,451
I loved every moment of it.

1936
01:31:07,754 --> 01:31:10,370
But at the same time, everything
hurt, I was uncomfortable,

1937
01:31:10,674 --> 01:31:12,505
I smelled bad, you know?

1938
01:31:14,177 --> 01:31:17,590
In normal life we try to avoid
anything that's uncomfortable

1939
01:31:17,889 --> 01:31:19,675
or, you know, just unsavory

1940
01:31:19,975 --> 01:31:22,341
and so much of the trail
is, you've got blisters,

1941
01:31:22,644 --> 01:31:24,976
your ankle hurts, your knee hurts.

1942
01:31:25,271 --> 01:31:27,557
Your shorts are too
sweaty and you've got

1943
01:31:27,857 --> 01:31:29,597
some chafing going on.

1944
01:31:29,901 --> 01:31:33,439
And, you know, after doing the trail,

1945
01:31:33,738 --> 01:31:36,024
I just kind of just dreamed about it.

1946
01:31:37,242 --> 01:31:39,324
So partly I learned that

1947
01:31:39,619 --> 01:31:41,530
you can get enjoyment
out of something that's

1948
01:31:41,830 --> 01:31:44,492
not necessarily always pleasurable.

1949
01:31:44,791 --> 01:31:47,453
And then the other thing I
really learned to enjoy is that

1950
01:31:48,336 --> 01:31:50,668
you can always, if
you're in a situation

1951
01:31:50,964 --> 01:31:53,831
where you have to rely on
the kindness of strangers,

1952
01:31:54,134 --> 01:31:57,422
you'll be amazed at how often
strangers are kind to you.

1953
01:31:57,721 --> 01:32:01,134
Just anywhere, it's
probably because, you know,

1954
01:32:01,433 --> 01:32:03,719
everyone knew in the region
there were hikers and

1955
01:32:04,019 --> 01:32:06,135
they wanted to chip in and
help out thru-hikers but

1956
01:32:06,438 --> 01:32:09,180
it was absolutely amazing how often

1957
01:32:09,482 --> 01:32:12,440
people were kind and just
came at the right moment

1958
01:32:12,736 --> 01:32:14,272
or just helped out in the right way.

1959
01:32:16,072 --> 01:32:20,987
J far yonder lies a long,
high lonesome trail >

1960
01:32:24,122 --> 01:32:29,037
j where Laurel glistens
under a mountain moon j

1961
01:32:30,670 --> 01:32:35,585
j where one may go as
though to find the grail >

1962
01:32:36,426 --> 01:32:41,341
j to kiss the wind or listen to j

1963
01:32:44,059 --> 01:32:48,974
j go and wild meander, mood is strong j

1964
01:32:49,814 --> 01:32:54,729
j and may we meet beside
the waters cool 2»

1965
01:32:56,488 --> 01:33:01,323
j or on some pinnacle
to shout the song

1966
01:33:01,826 --> 01:33:06,741
j and point the way to
heaven's vestibule j

1967
01:33:09,834 --> 01:33:14,749
j far yonder lies a long,
high lonesome trail >

1968
01:33:16,091 --> 01:33:21,006
j where whippoorwills are
wailing through the trees

1969
01:33:22,555 --> 01:33:27,470
j and where the friendly
woodlands never fail j»

1970
01:33:28,186 --> 01:33:33,101
j to wake the old and
make new memories j

1971
01:33:34,526 --> 01:33:39,111
j along the long, high
appalachian trail »