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My journey hiking the Appalachian Trail, an anticipated 3 year event

Insanity knows no limits

A 67 year old man decides to hike the trail

In trail lingo there are two types of hikers. Thru hikers begin in Georgia and hike non-stop to Maine. Section hikers complete one bit at a time. I am a section hiker. In the spring of this year I began hiking in Pennsylvania and hiked to Sages Ravine in Massachuests as that was as far north as I could drive and hike during a days time. I decided then to turn south and hike thru Maryland, West Virginia and into Virginia. Late in the year I returned to Massachuests and hiked thru it. I am now in central Vermont.

DIFFICULTIES SO FAR....

I hiked Dragon's Tooth, Virginia only to find my steep descent covered by ice glazed boulders, cairns and rock piles. I made it most of the way down on all fours crawling backwards.
Near Tinker Mountain, Virginia I again found the police waiting for me. Evidently several women had spotted me hiking and called the county police to check me out since they felt I was too lightly dressed. I was wearing camo joggers, a hooded sweatshirt, gloves and a hat and was actually sweated.
I found Vermont very disorienting. At one point I hiked 10 miles south believing I was hiking north. This disorienting behavior went on for days. It has never happened to me before.
I left the trail near Shaftsville, VT and a woman insisted I stop and talk. Over coffee she informed me that Robert Frost's stone house was just up the road. Later I viewed the house and his grave site. In addition to the coffee and doughnuts she gave me a home made bottle of vermont maple syrup.
In late November 2024 I hiked Vermont and found the trail covered in snow.
I climbed a dangerous cliff face only to find something called "Bad Weather Trail" that takes you around it.
I walked a trail covered in leaves and smooth stones more slippery than glazed ice.
I spotted a man near the Vermont border who may have been a wanted predator named Ice.
I froze walking in Mass. in November, 2024.
I stopped in Stockbridge, Mass to visit Alice's Restaurant and the residents sent a patrol car to make sure i was okay.
In New York I left the car, started hiking and realized I was wearing clogs not hiking boots. I continued on anyway and completed a thirteen mile hike.
In New York I forgot to use sunscreen and was fried by the sun as I hiked open marshes.
While hiking in Virginia heat index was 106 degrees.
In New York the temp was near 100 degrees. Several people demanded I stop hiking and rest. One woman sent teenage girls on horseback to retrieve me. She wanted me to soak in her pool at home. I continued hiking.
In Virginia I hiked thru downed trees, brush and closed roads due to Hurricane's Debby and Helene.
I drove my sub-compact about 10 miles back on a jeep trail only to find it would not start when I returned. I hiked out, made it to a Burger KIng and met a couple were intending to hike the section where I left my car. I drove back with them and my car started right up.

Where am I at currently?

As of 12/19/2024 I'm at Dragon's Tooth, Virginia on the south end and Stratton Mountain, Vermont on the north end. The est. trail length is 2178. So far I've completed 935 miles. I hoped to hike 800 miles this year so I surpassed my target.

About me:

I am 67 years old and I've been married to my beautiful wife Deb for 42 years. I have 2 children, Philip and Julie, and i still work full time. I've been hiking areas of the Appalachians for over 50 years but never really decided to hike the entire trail until the year 2024.

logistics:

The logistics of hiking the trail are daunting. First you have to travel to a section you wish to hike, hike that section and then find a way to return. It is easy enough to drive to a spot, hike 10 miles but much harder to return to your car unless you want to hike back the same way you came. In New Jersey and New York I was able to use public transportation at times to accomplish this. It wasn't always picturesque though as several times I had to take a train into Harlem just to catch a connecting train back to my car. In Maryland more than once I hopped freight trains to do the same. My current choice has been to use my wife's e-bike. This process isn't easy but it is doable. Lets say I have a twelve mile hike to reach a shelter. I can park my car near the shelter, take the e-bike from my compact car, pedal it to where i left off the trail, lock it somewhere, hike the trail twelve miles and reach the shelter and my car. At that point i can drive back, retrieve my e-bike drive it another twelve miles away from the shelter, lock it overnight and return to camp. The next day I would hike the additional twelve miles, unlock my bike and ride it back completing a twenty-four mile hike during a weekend.

My story:

History:

The trail name "Wally the Bear" was given to me by freinds some 50 years ago. I've hiked, camped and hunted along the Appalachian Trail most of my life. So why wait until I was 67 to begin to hike its length? The answer is that I was not in good enough shape to do so at age 30, 40 or 50. Some twelve or more years back I lost over a hundred pounds of weight, began walking distances and running again. In the years that followed I completed fourteen 26.2 mile marathons.

For the last 20 years I experienced serious pain in my right leg. I was running, biking and walking over 10 miles a day yet my doctors told me I wasn't excercising enough. Their remedy was physical therapy. I tried that several times to no avail. A few months ago I went back to the doctors and again was told to go to PT. I refused and asked for another opinion. Finally I got a doctor to listen to me and he x-rayed my hip, saw decades old trauma and advised me to replace it. In Feb of 2024 I had the procedure done and my leg pain vanished. I made a committment then to walk the Appalachian Trail.

I am no stranger to hiking, backpacking or mountain climbing. I began all at a very early age and continue on now. My first pack frame was purchased at K-Mart around 1973 and was called a TRIP PAK or something like that. I wore it all over the East Coast, Canada, Alaska and the Rockies. I wore it in the desert, the ice fields of Hudson Bay and even while climbing a tree to evade a huge Grizzly. I believe that pack frame still exists in my son's attic.

In my earlier life I often carried between sixty and eighty pounds while hiking. I now carry a light weight pack and thirty pounds seems excessive. I've learned to do without and have sometimes camp overnight using just what I carried in my day pack, a little food, a hooded sweatshirt and a poncho.