Thru-Hiker Stories

A fair question to be asked is why someone would want to take months out of their lives to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.  There are actually a multitude of reasons, and the motivation is rarely the same from one person to the next.  Sometimes they simply want to hike the trail.  "Because it is there" is all the reason some people need to hit the trail.  Perhaps the most common reason many people hike is to celebrate a milestone, such as graduation from college or retirement from a job.  But not always.

I remember a few years ago, my wife, daughters and I were in the Great Smoky Mountains.  My youngest daughter Casey had begged to go horseback riding at the Cades Cove section of the park, where guided trail rides were offered.  We had promised we would take her, but we only had one day where our schedule allowed.  The weather that day turned out to be dreary and miserable.  It had rained hard the day before, and there was mud everywhere.  This day there was drizzle, fog, wind, and even though it was late April, it was unseasonably cool.  But we went anyway.  It turned out to be OK, because we had the entire trail and guide to ourselves, and the trail wound through heavy woods that sheltered us from the weather.

Our guide was a young lady in her twenties whose name I forget.  Because it was just the five of us riding in the group, we had plenty of time to chat as we rode.  She told us she was from Florida, where she went to college and then got a job after college.  After three or four years, she said, she finally realized that even though she was successful and making a good living, she really hated it.  She was miserable, but she really did not know what she wanted to do differently.  So she quit her job and thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail.  She said the trail was a life-changing experience because it taught her that she should do what she wanted to do to be happy above all else.  So what she wanted to do right then was live in the Smokies and work in the National Park.  She said that if that changed tomorrow, she would go and do something else.  The AT made her realize that her own happiness was more important than jobs or careers or what others thought she should do.

Below are a few tidbits about some of my favorite thru-hikers and brief tidbits about their stories.

Earl Schaffer
The first person credited to have thru-hiked the AT was World War II veteran Earl Schaffer, who did it in 1948.  He hiked the trail from south to north without the use of guidebooks, relying largely on road maps and any available maps he could find from park and forest rangers along the way.  He also did not have fancy gear designed for hiking.  Mostly he used military surplus items much like the gear he had used during the war.  Schaffer had first decided he wanted to attempt a thru-hike before the war with a friend of his.  His friend was sadly killed at Iwo Jima, so Earl hiked the trail himself as a way of dealing with the stress of war and the loss of friends who were killed.  He would hike the trail from north to south in 1965, becoming the first to thru-hike in both directions.  Then in 1998, at age 79, he would again thru-hike from south to north, becoming the oldest to ever do so.

Grandma Gatewood
Emma Gatewood is perhaps the most famous thru-hiker to AT enthusiasts.  She became the first woman to thru-hike the trail in 1955, when she was 67 years old.  She had read about the AT in a magazine article, and thought it would be a great accomplishment to hike it.  Grandma, as she was known on the trail, was anything but conventional in her hike.  She wore Keds tennis shoes rather than boots, and she carried her gear in a homemade shoulder bag rather than a backpack.  Her 1955 trek was followed by Sports Illustrated.  She was quoted as saying of Katahdin, "I'll get there except if I break something or something busts loose.  And, when I get atop Mt. Katahdin, I'll sing 'America the Beautiful, from sea to shining sea.'" (Emblidge 214).  And made it she did.  And then did it again two years later.  She also completed the trail again by section hike in 1964.  Grandma Gatewood is a true legend of the AT.

Bill Irwin

My autographed copy of Bill Irwin's book Blind Courage

Bill Irwin's story is an incredible one.  Irwin thru-hiked the AT in 1990 with his guide dog Orient.  Yes, I said guide dog.  Bill Irwin has been blind since losing his sight in the 1970s due to illness.  His life both before and after the blindness was a struggle, as he battled alcoholism and failed marriages.  The blindness only added to his struggle.  He saw the AT as an opportunity to prove to himself that he could persevere over life's obstacles.  He succeeded in his attempt, but it was not easy.  He estimates that he fell at least 5,000 times along the way.  He is now an inspirational motivational speaker and writer (http://www.billirwin.com/home.html) and his book Blind Courage is an encouraging and uplifting read. 

David Miller
David Miller's trail name on the AT was Awol, because that is what he was on the trail.  He quit his job as a software engineer with his wife's blessing, then went on the adventure of his life.  His book AWOL on the Appalachian Trail is a wonderfully written account of his hike.  It is filled with a great balance between introspection and personal reflection, facts about the trail, and advice on what to do and not to do on a thru-hike attempt.  After the hike, he went back to his old job and now writes a handbook updated annually for those planning a thru-hike.  His story is an example that not always is there a particular reason to hike the trail.  It was a matter of simply something he wanted to try to do.  His book is one of the best on the AT that I have read.

Bob Barker
No, not the game show guy.  This Bob Barker needed two years to complete the trail.  That is perfectly understandable, since he suffered from multiple sclerosis, and two times was interrupted by the illness.  Yet he managed to stay the course even through the health setbacks and finally made it to Katahdin.