AT NOBO in 2024

Having reached 2024 with no pets, dependents, or spouses, and with an imminent 40th birthday, I came around to the idea of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. What better way to continue avoiding commitments, or find something new to commit to?

Looking back, I saw patterns leading up to this idea. I had brought home a hammock tent to hang permanently on the back patio for sleeping outdoors anytime I felt like it. I spent last summer paddleboarding almost every week, strengthening my core and stabilizers. The music I had written and performed in the past year was themed around transitioning from familiar places to unfamiliar places, expeditions into strange lands. I had realized that peeing outdoors was one of my favorite simple pleasures. The signs were there.

And so, in early January, I started hiking to see if I could hack it. My first training hike was 10 miles and 1500ft of elevation in the freeze with no pack, and I finished it in well under four hours. This was my first exposure to pushing myself too hard and feeling the consequences; I could barely walk down the street from the pain in my knees and hip. But I still felt like I had answered the question, so I started spreading the word and making arrangements for my Northbound trip to start on March 25.

After recovering from that first training mistake, I kept going back to the same mountain, each time adding more weight to my back. The pace normalized to about four hours, a very reasonable 2.5mph given the terrain. I tried different solutions to the freezing weather and experienced a scarf freezing to my beard. I started researching nutrition, eating ideal trail food and brewing tea at the summit to shake down my cooking kit. By now I've put in over 100 miles since January.

I didn't want to leave music behind me, so I started writing a folk song just for the trip. It's a song about wandering down into hollers and finding strange and wonderful berry trees. I intend to keep adding verses as I meet strange and wonderful people on the trail and play harmonica at them. I'll be posting them here as I go, and entertaining folks along the way.

A fair amount of research went into my kit, and I feel like I've come up with a decent base weight of about 19lbs. which includes the most important things to me: warmth, adequate sleep comfort, and a couple of choices of musical instrument. I'll also be starting my trip with supplements to ward off electrolyte and nutrient depletion, and cures for the looming threat of food poisoning. The pack is likely to lighten up as I send home winter gear and learn what I Really Need.

Reddit suggests that a norovirus outbreak has already permeated the first few shelters in Georgia, so I'll need extra vigilance to avoid it, including proper soap for regular handwashing and chemical water treatment for any sketchy water. I'm likely to give away some of my reserves of Imodium and rehydration salts, with the reward being less weight on my back. Pay it forward.

Tomorrow is my last day of work for the next six months. Then it's off to the Big Ears festival in Knoxville for the weekend, then a ride to Amicalola Falls on Monday. One night in the lodge, then away I go.