Second time: through the AT again. Idiot? Crazy? Following my heart? Yeah!

Here I go again. Another through the walk.

I was driving along the winding roads in the rural area of New York last spring, returning to my seasonal agricultural work after visiting a close friend. Seeing the exuberant and green hills, I realized that I felt like the home: I played in forests like these as a child, I grew up walking through the mountains of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and first through the path of the Apalaches in 2018. I drove next to a wooden building painted with the word «Springer», as a divine sign. Springer is the name of the mountain at the southern end of at. It was at that moment that I knew I would walk again, this summer. My whole body told me that this is what I needed to do.

External sources

Looking for validation, I called my dad. She is my greatest cheerleader when it comes to great walks. He obtains the need for a constant adventure. He passed the AT and Colorado path, and went by bicycle through the United States and other long bicycle packing excursions. He is planning to walk from Bali to Bali next winter.

«Would it be absolutely crazy if I walked again in the summer this summer?» I asked him.

«Not at all,» he said, exactly what he expected to listen. «If you want to do it, I know you can make it happen.» I needed that little more permission to let my mind run free with this idea of doing exactly what my heart wants to do.

For a control of reality, I called my mother later that night. She had some more doubts, but she knew she had her support. She wants to make sure I feel cared for during my walks. She has met me several times during my walks, carrying picnics to the size of the family of paths to isolated road crosses. My mom was the most important reason I put through. When I was a teenager, I took me to the AMC cabins in the White Mountains of New Hampshire when it was offered as a volunteer. I would meet with hikers there and dreamed that it would be one day.

I with my parents in the CDT

I had my own doubts about another through the walk. I just finished walking through the Continental Divide Trail (CDT, Mexican border in New Mexico to the Canadian border in the Glacier National Park) last summer, then I worked in a coffee and a farm during the winter. He had not saved a lot of money, and caution planning and frugality would be needed to make this dream possible. In addition to that, he had been dealing with an injury to the ischiotibials all winter, and needed to make sure that was clear before making another great walk. It was a risk, but I was willing to take, because the idea of adventure gave me the same vertiginous feeling as when you are in love.

So why again?

Walking again I had been in my mind since I started the CDT. The CDT was wild, intense, remote and unknown to me. Do not be misunderstood: I love where I am, but in New Mexico’s desert, I longed for the comfort and normality of AT. Discovering that I could do the AT again was not a logical decision, it was more like opening my world to anything. I realized that I didn’t have to limit me, releasing the possibility of following my heart.

A wild and remote part of the CDT

Anyone could see the way I have lived my life in recent years and think, that’s all I have been doing, following my heart. But this decision felt crazier and freer than ever. And honestly, a little ridiculous. The questions of others buzzed in my head: «Why would you want to do something again that you have already done when there are so many other paths around?» «Don’t you want to walk abroad, branch a little more?» And much, «are you crazy?»

The answer to all those is «yes, but …» there are so many other paths, and I do I want to do them all, and I would love to go abroad and experience trails worldwide. But I’m simply responding a call call. It feels at home.

Losing the path

Most chronicles through hikers like me can relate to the feeling of losing the path every time we are not in it. I missed all the winter. I missed the hands covered with the ground, I sat where I wanted, urinated every time I needed and ate meals on the soft floor of the pine forest. I missed a tasting pizza, popcarts for breakfast and Clif bars for lunch. I missed being in the forest for several days at the same time, waking up every morning at dawn, going to sleep at sunset and crying for exhaustion, pain and pain. I missed laughing too much, being afraid of rays and bears, feeling alone and seeing the most beautiful views of my life.

Camp with my tramily in the CDT

I missed Cowboy’s camp next to my friends as a resistant outdoor sleep party, riffing and laughing during dinner and then entering my warm quotes and falling asleep in seconds. I missed that I barely have to look at my phone or no type of screen, feel strong and powerful and have a renewed sense that I can do anything that happens to me. I missed feeling like a wild animal that is part of the forest.

When I am not walking, I miss all the parts of hiking, even the difficult parts. So, when I decided to make a walk again this summer, he felt obvious. When I am walking, I am the person I want to be. It is one of the few places in the world that I really feel that I belong.

In the white mountains in the AT in 2018

Different this time

My first walk was at the AT in 2018. I was 19, in the middle of the university, I had only made a weekend backpacking trip alone and had no idea what ultralight meant. I also had no idea what I was getting into, or how I would fall in love with this hobby. I found a group of friends from the beginning, my «Tramilia», and we joined together for most of the path.

A friend, Hailey, and I went to walk together in 2024. I was almost never in my walk, or any of my three through the words (in, PCT, CDT). In 2018, I walked «Nema», in the north direction, from February to July. This time I plan to walk Sobo, south, from July to October. My hope for this in Thru-Hike is that he will feel like a family place, but an experience different from the first time. I want to prioritize my own objectives and needs instead of those of a group, and I want to feel comfortable with being alone.

Hailey and I on the CDT

I am excited and nervous to share my trip publicly, but I hope you enjoy listening to what it is to walk for the second time. Thanks to all people in my life that support me unconditionally through all my adventures. Stay tuned!

This website contains affiliate links, which means that the walk can receive a percentage of any product or service that you buy using the links in the items or ads. The buyer pays the same price that would do it differently, and his purchase helps to support the continuous objective of the walk to address his quality backpack advice and information. Thanks for your support!

For more information, visit the page about this site.