The Adventures and Mostly Misadventures of Parker B: An Introduction for Hikers

Hi, I’m Parker (no trail name yet!) and I’ll be trying to hike the Appalachian Trail starting in March 2026. This will be my first hike, but I’m no stranger to the outdoors and hiking. For as long as I can remember, my goal in life has been to adventure as much as possible and live life to the fullest.

Upon graduating high school, I enlisted in the US Army as an infantryman and was fortunate enough to be assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, New York. When most people hear «NY,» they assume it refers to the big city, but upstate New York has tons of public lands to explore in the Adirondack and Catskill parks. After completing my enlistment, I began working in a fly shop in the heart of the Catskills, where modern fly fishing developed.

This was a big transition for me, but over time, living near New York started to take its toll on me. I needed a change. Then it hit me: I should climb the AT. I have the equipment, I have experience living in difficult conditions and it will be a way to reset and re-evaluate my life. So, I packed up my little apartment and headed back south to start preparing for my hike.

Adventures and Misadventures

There I was, conducting a training mission with my platoon. We had walked all day through ice, snow, and negative temperatures. Now the time had come to establish a patrol base and carry out work priorities. Last on the list, but the most important for me, was sleep.

Finally, it was time to go to bed. I pulled out my Army-issued sleep system, which weighed 10 pounds (the Army doesn’t believe in ultralights), and placed it on the ranger grave I’d chiseled into the frozen ground. I stripped down to my base layers and climbed into my bag for a much-needed rest, which came quickly.

Two hours later, I felt a push and saw the glow of a red-lens headlamp. «Wake up, it’s your turn to pull the safety,» my sergeant said. I woke up groggy, thinking I needed more sleep, and started getting ready. To my dismay, I realized that I had left my midlayers and outer shell out in the elements instead of inside the comfort of my sleeping bag. My pants were frozen and could stand on their own.

I put on my boots and, dressed only in my base layers, I approached my sergeant and said, «Sergeant, what do I do? I left my uniform outside my sleeping bag and now it’s frozen.» He replied, «Why did you do that? Don’t you know better?»

I explained that this was my first winter training event and that I’m from the south and had seen more snow that day than I had in my entire life. The sergeant said: «You’re going to have to try to put on all the layers, put the raincoat on over it and do jumps until the ice melts.» I was going to be a cold soldier.

It was a beautiful day with perfect cloud cover for bugs to hatch and fish to rise to the surface. He was waist-deep in the Beaverkill River. A large fish was slurping size 16 sulfur mayflies from the glass-smooth surface of the water. I made a cast downstream, put some fishing line on my line, and watched my fly float effortlessly over the spot where the fish had last left. Then my fly disappeared and all that was left was the sound of rising. I lifted my rod tip and the fish was on the move, moving upstream and pulling.

“This has to be the biggest trout I’ve caught all year,” I thought. I yelled upstream to my fishing buddy, «Bring the net, it’s big!» A battle ensued. The fish pulled, then I brought it closer, but I still couldn’t quite see what it was. My friend came over and commented, «This must be the biggest damn trout in the river, don’t ruin it.»

We slowly brought the fish within range of the net, but to our surprise and dismay, it was a five-pound brook chub, not the prized trout we had hoped for. The fight was exciting but ended in disappointment. We took a photo and the creek chub returned to its watery home.

The next day I posted the picture on the fly shop’s fishing report and received a comment saying that the state record for stream carp had been broken the day before and my fish was even bigger. We should have gotten an official weight, but the fish was already gone.

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