I have this thought from time to time.
If you could go back to that day in 2012, the moment before I took my first steps on the Appalachian Trail, and give some advice… what would it be?
Would I explain that my backpack was too heavy?
Would you warn me for the first five full days… that it wouldn’t stop raining?
Maybe something simple
«Make sure you properly seal that Ziploc bag. Your phone is in there… it’s going to flood.»
The truth is… I wouldn’t say any of those things.
I would simply say—
enjoy your adventure.
And I’m sure a few days later, my past self would probably be thinking ikmj.
The future me might have been a little more helpful.
But don’t interfere with someone else’s trip…
It’s what I do.
Not even if that someone… turned out to be me.
So let’s go—
with my first step on the AT.
Pack too heavy, check.
Rain during the first five days: check it out.
Phone ruined by a poorly sealed Ziploc: check.
Question my sanity, check it.
My God…
Two thousand people try it every year.
And how many actually finish?
On the fifth day…
I had a pretty good idea why.
Over the next few weeks, I began to lighten my pack. It wasn’t easy. There was always a voice in the back of my head convincing me that the moment I dropped something in a hiker box, I would need it.
But eventually, my Kung fu grip on unnecessary equipment loosened.
(A hiker box is a strategically located community box where hikers go out and take free gear or food.)
And as for that soaked phone, I put it in a bag of rice, fingers crossed. Two weeks later, I bought a new phone.
(Rice is a method people use to try to extract moisture from a phone. In my experience…it doesn’t work. But if you like rice, you can have a snack while you wait for the replacement.)
The kilometers were difficult.
But enduring that difficulty brought something with it.
Somewhere along the way, this stopped feeling like something I was just trying to finish…
and I began to feel like something I was living. the trail was slowly becoming my life.
This was turning into the adventure I imagined.
And this had only just begun.
I had only walked a fraction of the trail…
Those first steps I took felt like a lifetime ago.
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