Extending across fourteen states along the East Coast of the United States, the Appalachian Trail (AT) is the ultimate test of process oriented hiking. The oft-written about “green tunnel” is filled with nearly 2,200 miles of pointless up and downs, almost unwalkable rocky footpaths, and an increasingly aggressive bear population. For me, it is the best trail in the world.
The following log entries were written during my NOBO thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2022. Each entry is titled and features both photographs and modest musings about trail life.
HIKER’S LOG, DATE 05252022, GEORGIA, USA [DAY 1: May 25, 2022]
“The mountains are calling, and I [have decided] to go” and thru-hike the Appalachian Trail NOBO (North Bound)…
“To boldly [and humbly] go where [many others have] gone before…”
Amicalola Falls State Park, Georgia
TRANSFORMATION OF THE MUNDANE [DAY 1]
A simple white blaze could never have imagined itself as the definitive symbol guiding and inspiring hikers for 2,200 miles. Perhaps we should all make our dreams a little bit bigger…
Springer Mountain, Georgia
A HAZY SHADE OF SUMMER [DAYS 2-3]
Fog obscures a wilderness already downtrodden by forceful rain. It obscures mountain laurel and emerging sunlight. It obscures wayworn travelers huddled in shelters sharing life stories with only a trail name and a pack to call home. Fog is an oddly deceptive creature…
Georgia
UNTITLED WINDOW/DOOR [DAYS 7-10]
One of the many views along the Georgia and North Carolina sections of the AT…
Georgia and North Carolina
AN AGREEABLE MORNING (feat. Dad) [DAY 9]
Sunrise ushers in another 16+ mile day in North Carolina…
North Carolina
YOGI’S NEW NEIGHBOR [DAY 13]
Hiker midnight (9:00pm) at a shelter in the Great Smoky Mountains…
North Carolina
MILE 200 [DAY 15]
From the summit of Clingmans Dome (6,643 ft), the highest point on the AT…
“It’s all downhill from here,” said absolutely no thru-hiker ever…
North Carolina
A VIEW FIT FOR THE LITTLE PRINCE [DAYS 13-17]
Five days of rain, wind, and fog in the Smokies, so we’ll just have to imagine the mountainous landscape hidden within the clouds…
North Carolina
HOTEL CALIFORNIA HOSTEL STYLE [DAY 17]
Sharing music by the fire with Lightshow, also known as the Drunken Prophet, after leaving the Great Smoky Mountains…
Years of nomadic living in the mountains led Lightshow to write an original song titled “Appalachian Trail Song.” I have included the lyrics below.
“Appalachian Trail Song”
Well I’m walking the white blaze trail
And each step I tread
I start to pray for myself
But think of you instead
I’m wondering how you are
I hope you’re more alive than dead
I can’t stop thinking how good it would be
If I could see you
At the shelter ahead
We could break some bread
Maybe smoke a little dread
And talk about all the miles we have ahead
So all the miles we’ve covered
And left behind
All the smile and tears we’ve cried
We don’t need to refine
Cuz it all came together however
God it was so fine
Cuz what you pack on your back
On that seemingly endless track
How you carry your load
Is how you’re defined
So I’m walking the white blaze trail
And each step I tread
I start to pray for myself
But think of you instead
I’m wondering how you are
I hope you’re more alive than dead
I can’t stop thinking how good it would be
If I could see you
At the shelter ahead
North Carolina
MILE 335 (feat. Dieter, a fellow hiker from Germany) [DAY 22]
Got tired of hiking, so I decided to swim in a sea of yellow flowers…
North Carolina-Tennessee border
DEPTH PERCEPTION [DAY 27]
Glad to be but a small shadow in one of the most beautiful sections of the AT…
Carver’s Gap to US Route 19E
NO LONGER ON THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS [DAY 31]
Not everyday is spent in the mountains…
Virginia
CLICK, CLACK, MOO: COWS THAT TYPE [DAY 34]
Spent the day watching the golden meadows fade into streams of fog, hiking amongst horses and cattle until a storm scared them away. I wonder where they’ve gone…
Virginia
CASTLE ON THE HILL [DAY 35]
The minutes, or maybe hours, rolled on as I stared at the landscape, mesmerized by the rails, hills, and wraparound porch. For that moment, I let myself believe bad things can’t happen in beautiful places…
Virginia
CLUMSY TRANSITIONS [DAY 35]
The Appalachian Trail is somehow beautiful, monotonous, breathtaking, memorable, forgettable, and spectacular all at once. In southern Virginia, homes perched on distant hills with white picket fences feel like an image torn out of the pages of some great American novel.
But then this storybook fantasy crashes into the asphalt—in this case, US Route 11–where the white blaze is painted on telephone poles, underpasses, and stop signs. Perhaps writing is the only sure-fire way to preserve a landscape…
Virginia
WANDERING PURPOSELY [DAY 37]
I feel a profound sense of purpose when thru-hiking that propels me onwards despite the heat waves and water scarcity that characterize this part of the trail.
And yet, I wake up everyday to aching muscles and blistered feet. I hobble out of my tent at 6:00am to watch the sunrise. Looking down at summits swimming in murky cloud cover, I smile and say to myself, “There must be easier ways to vacation…”
Virginia
CENTER STAGE [DAY 42]
An iconic photo at the most photographed location on the AT…
McAfee Knob, Virginia
DEBUT ALBUM FORTHCOMING [DAYS 48-53]
Webster (me), Listener (right), and Easy (above) concluding our six night concert series in Waynesboro. Thru-hikers frequenting the back patio, you have been a fantastic audience…
Waynesboro, Virginia
LOOKING FOR SPACE [DAY 55]
Everything John Denver wrote about the mountains is true…
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
BUSY BEING FREE [DAY 57]
Hitchhiked to Walmart in the back of a pick-up truck with a 61 year old French writer. The AT is a funny place indeed…
Virginia
TECHNICOLOR TAKES OVER AT THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL CONSERVANCY (ATC) HEADQUARTERS [DAY 61]
A return to color at the “spiritual halfway point” (mile 1026) on the AT…
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
FIELD [DAY 66]
After walking through West Virginia and Maryland, I found myself in a lovely field in southern Pennsylvania…
Pennsylvania
A WATCH THAT DOESN’T TELL TIME [DAY 66]
Living by the light of the day gives time a certain irrelevance. I walk in the light. I rest when the light shines elsewhere. I resume went the light returns. I take another step northward and cherish the simplicity…
Pennsylvania
PACK WEIGHT RE-EXAMINED [DAY 69]
Every ounce matters on a 2200 mile trek. Hard decisions have to be made regarding clothes, gear, and luxury items. Why bring a full toothbrush when I can break it in half? Should I rip the pages out of my book as I read them? Do I really need a third pair of socks?
For all the wisdom of the ultralight movement, the Appalachian Trail often comes at a point of transition in people’s lives; therefore, physical items account for only a small fraction of the weight resting on hikers’ shoulders. For example, one woman carries a rekindled sense of adventure and youthful curiosity. Another, regret for the years spent absent from her children’s lives. One man’s grief weighs him down more than any resupply. Another carries his late father’s cowboy hat that he will lay to rest on an overlook in the Great Smoky Mountains. Many pack in the spaces between their warm layer and camp shoes questions whose gravity and weight are unquantifiable.
But as I hear their stories, I am reminded of a man at a hostel in North Carolina who said, “How you carry your load is how you’re defined.” Everyone has chosen to carry theirs 2200 miles. What a beautiful and unlikely commonality…
Pennsylvania
JAZZ JAM SESSION [DAY 72]
And the band played on as I walked out of Pennsylvania…
Delaware Water Gap
SIX LINES OF SIGHT [DAYS 73-79]
Take a look down, ahead, left, right, above, and behind on the AT…
New Jersey and New York
RIVER, ON THE ROCKS [DAY 88]
As I was walking along the river, an excerpt from my favorite short story came to mind: “We climbed the mountain, admired the spacious view, and got back to the inn as night was falling, hot, hungry, and thirsty. We had ordered our dinner beforehand. The food was good, for Antonio was an excellent cook, and the wine came from his own vineyard. It was so light that you felt you could drink it like water and we finished the first bottle with our macaroni. By the time we had finished the second we felt that there was nothing much wrong with life.” The author may have been dining with his companion on the Piazza in Capri, but I’ve come to believe that the wilderness can induce a similar state of blissful intoxication…
Connecticut
ARTLESS [DAY 89]
With a landscape so beautiful and pure, I half expected to meet Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin on my walk through the fields. They must have been out looking for heffalumps instead…
Connecticut
ENDING AUGUST [DAY 93]
I didn’t know clouds could swim…
Massachusetts
THE VERMONT COLLECTION PT. ONE - MORNING [DAYS 94-100]
The sun throws its chilled rays across the rugged landscape. With each passing day, the trees catch and capture the morning light; the reds and yellows linger, dripping from one branch to the next and coating the leaves in a vibrant lacquer. Filled with all the beauty, promise, and possibility of sunrise, the red and yellow leaves will soon let go and fall to the forrest floor. They know that a new dawn will come in the spring.
Isn’t that how the seasons change…
Vermont
THE VERMONT COLLECTION PT. TWO - NIGHT [DAYS 94-100]
The stars take their place in the sky as conductors beckoning the creatures of the night to begin their symphony. Few hikers are awake at this hour. But for those who are willing to wait patiently in the silhouettes of mountains, they are rewarded with the wind’s whisper: “You and I and moonlight in Vermont…”
Vermont
A DAY IN THE LIFE IN NOT SO MANY WORDS PT. ONE - ALPINE [DAY 107]
I woke up…
New Hampshire
A DAY IN THE LIFE IN NOT SO MANY WORDS PT. TWO - SUNRISING [DAY 107]
I walked…
New Hampshire
A DAY IN THE LIFE IN NOT SO MANY WORDS PT. THREE - RIDGELINE [DAY 107]
I walked some more…
New Hampshire
A DAY IN THE LIFE IN NOT SO MANY WORDS PT. FOUR - IN AND OUT OF THE CLOUDS [DAY 107]
I lived the weather forecast…
New Hampshire
A DAY IN THE LIFE IN NOT SO MANY WORDS PT. FIVE - A PAINTING FOR THE DINING ROOM [DAY 107]
I stopped…
New Hampshire
A DAY IN THE LIFE IN NOT SO MANY WORDS PT. SIX - MOONRISING [DAY 107]
I slept…
New Hampshire
TIME, PLACE & SPACE [DAY 109]
I had the pleasure of once again walking the Crawford Path, but this time it was on my way to Maine…
New Hampshire
A CLEAN, WELL-LIGHTED PLACE [DAY 116]
And so begins the end…
Maine
RIPPLING BLUE [DAY 116]
Skipped some stones and took a long lunch…
Maine
MILE 2000 [DAY 118]
This is how I want to remember southern Maine. Not the freezing rain, 50mph winds, and viewless summits. But rather me drinking hot coffee in a Christmas button-down and laughing at the absurdity of walking 2000 miles…
Maine
ONE SUNNY DAY IN THE MOUNTAINS [DAY 120]
That indescribable moment when you turn around and see the landscape you have just traversed…
Maine
ON THE WAY TO THE HORIZON [DAY 120]
The sunset was well worth the four hours of night hiking that followed…
The Bigelows, Maine
KATAHDIN AS SEEN FROM THE 100 MILE WILDERNESS [DAY 127]
50 miles and one more mountain to climb…
100 Mile Wilderness, Maine
THE ONE WHERE I SUMMIT KATAHDIN [DAY 130]
Ask me how I got here :))
Northbound Thru-Hike of the Appalachian Trail
Start Date: May 25, 2022
End Date: October 1, 2022
Total Days: 130
Total Mileage: 2194.3
WHEN DREAMS BECOME MEMORIES [POST-TRAIL]
When I first came home, it felt like I was taking a triple-zero before my inevitable return to the trail. But after enough days of getting water from the kitchen sink, showering daily, and eating home cooked meals, I remembered that life isn’t packaged into zeros and marathon mile days. In fact, it’s not structured around miles or mountains at all.
Some things can’t exist outside the thru-hiking community. There are no white blazes to follow. There are no people with a large backpack and shared goal to befriend. There are no baked goods or cold drinks that feel as life affirming as they did in Virginia.
I would like to think the AT’s most important lessons are not unique to backpacking—appreciation, wellness, perseverance, etc. These values, which are so easily stuffed into a 70-liter backpack, can be difficult to realize in normal life.
I believe the AT is beautiful not because of the landscape, which can be painfully monotonous, but because it is a place to dream. Most people hike the trail at a point of transition having just graduated, retired, or quit their job and are therefore in the best position to reflect, reassess their values, and figure out their next steps.
Some people find permanent purpose, working as hostel owners or trail angels. Others may wander for the rest of their lives. Still others finish the trail and are left with the task of actualizing all that they dreamed and contemplating how this experience, that few others understand, fits into the tapestry of their lives. But none of that matters when you’re hiking. All that matters is the next water source, how much food is left, and how far you are from Katahdin.
At its best, thru-hiking is living simply, giving everything you have to the mountains, and dreaming. Dreaming about whatever life lies beyond Katadhin. Dreaming but not stressing, because you have something more important to do. You have to hike.
Thanks for following my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. I’ll let you know the next time I decide to go for a long walk.
—Webster signing off
