Week 1 in the Rearview

I am writing this post from a motel in Franklin, North Carolina, where I’ve decided to take my first “zero day” (a day where you don’t walk any miles) of my thru hike attempt on day 9. So how did I get here, you ask?

Glori, Pete, and I stayed in Atlanta last Friday and headed up to North Georgia early Saturday. We dropped off my buddy Brian’s truck at Neel’s Gap and then headed back to Amicalola Falls to meet up with my parents and embark on the Approach Trail.

I don’t know who liked the stairs at Amicalola less – Pete or Glori. It was an incredibly emotional morning, and with each step, there was a growing sense of excitement about the journey I was about to embark on, but there was also a growing unease that each step was one step closer to telling my loved ones “bye, for now”.

Brian stuck around for the first four days of the hike, while my family hiked a bit of the Approach Trail and then headed back to the real world. We hiked the 40 miles to Neel’s Gap, where Brian’s truck was loaded up with my first food resupply. There is an outfitter called Mountain Crossings at Neel’s Gap, offering hot showers, lodging, gear, and all the backpacker food you could hope to find (albeit at a slight up charge as compared to a grocery store).

Day 4 turned out to be my biggest mileage day to date. I’d planned to camp near Whitley Gap (which would have been a 15 mile day), but about a mile before reaching the spur trail that would take me to Whitley Gap, I encountered a pair of flip floppers (thru hikers that don’t hike both halves of the trail sequentially – in this case, they’d already hiked southbound from Maine to Virginia, and were now hiking northbound from Georgia to that midpoint to complete their thru) named Samwise and Luna. They cautioned me against staying at Whitley Gap, and although they were very gentle in this suggestion, their level of experience gave their words some added weight in my mind. I soon saw why they’d grinned at my plan – the Whitley Gap shelter was a mile and a half off the trail! This meant, round trip, camping there would have added three miles to my trip, but not put me any closer to Maine. The next shelter (Low Gap) was only an additional four miles, so I pressed on and arrived at camp as the sun was setting.

It was at Low Gap that I met the most merry band of thru-hikers I’ve met to date and was gifted my trail name by an individual that goes by “Hot Sauce”. This group was filled to the brim with stoke, kind as could be, and built a number of first class campfires. I wound up hiking with them for the two days that followed, and hope I’ll get to see them all again.

My trail name is JPG (pronounced “j-peg”), which stands for Jolly Purple Giant. While the root of the name is pretty self explanatory (if you’ve seen my gear video, you know I wear almost all purple clothes), I’ll share a quick anecdote about it. When I arrived into Low Gap at the end of Day 4, before I’d received this trail name, I encountered the group I described above (I’m not sure if they have a name, they simply called themselves trail family). I was immediately shocked to see an individual that goes by Drego. You see, like me, Drego was also decked out head to toe in purple clothing! I’m a big math guy, but I wouldn’t have any idea where to start in trying to calculate the probability that we’d run into each other. I can’t imagine it to be very large.

This brings me to the next topic I want to share with you – the people you encounter on the Appalachian Trail. I’m sure as the miles continue to grow, this will subside, but to date, I’ve never been surrounded by such an excited, positive, encouraging group of people. It’s so unique to run into someone, share a snack or a quick conversation, hike a few miles, and then be on your way. You may hike with them for a few days, or just see them for a moment, but the relationships formed are so immediately genuine and deep. It’s like there’s an unspoken bond that forms the second you ask someone “so are you hiking thru?” and they respond “well I’m certainly trying to”. The types of people you meet are truly a smorgasbord – I’ve hiked with men, women, non-binary gendered, all races, backgrounds, ages, sexual orientations, and every combination therein you can think of (and it’s only been a week). The special thing is, none of that matters. You just walk, barely chipping away at an insurmountable goal, supporting each other, loving each other, and caring for each other.

So how am I doing? From a mental / emotional standpoint, I couldn’t be better. Going into this, I had a fear that once I’d started hiking, the romanticized version of the trail I’d dreamt of tackling for so long would overshadow the reality of being wet, dirty, tired, smelly, and hungry. This couldn’t have been further from my experience to date. If anything, the trail has blown away any expectation I could possibly have had. Each day, I wake up with the sun, stunned by the beauty around me and filled to the brim with excitement to take on the day. Some other hikers have noticed I have a habit of dancing around as I pack up my bag in the morning. It’s not something I do on purpose. It’s just the overflow of stoke leaving my body.

Physically, I’m faring OK, but not as well as my attitude. I hiked around 100 miles in my first week, which is quite a bit above my planned 10 miles per day. It’s been really challenging to put down the trekking poles and call it a day. Part of this stems from the fact that there isn’t much to do at camp in the morning, so I generally start walking around 7:00AM. A leisurely pace for me is about two miles per hour, so I’m generally at 10 miles by lunch. The weather has been so great during the day, it’s very easy to just keep walking after lunch. However, my body has started to let me know I need to tone it down a bit. I’ve not incurred any injuries to date, but some pretty substantial chafing and soreness in my feet and legs. As I return to the trail tomorrow, I’m going to dial back the mileage, at least for week two, to give my body a bit more time to adjust.

Lastly, I’ll mention some changes to gear I’ve made since my last post. I’ve now lost two tent stakes (which is another story for another time), but the trail provides, and I’ve been able to replace them with bent up replacements found in trail boxes. I now carry my harmonica in my hip belt so I can access while walking. Finally, I purchased and subsequently cut and sewed some Sealskinz GoreTex socks. I’ve not used these yet, but expect they’ll come in handy should we see substantial snowfall in the Smokies (which is very much in the cards this time of year).

As always, if you’ve made it this far, THANK YOU! I’ve been working on shooting some video from the trail, so with my renewed commitment to hiking a bit less this week, I hope to be able to post some video content here coming soon.

Cheers,

Billy

Notable quotes:

• “If you’re like me, and you have terrible indigestion, you absolutely must sleep in a hammock” – Todd
• “Don’t lose sight of the journey because you’re so focused on the objective. If you ever feel like giving up, give it five good days to see if you change your mind” – Dr. Who, 2018 thru-hiker
• “It looks like we’re pretty much done changing elevation for the day” – Why, shortly after crossing into North Carolina (she could not have been more wrong)