Hello everyone, I’m Flagstaff

Allow me to introduce myself. In the civilian world, I go by Bryan Hickman, but on the trail, I’m adopting the alias Flagstaff.

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After finishing my first multi-day hike (The Virginia Capital Trail).

Why Flagstaff?

My luxury items are an American Flag and a POW/MIA Flag. These two flags have been with me on every hike. I’ve had to sacrifice some food and water to make room in my pack, but I would never go on an adventure without them.

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Why did I decide to start hiking?

I never had the chance to hike when I was a kid, but after graduating high school, I had a lot of free time between appointments with Navy recruiters. I wanted to find something physically and mentally challenging to occupy my time. And when I heard of people hiking across the country, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

 

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Alex helping me fold my flags.

I started off doing weekend hikes since its all I could afford, but it got harder and harder to keep away from a thru hike. When I hiked a short section of the AT along the Virginia Triple Crown in July, I saw the mountain tops crashing like gentle, green waves as far as the eye could see. It was then that I committed to doing a thru hike in 2017.

With plenty of input from my cousin, I decided to start on February 20, 2017 at Mt Flagg, Alabama. I’ll be thru hiking the Pinhoti Trail to the Benton MacKaye Trail and hiking it to Springer. That should add almost 500miles to my AT thru hike.

Since I’ve been hiking for less than a year, I know I’ve still got a lot to learn, but it should be a fun time.

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