Origin Story

Snow Mesa, on the Colorado Trail

Zach Davis often asks guests on his Backpacker Radio Podcast: “What’s your origin story?” I like that: it puts thru-hikers in league with superheroes like Black Panther, Iron Man, and Captain America. As for me, I’m of Scandinavian heritage like Thor – I even have a cousin by that name.

(My physique is even similar to Thor’s … at the start of “Avengers: Endgame,” that is.)

My story leading to my hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2023 is fairly typical of the older demographic on the trail. As a kid, I camped and hiked with my parents and as a scout. Then came college and a desk job. For many years I did no hiking at all.

But I did have one major happy detour along the way. It changed the rest of my life.

My own walk across America

Hiking in 1987, near Mono Lake in California

In 1987, after four years of working in a large city I had no connection to whatsoever, I happened to pick up a book: “A Walk Across America,” by Peter Jenkins. Jenkins was a young man despairing of early 1970s life in his small town. He was planning to leave the U.S. altogether but an old man told him to “give this country a chance.” Then and there, Jenkins resolved to walk across America, to find out what it was really about. Five thousand miles and thirty-five pairs of shoes later, he succeeded: “I started out searching for myself and my country and found both.”

Jenkins’ story resonated with me: like him, I was in my 20s, with no roots (I was single, and the rest of my family had emigrated back to Norway), and living in a place that had no great appeal to me. I wanted to get away and see other places in America. Jenkins’ book lit a fire in me, and I began training, collecting backpacking gear, and plotting my own long-distance adventure.

Having no recent experience in trail hiking, I used a Rand McNally road atlas to plot a meandering route from southern Arizona to the state of Washington, planning to walk mainly on roads. I quit my job and started backpacking with a 6 pound backpack, a 7 pound sleeping bag, an 8 pound tent, books, a chair, several complete sets of clothes, and many, many stuff sacks.

I really didn’t know what the hell I was doing: a cop once pulled over next to me and warned me I’d be killed, and in the Sierras I nearly fractured my skull trying to hang a bear bag. (I’ll save that story for a future blog post.) But about 2500 miles and six months later I somehow made it to Portland, Oregon after a journey that left me mentally refreshed, clearer of purpose, and with a deep love for this diverse, crazy and astonishingly beautiful country of ours.

Thru-hiking leads to Colorado

Tired but happy on the Colorado Trail. (Photo: Sean Mallari)

After all that I went back to a desk job, which I worked at for another 30 years, but now for a cause I loved and in a place to which I felt a real connection: Colorado. I met my wife and most of my friends through hiking, and I’ve done countless day and weekend hikes mainly in the Rockies. Yet throughout my working life I remembered how exhilarated I’d felt simply putting one foot in front of the other and sleeping outdoors for weeks on end, slowly experiencing nature, people, strangeness, challenges and beauty on the trail. I held a dream to do more long-distance hiking.

Now, having retired and with our kids in college, I’m now finally in a position to make my dreams come true. In 2021 I thru-hiked the 486-mile Colorado Trail and earlier this summer I hiked the 160-mile Collegiate Loop. I loved both of these treks, and I wanted more.

And now: the Appalachian Trail

Earlier this fall, my wife and I took a long road trip through New England, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and our route crossed the Appalachian Trail several times. I’d always had the AT in the back of my mind, but seeing it up close made me resolve to hike it.

So now I’m getting ready to start hiking north from Springer Mountain next year. I wish I could hike the entire trail in one go, but home life probably won’t make that possible. But I hope to do a LASH (Long Ass Section Hike) and finish a substantial portion of the trail, so that I can complete additional parts over the next couple of years.

I’m training for the AT by hitting the gym, and by hiking local trails through my volunteer work as a park patroller. I’ll do some more pre-hike blogs on training, gear, food and other hike prep, but for now I’ll just leave you with how my dad responded when I told him I was chucking my high-paying but unfulfilling job to walk across America:

Go for it. You only live once.