The 164 Day Recap of Everything You Wanted To Know, And Maybe Some You Didnt

I’ve said this before but it’s wild to consider your self an expert after doing something for the first time. But when that first time takes over 5 months to complete, you get pretty good at it (or at least moderately proficient). That’s was what thru-hiking the AT was like for me looking back at it. I look at my April start photo, under the archway at the Springer Mountain approach trail and I think, “Oh he was just a baby then.”

My how we’ve grown up since then (probably mostly the beard). But with beards come great wisdom (and responsibility, I think Morgan Freeman said that once). I’m going to share with you an in depth rundown of my thru-hike stats, gear and answer questions some of y’all have submitted. My apologies for the huge delay in getting this one out.

It’s wild to think I finished my hike 95 days ago. I would have been barely out of Maryland by that point on trail. My pace on trail started gradually as you can see by the bar chart.

The first 82 days I averaged 11.59 miles/day, compared to my final 82 days where my average was 15.66 miles/day. My average pace was 13.4 miles/day which includes 14 zero days and 5 Nero’s (under 5 miles hiked in a day). These included 3 days off for Trail Days and 5 days off for 4th of July when Kristen came to visit. My hiking average pace excluding zero days was 14.65 miles/ day. Daily steps on trail are shown by the following chart.

My hardest day on trail coincided with my hardest week on trail. It was the middle of summer and I had just came from nearly a week of zeros with Kristen. I had new shoes to break in and a Rabbit to catch. It was Marathon week. Refer back to those individual days for the details but I finished the week with blisters on my feet, averaged 23 miles/day rather than the goal of 26.2/ day and fell short in my 4-state challenge goal at 36 miles, roughly 8 miles short of the Pennsylvania line. Throughout the entire hike, in total I had 4 marathon days and 22 days where I hiked at least twenty miles. The following chart is my daily average for floors of elevation gain. For reference, the Empire State Building has 102 floors. Can you guess where the Whites were?

I used 5 total pairs of shoes while hiking in the following order:

1. Nike Wildhorse 5 (137 miles worn)
2. Altra Lone Peak 7 (798 miles)
3. Altra Olympus 5 (724 miles)
4. Hoka Speedgoat 5 (220 miles)
5. Altra Lone Peak 7 All-Weather (319 miles)

I used hiking insoles with the Altra’s to combat the zero drop which helped spare my feet and achilles during my foray into zero drop shoes for the first time. Shoes 2, 3, and 4 were the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd most popular shoes worn on trail according to The Trek’s 2023 Thru-Hiker Survey.

Other gear changes were switching my Featherstone tent ($160 on Amazon) to the Nemo Hornet 2P ($260-ish at the NOC). The first tent, while it held up awesome in an utter downpour my 2nd night on trail, was more stone than feather weighing in at 5lbs according to a digital hang scale. I shaved 3lbs off my pack weight with that change which was huge. Also I had an Amazon inflatable sleeping pad that failed in Virginia which was replaced with a Sea to Summit pad that made it the rest of the way to Katahdin.

I also switched hiking packs to an Osprey Exos 48 from my Northface Banshee 65 (which had a frame malfunction on trail that needed replacing). Additionally sending home a Kelty 20 down sleeping bag in lieu of an REI 30 dri-down bag saved me some weight, space in my pack, and was still warm enough for cold nights at altitude in the Whites.

All in all, my base weight started around 38 pounds (with 10 days worth of food!) in Georgia and I was able to whittle that down to 21 pounds by the end of trail. Lessons learned on the gear front, get a quality brand with a solid return policy up front and only pack enough food/water to get you to your next resupply.

I did an Inbody scan in January before the AT and 3 days after I returned home. The results were staggering to say the least. I started off at a moderately healthy 15.3% body fat and 196lbs. I “dirty bulked” up to 210 by my official start date. Those extra 20lbs were shed in the first 30 days and (unlike the rest of the walk to Maine) it was a steady decline from there.

I ended up at the frail weight of 165lbs, albeit shredded at 5.8% body fat. The math on that breaks down to 20.4 lbs of bodyfat lost, but also 15.9 lbs of muscle. Presently I’m back to my normal weight distribution again which only took me about a month to regain what I had lost over 5 months. I was in the 18% of thru-hikers that lost more than 30lbs on trail in 2023.

I would posit a guess that my average calorie intake on trail was 4500 calories or so (back of the napkin math, I didn’t track anything besides weight). On trail my calorie expenditure was more in the 5000-6000 calories range depending on the day. Calories deficits were attempted to be reversed in town where food came easy and was readily available. Despite more sodas and candy consumed on trail than I’ve had in the last 20 years, my HbA1C remained unchanged from pre-trail measurements (5.2).

My feet probably grew about a 1/2 inch (after the swelling went down). The shoes I wore on trail were at least a full size bigger than what I normally wear. In fact, the last pair I had on trail were 2 sizes bigger (not by choice, it was the only size they had left), but they ended up working out just fine. I developed calluses upon calluses and only recently have finished molting off the protective skin.

After returning home, I slowly whittled away at my beard over a month or so and am back to my baseline week or so stubble growth. If Kristen had her way the beard would have been gone the day I got back (and she asked daily, believe me). But I hate the feeling of not recognizing myself in the mirror and that beard had been part of my identity all summer long. So every couple of days I would trim a little off and clean it up until it was gone.

The expenditures on trail were as follows:

• Gear $2600 (includes pre and on trail purchases)
• Lodging $1838
• Travel $845 (flights, ubers, shuttles)
• Food $3522
• Total: $8805

This was more than I had anticipated but other than the aforementioned gear lessons, I don’t think I would have changed anything. The average AT hiker spent $7,482 while the median number was $10,000. I could have cut corners and eaten more cheap ramen and not prioritized protein in the same way.

But at the end of the day, I think I was as frugal as I wanted to be in the moment. Also included in the total were meals and lodging during my week off and 2 year anniversary celebrations with Kristen in Fredrick MD (by far my most expensive lodging and meals on trail).

Time-wise I had the lofty and unrealistic goal to finish in 100 days. I knew heading into trail that this was not likely to be unattainable. The easy back of the napkin math makes this feat achievable at a pace of 22 miles per day, with zero days off. Now I know many people who would be capable of completing a task like this, alas I am not one of those people. And in all honesty, I’m not sure I would want to be.

Zero/nearo days were a joy and treasure and I wouldn’t have traded them on trail for anything. Zero’s at the Trail Days festival in Damascus, the nearo at Bryant Ridge Shelter with 24 other hikers, waiting out the Hurricane after crossing the Kennebec, and many other memories would have been for not.

Let alone the inability to foster any friendships on trail at a break neck pace like that. I decided a month in, that I wanted to make good time, but not sacrifice the journey and friendships along the way for the sake of a quick finish. More math, but the memories > bragging rights for me.

So what have I been up to since I returned home? I’m back at work, grinding and in the early phases of opening a new solo practice. The Kalalau trail with Kristen in November was epic (my 3rd time and it’s just as beautiful as ever). Stay tuned for that post next.

And earlier this month we had a tramily reunion with Sip, Soda and Rabbit in Mississippi. It was so great to see them all, our friendships picked up where we left it, like no days had passed in between.

So what’s next? I’m looking forward to getting together with them all again at Trail Days next year! There’s some talk of a short, week-long hiking trip sometime next year with some of the crew, and off on the horizon is the CDT and PCT eventually.

Be sure to follow my instagram for more shenanigans @Barkleycharles

Until next time stow aways  😉