The 420 LASH

420 LASH Begins

Day 1: 12 miles, 4,400 feet climb, 2,500 down.
Dix Creek Gap to muskrat Creek shelter.

“Remember me as you pass by, As you are now so once was I, As I am now so you shall be, Prepare for death and follow me” Curtis P Shelton Gravestone 1876-1926

It was a cold morning, just below freezing, when I drove past a homeless man wrapped in blankets, absorbing the early sun after surviving the night. I had seen him before on my way toward the mountains to train for an upcoming adventure. I remembered many days on the AT when I was absorbing the morning sun trying to warm up from a cold night and cold morning. I stopped to ask him if he needed anything. The man’s face emerged from the blankets, and I asked if he could use a warm cup of coffee.

That small exchange stayed with me as I drove on. My Appalachian Trail hike ended months earlier, but it had changed me. My AT thru hike last year was to help me leave behind decades of grinding through a career and related obligations of life. But my transformation was much more than I anticipated. I was permanently changed by walking the Appalachian Trail last year.

Coming back to “society” was a hard transition. On the trail no one cares if you smell, what you own, or what you used to do for a living. Back home, even months after my hike ended, I still forget I have to use deodorant, and showers went from three a month to three or more a week. Those adjustments were minor. What was harder was leaving the freedom of a thru hike behind.

The world off the trail felt competitive especially when driving. I live in an urbanized area, and the aggression on the roads was the first thing that felt jarring after months of shared hardship and generosity that the people on the AT provided. On the AT plans rarely worked for long, but somehow things work out anyway, the serendipity of the trail was the most profound impact I missed.

The trail had transformed me. I was restlessness to continue becoming whoever the trail had started to reveal. I didn’t yet know what the next adventure would be, or why that man in the blankets had affected me so deeply but I could feel I needed to get back to the trials of a long walk.

Familiarity

As spring approached our next adventure was going to be the El Camino(s) in Europe however a change of plans delayed that adventure for at least 2 months. It was Spring so I decided I would return to the AT and do a LASH (long ass section hike) of 420 miles. 420 was a celebration of Virginia’s liberation from prohibition that will start this year. That would bring me to around Damascus in what I estimated would be about the time Trail Days 2026 would occur. Perfect timing I thought.

Knockerz dropped me off at Dicks Creek Gap (mile 69) and before I knew it, I had climbed almost two and a half miles and over a thousand feet. I met a young thru hiker named Bonk and chatted him up which made the time fly by. It was a warm day but overcast. My base weight just under 20 lbs. but I brought my winter gear because it was supposed to get below freezing the day after tomorrow and then extremely cold next week.

I had picked up exactly where I left off last year on logistics. After my Thru hike last year, I had refined my food, water, shelter, and my gear to exactly what worked. For my shelter I traded my 3 person tent that Knockerz and I shared and I carried solo to Katahdin, for the exact same shelter but 2 person tent. I was so glad to have a smaller tent footprint. The larger 3 person footprint was difficult to squeeze into small spaces.

For food, I carried the exact same resupply I used last year. I knew exactly what I needed from Walmart to fill my pack including protein bars hidden in the pharmacy section. My foods were based on energy but I still found them tasty enough to enjoy, even cold soaked.

Ahh.. HOME!

In some sense it felt strange to be out thru hiking the AT again this year because I embarked on this adventure last minute compared to my thru hike last year that I spent years planning. But yet the trail felt oddly familiar, I immediately calmed as I entered the woods. The simplicity of a thru hike and the feeling of returning home flushed through me as I climbed higher and higher.

I encountered several thru hikers who were fresh and excited. Most were still doing low miles of 8-12 miles per day or even less. It wasn’t long before I had climbed to the Georgia/North Carolina border. Last time I came through here it was extremely cold and wet. It was in the Fall of 24 and SOBOs were on their last legs of a very hard year. The Hurricane had ripped through just a month before. The SOBOs were cold and wet and ready to end their hike.

I remember how fresh I was and how worn out they were in 24. I also had a similar experience last year in 25 as I exited the Whites and ran into fresh 25 SOBOs. They were so fresh and excited while I was worn out and ready to end my hike. Now I was energized to back on the trail.

HYOH (hike your own hike)

This section of the trail is one of my favorites of the entire AT. The Nantahala AT runs along a knife ridge. With no leafout yet on trees and bushes, the views are spectacular. However, there are not many flat spaces to camp on so I decided to make it to Muskrat Creek shelter which was about 9 more miles but several thousand more feet of climbing into including two really tough climbs according to the Far-out comments.

When I left the trail last year, I weighed less than 170 lbs., a body weight I had not had since in decades. Back in society I realized I needed to be careful with what I ate. Unfortunately, I could not go to the gym and work out for 8-12 hours every day like I was on my thru hike but I had not gained too much weight since ending my hike 7 months ago. My physical conditioning however for 8-12 hours of hiking was in question. I was able to do 20 plus mile days, day after day, with no major issues. That was months 7 months ago. How much of my trail legs were lost since then?

The climb to Blue Ridge Gap was a long climb. It was there that I ran into Taser a thru hiker who looked dejected and worn out sitting on a log. I stopped to talk to her and began with the usual questions, of how many miles per day she was achieving now. She told me she was averaging 3 miles per day which I was taken aback by at first. She was worn out and heading back to Dicks Creek to catch a shuttle.

I then began to evangelize about Hike your own Hike. If she needed to take a shuttle then do it. She looked at me with sad eyes and began to cry. I think I was the first one to tell her the truths of a thru hike that in spirit it is an individual experience that no one can judge you on how you define your own thru hike.

Out Of My Mind

This hike I purposely unplugged. Last year I tried to capture all my thoughts as I hiked. These were real, raw feelings I wanted to capture at the time. This time I wanted to free myself from any bonds and just hike.

So I hiked on. Not sure what I was thinking, not listening to anything other than the sounds of nature. I eventually arrived at Muskrat Creek Shelter area. I stopped in to the shelter to briefly chat with the thru-hikers. I found a flat space near a bubbling creek and set up my home. Ah, back home again.