This Week’s Top Instagram Posts from the #AppalachianTrail

Super Tuesday has come and gone with the top Democratic nominees taking their next steps in the journey to meeting President Trump on the big stage. So too have the not-yet-so-dirty class of 2020 taken more steps to achieving their thru-hiking dreams. Take solace in the pause from politics and revel in this week’s top Instagram photos from the #AppalachianTrail.

This week’s photos were taken from February 23 to March 4, and were found by scouring hashtags like #TrektheAT and #AppalachianTrail. While we would love to feature every photo taken on Instagram, we’ll be selecting the best of the best for the weekly roundup. For more photos and content, be sure to follow @thetrek.co and @appalachian.trail on Instagram.

One step at a time.

 

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DAY 3: 3.02.20 | Gooch Mountain Shelter to Neel Gap (Blood Mountain Cabins) Today’s Miles: 15.6 Total AT Miles: 31.3 Was woken up at 3:57am by Matt, to which I responded “it’s way too fuckin early” and then immediately after at 4 someone’s alarm was blaring. Our Gooch Group was on trail by 4:30, trying to hike as much of our 15 mile day as we could before the rain came. Found our first trail magic at Woody Gap and caught the sunrise over the first good view we’ve seen on the AT (pictured). Rest of the day was a rainy cold mess summiting and descending Blood Mountain. But the first part of our group left us a note in the shelter on top saying they got us all cabins, where I’m happy to be writing from.

A post shared by Kelly + Matt (@acouplehikers) on Mar 3, 2020 at 5:02am PST

 

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I’ve hit a second wind. I’ve felt good enough the last few days to think that maybe I’m kicking the slump a bit and getting tougher mentally. The beginning of the day still held some snow which slowed me up earlier, but I would eventually get down and feel super strong. On the day I managed over three miles an hour. Thank you Virginia for the lower elevation and crushable miles. I surprised myself when I got to my stop almost two hours earlier than I anticipated. On top of a resupply and some of the best Mexican food I have eaten, I’ll have knocked out another 32 miles Like many out there, I struggle with control. Particularly having certainty over what’s to come in my life. I like making big plans (if you haven’t picked this up already with my whole CYTC ambition). I like making big overarching plans regarding myself and the people close to me because it makes me feel in control, like I know exactly what’s best for me. Also like I can make my life look exactly how I want. This pattern is such a brilliant lie. No matter how well I plan out my life, I am in no control of it. I always have the choice to keep moving, but the future is its own beast I think I have been doing better recently because I am learning, if only a little bit, to let go of this need for control. I still have many hopes for the future both on and off the trail, but being okay with hopes not being guarantees is the mark of someone who knows peace. That’s what I am trying to work toward out here!

A post shared by Phill “Flamingo” Toomasian (@phillip.david.t) on Mar 2, 2020 at 3:34pm PST

 

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Day 8&9&10–To Deep Gap Shelter, Muskrat Creek Shelter, and Carter Gap Shelter The trail has a way of playing tricks on you. I guess that’s why in many Aboriginal cultures, to become an adult means to be thrown into the maw and somehow find your way back. There was such a strong sense of place, truth, and identity within the land, before industrialism separated us and scattered us to our cloistered suburbs, before culture became more about production and the price of milk. To be disconnected to the land meant nothing less than to be severed from your being, your family, your aspirations, your very self. So to fully realize this symbiosis of land and people, you were cast out with little more than a day’s supplies, out from the comfort of your childhood, out with the knowledge that if you made it home, not only would you be considered an official member of your tribe, but you would have proven your understanding of our fundamental relationship with nature. Not everyone survived. Without water, food, or direction, the wilderness can be a fragile and threatening land. Predators watching you for any sign of weakness, and the hard sun leeching the energy from your bones. One turn looks just like the last, and you could have sworn that you had just passed that tree with the twisted limb. Hunger and thirst reveal every landmark as an oasis of feasting and plenty, and your mind unearths fantasies you never thought you possessed, these manic, dark thoughts lying dormant and submerged beneath your breaking point. Unlike our ancestors, thru-hikers and adventurers willingly choose to explore, not out of necessity or survival, but of privilege and leisure and curiosity and boredom and restlessness and vain ambition. Most of us will always have a bailout point. I kept thinking of these stark realities as I bitched and moaned about weather and hardship and slight discomfort, most of which were of my own doing and voluntary consent. Consciousness stretches out the miles in your own mind as well as the path before you, your next resting point always feeling like it’s just beyond your gaze. **Continued in comment section⬇️**

A post shared by Matthew Foster (@thehikingheretic) on Mar 1, 2020 at 5:40pm PST

 

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If you wait for other people, you’ll wait the rest of your life.

A post shared by Amber (@amber.tea) on Mar 1, 2020 at 9:29am PST

 

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Sometimes stubbornness works in my favor.

A post shared by Amber (@amber.tea) on Feb 27, 2020 at 6:11am PST

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Comments 1

  • Chris mischief Phillips : Mar 9th

    Awesome thank you so much for choosing a few of my photos 🙂

    Reply

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