Why exactly am I hiking the AT?

How come you want to hike the Appalachian Trail Markus?

After announcing my thru-hike attempt of the Appalachian Trail this year beginning in March 2025 in my last blog post, I felt the urge to explain a bit further what in the world made me quit my job and pack my things to head for the trail in a couple of days.

In order to answer this seemingly simple but complex question you can see this post as a “part 2: further  events and circumstances that led to my decision to give the AT a go.”

My Daily Bread

It all started with an internship during my college years studying land surveying and geomatics in the summer of 2017. Thanks to my former English teacher Darlene I got the ultimate opportunity of learning the ropes of land surveying in the Midwest of the United States. 

I immediately fell in love with the warm and easy-going nature of my coworkers, mentors and my lovely American host family – the Morleys. Looking back this experience pretty much paved my career as I was simply thrown into the daily tasks of a land surveyor. Doing property boundary tracements, flood certification level surveys and staking out concrete curbs for car parks. (Yes, there were a lot of car parks that have been built with my humble help..!) It was my favorite experience during my five years of college as I have always preferred hands-on over theory. I will never forget this time and the people involved. Thank y’all!

Learning the ropes: the six months working as a surveyors assistant in Evansville, Indiana convinced me a career in land surveying is in my blood. An epiphany that would have been impossible without awesome mentors like Ryan here.

At this stage in my life I somewhat managed to successfully kicking of my career as a professional engineering surveyor. Over the last three years I had the honor to call the Emerald Isle my home. I worked on amazing projects like generating floor plans of numerous remarkable public Irish buildings like Four Courts or the Dáil Éireann Chambers. I also helped creating realistic 3D-models of movie sets in areas of outstanding natural beauty such as Glendalough and the Wicklow Mountains. Over the last couple of months I assisted in building and maintaining crucial Irish railway infrastructure. (Shoutouts and my full respect to anyone working night shifts out there! These folks keep our society literally rolling.)

My career keeps me physically active by averaging ten kilometers of walking on an ordinary day.
The walking makes me feel alive.
My favorite jobs are always the ones that involve some sort of a hike. Preferably to a site in nature. I like to remember when I was 3D-scanning Colman’s cave, church and well. A protected Irish heritage site in Burren national park in rural county Clare.

St. Colman happened to be a priest who decided in 595 AD to retire into the wilderness for the benefit of his devotion.
Maybe I happened to be a surveyor who decided to take a career break hiking the wilderness for the benefit of my devotion.
I found an interesting website about his life and the history of the site if you’re interested in Irish history like me:

St Colmán’s holy well at Oughtmama Co Clare « Pilgrimage In Medieval Ireland 

The Origins

I have to thank Daniel, my brother, for igniting the initial spark of wanderlust in me. Back in my teenage years we traveled and hiked the mountains of the nearby Saxon Switzerland. We also took numerous trips to the German-Austrian Alps along with our good friend Robin. In 2018 we even climbed the notorious Watzmann via ferrata together which is a unique memory I shall never forget.

My brother has always inspired me to go for seemingly impossible things such as climbing the 3rd highest German mountain together – Watzmann Mittelspitze, 2713 m above sea level, August 2018

We definitely have to thank our parents who taught us young to put these skis on too!
As breath-taking and outdoorsy all of these activities are, there is a catch that all of these adventures have in common:

We were always lodging in mountain huts or hostels on these trips. I have never spent multiple days hiking staying mainly in a tent(!). Carrying food and shelter on my back over multiple days hiking a trail was an unlived dream for me so far.

I was afraid setting up a tent each night instead of walking into a man-made structure out of concrete and wood could change my all-out positive impressions of the outdoors.

To get an idea if I would actually enjoy a true thru-hike experience I have to give massive credit to my good friends Ben & Dan from Ireland.

Facing the Fears

In early 2024 I asked my friend Ben (or did he ask me?!) if he would be interested in joining me for a week of hiking. As we did our research about nearby hiking trails we decided to hike the Wicklow Way in late July. This popular Irish hiking trail stretches all the way from the northern tip of county Carlow into the urban beginnings of the city of Dublin. 130 km (80 miles) in length.

Extents of the Wicklow Way – Ireland. A long hike I can really recommend doing!

I have never felt more alive than on these couple of days traversing through the valleys and ridges of the Wicklow Mountains.

It was a sad experience to make when Ben & Dan had to call it quits after day 2 due to their horrible blisters.. The good news was we were still catching up at agreed campsites at the end of the day to camp together which created lovely lasting memories nevertheless.

My two walking trail angels Dan & Ben. The shoes visible in this picture were not worn in – A fatal faux pas as it turned out later.

Isn’t sleeping and dining under the stars not already half of the entire outdoor experience after all? 🙂

Some lessons learned were: wear in your shoes, carry an umbrella and hike on alone if necessary as I did.
The biggest truth I learned out there: Whatever you do in life like-minded folk ain’t far. On day 5 I bumped into a 40-something year old accountant with whom I shared the last miles and some good life stories with.
My fears of spending multiple days out in the wild primarily sleeping in a tent were gone.

The wanderlust hiking a much longer hike grew immense..

Now in less than a week I am going to be on the trail.

I am looking forward to writing my next post with actual insights from my AT-experience soon.

So long happy hiking and stay tuned. (…and curious)