Why I am Actually Hiking the Appalachian Trail This Time Around

For almost 10 years I’ve been telling myself I want to hike the Appalachian Trail. After all that time, this is the year it’s truly happening.

(Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backwards. – Soren Kierkegaard)

Honestly, it may be even longer than that. Yet for some reason I never made it happen. There were feeble attempts where I would start planning for a few weeks or a month, telling friends and family that this was the year. But my interest would eventually peter out. The planning always stressed me out. I felt there was a sea of research to be done, thousands of dollars to be saved up, and an overwhelming amount of unknown factors. These mountains in my head were bigger than some of the mountains that I had actually backpacked before.

You see, my dad is a planner, and he raised me to be a planner. I admire his ability to look far ahead into the future and navigate all the potential pitfalls before they happen (IF they ever happen). I can clearly see the benefits of this philosophy for taking on big goals. Maybe one day I will. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize how this process stifles me from actually doing the thing, from taking any real action towards my goal. I get overwhelmed by all the what ifs, as if they are happening to me all at once. And almost any time I have drafted a plan, something inevitably goes wrong close to the beginning and well that plan goes to shit. As Mike Tyson famously said “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”. Thanks Mike.

Instead, I’ve learned a new approach. One that I can admit may not be the most efficient, and is often frustrating, yet nevertheless it works for me. I have learned to just stumble my way through my goals. It’s messy, I make a lot of mistakes, and I have no idea what I’m doing when I start. But I think that is the most important aspect of it, just getting started. Otherwise I become debilitated by analysis paralysis and no progress is made.

What’s interesting is I’ve done this process at least once before, but I didn’t realize it until much older. When I went on my first solo backpacking trip at 21. I made every mistake in the book. A 50lb pack, boots that didn’t fit right, too many miles, not scouting any water sources ahead of time, food in metal cans. I was hurting and cursing at the end of the trip, BUT I did it. I hiked all 52 miles of the New Jersey Batona Trail all by myself in three days. And I learned the foundation of my backpacking basics from that trip.

(One of the few remaining photos from my hike of the NJ Batona trail. Pretty sure this was early in the trip before the blisters and chiggers.)

It wasn’t until I took my current job that I realized how useful this mindset is. It’s my first job in the construction industry and everyone on my team has a can do attitude that I’ve never seen anywhere else before. “If you can think it, we can do it” is something I hear a lot, but the one that sticks with me the most is “We will figure it out when we get there”. I freaking love this phrase. Because it says a few things, “Let’s not waste our time and energy worrying about something that may never come to pass” and also “If it does present itself, we can and will figure it out”.

Trust me, I know a LOT of people who would disagree with all of this. And again, I can admit it’s probably not the best way for most people. But it gets the ball rolling, and that seems to be the hardest part for me. I think it’s the reason why I am finally doing the trail after a year of talking about it. Because I know I don’t have to get it right the first time. I can allow myself to make a mess before giving it another go. I can accept that I will undoubtedly make mistakes, that even short term plans on the trail will fall through. Whatever obstacles present themselves on trail I know I’ll figure it out when I get there.