My Thru Hiking Evolution (Part 2 of 3)

As I reached my late fifties, the time came to make a decision – keep working and build up the war chest, or retire early and start working on my bucket list?  I’ve known several people who passed away shortly after retiring and didn’t really get to enjoy their “golden years,” so it was a pretty easy decision.  Sometime around my 58^th birthday in the fall of 2016, I gave my notice and said I would be retiring the coming spring to hike the AT.

2017 AT Thru Hike

It was a busy time at work – we had recently landed a significant renovation project of the iconic Portland Building and I was knee deep in the preconstruction effort – which left very little time for training, meaning I would have to hike myself into shape. I opted to start my hike on April 2, 2017, which was forty years to the day after I headed north from the Mexican border on my PCT hike back in 1977.  After spending a night at the iconic lodge at Amicalola Falls (just like Bill Bryson’s character from “A Walk in the Woods” movie), I headed north, choosing to take the approach trail.  That first night at Springer, and for the first several weeks as well, I saw a massive amount of hikers, but the crowds eventually started to thin out.  Like every other AT hiker, I am convinced that my year was the rainiest on record.  But for the most part, it was a warm rain.  One luxury of being a senior hiker is that I was able to swap out gear as the seasons changed, unlike my PCT hike where I had less than $500 to last me the entire trip.  My base weight started out at about 21 lbs. and ended up at around 19 lbs.  I summited Katahdin on September 16, 2017 on a beautiful sunny day.  I had hoped to finish forty years to the day after my PCT hike completion date but took a few too many zeroes along the way.

My Most Memorable Day on the AT

Prior to telling my kids I was going to hike the AT, we were playing a table game at Thanksgiving.  One of the questions posed was “who would you most like to meet who is no longer with us.” My future daughter-in-law said her aunt, but that she was killed on the AT back in 1990.  I remembered hearing about this case at the time, as well as the 25-year follow up story from Outside magazine, so I was stunned to learn there was a family connection. A miscreant named Paul David Crews murdered a young SOBO couple – Molly and Geoff.  He stole their gear before eventually being apprehended in Harper’s Ferry. He was sentenced to life in prison, eventually passing away in 2022.

This terrible incident occurred at what was then known as the Thelma Marks shelter, about four miles south of Duncannon, PA.  It was subsequently torn down and replaced with a new shelter located close by and renamed Cove Mountain shelter.  The shelter is not immediately adjacent to the trail and is close to town, so it doesn’t get a lot of traffic.  But I made the detour down.  Now, I don’t really believe in ghosts or spirits, but I felt a presence that day.  It was more than a little eerie.

Upon arriving in Duncannon, I was met by Molly’s Dad who had driven out from Ohio to meet me.  We had lunch at The Doyle along with several folks from the ATC who had been involved in the recovery.  It was both a sad and joyous occasion and without a doubt one of the most memorable days of my AT journey.  That evening my PCT friend Jay-Z picked me up for the short drive to his cabin in nearby Linglestown, PA. Oddly enough, Jeff had been doing a day hike on Cove Mountain (his go to training hike) and stumbled upon the recovery effort.  Talk about degrees of separation.

The Next Three Years

After returning home from Maine, I soon discovered that I may have retired too early.  It wasn’t a cash flow issue, but rather I was bored out of my mind.  Linda, my partner, worked full-time, which complicated things given that she often worked from home and needed quiet. Fortunately, my employer reached out to me and offered to let me work part-time on an as-needed basis.  This ended up being the best of both worlds for both me and my employer. The next two summers were spent on a geocaching challenge involving forest fire lookouts scattered across the State of Washington (we had already completed the Oregon version.) But as 2020 approached, I felt the itch again.

Part 3 of this post will touch on my more recent adventures (CT, TRT, TABR) followed by an intro to my 2023 AZT hike.

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