My first backpacking trip ever was the Black Forest Trail in Pennsylvania. My college teammate took me the summer before my senior year of college and she provided all the gear (having a rich friend helps when you want to break into an activity with an expensive overhead cost). It’s 43 miles through the breathtaking backcountry of Central Pennsylvania. It’s a rugged trail and despite our both being Varsity distance runners, it was a challenge.
I have always been an endurance athlete but the furthest distance I had ever traveled by foot before that trip was a sixteen-mile long run during cross country practice. I didn’t know there was an activity where you could walk all day, sleep under the stars, wake up to the birds chirping, drink from streams, and carry everything you need for the next many months on your back.
During second semester of my senior year of undergrad my friend took me to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
We borrowed some snowshoes and hiked to the summit of a NH 4,000 footer where he informed me that the mountain across the way was on the AT.
“What’s the AT?” I inquired.
“The Appalachian Trail,” he said then explained what it was.
“I’m going to do it after graduation,” I declared in that moment despite graduation being only two months away.
My friend was unconditionally supportive. Though I only had two days of previous backpacking experience, he helped me prepare all of the details. I had no gear. I had never filtered my water. I didn’t even have a shitty sleeping bag from sleepovers growing up. I rescinded my job applications, purchased new equipment he helped me pick, flew through books and podcasts about the trail, and became more excited and anxious with each passing day.
I graduated from college in the rain on May 28, 2018 and flew to Atlanta to start the trail June 4th.
Comments