#149 Appalachian Trail Section Hike 2023 Intro: Harpers Ferry WVA to Hanover NH - 725 Mile Hike in 48 Days
The mission morphs into one of connecting with others through shared experience - comforting one another with words of hope and understanding.
April 1, 2023
About a week ago I helped a teacher at work unload some expensive camera gear from her car into the music room. I asked what it all was for. She said the younger children were dressing up as what they want to be when they grow up and she’s going to photograph them.
“What did you want to grow up to be?” I asked. “A teacher,” she replied.
“What did you want to grow up to be?” She returned. “I never entertained the idea of growing up to be any one thing, so I became many things throughout life,” I told her. “To live each phase of life as it came.”
Well, it’s time for new phase, new directions, and a hard reset. The kind that only traveling by foot through the wilderness for a long period of time can bring - a deep cleansing, a rebirth, mental clarity, the path to a new phase.
Beneath a cold gray sky I step out of the howling wind onto the Crescent, an Amtrak train bound for Washington D.C., a portal I will pass through later today to board another train called The Capital Unlimited, headed to Harpers Ferry, WV.
As I settle into a window seat on the Crescent, my phone dings. My wife sent the photo of me standing in front of the Greensboro, NC Train Station from a few minutes ago. I stare at the round bellied figure posing on the small screen in my hand wondering how that chunky fella will fare on the trail later this evening, wondering why he’s done nothing to prepare for the physical challenges of this hike.
I’ve been torn on doing this hike for some time. I’m not mentally prepared. I am not physically prepared. I will soon discover I am not financially prepared.
But “Even if I didn't want to go - I must,” I recently told a friend.
I need to melt into the mountains, to dream with eyes wide open, to find the path to a new phase.
After an hour long layover in D.C., I board the Capital Unlimited - bound for Harpers Ferry. Sitting by the window a lady asks if she can sit in the empty seat next to me. She somehow ends up in the window seat. We begin the usual back and forth, in the way that seat neighbors often engage one another.
She just turned fifty and works at the pentagon. Her job (in a nutshell) is to study the the environmental effects on troops stationed in different areas of the world, then make recommendations on how to make living conditions safer for them.
Our conversation turns to the reasons for her trip to Harpers Ferry and for my hike. My reasons you’ve read and will read more about in the coming chapters. Hers reasons are due to traumatic events now occurring in her family, so she, for her own sanity, needs to step out of the situation for a while by spending some time with a friend in Harpers Ferry.
The train begins to slow as we near the station, and the conductor calls for departing passengers to line up.
Behind me is a young couple with backpacks. They are staying in a hostel within walking distance of the station, and will begin hiking south on the Appalachian Trail in the morning. They are in their early twenties and seem to not have a care in the world.
The lady I sat with is in front of me. Turning to me she says, “I think it’s impossible for a person to reach fifty years of age without experiencing the dark.” I agreed with her.
Handing her one of my cards I tell her again that I understand where she is right now. That the dark is real, but to keep moving—the light will find her. Though it will look different than it did when she last saw it. Healing never looks like what we think it will.
Thus begins the unexpected theme of my 2023 section hike from Harpers Ferry WVA to Hanover NH.
Book One’s overarching theme is coming to terms with things that we can’t control, traumatic events, aftermath, and seeking balance again.
Book Two takes us though the healing process, from the darkest of days into day where hope is found, where glimmers of light finally break through.
You’ll find a theme running through Book Three that leads us into a mission of sorts. Over the coming chapters you will meet many people from various backgrounds who share a common thread - trauma brought on by a family member’s substance abuse, followed by the darkness that filled their minds for years, followed by a path to recovery.
The mission becomes connecting with others through shared experience and comforting one another with words of hope and understanding.
Darkness is a phase in life we sometimes must experience You may feel alone, but there are many around you who understand…..and are standing with you.
The train comes to a complete stop. The doors open and we all file out, headed our own directions. My young hiker friends walk towards the buildings on the hillside. My new friend climbs into a car who’s horn just beeped.
I look up at the dark sky and wonder if I should seek a hostel for the night. I step into the train station to see if there’s somewhere in there I could set up my sleeping pad for the night. No. That’s not right. I didn’t come to the trail to hide, but to hike. Let’s get movin’ Sprawl!
One selfie marks the beginning of the hike, one foot steps down in the direction of the trail.
…..and so begins the 2023 section hike…..