Off the Trail

For the obsessive long-distance hiker, there’s an absolute difference between two core states of your very existence. You’re either “on the trail” or “off the trail.”

Resettling after 9/11

The interlude between leaving the Appalachian Trail in September of 2001 and returning in August of 2002 was generally a restless time for me. I returned to the same job and basically the exact same life I’d left behind. It was frustrating to have had such an amazing experience but very little to show for it – especially considering that I didn’t complete the Trail.

I turned 21 in late September, just a couple weeks after returning home. The occasion is traditionally marked by a wild, drunken night of debauchery, but I had a subdued night at just a couple bars with my only friend in the area who was old enough to go out. My other friends were either out of town at college, or still underage.

I went to a few rock concerts, picking up right where I left off with my tendency to go see Bruce Springsteen multiple times in 2000 (and others). I saw U2 play at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and then again a few days later at East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Madison Square Garden concert was particularly special, since it was held a matter of weeks after the September 11th attacks. Later, after the new year, I saw Billy Joel and Elton John do a concert together in Philadelphia.

Making a Plan

Soon the holiday cards from my hiker-friends who had gone on to complete the Trail in 2001 began to roll in, making it more and more difficult to overcome my overall feeling of failure. I’d hiked a long way, but the goal, after all, was to get to Katahdin. So I couldn’t help but feel a sting of jealousy when reminded of the success of my peers.

It wasn’t long before I made the decision to return and complete the Trail the following summer. For continuity I’d start where I left off – in Manchester Center, Vermont. I chose to begin in mid-August, when I imagined that the highest volume of thru-hikers would be in the area – hoping to fall in step with the hikers of 2002.

Trail Days 2002

I made a point of going to the Trail Days Festival in Damascus, Virginia in May of 2002. A number of people I hiked with in 2001 would be there. The visit would break up the doldrums of working a full-time restaurant job and help me tangibly stay in touch with the Trail.

The Hunt for Optimal Shoes

You may remember how I was plagued with terrible blisters in Georgia until I bought new shoes at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina. The shoes lasted me for the rest of the season until I got off the trail in Vermont, but they were fairly trashed and wouldn’t be suitable for my return in 2002.

So I needed new shoes. My blister experience was so bad that I was very intent on getting an identical pair to the ones I’d bought in North Carolina. You can imagine my despair when an online search for the shoes was futile! Oh no, they’d been discontinued! The manufacturer was a brand called Garmont, but the name of the exact model escapes me now as I write this years later.

Fortunately I had a clever idea. I knew I’d soon be driving from Pennsylvania to the Trail Days Festival in Virginia. The route along Interstate 81 generally follows the Appalachian Trail, so I pulled out my Thru-Hiker’s Handbook and found the phone numbers of all the outfitter stores in the trail towns along the way. I called them up, one by one, asking if they still had any of the Garmont shoes in stock in my size.

Rockfish Gap Outfitters in Waynesboro, Virginia had two pairs in stock! Score! I bought them right then and there, giving my credit card info over the phone and providing the specific day I’d be there to pick them up.

Traveling to Damascus

I had a great time making the road trip to Trail Days, revisiting the southern Appalachians with my vehicle. Looking back, road trips were more adventurous back then, without tools like GPS and Google Maps. I simply had a stack of the big folding road maps that I followed! Alone on the road and 21 years old, what a time.

I found the outfitter at Rockfish Gap and the shoes were there waiting for me. As I was leaving the store, I noticed a backpacker – he was trying to explain to a confused Asian couple (likely touring Shenandoah National Park) that he was looking for a ride to the interstate. By the look of him I could obviously tell that he was an AT thru-hiker. I immediately decided to interrupt:

“Are you trying to get to Trail Days?” I asked.

“Yeah, I am!”

“Well I’m your ride then!” I replied. “I’m headed down there now, let’s go!”

So there I was all of a sudden, back “on the trail” in a way, and doing trail magic. I don’t remember the hiker’s trail name all these years later. Rather than coolers left at the road crossing and hosting big cookouts, this was the genuine sort of “trail magic,” the original meaning of the phrase, where simple things happen to thru-hikers that feel like they’re meant to be. It felt like I was “meant” to pick up the shoes at that outfitter in order to transport this hiker to Trail Days.

The festival was great fun, but sort of a blur in retrospect (as it should be, I suppose). You can see more of my description about what Trail Days was generally like at the time in this post.

I got to hang out with a lot of old acquaintances from the previous summer – but I felt a sharp sting inside whenever they got to talking about Maine.

Part of the tent city along “the river,” which was actually Laurel Creek, where I camped this year. I was on “the island” last year. The following year, the city of Damascus would prohibit camping at the river and the island (near the public pool), and move the camping areas a significant distance out of town.

The thru-hiking gang of 2001 was well-represented in 2002’s “hiker parade.”

Leatherfeet, Ganj, and Wile E. Coyote – I spent a good bit of time with these guys at Trail Days. A random memory – one of them was playing a bluegrass-sounding album, which was so fitting and fairly unique to me with my Yankee-east-Pennsylvania upbringing. They said the CD was Steve Earle (who I’d never heard of), and I guess it must have been “The Mountain” album, but many tracks on that are more down-tempo than I remember hearing.

Early Summer 2002

I opted for a longer route on the drive home, following the Blue Ridge Parkway and staying closer to the Trail. I particularly remember listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin on a rainy day on the Parkway.

After returning from Trail Days, the summer of 2002 was much more fun than the winter. My friends from high school were back in town, and we took full advantage of our newfound ability to go to bars, and even dance clubs.

As my departure date for the Trail grew closer, I felt as though my daily life was building to a sort of climax – having an end date or an upcoming transition in life always seems to make the here and now more vibrant and urgent. I remember hearing the techno song “Castles in the Sky” often in the clubs as we did laps around an old Allentown club called Banana Joe’s, from the techno room to the hip hop room to the outdoor live rock band. And around and around. My friend Dave would always say, “It’s the Rygar song!”

Soon it was time to pack my bag and travel to Vermont – time to get back “on the trail.”