It felt weird. Was I even on the right trail? I took up my phone and opened Far Out, the app I used for navigation.

Sure enough, the little arrow indicating my position was right on the red line that represented the Appalachian Trail.

Still, it didn’t feel like I was on this particular trail. Or that I’d even started a thru-hike. I just felt like a lone hiker in the woods. I thought back on my other long-distance hikes and remembered how the thru-hikers had swarmed the trail from the very beginning. But out here I’d so far only occasionally passed section hikers and day hikers.

A promising start

My expectations for this trail didn’t have too much going for it – steep climbs, rain, roots, rocks and ticks. But having heard so many stories about it from other hikers, I knew I needed to hike at least a few hundred miles on it to see what it was all about. 

But though my expectations were low, I wanted it to be different. And in that regard it had made a promising start.

Paranoia

Starting out from Amicalola Falls State Park the sky was clear. The leafs on the trees were beautifully lit by the sun, almost sparkling in their light green color that represents spring. It was that hopefull time of year where everything’s brought back to life. Knowing why this trail was called the green tunnel was no riddle that needed to be solved.

As always, my first few miles were all about feeling every sensation in my body. Even though I convinced myself that it was just a trail and that it didn’t matter if I finish or not, the fear of failure is always there.

What if my knees don’t hold up? Or my feet aches too much? What if I push myself too hard and get a stress fracture? I was painfully aware of the fact that the past doesn’t equal the future. No matter how many trails I’ve completed before in my life, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to finish the one I’m currently on. 

Completing the first day of trail

Apart from my paranoia, the first day was cruisy. I kept waiting for the steep climbs to come but they never did. So when I reached my shelter and planned destination for the night at 4.15 pm, I decided to push another 8 miles. And sure enough, after making that decision a couple of hard climbs turned up. With only a slice of banana bread and a protein cookie to fill me up for the day, I started to feel like I was overheating and lightheaded. A feeling I had encountered before on one of my hikes in Croatia when it was about 38 degrees celcius and I was not able to eat anything in my food bag.

Not a fan of stopping before making it to the top, but even so I decided against pushing for it. Instead, I found a big boulder, sat down, took out my electrolyte tablets and mixed a couple of them with water. It made a world of difference to my state. And I felt stupidly proud over the fact that I’ve listened to my body rather than my ego.

Making it in to camp that night I had completed my first day of the Appalachian Trail. 23,8 miles in total. 

Are you going to Maine?

Around lunch time on my third day I felt like having my freeze dried pad thai dinner that was tucked away in my food bag. Trying to seize the moment of finally wanting to eat something, I stopped for a break. I boiled some water, mixed it up with the contents of the bag, only to finish about half of it. As I was packing up and getting ready to leave, a section hiker approached me.

”You going to Maine?”

”That’s the plan.”

”When did you start?”

”Thursday, May 4th.”

Looking confused he started to back trace the dates.

”But it was May 1st on Monday… so how many miles are you doing a day?” 

After telling him my milage he then asked if I had a trail name. 

”Terminator.”

He laughed out loud.

”Well that seems about right!!”

His reaction made me flattered and anxious at the same time. Flattered that he was impressed with my speed, anxious that I might be pushing myself too hard and that this would be the shortest trail of them all (other than the actual distance). 

I’ll do it my way

I decided to take a zero – a day off trail with the goal of being off your feet as much as possible – in a town called Franklin in North Carolina. Making my way to the road where I would get picked up, I made a decision. I was going to hike this trail the way I wanted to hike it. Fast and with few breaks. My body might hold or it might not.

But at least I’d done it my way.