As someone who has also hiked the Appalachian Trail, I genuinely can’t comprehend how a 91 year old man could accomplish this.
Truly, this is utterly remarkable in every possible way. The AT is not easy. It’s grueling, physically demanding, mentally exhausting, and fucking long. It takes a hell of a lot out of you.
To do all of that at 91 years old is just mind blowing. What an incredible accomplishment.
Exactly. And the actual hiking is only part of what makes the AT so difficult. Anyone with experience in that world knows the grind doesn’t stop when you finish walking for the day.
You’re constantly thinking about water, food, mileage, weather, where you’re going to camp, etc. Then you have to set up camp, cook, clean, filter water, organize your gear, pack everything back up, and do it all over again the next morning. And then repeat that cycle for months.
It’s the cumulative grind of all of it that makes a thru hike so fucking hard. It’s not just walking 2,000+ miles. It’s essentially living out of a backpack and managing every aspect of your existence while doing it. And at 91 years old, that makes this accomplishment even more incredible.
To me all that stuff is so much easier than normal life tho. You don’t have to think about anything that’s not in your backpack(which shouldn’t be much.) And finding water and all that is very simple. You don’t really have to think about mileage all that much, especially when you don’t really have any thing else to take away your attention.
The physical and mental part of the actual hiking was very hard, but the rest of that stuff is a breeze.
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u/EACshootemUP 19h ago
Yeah I hoped he’d return after his hospitalization; man is a BEAST. What a baddasss!