10 days until step off

Hello!

My name is Justin AKA Iroh. I adventured the Appalachian trail in 2023 and ended at Dartmouth in New Hampshire due to old military injures. The trail turned my life around and here I am getting ready to get back to it. In a little under three weeks I’ll be stepping off at Amicalola Falls State park to start my BMT (Benton MacKaye Trail) thru-hike. This trail is nothing like the Appalachian Trail (AT) it’s only 300 miles compared to the 2,200 miles on the AT. however, this trail is in homage to the man who made the AT possible: Benton MacKaye. So to that end my friend I bid you thanks, as do thousand of other people whose lives have also been forever altered by the trail. 

Why do I hike

I can’t speak for others but for myself, the answer as to why I hike can only be explained in two parts. The first part is as simple as an answer can be: the desire to adventure. Everyone is born with this desire to explore and expand their horizon in this world. Yet there remain two types of people in this regard. The first is the type of person who denies this desire and over time, that desire falls to the back burner. Then your focus is shifted to the safety and convenience of civilization. The second type of person is the person who feeds it. We feeders eventually discover that we don’t really fit into “civilized” society, at least not for very long. Each time we adventure, each time we feed this primal need to expand our worlds, each time we discover something new, the less we fit into that cubicle box in corporate. It is both a gift and burden.

The second half of my answer as to why I hike is the complicated half. Hiking accidentally turned into a walkabout for me at a transitional point in my life. My thru hike attempt turned into a time for me to “defrag” my life the way we used to defrag our windows ’95 computer processors. I had the time needed to organize, categorize and decompress my thoughts. Then I reorganized my recent happenings in life into a file of some sort that makes sense to me. It’s a file I can reference again and again in the thick of normal life off trail. More people ought to do it. Slowing down to two miles per hour on the trail will slow your entire life down. That feeling is spectacular. 

What’s changed in 2 years? 

The AT was not my first brush with camping, hiking, and backpacking. I’m an Eagle Scout so growing up I’d done my fair share of those activities with my Troop in the Scouts. However, Thru-hiking is a different beast in its own right. It truly is a sport of its own kind. Spearheaded by us, the crazy people, who find enjoyment in extreme type two fun! So while I had experience in hiking, camping and backpacking, even I still had a lot to learn on the trail. I’ve taken all of the “Fuck I wish I’d done this instead” and tried to plan accordingly. Part of that has been weight-loss. I summited Springer mountain in the spring of 2023 weighing 313 pounds carrying  a 31 pound pack. Today I’m at a lower weight than when I got off trail at the end of 2023 (I got off trail at 292 pounds just FYI.)  

The second major change is gear. Every gear muck up from the AT in ’23 has been tweaked. Every little piece that caused me issues has been replaced purely for comfort and ease on this hike at minimal weight cost. I’m lucky, I’m still relatively young, and I’m built large like an ox so I can afford a few extra pounds with minimal discomfort. a 31 pound pack to me at 6’1″, 270 pounds carries differently and more easier than a 31 pound pack would on a person who’s 5’5″ 160 pounds. I know this page is visited by gear junkies from all around so I’m planning on a pre hike post specifically for my gear load out for my BMT hike. 

Other than that subscribe and keep your eyes peeled, step off starts on April 26th… T-minus 10 days 

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