So, in my first post I gave my big “action statement”. It also gave a good overview of the four W’s every good journalism student knows. I briefly summarized the who, what, when, and where of my blog:
I (who) will be thru-hiking (what) the Appalachian Trail (where) in 2027 (when).
Left unsaid was the fifth and most important W: why. Why am I doing this, and why should you give enough of a fuck to read this blog? I’ll take some time here to answer the first why, and hope that the reasons I give are sufficient to warrant you continuing to follow along.
I spend a fair amount of my time playing video games. Mostly Xbox video games, but also some computer games as well. I can’t call myself a “PC Gamer” anymore since I switched over to Linux last year. One of the video games I play more than I should is Fallout 76. It is an MMORPG with inventory management as a core mechanic. One big aspect of inventory management is “perk cards” that you can equip to your character to make carrying things around easier. Nothing about the story elements of Fallout 76 are relevant to this blog except for the fact that it is based in West Virginia.
Since the game is based in West Virginia, they decided to name the “perk card” that makes your food weigh less be “THRU-HIKER”. I played this game for years while using the THRU-HIKER perk card and never really bothered to ask what a thru-hiker was. One day about two years ago I finally bothered to search the term on the internet and discovered the idea that thru-hiking a trail was something that could be done.
If you are thinking that I immediately decided to pledge to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail after figuring that out, you would be wrong. I mostly just filed it in the back of my brain alongside interesting but otherwise pointless knowledge like the formula for flux across a surface or the history of Liechtenstein’s flag. My number one reason for making this pledge is that I got so fucking old.
I just turned 50 in January of this year, which makes me a Capricorn just like all the greatest people throughout history. Even though I just turned 50, I have felt 50 for about eighteen months. Beginning near the end of 2024, I became obsessed with being 50. I thought about myself as being 50 so often I actually would tell people I was 50 and then need to correct myself. “Oh sorry, I mean I’m actually 49 but I am just working through some shit in my own head so I literally forgot my own age”.
Fifty has always felt so old to me. Like the finish line for the competitive portion of my life. Nothing left after 50 except moving into senior living and waiting patiently for dementia and/or colostomy bags and/or needing to use a walker to get around and/or all three. Forty felt old as I approached it too, but in more of a “you are now dead to advertisers and women” kind of way than a “you are now dead” way.
Late last year, as 50 continued hurtling towards me like an asteroid towards Earth in a sci-fi movie, I decided that maybe my fiftieth birthday isn’t my expiration date. The Rock is over 50. Dave Bautista is over 50. Hell, Brad Pitt is over 60. They are all doing great. And I have so much in common with those guys.
Cough.
Anyway, that is when I remembered that thru-hiking exists and decided to do something incredibly rash like hike the Appalachian Trail. I decided to wait for 2027 to give myself time to get my life in order first, so that is where we are and why I am here. I hope my “why” is compelling enough for you to stick around as well.
Gene Hikes the Appalachian Trail 