FAMILY HIKES APPALACHIAN TRAIL [Full Documentary]

beginning today it is like go time with Appalachian Trail prep getting ready for the trail was hard six months before we were buying things trying on gear and doing various things to prepare ourselves yeah these are your shoes for a very long walk the last month before the trail especially so 28 days left till we hit the trail we were packing and preparing for the trail but on top of that we were packing up our house to prepare for Airbnb our bins are slowly dwindling away as we are putting stuff in them and putting the stuff in the basement [Music] we have books and maps freeze-dried meals beef jerky and fuel and summer sausage it was hard changing our house up for Airbnb knowing that when we came back it wouldn't be the home we've been dreaming about for six months [Music] the house is empty you know it's crazy forget it yep all of this stuff needs to get in the van right now are you ready to go bye house see you in six months I think a lot of people going in to start the 80 know at least a little bit about the trail culture and the hiker family feel I did not I thought it was just gonna be us going on a big long walk I remember being excited about the thought of coming home and being different stronger than before I remember not feeling like I had enough time to say goodbye to friends it was hard answering the questions why are you guys doing this people love that question I think I was excited too excited for this long big hard thing that I had no idea as to what I was going to be like we're gonna get my mom to take a picture of our whole family where do you push where the Crawford family I'm Dov and I'm 16 my name is 7 and I'm 13 I'm heating and I'm 15 and I'm bad and I'm kami and we've been wanting to hike the Appalachian Trail as a family for 16 years and this was our last chance before our oldest turns 18 I hope they didn't mind that we just borrowed those whole cart things overnight hello you ready to eat you want to say where we're eating tonight or 82 the Brazilian steakhouse tonight the Appalachian Trail is about 2,200 miles and start to Springer Mountain in Georgia and end at Mount Katahdin in May it's the longest hiking trail in the world check out this forecast for tomorrow 100 percent chance of rain why not stay in the hotel room one more night but we decided to start tomorrow the next day we drove out to the trailhead we are ready to go Springer Mountain is one mile that way when we first started the trail I remember only being chilly but then it started to rain and it only got colder okay we made it to the top it's been a bit of a disaster we can't find a baby as rain pants I spent so much time preparing for this trip and it felt so stupid and frustrating to lose the babies rain pants within the first hour we took a stupid picture got to the bottom and hopped in the car and cranked up the heat and a lights [Music] okay that was so miserable we are trying to regroup in the van and just have some lunch and dry off a tiny bit but it seems like a stop it was so hard to get out of the van and heart-wrenching to say goodbye it to Ben's parents by when we got out of the car it had stopped raining but it was still cold we said goodbye to how many Papa which was really sad it started hiking we did seven miles that day got to camp at around 7:30 p.m. at home a six mile run would have taken us about an hour and a half that first day was so cold what have we gotten ourselves into it is the morning of day three yeah it was so cold last night we are saying goodbye to the campsite we stay that last night we heard there's breakfast up here I don't know if it's true we're crossing our fingers are you kidding me my name is MacGyver I was a 2015 three biker and my first two weeks was really disheartening and day three is just a hard time for hikers and generals and on this spot actually just over there he was the guy named fresh grounds he set up and did a big trail magic thing [Music] day four we are hiking a blood mass this is the time so downhill from here this is the first place we've been where you can spend money in the picture we came said lager and stay at a cabin it was the first place we had to say that oh my gosh this is amazing everyone's kinda eaten our hair got a little party got a little fire our clothes are drying out there saying that we have a house from that first day I I still can't even wrap my mind around what happened that was so jarring I have four blisters how many do you have before we have a few rashes on people's backs sunburn sunburns besides that though it's like we're doing pretty good we took our first year a day there because everyone got sick so like I knew this is gonna be hard but I never really thought about like four three four kids and a wife barking simultaneously hard so we managed to do some dishes but no one even wanted to eat breakfast so it's just sitting over there all these blankets were just covered a bar so these garbage cans were all just full there was like towels stacked on the ground you know you can't walk because there's just backpacks everywhere eight this day is a high of 36 and a low of 21 hey what are you doing over there [Music] and I have our first zero day my mom and dad gathered us all in the common room of the cabin and told us that if we tried and did our best to finish we would try and make it to Washington maybe even lakeside that lit a freaking fire in my heart we started out the next day it was raining but I was pumped the pressure was on and the wet he gets super cold so he had like pull his pants down and tie him up chicken and dumplings YUM chicken teriyaki with rice chicken teriyaki with rice we are in the tent it's not even 6:00 p.m. yet this is my pillow diaper Peck it's not as comfortable as you'd think they're kind of compact also he wants his num nums he wants food dubs gonna bring us food right yeah I know not yet you can see there's like these ice crystals like the whole back of my backpack is just like frozen I guess that'll melt off on our back we have a ride picking us up at 11:30 and three and a half miles and we have to make this because it's the guy that's taking us to our hotel we are more than an hour ahead of schedule and we never caught up to kami and the smaller kids up there there good job guys are you John all right I'm bad yes thank you for coming our next day was Hiwassee Georgia it was our first hotel only took three zero days there because of the weather there was a pool and a hot tub the first time we stayed in it felt like our Savior it was so hard for me to see Rainier in the fold all right a couple of weeks in and the vlog started coming up there was a lot of support and there was a lot of hate this means we have officially hiked 78 miles from the beginning and nine miles today pretty exciting that we're crossing state lines Green air is really excited about North Carolina a lot of people thought we couldn't do it we're stupid for trying and didn't know what we were doing I felt at times that it would make so many people happy to hear we quit that made me not want to quit [Music] morning it is 10:30 it really is cold today maybe you get sick of hearing us say that but here's my water bottle it's just like a block of ice right now which is kind of stupid because it's freezing my chest I have to carry it because I can't have two yet and I can't drink it what do you see and another end Hey nether and in order to get to Seattle this camp that the kids really want to go to it's a camp Ben and I grew up going we actually met there anyways they really want to go there in order to go there we would need to be done by August 7th and in order to be done by August 7th we would have to average about fourteen point two miles a day and that's every day that's including zero days so if we want zero days we'd have to do even more mileage to make up for it fourteen point two miles is seemed impossible there were some really dark moments for Ben and I at the end of that first month it made us really wonder if this was all worth it people were threatening to call CPS which happened entire websites were dedicated to hating on us but we decided to keep walking and I'm glad we did day 19 it was finally starting to warm up all right we're walking across Fontana Dam right now [Music] and then we enter the Smokies okay this is the hardest highest wettest coldest part and it got colder two days into the Smokies ice rained getting our socks and shoes completely soaked we just got poured on for like an hour we're like soaked you didn't make it to the shelter that we're planning on because it is really cold and we're really tired and I think the other shelter was just a school if not fuller than this one so these people were kind enough to make room for us Dov is working on some food is it pad thai - pad thai and - what please tell me beef stroganoff and we were all able to stay in the shelter the next morning our shoes and socks were frozen solid these are our socks that were drying overnight they're just like frozen I can't open up my shoes or even like bend them we looked out of the shelter and there was snow a lot of snow looks like we got two inches of snow out there we needed to go because we were supposed to meet how many and Pappaw Newfound Gap 13 miles away so we took our frozen socks and shoes and started hiking I love the way that experienced in the shelter last night we were just supposed to spend 10 minutes there people started offering to scoot over and smash together guys were offering to go and pitch tents out in the snow and there supposed to be a blizzard which there is right now people are offering to sleep in the mud and the dirt and everyone banded together to help our family you know this stuff is like life or death feeling for small kids [Music] so when people are offering to help my kids I was just like sitting in the sleeping bag like crying last night because I couldn't believe how helpful and loving everyone was to our first break point this is the shelter we were supposed to stay at last night's that's two miles the people there hooked us up with some chocolate and some water which was really kind of them I couldn't really see the trail much less the trail blazes because everything was white I was surprised we didn't get lost and died I couldn't really move my fingers I felt really bad for for you for lunch we each ate seven Ritz crackers and then kept going we didn't want to stop for breaks we were moving fast but not fast enough to make the time we had set with my grandparents so my dad sent me ahead to get there sooner I arrived at a windy snowy parking lot Newfound Gap it was still snowing there was a few cars in the parking lot we heard the roads were closed but I went and checked the cars anyways how many a pop-up weren't there but there were heated bathrooms we are sleeping in a bathroom we're trying to make the best of it it actually it was a huge bummer because we came down to the road where we're gonna get picked up by Ben's parents and if the road is closed because of the weather so the good side of that is that there's this semi heated bathroom that we're like camping out in tonight hopefully just one night we're having kind of a hodgepodge of food of whatever we had left good thing I'm gonna have to get out of bed I have seven dolls to choose from I'm heading out to check on the road this wasn't here last night I came to breed the road is open officially and hominy Papa came to pick us up and bring us two gallon burped [Music] I wonder why it's called Smoky Mountain that's where we're heading we stayed in another Holiday Inn Hotel and took a zero-day there with how many Oh papa man it was hard to leave I know I know okay we're gonna go alright bye [Music] man it's really hard to say goodbye okay today was a tough day a little bit discouraging it was like just gray and wet the entire day warming up by the fire we are just leaving behind us now Great Smoky Mountain National Park we hide for another week in the cold and took a break out our first hustle Sandy Bear we're not gonna stay there but I think it's only 0.1 miles that way even though we got to go that way we're hoping that we can dump our trash and maybe there'll be something good to eat up there we met these guys he gave us some of their pizza one of the guys was named hops at the very beginning I can remember being in Harpers Ferry West Virginia where the Canal C&O Canal meets the Appalachian Trail and my Scoutmaster told her all of us Boy Scouts me my buddies that if you look that way you can go all the way the main of to the north if you turn this way you can go south all the way the Georgia at that instant I just know I wanted to do it all how old were you I was 11 years old it was just a matter of figuring out when alright are we saying bye-bye we got a pizza in our hand powdered sugar on our No all right we found this store here that will allow us to weigh our packs here's a 17 pounds Tammy's pack come on 33 pounds here is sevens 28 pounds okay here's that spec 27 pounds all right ready for ya that's why your pack you don't want it up here 12 pounds [Music] the first house we stayed at was John and Nicole's and it was amazing yeah yeah I found you by your birth video we had all our favorite foods we took a zero-day there total we did 318 point two miles that is an average of ten point three miles a day [Music] after that our friends Eric and Julia and their kids came out to hike with us for a few days in April here is the rest of the crew you can see we're quite the line here it was really neat to share what we've been going through with someone else there that guy man seemed going to cry a bunch of dirt my water Matata and I'm really excited Cecily I'm really tired and we have been hiking a lot what is that the hats the damn look at that we're gonna walk across that [Music] [Music] we finally have a trail name coming into people and they're like oh are you the family mm-hmm and we kept hearing that over and over again the family are you the family are you the family I think that might be your trail name like oh so we decided to start calling ourselves the family [Music] okay in hiker news last night I drink this whole thing of water while sleeping I don't know how also we got pop-tarts for breakfast but no one cares about that because the big news of the day is that it is Kerry's 38th birthday the Tennessee Virginia state line I'm done with Tennessee b2 all right Ryanair what do you see how you see houses look right there we made it there's houses we're in town as soon as we set foot in Damascus we were met by Tanya and her daughter at a park she brought hers fries soda and Starbucks vanilla lattes candy for the kids and cigars for me and Ben she brought these amazing cupcakes for my birthday we were so hungry and the food was so delicious after that we walked a block to Mike and Claudia's house they sent us a letter before we started the trail saying that they will host us in their house their house was very nice with snacks drinks and clean clothes waiting for us that night Ben surprised me with a huge red velvet cake you can't tell mama Shh [Music] we ended up packing out 10 pounds of it with us and ate it over the next couple days try our history check out I will thank you when we left Damascus we got Subway's sandwiches to go and walk right past the place we were supposed to stop for lunch up this dusty hot hill that sucked but the sandwiches were really good and we ate leftover cupcakes for dessert Cammie we got a little surprise for you let's see how these things did [Music] even better [Music] my shoes were flying apart Damascus so I bought a new pair of shoes made by a company named ultra they were light and flat and shaped like my foot I don't think there's room for you know hey Cammy Cammy jealous I was so in love with them that I made a video and sent it to ultra asking for a sum for the whole family ok check out this email I just got we will send you some ultra love I got you a pair of ultras babe [Music] we have three point three miles to go I'm feeling pretty good my feet really hurt [Music] we met so many encouraging people on the trail one of these people was named know as we were hiking he came up to us with tears in his eyes saying I'm just blown away at what you guys are doing I am so encouraged to see family pulling together and I've really been looking forward to to meet you guys and just one up in the Jewish tradition is lock arms and literally support each other I love you guys on the trail we met hundreds of other hikers but having a family made it hard to get to know other people but after 500 miles we realized we're making new friends my name is silver I'm from any bank port Maine 500 miles the trail laughter and swore I'd never do it again the degeneres were such a fun group for us to hang out with I felt like there really care about our kids in the trail because it seemed like an adventure I'm not dead we're doing the trail because she made me I'm on the Kish I supposedly made her do this do it I'm now because I just didn't want to go to work for six months are you glad that you made that choice depends on the day one of the most famous parts on the trail Cathy's knob caught on fire so we turned around and walked back to the road so we know for sure there's like nine miles of this trail that's totally closed we can't go through fire line do not cross aah starting at 3:11 for nineteen point eight miles back on the trail we made it to month we averaged 13 point two six that takes us to 717 point two total mmm that does not like me right now way back in Damascus been dropped something on the trail so he ran back to go get it as he was running he realized how fun it would be to take a break from the trail and run the Cincinnati marathon back home which we usually run every year I thought it was a bad idea but when he asked the kiss they all wanted to do it ah yeah very much yes yeah yeah yeah just for like two or three days and running the marathon is something that so far we've done every year this is already 10 times better than the last time we met my parents who did you find I told you he'd find them good JA I'm a fifth Ben's parents for about seven hours picked us up in Virginia to take us home for a long weekend it was so good to be home after 64 days on the trail that house over there see that that's our house but the problem is there's people staying in it right now it's rented out for the weekend okay some of you guys remember I got my Ultra shoes a while ago and we made a video for them asking them to help us out and they said they're gonna send us pairs for our entire family for free so here they are okay it was kind of weird coming back home especially when there was people staying in our house two days after we got home we ran the marathon hey you ready to go [Applause] first 50 miles for no big deal we had endurance but after that the muscles in my leg started hurting a lot my legs like hurt but I'm not like tired at all like I feel like I could do this for the whole day I didn't know this marathon was gonna be so much fun with all these snacks and stuff we're almost there [Music] it turns out you use different muscles for running than you do for hiking but we didn't regret it but I think everyone agreed afterward that running a marathon after hiking 700 miles was a bad idea we are back at my parents house we're taking another zero tomorrow and we'll see you guys back on the trail today is Deb's 17th birthday and it's gonna be kind of challenging to celebrate it out here on the trail it's about to figure I'm gonna try and make her her favorite breakfast she's sleeping right there the morning of my birthday I woke up in the tent and I heard my dad talking quietly to the camera I figured maybe they packed out doughnuts for breakfast or something kind of special but he had packed out 18 eggs two packages of English muffins and all the other ingredients for holiday sauce and made eggs benedict we're supposed to be toasting this English muffins but I see a toaster around here so we're gonna fry them instead I am very happy with how these English muffins turned out we got all 18 of the eggs I'm paired to have survived a 25 mile hike to get here happy birthday dude there's your eggs benedict it was so good I ate so much that when we started hiking at around 9 a.m. I felt kind of sick here where there was a pizza oven and fresh food and like 80 pounds of cow in a bowl and beer I drank a lot of beer my mother's not gonna say this right I drink a lot of beer so the kids really want to get to the store all day they've been blazing ahead and then every time we catch up to them they're like oh you're so slow what have you been doing we've been here for an hour hey you want to actually go faster why don't you guys take turns carrying Rainier and Duff was like alright I'll do it so here we go we're gonna trade packs you think I'm gonna be able to do it I already thought about doing you're allowed Rainier what's gonna happen the three oldest kids all start carrying Rainier in 30 minutes shifts this was a huge game changer and I started to enjoy hiking so much more this is like carrying a giant cloud and we all went faster as it grew almost all right I'm stepping over it going more than a thousand miles last minute we decide to spend the whole day in DC I loved it there [Music] we went to Starbucks and cami got to use a stroller it felt like a true vacation from the trail [Music] walking up mountains overthinking to you we will see you in a while all right first thing I need to do is find out how many dinners I need to resupply for I'm macaroni and cheese and then I have a bunch of ramen that we add mashed potatoes too I think I will do either rice and beans and get some tortillas or some other sort of pasta we're not allowed to get candy but we have a bunch of cookie selections we're almost tired of all them the heck I already have a lot of snack so I don't mean to get much I like to get dried fruit because it doesn't go bad and it tastes really good at first we started off with oatmeal it didn't really work out because it just took too long to cook well sometimes we try to do like cereal but a lot of times a cereal just like air basically so it's not very that that great good and there's a granola I'm in charge of lunch a lot of fruits and vegetables ain't one more desert camper and drilling down there we got kind of thick things with peanut butter especially tortillas and peanut butter [Music] so me there [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] back on the trail my favorite part of the trip was in Pennsylvania I was walking behind my oldest tub and she was talking to Cammie and Eden she was talking about her dream life for an hour and a half she described in great detail her house the block she would live on and the time she would visit her siblings she spent 45 minutes describing the kitchen all I could think about was what a gift it was to be able to hear my child's heart and how I wouldn't have had time to do that back in the real world [Music] it's fun talking with him at least right now and singing with him and I decided to carry him today because we have a deadline we need to make it nine miles by one o'clock they're gonna actually give us something we don't know what this is if memory would please step forward we'd like for her to be the recipient this is for the entire family oh my goodness look at that please accept you would like to join us three two one [Laughter] we are currently crossing over the Shenandoah River [Music] all right group shot now we have made it to the halfway point when we first started thinking about doing the trail we thought that maybe we would just shoot for half of it yeah there was no way we were stopping it sucked but we are too far in people started doing things for us to hosting us in their homes and bringing us meals and flack puffing us I feel really good right now I'm not having a pack cause it's all right I feel really lighter out [Music] it was really nice when we went to people's houses because of really warm and we had real food the days started to get longer while it used to be hard to hide eight-mile days now twenty-mile days were easy so it's been my dream to catch the Crawford family since I started on March 23rd ATS got a small video game each state is a different level with like Big Sight big quest inside quest and one of my main side quests was kept at the Crawfords and I finally achieve my goal yesterday that's wonderful level up yeah got the sign here hiker warning you're about to enter the road coaster built loom above have a great ride apparently it's just a bunch of ups and downs which is like what we do anyways so here we go we just had a meeting discussing whether to push on to town which would be a 23-mile day our longest day yet okay today guys we did twenty three point six miles and I are cleaning up the ball the Emmys you feed yourself yeah it's okay [Music] Pennsylvania was really rocky and hard [Music] what do you need for breakfast what do you have there Oh little Pete's are all oh yeah me [Music] [Applause] see all those little tiny buildings over there that is so crazy I thought that all the trail is going to be the same in reality it was like a collection of different experiences States people seasons foods and cities so they pulled out encyclopedia we caught up to house on Flores day in New York we met up on a lake beach from who vet Haven a lady drove all the way out to us bring us New York Pizza sodas and other snacks it was so great to be able to share all that with hops [Music] congratulations on 1407 38.3 stinky miles without a level specter trail but here this could be level here pretty sure yeah and you're making these stripes nice and I hope you're not gonna get lost we watched this documentary like a couple months before we started a trail and it's the ticks are minuscule yeah that was a shirt you're wearing had a different band and not these pants these are my thing okay yeah we don't know how to pronounce that someone told us at lunch time but we just call it she got a coke she got a she got a cherry coke or she gotta go no let's see okay she got a coke got a coke it was so cool walking through four seasons eventually the cold days were behind us and gave way to hot muggy days of swimming in lakes and water bowls [Music] it's approximately 300 years old so this is the largest oak tree I'm the entire Appalachian Trail [Music] we are just getting ready to go but I am sitting here with Hudson who lives here and owns this place if you guys are going to complete this trail that to give an incentive I would meet you at the summit of Catania how far of a drive would that be Freya it's an it's an eight hour drive yeah and you'd meet us at the top just to motivate us oh yeah we're saying goodbye I told Hudson we're not holding him to his vow to meet us in Maine but he said hold me to it we um once we go to towns I see all these people there I'm like nice clean clothes and like sandals and stuff and it makes me really mad just to see them like I want to do this but I don't for 1,700 miles we ran into so many interesting people in the trail it was a pretty small community and news travels fast two of the most interesting people we met were pappi the oldest man attempting to hike the trail and Harvey the fastest man to attempt the trail he's even wearing as a like hey man good man good work I just got a text from Amanda Bess or peewee saying that fresh ground someone that you guys have not met at least on our vlog is meeting us up for lunch Frasier right there that was the best moment ever and then you guys recognize these cast of characters so we've been traveling with we got a not dead over here fun facts culligan do that got started and catch that again there we go on the fourth of July we hiked up this stupid mountain we came to the campsite late and spent about 45 minutes looking for an open campsite on the top then we found our campsite next to some people we knew in eighth Top Ramen fellow youtuber this year on the Appalachian Trail I felt kind of let down and alone on top of the mountain but we set up camp and went even higher a little raised from the campsite with fresh ground and P we were up here looking at the fireworks with Amanda and fresh ground even though the day was long and disappointing I really really liked watching the fireworks from the top of the mountain and thinking about home so this says Katahdin 469 miles like a 5 a.m. it just started pouring and we didn't have any of the rain fly is there stuff set up for rain so we're like running around getting stuff waterproof trying to and then I just like start pouring and we're supposed to leave at 6 o'clock to meet my parents but now it's 7:30 - we've just been in the tents but now we're getting to a point where it's just like we got to go otherwise we'll never leave but it sucks because it's raining outside I think we're just gonna get wet today there's no avoiding that so we're trying to pack up here [Music] who's that [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] this is what it looks like to get new shoes for a family family of eight [Music] well you're who we've been hearing about all this time yeah I nice to meet you now I got your cigars but they're not good ones like you're huge - hey you know what all right these are just the toppings without even the exits keys yes yes you how much you want to eat and then he doesn't listen he just gives you twice as much for your birthday you need to wake up at 5:30 and climb Misaki hey yeah this is Bill I'm wishing been a very very happy birthday he's one of the most amazing people I know and it's my pleasure in life - I hiked the Appalachian Trail today I'd like to wish you a happy birthday on this special day whether you 39 happy birthday Ben happy birthday Ben I'm glad we ran into you again crappiest poet happy birthday Ben another year old I clearly not why's that cuz you're hiking tweet hundred miles with six children jump on good job my birthday was just friends and me and pickles in a parking lot happy birthday to you [Applause] happy birthday dear bad and happy birthday to you but who's the best birthday I can remember I also learned how to shotgun a beer we can finally see the top right there the whites was probably my least favorite part of the trail beautiful but the terrain was very difficult we met Jody ov and Katelyn who helped us a lot through the white snow when we met you last week it seems like I could actually help you guys out I'm a former Laker they knew the train well and helped us prepare for what was ahead Katelyn even hiked with us for a few days it has been a rough couple days hiking from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and we only made it 16 miles which seems like it should be a lot but it's just hard out here with the kids and with a baby and slow going and honestly it's like a little bit discouraging the hardest section of the trail for me was the whites the terrain the weather the stage we were in in the trail the stupid Hut's I was also getting pretty weak because I hadn't been eating enough because of the terrain we couldn't do as many miles but it would still take us so long to get to camp sometimes pass start that's where we're gone right there Mount Washington that's where we came from last night that's where we stayed and this is where we're heading the Crawford path throughout the whole trail I would go between feeling that we had it and that we would be able to finish in time before lakeside to almost panicking at how little miles we were doing and wanting to push harder Mount Washington summit 6280 feet mauka tada and three hundred thirty two point four miles but the pressure kept us motivated when it would rain in people took zero days we kept going relying heavily on the help people offered us we're finally going and the trees after 12 miles numerous times the mileage felt like too much we wondered if we are pushing the kids too hard everyone was losing so much weight but day after day people offered home they invited us into their home's broadest meals and offer to slack pack us we felt our spirits lift mile after mile see at the end of the day hikers like hikers heck [Music] someone who watched our videos offered us a free night at Joe dodge Lodge Pop's joined us we decided to take a zero-day there which was our first zero and 54 days we made it all right and just like that we're awesome man [Music] [Music] [Music] hey what do you got in your mouth are you sucking it huh cuz if we suck it it lasts longer huh you're not biting it [Music] [Laughter] bugs really got to me but I would just remember that the cold was much worse than the bugs didn't seem that bad anymore alright so we just finished I think this is our fifth meal that we've eaten at the fresh ground cafe how long have you been on the trail feeding people this year we're just past the five month mark we're going on six months then okay so where did you start how do you decide where to go huge gap is always a starting point in the past I've done this for four years this is the fourth year not in a row I did three years took two years off in height so this year we started at Gucci at Mile 16 and we just worked with so late down in Georgia so you've been driving across 13 states [Music] all right I started watching you guys before I took out on my own journey and I was like there's no way this family is gonna hold it together and be able to do this show it's too challenging is too hard and to see you guys here you guys rock like blowing me away right now that you're passing me act like it's so awesome I seem to be developing some like flu-like symptoms like my body is getting really chilled and then everything's starting to ache be take my ankles pick my hardest moment was two weeks before we finished one evening we were hiking and Ben started not feeling good it was starting to get dark and we had to cross a fire deep river to get to our campsite once we got to the campsite Ben was so sick that he just collapsed inside the tent I didn't know what was wrong with him and I thought we might be done and I would need to somehow hike out and get a ride to a hotel I thought this might be it for us all this work and we're done okay so that night totally sucked Ben still not feeling great it was a sad scary and depressing time for me but Ben woke up the next morning feeling himself again and we were able to keep on going one week before Katahdin my dad gathered us all around a picnic table he told us that they had officially heard back from Baxter State Park saying that we could not bring Rainier to the top of Masada there's there's like Baxter State Park we hide here it ends at the top of Mount Katahdin to the highest point we're not allowed to go to the top with rain air so we have to decide what we're gonna do as a family oh wow you're not allowed I never thought too hard about it and I guess I assumed they'd make an exception when we found out Rainier couldn't finish at the 80 finish line it was really disappointing and frustrating but we pretty quickly decided that it wasn't an option to not finish together people were offering to watch Rainier while we summited but in the end we decided that we were going to do as much as the trails we could do together because the reason we set out to do the trail in the first place was to do something hard together not to say we did the a-team brainier was allowed to go up to tree line so he decided that's where we would finish it wasn't until the last two weeks that we realized we were probably going to finish [Music] miles we can do a day 15 questions as long as we can do that many miles a day through the hundred mile wilderness then we can take a zero tomorrow here our next day was at Shaw's hostel right before the hundred mile wilderness we took a zero day there because there was no pressure and we were only a hundred miles from the finish line we could do that in a week easy and we had nine days as if it couldn't get any better my dad told us that fresh ground was gonna support us throughout almost the entire hundred miles making breakfast and dinner and slack packing us in between pancakes already plates are right here from the top of white cap you'll see Mount Katahdin for the first time and they say that the view from the top of white cap is the axe that breaks up the friends and scenes within us in the steely parts of your soul they've been heart by the long and arduous miles and shatter and you'll feel the tears going down your dirty Street face like what do you feel on that I think we're gonna have fun I think it's a meant to be a celebration the rest of the way through that's where in my heart I feel at peace I'm not worried about logistics I'm not worried about anything new because there's ain't none we need done before right you've hiked and I've fed so that's time to celebrate I didn't know how amazing it was that fresh ground was doing this for us until I was actually in it the last hundred miles was supposed to be at a Horace mile on the trail because you have to carry seven days worth of food on your back there are no places to obtain supplies or get help it's all a bowl bridge cutter miles north not tent this section unless you have a minimum of ten days supplies but because fresh ground puts us every breakfast and every dinner and slack back to us it was the easiest part of the trail [Music] the degenerates got in on that trail magic it made the last week of our trips so much fun it is time for me that degenerate the last week was amazing I remember almost wishing it was longer we couldn't have asked for a better finish every night was a party and every morning fresh Graham was up early with a whole stack of delicious blueberry pancakes and brewing coffee it felt like we had worked so hard to get to this point and we could relax well as much as you can while hiking we had our mileage figure it out so we knew we would finish in time for Lakeside there's my patent right there [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] all right I want to show you guys this that's our sign that we're gonna take up to our end of our hike w-where yeah oh yeah that's that's an M Springer Mountain Georgia Oh to Mount Katahdin 20 190 miles 160 one day we woke up to our final day and it was raining I wasn't looking forward to that I remember walking thinking about how far we had come and enjoying the last who's the garden fresh ground [Music] every night when we finished I would tell Rainier we made it we made it we made it made it we made it we made it we made it we made it we made it right in and I would think about saying that to him when we would arrive a cantata and it would always make me tear up and now it was time to say it one last time so one of the things that's going on that's a surprise for the kids he's the degenerate and Trailer Park Boys and Hudson you know that guy that drove a hundred miles that told us months ago he would meet us at the top they're all gonna be waiting for us at treeline touch the sign guys green hands [Music] knowing that we wouldn't be able to touch a sign at the top Hudson had made us our own side it meant a lot to me that our friends waited at the tree line to celebrate with us [Music] after 2189 miles 14 states three seasons and a hundred and sixty-one days it didn't seem real that we were done I couldn't wait to fly out to Washington [Music] Kentucky degenerates coming to you live from the topic it's hot and we made amazing [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Fight for Together

Views: 989,931

Rating: 4.8907366 out of 5

Keywords: fight for together, family vlog, family, family adventure, homeschool, home school, homeschool vlog, large families, parenting, unschooling, unschooler, appalachian trail, thruhiking, hiking, long distance, thru-hike, pacific crest, continential divide, to the treeline, thru hiker

Id: JtickT2tCwo

Length: 68min 30sec (4110 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 13 2019