Walking Home (Full Documentary Parts 1 & 2) - Appalachian Trail Documentary

[Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] in order to hike the trail you have to free yourself we all live in a little box of how we define life when you're walking it's like the changes because all the boxes go away and you're out in the woods and experiencing life there's little things that you don't get to experience sitting on a couch you can check it out so you feel completely different and once you open yourself up to that life change you don't change the channel go to the next commercial [Music] you [Music] my piccaboo where's Carl where's Carl look up that's a boy atta boy degree yeah oh I grew up here in Boothbay lived here my whole life I don't think I loved growing up here but it was a good place to grow up certainly not a not a great town for a young person and there wasn't anything that was really grounding me in a certain place I definitely feel an urgent necessity to get out to get back into someone with a little more [Music] for 33 years I've been at the same job and sort of trying to decide where I go with my future and work I think I need some time off at the same time I think I need some time with my son because I think Carl's at a point in his life where he's ready to start off in a different direction [Music] several people that are gonna hike this year and they're finding that's one of the harder things to get to a place where you can just let go and go hiking trail that's the thing about being on the trail you walk from here to there you I'm 24 years old and this spring I'll be heading out on the Appalachian Trail I asked him what his next plans might be and he said he was thinking about hiking the Appalachian Trail and what I entertained going with him I had kind of been thinking about it not seriously but it had always been in the back of my mind attempting to through hike the entirety of the trail start-finish Georgia [Music] [Music] you [Music] I knew in my heart that it's something I've always wanted to do and it's something that I especially like to do with with Carl my son we're at a point now where you know I know I love my father but there's so much more known to understand and find out I don't think that as with any two people that we necessarily know each other all that well when he was young we spent a lot of time together ask him all of the why little hikes in the woods things like that I think that was always a big influence on my life and then we lost that my folks divorced when I was pretty young we've been separated for for many years in a sense since he was 8 years old I didn't really spend a ton of time with him I got to see him just on on the weekends that was about it I look forward to this as being an opportunity and probably one of the last to get as close as I can be to Carl I think it will only make us stronger in the end I think it'll be a good bonding experience I really think that we're going to kind of break down the father-son barriers and if that doesn't happen then I'll probably head home in Virginia and so yeah you can finish the hike now well will will do well well the trail is going to bring us together there that's the given and that what comes out at the end won't be the same thing that went in I guess six months is a long time to spend with with anybody no matter how much you love them so everyone has a different path on the same trail that's on same when you have Carl and Steve together it's the same trail but they're on different paths [Music] why would you want to walk 2,000 miles [Music] because we are neophytes we don't go out on weekends we have a lot of camping hiking together we will be very wet and uncomfortable I don't think that we could ever be totally prepared they're going to be hungry and aggravated those ramen noodles aren't really cutting it stinky and disgusting rashes and places that I never did before and we're going to check pretty much all over I am sure that I will get blisters I am sure that there are going to be times when I'm going to say what the heck am I doing here we're take go into town then people are going to be appalled at how we look and smell that's just kind of part of the bargain that's the trade-off and should the end of the day but I will be so happy I am the type of person that loves a challenge and then the Appalachian Trail goes through 14 states 2,180 miles from Georgia to Maine it's the oldest mountain chain in the world this is a special place only 25% of the folks that set out from Springer Mountain will actually make it the name that's an interesting little fact that I think is keeping me grounded so it goes all the way from Georgia North Carolina Tennessee be picked up by shuttle service I'll take us closer to the spring amount located under Virginia a little bit of West Virginia you get into Maryland and say that I'm taking every step of the land along Pennsylvania materially to speed this part of the country that I've never really seen before Connecticut Massachusetts to experience everything you get into Vermont New Hampshire and then may I guess wish us luck really when you're hiking the trail you're just going from here to there so it's everything that happens there's there's no distractions [Music] our main goal for the first couple of weeks is making it easy not trying to sending records not trying to set an aggressive pace once you get out there is a lot more to the trail than just being a path from point A to point B there's a community out there that will find out a lot more about it as we go along then you get to the top of Springer they have a plaque you know here I am starting anybody it does hike the trail take down their names take a picture of all these people - you'll see them again but it changes so much we've been looking at from the maps and we know that that first leg up to the top of Springer Mountain there will be a campsite like a mile past the summit and if we just do that I like what's there and really kind of start to get acclimated to the routine of you know setting up the tent that night cooking over the stove and trying to ease into this pretty drastic lifestyle change it's not just a physical part of hiking it's all the logistics it's all the planning it's all the understanding to experience every bit of it that means supposed to be beautiful and warm and be a whole hot warmer than here and pretty magical I think leaving Maine with three feet of snow on the ground and arriving Atlanta on March 11th that first night at the hiker hostel that we were staying at the owner had said winter for them was over like fools the next morning we sent home our down jackets and gloves and wool hats and a bunch of other things and the first week or two we hit you know low temperatures in the 20s we hadn't given a lot of thought and then we hit the snow [Music] open up the snow and you've got your time and all your stuff you have to pack up and get all the snow off get everything wrapped up quick you'll be warm again once you start hiking we didn't have like any serious gloves we have little like wool glove liners that they didn't do anything being good manners I think we survived that pretty well but we did definitely develop as hikers along the way first lip and stuck on the side of the hill here not sure which steps to take this is the wrong one good end me down there right behind my head here right here there's nothing absolutely nothing just to drop you can see how far down it goes just want to let you know that I have placed myself here and I'm all right completely safe but just want to let you know that I'm slowly getting over my fear of heights yay top of my sunglasses trying to keep the bugs at my face as you can see it's a beautiful sunny day both work for the pipeline's it would be a perfect day then I eat it yeah among another fire tower complete it very good nice and bright [Music] I sorry you snake okay great [Applause] you didn't get you here away I think besides just the physical hike itself and the environment it's the people that will meet and what they all bring to the trail what they're all looking for very true very true oh wow tonight tougher didn't prove that you had a pretty big belly thank you oh you ate half my dinner hey was enough it was their fault they put in front of me and right over here we have GQ and locking man this is their supply catch well what's that hand right there in the beginning this one though the Fosters yeah should that your Australia's finest is that your new what to call the electrolyte yeah electrolyte carbohydrates calories and protein Procopio I did not wrap you up in one oh cool 25 points mm-hmm and all that's going to go into your bag and then and then this isn't going to make it to the bag and rumor he came up to me one day cuz we were trying to figure out his name yeah and he came up to one day and said rumor has it that people have been calling me GQ down the trail you were now known as GQ right yeah yeah listen what's up with that that well that kind of I really know where that came from I mean yesterday for example he was just like sky's you hug there was a pole strapped in lines I was like yeah he's like ah I gotta take my straps off because I gotta have an even tan likes absurd GQ I know that's what I was but maybe I gotta stop okay my trail name is mana I'm a twirl I'm back I'll tell teared up I'm bloomer and I'm a kind loving person to my Hut bellow hikers so on the Appalachian Trail you do not have to go by your given name on magnet from Austin Texas to Mary to countess come over there pick out a name for yourself that you want to kind of describe maybe your personality like they are always I went to the University of Maine and that's our mascot it kind of becomes I think your personality one stuff like they are always a black bear it's liable to change one of them said well if you've got an outdated guide and you're over 40 so you know why don't we call you obsolete and it stuck kind of bogus you know it's like it doesn't have to be that serious my chosen it's pumpkin but proudly there's also like a trail mark that people would leave as a sign in the trail for giving a confirmation that they had come through here like buddy Cibo and I we communicated in the dirt on the trail and he would draw a big peace sign you know but when I saw those the peace sign said oh cool took my hiking pole I drew a big heart big smile inside on purpose there it is I was already saying it you know but that's how they communicate I'm the hippie so just to say that I'm a hippie it is cool so when you see a through hiker their hippie well I know Steve and I know he's he's already hit me as far as dropping out of tuning in or going back to nature you know I think I probably did that years ago I had a stint in the Peace Corps back into the 76 to 79 I couldn't get a teaching job at the time so when the Peace Corps called I said sure I'll go to Africa I came back with a whole different outlook on life those people fit in real well I think our will as well just because I think Carl is a pretty neat person Carl and I have discussed and understand that we'll separate at times we're not so strict or so committed to the idea that we will be hiking side-by-side so if we get split up for any reason I think that's just all part of it really [Music] how do you want me to tell you what I thought when I first messed up it was really rainy and rainy and I was in a shelter and I was next to a lady called lunch lady and we were already huddled up in our sleeping bags it was really cold and wet and rainy and his name was Carl at the time you didn't even have a trail name at the time but he comes in and he just drops his stuff down he rips his shirt off she looks at me and we're like that's just not nice he should undress in front of us like that because we thought he was quite handsome with that being said we also thought he was older once we learned he was only 24 like oh dear that's okay no none nothing bad I'm Emily Leonard and I'm from Lowell Maine and I'm 50 years old and when I hike the trail I was just 49 my original part of his idea was to go she backed out because she was going through a divorce and it's timing just wasn't right for her I didn't actually have any doubts that I couldn't do it it was just I read something an article in a newspaper or something and saying how treacherous it was and how dangerous it was and I knew was on 25% of people that started complete it but I also know that once I start something I finish something when we got to font on a dam we just crossed the dam and she was hiking with a vet friend of hers I said he left me he chose to go home I felt you left me he chose to go home at Fontana Dam which is the next day out you start the Smokies I actually did start freaking out so I'm just waiting and waiting and I'm really upset sad really and scared for my safety and I hear hey black bear and I turn around and it's GQ and walking in and not right then my I was like oh I'm okay and I explained to them my dilemma and I said we don't have to hike together but can we at least agree to what shelters we're going to stay at at night and they're like sure well that beginning why we ended up hiking together for two months the three of us quick because we're Mainers and I don't know I don't like I think she gets like a little turned off or so off-putting the younger the people my age that are like constantly smoking meat or like constantly smoking cigarettes on the trail which is another thing that I found on what I've observed it's a lot of partying a lot of a lot of weed smoking and a lot of partying and drinking and tends to be more of those younger crowds younger guys that are just they're smoking pot first thing in the morning to get themselves ready for the trail and you'll see them along a trail periodically stopping and I'm sure that's a different experience all together I don't see that with locking man and GQ might have we might have a beer when we go into town or a drink but not out here I think she's she's kind of you know latched on to us as sort of a family along with Jax and fruit smoothie who we've met as well they're brother and sisters and we've all been hiking on on and off together now for a couple weeks yeah I'll throw it in the middle we fight they're just really down to earth they're really nice and kind and kind of let me tag along where I'm a solo hiker and he's just really accepting of everyone when I say an empty-nester I think that she's she's missing that at home to a certain degree she's she's always looking out for everybody but it's been an hour and 15 since we left you know if you mentioned I need this all of a sudden she is right there she's got it oh yeah it's not a bad thing sometimes you know you're actually being real yeah where you have burgers it's high in protein what you don't need to be mothered all the delay or out here to make make for yourself as well so I have no idea what people perceive me as and I I guess I never asked or I hope to think it was nice and kind there is this chips and dip that had been to out all day in the Sun about seven o'clock oh I saw those hands of mine yes yeah I ate them and the dip that did sitting out all day and I was fine yeah I think some of the stuff is good but I think we think food spoils faster than action yeah don't you yes I heard you like just sitting on the dirt is often cleaner than like to do with the neon lights a table we got warm soggy deli meats and cheese in our pack and what was more we I like to think that I was there to help people and kind of mother them but yet even though I was I wanted to be out on the trail to get away from being a mom but I guess it really happened all flat is 11.8 miles investing them on adult classrooms behind it whenever you like instantly well I wasn't listening I didn't while they pulled my ipod out because it was raining I forget what it was was something stupid it's like a really dumb older song and I don't know if I just stuck in my head I can't remember and then it was I had stuck in my head after that let's Ravel the lateral Larimer it's funny for that I had exactly film system data that's got it so what is a shelter on Appalachian Trail it's um well it changes it really does the home away from home so we have all kinds of different places that we need to stay in we have tents we have the shelters we have hospitals we have huts and all hotels yes that was my favorite the shelters were like three sided buildings they ran from really dumpy to pretty much a house with the wall cut off when you start off in Georgia they're pretty nice shelters meaning that you have either a log cabin that has a roof on it in three sides and then an elevated floor as you're hiking and you get into especially when you get into Maryland which is close to DC those were incredible places two stories upstairs Downstairs windows just phenomenal shelters supporting some of the old ones they're all over the place if you're sleeping in a shelter that there's going to be mice didn't stay in any of those but they were all Mouse infested and the holes in them and just really really really bad they're not shy I smell food we'll get to it we stated one where the overhang of the roof was not out far enough so that rain was like getting into it luckily there were only three of us there so we all slept diagonally in it one of the worst shelters that I came across was uh it was down south I think just the fact that it has like two full stories and then like that third little wah let's move all features like that panel up there to let light in that's their level we'll see where that's great [Music] the shelters are spread out usually five seven miles so for a day hiker or section hiker that's a big day [Music] when you start out your hiking 8 mild days and then once you get in shave 20 miles Joe I think I have to get up this it's going to be like cruising cruisin level yeah I've heard the cruising level people we're at altitude as much as you try not to anticipate at the end of a long day you're anxious to get to your destination [Music] that way so glad we missed it [Music] after about a thousand miles you get to the point where you just keep the best part of the day when you're leading on the trails he definitely about of the day anybody think in the beginning I was very good I didn't eat just chocolate or something hiking you know 15 20 plus miles a day up over terrain carrying 30 pound pack yeah your metabolism goes way up you get the hiker hunger so you do appreciate food I dropped 17 pounds in pretty dress sizes and I could eat literally eat anything I wanted in an inspiration you go into town and you will order one be on order - Snickers Kanna soda or about some leader leader a cola margherita money we figured out earlier on there was more to our advantage to pack four or five days then dip into the town quickly [Music] turning in the lunch magical [Music] it was really kind of neat because I didn't have a trail name on the way to Springer Mountain that morning we stopped for breakfast and the waitress was telling us a story about how she was going to take a horseback ride from Georgia to Tennessee with her kids she's making a big deal of it it was really kind of neat and when she was done I said well that's nice but I'm walking domain I've got my backpack in the car and she looked at me and just kind of slack-jawed she goes on purpose there was this dumbfounded face and I said oh great there's my trail name so that was my trail name was on purpose that you know that's it you know it was like a gift you know so I open this gate I like these music that's reliable to her I see I like to see what am I feeling changing I like to be the next world she's been in for straight I like these flowers Olson is [Music] the quietness of the woods when it was sold in down south and was all brown and you know spring hadn't started yet just sticks of trees you know walking through like too big for us and nothing but then you'd see the flag of the deer you know that was that's beautiful as we hiked through the south and into spring for me some of those more enjoyable parts of the floor on thought of the trail I mean that that everything was coming live at that point [Music] we've walked through tunnels and tunnels and tunnels of rhododendron trees and no blooms you know or you'd see the shining of the light comes down through the trees just absolutely gorgeous did I go up and beyond to find the girders well you had to if you wanted to survive for morning tonight doing nothing but hiking [Music] [Music] sometimes it's a ride to town and they don't charge you gas money sometimes it's sleeping at their house for no fee it can be anything it's just supplying something to the hikers and that we call that trail magic so trail magic is when you're walking through the woods and you're hungry and you come upon a road and there's a guy with a grill with a you know a cooler full of beer or coke and he's going to feed you and the people get a name that do the trail magic and we call them trail angels trail magic of the day at the road crossings had about three yesterday mostly just water but that's what we need trunks water food bag oh god bless the person that put it here and that happened so many times on the trail and if you do have time get out and go to the trail bring some food that's the best gift you can give it a through hiker it was very few I felt that had that deep understanding that trail magic or serendipity stuff that happens really isn't coincidences okay I just removed my first tick who actually was embedded but I got him really quick he couldn't have been there much more than a couple minutes but I am going to circle the area just so I can keep an eye on it I lost the tick I was going to save it and send it away and it was a deer tick so that's my number one fear for being out here the night before I started the trail a notice I had a tick on myself so we eventually got the ticks off so I was like jeez I'd really need a pair of tweezers and that next morning when we went to breakfast where I got my trail name we pulled into the parking lot before we went into the restaurant and I opened the door and I stepped down I looked between my feet and what did I find a brand new pair tweezers at the time I was like oh that's a coincidence I was always a spiritual person before the hike but this really really deepened my face there were a lot of people out there that didn't hold the same face I had [Music] that morning it was just rain rain rain rain rain walking man was just ahead of me and he had his a rain skirt around him and that was just blowing out around and just waddling through the rain so I decided to get my camera out just sneak up on and then I don't know how he heard me because you couldn't hear anything so he saw me filming him and he didn't even say anything it was so miserable well he just shook his head and just kept on going so it was a few weeks into the into the height it was getting late and I figured I needed to get on just continued on to the shelter over there and down some on the other side finally get up to the top and I was all by myself it was just it was just aw and I just immediately started crying Here I am papa papa absolutely gorgeous I'm the only one that had a view on the mountain that day this is saying on the trail the trail will provide I had little miracles along the way that people would think were just coincidences but I knew in my heart that they were miracle like finding a blanket when I needed it most because I said like Coulier home and didn't have what I needed having GQ and walking man come to me in right before I entered the Smokies to me that was a little miracle for my safety you know just I had a bunch of little things like that happen along the way that's the real trail magic do they feel any better yeah it's not rubber Union cave what you look like a high school bathroom perfect just like super tomboy I don't know where any uncircumcised oh good I feel so beautiful my legs are ripped up [Music] [Music] when my big goals on the trip had been to have that time that we could spend together which we didn't find through a lot of it because you're constantly surrounded by people I mean we didn't really have all but maybe three or four nights on the trail that that we actually just spent hand/eye camping you come out to this look at that those are over camping tonight so what we have here is an example of pure hiker trash genius engineering so I've got my water filter filtering and inside I've got a little treat that I packed out either hiking by myself or hiking and getting out to different vistas with my dad and just being like you know just not worrying about the trail chaos you know not having to worry about all the other people not having to worry about the many plot lines that are floating around on the trail [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Harpers Ferry was wonderful just lots of history lots of quaint little buildings and everything that day it was the unofficial halfway mark so we got to get our pictures taken at the ATC Conservancy Center and you know we made that milestone and usually people that make it to Harpers Ferry make it all the way but it was also fad for me we had started to really hit our stride and we just talked to her and said you know we're at a point where we just have to keep hiking on I knew in my heart at that time that I couldn't keep the pace but geq and walking man were so I knew I was going to be alone again the the separation finally came when she was experiencing a lot of difficulty with her shoes and her feet I thought I'd taken precautions for it but obviously I didn't take enough precautions and I did have a few blisters but it wasn't the blisters that really held me back then it was the bottoms of my feet we just talked to her and said you know we're at a point where we just have to keep hiking on and it wasn't so much keep up with us if you can as you know it's time for you to hike your own I can only weapon and I knew it I know I'd be okay and it's just that I really liked him I just felt that we meshed it would they were just fun to be around they were just always so positive uplifting when one of us would be down the other one would lift us off and vice versa if I was down they would lift me up and it was just I don't think it was a it was both give and take both ways neither one of us took from the other without giving in different ways you know what I mean and it was just a nice mesh but it wasn't sensitive [Music] so what made you finally decide you wanted to go out and do the Appalachian Trail I gave myself the opportunity to said if something really big happens the next big thing that happens in my life I'm going to go hike the Appalachian Trail and that was a divorce and I was like oh wow I get to go do this so yeah it still hurts wait a minute I didn't want to cry for this day but anyway okay so let's start over the big thing that got me on the trail was the event that said the next big thing that happens and I was going to hike the trail and he got out of the Navy in 1990 I got into a big car accident and couldn't do it then and that's when I said the next big thing oh I'll do this and then I got divorced and it was like okay I'll go do it now so that that's basically what got me on the trail was a condition that I set for myself that said hey here you go oh so now before setting off in Israel what we looking for on the trail we look at the freedom we looking at we discover yourself well I didn't want to impose that you know at first it was just just go do it and see what happens because I like to experience life for what it is enough what I expected you know saying so it's not you have expectations then you have a loss of an expectation or you get you feel poorly because it didn't happen and I didn't want that I just wanted to walk you know so it's cold [Music] [Music] you get the coton if you're looking at the mountain you're going oh I want to do it but I don't know I I started the hike well before then I've section hiked Maine and in New Hampshire with groups and there's just a phenomenal group of people but you're attached to all their hike so your hike doesn't it isn't your hike it's everybody's hike [Music] I wanted to experience it how the Native American I wanted to learn nature through their eyes why would I look at it from the perspective I've lived all my life but it isn't what life is abolished about the word change I've been doing a dance for all people with the Shoshone Indian via the dance for all people was to just share with us what it is to experience we what they feel through the connection to phenomena one of the things they learn is through animals we have the four direction in the South they have the coyote and in the West they have the bear and in the North they have the Buffalo in the east of the eagle and I started out with eagle and it's really kind of funny because as I did that I noticed almost every day I would see an eagle as I was getting divorced and all this I was connecting to that and saying okay teach me about freedom and then as it went along I eventually got a flu and I got more connected to the areas and the activations or the honoring of sites became more of a ceremony for now for connecting you now I didn't attach to it as far as what I thought the meaning might be I was open to whatever happened and that's freedom to experience stuff without attachments to say this is what it is I'm saying this if it [Applause] [Music] we were walking along a stretch of trail that was particularly manicured and we were walking with these two day hikers and all of a sudden GQ puts his hands had to go stop rattlesnake finally coming across our first rattler and so I came up and we're both looking at it and he's getting video and then the women start to come up behind us so I go back and I go the one woman that gets all excited she so I want to get video I want to get video and the other woman just started freaking out like uncontrollably freaking she's like it's kites looking at me it's coming after me the snake is oblivious to all this it's just kind of laying there winding across the path a little bit it's just the snake man it's just doing its thing I said to everybody and I said to the woman I said you can now come by it's not coil that's like I do it and the other woman just started freaking out yeah and I don't know she probably had some sort of bad childhood experience with snakes but she was talk she just kind of went crazy [Music] [Music] Pennsylvania if you look at the the trail map for Pennsylvania via the whole state's pretty much flat there's nothing extreme about Pennsylvania except for the rock [Music] don't roam at me I think Pennsylvania was a bit of a drag you just had these carpets of stone there was no way of avoiding at the trail of woods around it there was just no getting away from all of the this rock and rubble and debris they were sharp they most definitely did tear into your shoes and boots what's left in Pennsylvania and that region is what was pushed ahead of the glaciers the glaciers stopped somewhere in New Jersey or whatever but everything that they were pushing ahead of them remains in Pennsylvania so the most miserable we had been on the trail but you're walking [Music] nonstop on either on rocks or your feet are just getting smashed up by rocks and sharp rocks and pointy rocks that was fairly discouraging discomforting nice nice little example of Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail pretty pretty consistently ranking dangerous [Music] we gotten up that morning it was raining I hiked about four hours through the rain little Dave continued scream June second kid and we were literally within 30 minutes getting to our destination coming down the side of a mountain so we're going a little slower because it with all this rain there was some bigger boulders and as I recall I think I was pushing it a little bit I think we were both trying to get down there to meet my cousin at around noon time he fell in Duncannon Pennsylvania slept I split his head open I mean basically just lost my footing I [Music] don't think I'm blacked out as much as you know I just kind of closed my eyes in pain and the next thing I know is looking and trying to get Carl's attention as he hiked away from the little gear but it takes our washer do is everything I've got I got six stitches up in this corner of my head but not before you know we met my cousin and stopped and had Pete sanity or someplace and little accident on the way that is it you landed crack the stone okay oh yeah we need a second opinion on it finally got to his house and his wife said what do you guys crazy and we got to go to the hospital and I definitely remember thinking like man that's it he can't do that second or third time and make it to the cottage but he stuck with it you look you look good I don't know what I don't know what the deal is I'm doing I don't know [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the story that goes into that is I used to be a main guide on the Kennebec I used to kayak so you have a kayak where it's just you you get to play in the river you have a great time you you want to go over there you go over there if you're in a raft of people wait where do you go where everybody else wants you to go whether or not you hike alone on the trail that you don't I mean there are several times where I was literally alone and you just cherished that moment [Music] but you meet people and the people you meet are just fantastic because you're all out there hiking the trail you're all wanting to be free [Music] my story's a little different I was salmon fishing knob Scott River remain an old camper and in August in 1976 and I was doing terrible fishing the first two days I was there the third day rain so hard all day you couldn't see 50 feet so I've got a set pretty bored just sit around ten so I thought well I'm going to go up here to the camp store and I know that that guy will be able to tell me what to use the catching fish because I wasn't having any luck at all so I went up there and I was talking to guy and the door came up and this guy came in with a poncho on the big beard and soaked and laid her wet when he walked across the floor his shoes were gonna squish squish-squish and he walked up to me and he says well the guy behind the counter into everything I think that's probably a through hiker and I had no idea what that was and the guy walked up to me and he said do you know what date it is I think I remember did enough cellphones in 1970 and I told him what the date was I don't remember anymore what it was and he said good on the day early and I said a day early for what he said a day early to meet my wife I said uh I said were you hiking he said yeah I was hiking I said oh yeah how hard you guys said well long way I said where did you study said George I said yeah right he said no i'm serious i started in george i said really piece against what wow you know maybe I'll do that someday [Music] you this is a fishbowl just so much in the fish bullet you don't realize it affects you to jump out of the sea where are you from fun remember to live a mortal thank you good morning Wow look at this trail he's maintained errs did some hard work that repair nice and flat not too many rocks and it just goes up and down kind of like a roller coaster it's really sweet in very beginning I was going to be true hardcore I'm going to carry my own stuff but then I learned what was called packing you hike for the day and then you get to stuff back at the end of the day today I'm enjoying a second day of slack packing no cat see there's no cash on me that first time of slot packing it was really nice this is my husband Ruth yeah need anything so I had support along the way hand and he got here and Bruce took him into town and we've got to go get in that was very important [Music] because that's about further north they notice a lot of the it was more my age group of hikers that were still continuing on not to say that that's the only ones I'm just saying there was more of an equal ratio wasn't just young kids out there towards the end it was a whole bunch of us ranging but there's all this stuff that's influencing you when you're in the woods you don't have that it's the fish fault you just swim past the stuff that you just let go Sam Sam yeah beautiful day today started out cool and cloudy which was really nice and I didn't realize it until further into it when things just became really simple for me you know all you had to worry about was where was going to sleep what I'm going to eat you know I didn't need all this clutter that was carrying our lives that was a very screen experience to have [Music] when I left the walkie man in GQ I would send text messages once in a while find out where they were you kept in touch most of the through hikers they really care they really care about your success the right of your male or female it's a really nice community they were all kind of try to call the goal and that's to make it to the end [Music] [Applause] [Music] beans arrive of tropical areas Pennsylvania the official halfway point they give a half gallon challenge if you make it halfway and you you have to buy it though so half gallon of ice cream but ice cream doesn't come in a half gallon anymore so you have to buy that tub plus a little extra so I picked out my tub of chocolate and I go to the counter and they do the hand dip for the pint and I said I'd like a pint of yeah but it can and they're like oh the guys would come in here they usually just do the tub and then if they finish that then they get the height so that they're not wasting any money I said well that's kind of negative isn't it I said I'm going to finish it just give it to me and I took me three times to tell them yes I wanted it [Music] I had about five or six scoops left and I'm like oh no this isn't this is look good this is it I thought I was going to be sick and there was some I called him civilians I was with some other hikers but there was some civilians on the patio eating ice cream and they were just watching and they were laughing and and I just I didn't mean to I just let out this huge burp and they all started clapping for me and then I was able to finish and I finished it but it took me an hour today is my first day back on the trail after some wonderful restful 2-0 days in one narrow day and spending time with my sister and her husband who have been camping at a campground centrally located near the trail so they dropped me off and picked me up and today I'm back on the trail for a short easy 11 and a half mile day the trail has been pretty much like you see it behind me flat through fields and when we do enter the woods it's nice and flat Pennsylvania has been very very easy so far let's see what the North brings us I'll be there in a few days I don't know if you can see it out there but there's a long rain and then it's moving north I think I mean the wind feels like it's coming this way but the clouds moving that way I really think we're not going to get hit although I could be wrong [Music] they're sleeping right alongside those train tracks reach over and feel the ground fall bit of a stream flowing right underneath play headspace two inches of standing water around me of course I didn't notice I'm on a playable pad that's three inches I'm floating around like a goddamn pirate on the high sea everything I had is just soaking up water there were certainly a number of nights where it was like just raining relentlessly and it was cold and everything was wet and there's like well everything's like this is this is my life right now [Music] by the time we were leaving Pennsylvania I remember crossing the bridge Delaware Water Gap into New Jersey where it was just impressive team and humidity hiking 60% or more of the time you're wet whether it's through rain or through perspiration nothing ever seemed to dry out any wood I don't think we got used to it they became tolerable my mental process for dealing all that room like you can and probably will get a lot worse so just deal with this now [Music] my Peter ah [Music] was hiking pretty much by myself GQ and walking in had gone on ahead it was harder than even I thought I knew it was going to be hard but even that was harder than I had anticipated I had to get a picture of this if anyone knows me at all know that this is not my comfort zone I gave up my hiking boots and I had trail runners now it's the biggest mistake I could have made going through Pennsylvania because I felt every rock through the bottom of those trail runners went over the top now up this rockslide my feet were so sore and I just wanted to stop and I almost broke down and started crying and I said that's not going to do me any good so I just sucked it up and kept going and then it rain and rain and rape ah when it's raining and you feel miserable don't quit okay quit on a good day what catches you off-guard while you're hiking is your preparation you think you need this you think you need that when you're packing for your trip people want things in their pack but it slows them down you need to pare down so you have a pack that can help you do the miles five minutes into the hike and a rest before the climb gets even heavier and more exciting I should say just ask yourself one question is it going to help me get to Qatar you know I didn't make the mistake of over packing I made the mistake of um actually of not packing enough I changed the backpack that I carry I changed my cook system that I had I changed just about everything it really is just going through what you thought you might need into what you actually needed the only thing that made it through the whole trail with a pair of swim Trump I alter them by cutting out the leg section and made a skirt out of here totally commando is the best thing I ever did it really was so you have to pick your comfort level and this is important it's about pain and it's how you deal with it [Music] most mornings you were getting into wet clothes and same thing at the end of the day and then you got to get up and pack it all up what everything is absorbing water so it became a little bit heavier that's always sort of a burden because it adds that much weight to your pack to me the rain exactly filled our water supply so I would try to remember that it kept the bugs away like we're in Narnia we've a hang stuff up religiously every night we'd wash our clothes in the stream we end the chants and hang a lot and it'd still be wet the next morning so [Music] [Music] and I'm bringing home I would probably lower physical or emotional vulnerability to be any vulnerabilities yeah but things more on the mourn the mental on the mental aspect yes I'm getting homesick or just get it you know I'm getting worn down by the trail not not physically but mentally and emotionally speaking that's probably the head games always most vulnerable how exciting I would think so too and I would think that's where together together will make this experience happen if not I'll never talk to you again but no we will this is I think a hike for us they say you know make it your own hike I think we'll make this arm like then yeah and the last very last question had it occur to you that you will not make it every day not necessarily a fear of not making it but instead of a much larger an overpowering desire to to get at the end and actually make it through and to to prove wrong you know the people who are like oh yeah you guys don't really make it or I don't I think if you don't question yourself and your own abilities then you're not invested if it's something that I can do I reaffirm that every day and I say I'm going to do this yeah no matter what I don't know if it's necessarily a big fear but it's something I certainly have been thinking about is whether or not my father and I were going to actually like each other at the end of it I said we've never spent this insane amount of time just one-on-one get to certain points where maybe I'm feeling better we won't always hike together there will be different interest I meet a nice young lady kick my father to the curb and say you know I got to go follow this this grubby young lady around for open fire I wouldn't want to in any way shackle him I'm not saying that you're gonna be grow you're just he's gonna find his own leg I don't foresee that happening but I mean I don't know I don't know anything could happen I guess just walking through Vermont first day in Vermont after a few days of storms the trails so Ramon it's been a crapshoot weather-wise crossing to the border that day it was just raining kind of non-stop for the next three days and we had a bad really bad intense thunderstorm our first night in Vermont and it was like it was just like right right overhead right above us this is the trail so so far not a great start to Vermont Oh tragic I think this came down that night we were in the so crazy to hear this come down it's a pretty big change yeah oh yeah what'd you say you put your pants good old crafty now he's pooping the pants and as you're walking they all have these different terms for the trail that you follow we follow white blazes on the trail that's the official 80 a white painted marker it's usually two and a half inches by six inches the blue blaze is an alternate route to either a Vista to go you know for a beautiful view or to go to a privy or something like that that's a blue blaze yellow blazes is when the yellow blazes down the road so when people cheat and skip sections or what we call spirits call it cheating but maybe that's just what people want to do so yellow blazing is when you drive the road instead of taking the trail paint blazing is like guys will do when they're just chasing skirts on the trail you kind of attach yourself to a feminine hiker and you walk with a woman associated tired of you some tickets I do or what and [Music] come on girl [Music] he's a great people person unwittingly aired or not careful about his looks he cares about how he looks and not that he looked behind esses airily but he had his own image out there and I think people recognize him very much so just about everyone that I knew they were all attractive I think even the guys were attracted to Carl a lot of the girls on the trail thought that he was such a good number but he was always polite and always a gentleman I don't I don't think he ever took on any of the advances that the girls would have liked [Music] it was just another thing I don't know yeah sure I mean maybe I picked it up a little bit nah I never had any serious trail relationship I wasn't looking for that [Music] Hey [Music] relationships are just like that like relationships everywhere they come and go you meet people you love them they're gone no big deal you running home later you don't you know CEO thing I certainly went into the hike feeling ambitious and you know full of life and spontaneity and became progressively I think more pessimistic might be a little strong yeah I'm a little bit I'm moderately more turned off by the kind of culture and I think that it's more with the younger crowd surprisingly you know like the people my age I just haven't really found a whole lot of connections with a less mixed group than what we started with now we're with pretty much a younger group and I feel like I'm the old shoe and I've told them I said I don't want to hold you up don't feel like you know you've got to drag your feet for me or whatever to do the 20-mile plus days to keep up with the group's because I I knew he wanted to be with these people young people but now he seems a little bit dissatisfied with them going through hikers we're allowed to do whatever we want it I don't think it's true I mean it's not through hikers trail we're all out here with you know thousands of dollars worth of gear have all this access to equipment and monies for this and that and you know are constantly bitching about this or that he's going like you know come on and get it together I don't think they have any concept of like what it took to get them that year we're all white privileged bucks out here spending money you know an ungodly amount of money there's absolutely nothing to complain about we're mr. negativity I tell you I don't know I don't have an answer for that I don't fully understand it and I see that it frustrates him occasionally and I say hey let's find some other people to hike that we have met our fair share like really decent honest true people share coke with a friend we hike for a while with this gentleman named cancer who had had cancer twice and he was like I mean he was just living like living on borrowed time basically okay like this is what I want to do this is what I want to be out here cancers favorite he would suck those things out things I would have thought they'd give me refills I spent $14 on Mountain News yeah he's like he's pissed but I'm saying I wasn't going to just have one I'll be down and cynical and bummed out with the people around me but for the most part I'm pretty happy out here yeah absolutely all the time you hike pretty much alone during the day for the most part I don't know how some of these people do it this groups of there were two women we sort of bumped into and hiked occasionally with back in the Shenandoah's maps is Matt remember the other woman's name here's my thing but you could hear them in the woods you could if I was ahead or behind they're coming up on them constantly talking and here's me everyone that's hiking when you when you get up in Massachusetts in New England there's this very ease of everybody to just enjoying yourself here all present we found up north was just people were just as nice and friendly as they were down south we have top shelf polling shelf where Jose were Cuervo tequila works way better than I do Pro stood for knee pain so that was a that was really good trail magic when you're out in the woods you're ten miles from nowhere those are the people that want to be ten miles from nowhere so it's really nice and if you have a problem it's not a problem because there's someone behind you that can help you like I blew my knee out and there's a place called lemon squeeze Here I am in a lemon squeezer not so bad where you can barely get through with a backpack on glad I lost that way I had to take my backpack off and put it in front of me and kind of walk sideways and when I did that my knee didn't agree with that and it I tore a couple ligaments I'll mock out that you learn as you walk more it's about pain and it's how you deal with it so my feet are killing me Allah stuff you can imagine the scenarios I'm thinking to myself well I got to make this work I want to be here I want to experience this walk I know I don't want to just think about other stuff like I call that other stuff to the beast it's the stuff that takes you away from right now that's the Beast it can be anything so I wanted to just get rid of the beast you know out of my mind and just be here it's hard to convey to people what it is but I'll use my dog Sophie so when I come home my dog greets me and then she gets this wiggle butt and you get this big grin on your face and I and I call that the big smile inside you know you just get a big grin and so as you feel it from your heart and you feel this big grin and then you welcome it as denial oh my god it changes and you're like wow I'm here you know it's really I cry but as you do that I could stay walking in the now because I had a big grin on my face and then I realized my feet don't hurt wow my knee doesn't hurt my leg doesn't hurt it was because of the smile [Music] people can't believe all you got to do is bring that joy to your heart it goes away if i watch with connecticut to Vermont mine without the pain literally it didn't have a couple of black toenails and one most effective this morning I'm a little slower that's a big smile deep inside yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh [Applause] [Music] you [Music] I was always an awestruck at how tiny I felt because everything was so big and so huge around me you know the mountains would just be like ocean waves off in the distance initially on and on and on [Music] just getting to the finish with what was important to me but the Wildcats work really really hard rock scrambles and rebar climbs and ladder climb going up and then back down and up then back down that's what you did all day long the hardest physical was going down into mystic notch steep steep sides and then in the ravine there's boulders out of the size of buildings and like large cars and you have to navigate find the passageway to get through that that's what makes it really hard that was like toughest day I think this is what it's going to be like going into me and I said I don't think I can make it no I'm not in jail in the elevator we go I have metatarsal issues and those hurt me worse than I could have even imagined I lived with it I knew it's going to be an issue I just didn't realize it was going to be that big of an issue behind I it was been miserable my feet were sore and tired I don't do stairs do enough of a manga walk we spent the night in the hotel Wow dis me right there little hurt and I'm crying like baby bawling my eyes out and he doesn't tell me oh you can come back you can get the card you didn't tell me anything like that see you next time but he knew my goal was to finish and he knew I'd be okay and then I thought it was that was pretty mean you know I'm going off in the woods and hopefully he didn't worry too much about me but have a good day now I'm a good swim even if it was a bad day I would try to make it happy hi special I was out there but I knew if I was going to be around them that I would be happy it was just the way it was I hiked everything most my weight on my left leg and I knew I when I got to Vermont there's no way my knee was going to let me go downhill [Music] if you start the trail and you say well if I do this you know how you how you think about it if I can do this if this no I'll always always I'm hiking but I never put if into it and I never put I'm only gonna go but I did put the thought out that I had to get off the trail I could stop and I did I was hiking eight mild days again you know and that was my sign and you never quit the 80 on a bad day when it's raining and you feel miserable don't quit okay quit on a good day I was in the middle of a huge reserve and nobody would come in and get me you know so I was like I'm gonna have to do this I got to this dirt road and I'm literally looking at it's gotten Mountain and I put my backpack down and I grab some pop-tarts out of my my pack [Music] which was totally magical I got to get my dog into kayaking and then drive through Maine and encamp Island it was just awesome but it's what other people think you didn't do the whole thing yeah sixteen hundred miles you do that you know mm yeah that's a lot but it's a 400 miles so I wasn't upset that I got off you know I'll probably go back this year and finish it and do some more it's not a big deal [Music] you [Music] [Music] this next leg of the trip can try lose interest in it I think so far I tried it cynical but I guess I would call real realizing that I just need to the Lord go bring all this up because consuming very displeased with kind of a group we had been hiking and we're not including father and I and then we want to hang around 62 year old man son so of course they're going to take the zero day and not tell us about it she really upset me constantly these things by ourselves think I'll be overall a happier person I think the mountains can bring it out [Music] less than 300 miles left to go here we are at the official border between Maine New Hampshire entering our last state when we finally step across that line and get back into the state of Maine then I know I know I'll feel like I'm home again if we get that far if I physically get that far I'll know I've made it how does it feel to be home it feels pretty darn good to be home the long trip you feels pretty good yeah well we still have another but three votes to lead to 81 it what if it's wrong stuff regardless here we are at the state line getting ready to head to Katahdin actually head up the road a little bit and have some lunch and talk about old times we kind of had a point in the trail where we knew it was coming to an end we were both eager and excited to get the trail over with southern Maine was definitely difficult and rough and I think that's where my dad was teetering on like a breaking point what happened I think that's certainly where we hit a lot of steep difficult terrain bad weather training and I think the combination of those two definitely brought his spirits down all right making noises like there may have been some feelings of maybe not wanting it not want anything I don't know maybe deep down inside I think you get that close to the end then you say boy this is that I want to cash in my chips the only day that I you know felt sort of a pang of you know or angst to whatever was when we came out onto route 27 and I realized that all I had to do was put my thumb out like a hitchhike home in a matter of hours and I I said I said that to Carl I said you know and it wouldn't take much to get home he said come on dad we got to finish this up mountainous because that's what we set out to do kind of was to go out together he and I we hiked this whole thing together and spent five months side by side and I think that and it of itself was a bonding experience regardless of it being at the end of the trail was a special place but it was it was a special time and it all started to come together at that point [Music] Oh you [Applause] my father was a carpenter my mother she died young I'm the eldest of my birth - the trouble in my life [Music] I saw a stay-home like my father lives with he built the and [Music] yes we will leave without you and all [Music] Oh [Music] just [Music] [Applause] he could have easily left and gotten off the trail but he never did and I don't think we wanted to we don't have to camp it up too much I think you wanted to prove to himself and others from mostly I think himself that he could do this [Music] me my member [Music] you [Music] what he learned about me I think there's no only one thing that I heard him say was I have one point but somebody else asked that same question Saddam I'm surprised at how much I'm like my dad [Music] yes we believe lovable I think that he really really cared so much about his dad and his success Karl knew it was hard for dad it's time but he would never go so far ahead where we knew his dad should be coming along Karl could have just left walking in and me in the dust had gone but he didn't see to complete do the hike do the haka Sam [Music] and then cease walking man would always talk about how proud he was of Carl and his accomplishments for being such a young man and it was just really nice to see that we enter back and forth but not to each other they would do it to me [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm not shooting the wilderness yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in order to hike the trail you have to free yourself we all live in our little box of how we define life I think I'm at a point in my life where you know I'm sort of trying to decide where I go with my future and work when you're walking it's like it changes I think I need some time off knowing I love my father but there's so much more to know to understand find out there's little things that you don't get to experience sitting on a couch to see this part of the country that I've never really seen before just ask yourself one question is it going to help you time and once you open yourself up to that life change once I start something I finish something I think what I'm looking for more than anything else at this point is to connect with my son and reconnect with myself [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] we're standing at a crossroads we don't know where to go I know you've heard it all before it's no TJ I know but we still a stride to tables happy the time and as the legs and a fire fairly burning with the tiniest of flame we could use better we're at none where we're from or where we're gonna be I think it's time we take the road [Music] [Music] to ah school [Music] did you involve a belated women song that Dorothy the time to start you know and what we are when I do a long long time but a metal bed we're at somewhere with rubble where we're gonna be think it's time we take [Music] daddy I found that Diana [Music] step that is that I have [Music] I am stupid to travel far I'm a respected religious about at one time for the words fall been said before my hands but on my own but reading in these waters Oh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] no ever gonna be Nick it's time we take the boat [Music] daddy [Music] that is [Music] OOP gone by does it like you I didn't know they hit [Music] well not well Oh you think you [Music]

Channel: BOOMplop Documentaries

Views: 635,332

Rating: 4.8717499 out of 5

Keywords: walking home, walking home part 1, walking home part 2, appalachian trail, wallking home full length, appalachian trail documentary, full length documentary, hiking documentary, thru hike, thru hiking documentary, ryan leighton, full length film, full length movie, hiking georgia to maine, ryan leighton film

Id: p4TWPbBlf70

Length: 114min 57sec (6897 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2017

Reddit Comments

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2,200.0 miles ≈ 3,540.6 kilometres ^{1 mile ≈ 1.61km}

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[u/Jahru6891]

This is very well put together. I'm 30 min in and hooked. Nothing better than a good old fashioned adventure.

[u/yoboyjohnny]

Appalachia is beautiful. I don't think I'd ever be able to complete the whole trail, but hell yeah I'd try