For many people, hiking the complete 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail is the culmination of years of planning and practice. For local college student Andy Ward, it’s now been there, done that. Ward, who first locked onto the idea of thru-hiking the AT at an early age, spent more than six months last year completing the trail, taking a purist’s approach by never skipping a white blaze, from beginning to end.
Q & A
What first got you interested in attempting a thru hike and how long did you prepare before setting off?
When I was 7 years old, my parents took me to Newfound Gap in the Smokies for the first time; this is the trip when my dad first told me about the Appalachian Trail, and I wanted to hike it ever since. I had planned on doing the AT for about four years prior to my thru hike, but I began serious planning six months before I left for the trail in March.
What was the overall best experience you had on the AT and what was the worst or most difficult?