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Preparing to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail [photos]

Written by David "AWOL" Miller, an engineer who quit his job to hike the AT, The A.T. Guide has become a bible for thru-hikers. The book contains thousands of landmarks to be found on the trail, from campsites to water sources, as well as landmarks in nearby towns, from hotels to laundromats. With maps and elevation profiles, you'll always know just where you are.
Written by David "AWOL" Miller, an engineer who quit his job to hike the AT, The A.T. Guide has become a bible for thru-hikers. The book contains thousands of landmarks to be found on the trail, from campsites to water sources, as well as landmarks in nearby towns, from hotels to laundromats. With maps and elevation profiles, you'll always know just where you are. Written by David "AWOL" Miller, an engineer who quit his job to hike the AT, The A.T. Guide has become a bible for thru-hikers. The book contains thousands of landmarks to be found on the trail, from campsites to water sources, as well as landmarks in nearby towns, from hotels to laundromats. With maps and elevation profiles, you'll always know just where you are.

By Myron Madden 4 min read

Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail is no easy feat. Most hikers can spend years preparing their bodies and their backpacks to tackle the 2,180-mile beast. But most hikers aren’t Andy “Cheddah Mayne!” Ward.

Having done some backpacking in high school, when the Chattanooga native first really caught the bug in 2012, he went straight from eating Cheetos and playing video games to conquering a trail more than half its sojourners have failed to complete.

“In all honesty, I didn’t do any kind of [physical] preparation. At all,” the 28-year-old says. “I went straight off the couch. That is 100 percent true.”

The key, Ward found, was motivation, mental fortitude and tons of research. Those same tools also helped him dominate the Pacific Crest Trail in 2015.

“Research is a big thing,” Ward says.