When to start the appalachian trail northbound
Operation Northbound. Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike 2018
the life of an animal is simple their only goal to survive long enough to
reproduce humans are animals too however our lives have become far more
complicated every year a few thousand people take a step back from society and
leave behind the stress and expectations of their previous lives and jobs some
take leave and won't be gone long however some won't come back at all
these few thousand people face the 6 to 1 odds and attempt to walk the 2,200
miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine through the cold wind
the rain and the heat until only a few hundred hoti soldier and these views
through Britain determination and the privilege of calling themself through
hikers my name is Matheson but out here
everyone calls me bear like the animal
this is what it was like for me to attempt an Appalachian through hike in
2018
you can see why somebody would quit right at the stop because honey I think
I'm in the wrong way yeah obd-ii dude it was just like 500 skips like straight up
so I can see what you're equipped by I'm not gonna quit just yet
let's say there's 4,000 people gonna try to hike the Appalachian Trail this year
and they said that Neal scat which is right now is where a thousand people
quit and believe them and I looked up at this tree throughout my whole life I've
tried to move failure from the equation as much as I could people sometimes ask
me what's plan B and I always say the same thing there really is no plan B but
plan a is pretty solid and so completing my Appalachian
thru-hike was just a prime example of that
all right so the spot here super super important because three years ago in
2015 me and a couple people working at Camp
luma but me and a couple people came out here and we camping in between this tree
and this tree right here we set up two hammocks I was in the top story so I
understand I was in this exact same spot when three hikers walked past and this
is where I decided that I wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail so three people
went past they were skinny it's two dudes and a chick that was skinny the
dudes had beards the woman a little bit too
their legs were super jacked they're real thin and I gave them like a huge
way it was like a it was like five o'clock in the morning and he just
looked at me and gave me the tiniest little energy-saving nod and I was like
man that's hardcore that's like damn that's how cool this
guy's gonna walk the whole thing that's at Eric and I could do that that was
three years ago in this exact same spot right now before I went to America I
spent two years at University training is an outdoor instructor and the whole
time knowing that I wanted to hike I wanted to do it through hike in 2018 so
trying to pay my way through University and save enough money for an Appalachian
through hike wasn't a super easy thing to do but with the little bit of
creativity and a fair bit of grit you can basically do it any want that did
mean I was homeless for a whole year while at uni and and then I had to live
out of a van for four and a half months eat nothing but canned chickpeas and
fruit but if that's the price I had to pay then it's a price I'd paid twice
over day three there's like a big risk of
like bear attacks and stuff that have been in this next area so because of
that you got to take a beer canister I don't have it be a kind of step up it's
possibly like a be a bonk so hopefully I'm thinking pretty positively about it
but I'm like now I hike alone I left all my friends behind so I'm just doing a
little um having a little count out of my food the next resupply was gonna be
my 137 I'm in my 37 at the moment I'm just counting out how many dinners I
have left and how long it's taking me to get here and while it looks of it I'm
gonna run out of food I still got I've only got three more
dentists for if I have small dinner tonight and it's gonna be
at least a week today sir or something like that it's gonna be more than time
sir
most disappointing border crossing in my whole freakin life so yes for the North
Carolina border crossing was careful man I'm not saying I was expecting some guy
to be standing it like congratulating me and like to shake my hand
all right so I'm we're up here in the mountains and it just started snowing
and hailing I swear I just stopped us before the camera went on but I put on
my most waterproof outfit I got my granny gloves and rain hat but yeah
hopefully it's gots heaven again so I can prove that I'm not just like
these looks like big-time code real code but ya got a file in there collecting
firewood it's gonna be pretty cold night but I know this is the Smokies I guess
night one in the Smokies oh it's snowing but the hair on my legs is first it's
all white and crystallized yeah that's a hero my legs pretty frozen I'm kind of
enjoying it I'm having a good time this morning was pretty crazy woke up bit
earlier than normal work up at 6:00 pretty cold night and I am pull back the
tarpaulin and everything is just white everything's so white this like icicles
up in the trees and my snow all over the ground it's pretty wild
all right so I'm hiking here with crux creeks and Rock'em and still alive back
there somewhere I think it stops snowing but all that he is frozen but I kind of
like it but yeah we're coming up to the highest point on the Appalachian Trail
at 6600 feet six thousand six hundred something feet so here looking forward
to seeing absolutely nothing because of all the snow but it's okay
and as you will out of North Carolina and the Tennessee the nomadic lifestyle
wasn't just starting to feel normal it was starting to feel really good the
body was ready to get up and walk and so are we
all right so it's been a big couple of days were hiking came across the cycling
snake it's got to be like two meters long right across the track excuse me it
was pretty good and then we go into town I slept on for got tasered Oh
the Taser twice is really good fill me we got scrambled eggs and decel
what's up scrambled eggs how's it going little did I know this scruffy dude
sitting out of the bridge with me was about to pick out my best friend things
got pretty good team no it's nice thanks Pete everybody thought we were leaving
the cold weather behind us but everybody was wrong
a frozen pond my favorite
oh okay it's not that thick what is it whoa whoa it's not thick enough to walk
on
give us I didn't lead here before I like injured myself
and come across something fantastic even more so than my hat and it's this thing
here there's a bag it's literally the reason I chose the Appalachian Trail /
PCT pretty much once again is because they do this thing called trail magic
which is where they just put bags of like cool stuff like this dude dr.
peppers man oh it's so good so people just put bags of food along the trail
this is just drinks but man I got a friend in Baltimore it Eliza Jane
streetcars running by her door Liza Liza Jane chips some fruit item Adama I don't
know what corn nuts are but I'm sure they good you got chips ahoy lots of
good stuff and then it got told that is the best trail magic and ever gonna
experience they look like they bite in my life
is coming up with fangers people can feel those cold winds blow it Eliza Jane
all the lies and the
all the lies
mom remember when I told you when I moved dad was going to drink coach any
trouble for breakfast 9:00 a.m. Eastern morning
where those girls are also please
you that you are the shot I am a naughty MD which is amazing so people just leave
stuff out like this there's always a book so you can sign it ever injustice
like thanks enough for that so we're just going down some whoo
and then we see chilly been at the bottom it's got some like musi bars in I
haven't had breakfast yet cuz I don't have any water and some up little juice
drinks apple juice drinks so I had one of them didn't get passed place to bed
with Hammond and I'll hang on and then we see the sign for the place that was
giving away like free cheeseburgers I stayed giggling and running like a
little girl across the road so hopefully come up to the party and we're hoping I
just sit up in there otherwise we've already walked past it would break my
heart
all the lies and then Eliza Jane hold it Eliza little eyes a J I gotcha
cat see if we can actually give up on the fridge to sleep
it's stupid steep steep so it's been pissing in here
he'll
I mean you won't want to roll over in the night but I can make this work so
here we are in that best elf camp so far scrambled eggs up here cooking some cook
it up some taters I'm having a cheese wrap pretty children's come from that
consistent noise of trucks using the engine brakes and cars going real fast
sesame and scrambled eggs and we've been weaving in and out of North Carolina and
Tennessee for ages now but we're finally leaving North Carolina for the last time
see you later North Carolina it's been a it's been a blast there it is come up to
the line
there we go Tennessee / Virginia state line three
all these are gonna line of rocks how cute is that we've come across the wild
horses of Virginia Virginia Highlands I guess we've been calling pretty
consistently for the hospital well kind of flat out because we trying to beat
everybody else over here we got a bunch of wild horses this some wild horse is
just small wild horses it's another one
how you how do you feeling there where I'm sitting here on hallowed ground I've
heard of the stories but I didn't know it was real until today this is a pool
you can eat KFC buffet now personally I feel disgusting
but I'm gonna take the bids I already hate myself but I'm gonna make the
business I can tell my daughter's club
it doesn't look superficial or anything but nothing your aunt here does
it's quarter quarter of the way the quarter of the way down I guess so
I recognize the smell of a cigarette some of the same plant
now ready
so it's meeting all mate legs here day 44 who's going alright we looked at
our food wheel ah we can skip over that next talent like we can push our food
rations so food reactions have been like real tight
and then I go and like mess up my leg girl bed so now I really need to stop
but if I stop will starve because we've got no food so apples are okay in the
morning downhillers are not so good so I really need to take a rest day but we
just can't because there's no food so there's only so much pain you can go
through and still finish the day with a smile on your face I'm getting pretty
close to that limit with this being day three and a half smoked a lot of words I
don't know what the truth
so it's been a interesting a little while to me and legs sitting on the side
of the road we came into the town Delvaux so my knees real pretty bad
we're waiting on side of the road legs dad's coming to pick us up take us back
to Baltimore neighbor we'll check out Washington DC I don't know do whatever
you do and you can't walk and then we'll come back up for a couple days and keep
going suck and my legs buggered and it's over but hopefully that's not the case
so we've taken a couple days off and then come back in carry on during the
six days we spent in scrambled eggs house we had about as much food as two
humans could possibly eat and they encrypt the future trails do you think
your food makes me hungry just looking at it during one of the rifts days we
thought we'd better get out and do something so we went into DC to have a
look around and then we check the bus times to try to figure our selves a way
back to Damascus for trailers
all right so it's been pretty rough lately we did our 12 hour bus ride back
from scrambled eggs house that was was really good
it's nothing like 12 hour bus right in the middle of a night beer now we're
walking the business into hopefully going to hitch the trail days because
you know someone that's coming by so yeah now we just got a just got to get
them on it not much of a worry but I'm a little
worried about this one to be honest
it's in pretty bad stories about other people having similar injuries because
they got so injured that they had to stop so here
hopefully I'll meet going to trial yesterday and then yeah hopefully
they'll get looked at maybe they're for free and then we'll see
so me legs here back in um Damascus Virginia daily patrol days but it's
getting pretty busy already everyone sitting up all the vendors and stuff
like that so free pack appears mess ups ship you'll go
how you feeling about the competition this year
baby
all right so haven't done one of these four I would like probably like a week
or saying now I was gonna say things have been good but they really haven't
we went into a town my knee was pretty sore tried to do too much so we had to go
into town with zero there we went to the Mings buffet that was pretty I mean it
was an experience it was a good experience
we ate till I blacked out and he he threw up outside oh it's all part of the Mings
experience I think do we gotta go if we gotta leave I started having a third
person experience while I was sitting there it was getting out of control
yeah we're sitting and then I'm like you don't feel too good I thought I was gonna black
out at the table but we managed to get outside and then it laid out and passed
out but then yeah after that from multitude of different reasons I was
having some really tough times it was really bad, legs wasn't having a great time either
well it's sunny now so that's good yea did things lighten up or a little no I
still feel pretty bad yeah we're nearly out of Virginia so I guess that's good
news my knees still bad so that's a contributing factor but yeah I mean
things really haven't gone to much better it's a bit of a bit of a grind
lately yeah so we're coming up to Front Royal
and getting close to getting out of Virginia you know dude it might even
even you know
okay so turns out leg was way more messed up than we thought so it's been
pretty we've started trying to hike on it again it's been pretty ummm we're
not walking very fast nor walking very far and doesn't really feel like its healing
that much so we're trying to like figure out all I could trying to figure out
what I can do to sort of ease that ease the strain on my knee and I came up with
an idea and that's to get rid of both my my tent and my sleeping bag now it's two
ways to go ultralight you can either buy more lightweight versions of what you've
already got or you can just get rid of the things that you more or less don't
need so I'm getting rid of my tent my sleeping bag, and now I know what you thinking I know what ya thinking, you're sitting at home in front of your computer or on your phone and thinking your computer or when you find you're
like dude that's a stupid idea that's a pretty stupid thing to do you know like
you're so Matheson you're so dumb dude what an idiot but I will tell you this
you're absolutely right this is one of the dumbest things I've ever done and
keep in mind I let someone taser me twice in the same day so I know it's a
terrible idea but if it's if it's gonna help me get to Katahdin and finish
this hike I'm willing to do it I'm feeling pretty good I'm feeling feeling
oh yeah I mean you could use a different adjective but I'm feeling something
could just be hunger but feeling something but yea this is where legs sleeps
in the hammock I'm just an animal so I sleep on the ground like an animal but
um it's gonna be a cold night
so how'd you sleep last night Legs? "great" "warm enough?" yeah I bet I'm happy to hear it I
woke up outside in the dirt it wasn't warm enough but I I lived
that's 800 miles so you want
all right so it's I don't know it's 9:30 in the morning walking again but today
it's different because today's a day that we walk out of Virginia all right
so we're leaving Virginia for the final time or third give a quick toast so it's
my drink Virginia it's um it's appropriate relieve you on this stony
ass bumpy ass part because you know you've had your ups and downs yeah all
the tips off my poles you blistered my feet you mucked out my leg then you've
darkened my heart now I would normally say cuz things I'm trying to learn to
speak German bitch betta but seeing is that hopefully I never ever see the
state again and if I do I want you to punch me in the neck I'm gonna simply
say hang out of order all right
okay so we're we're bouncing in and out at West Virginia Virginia all the time
but we're we're still sticking to the the rule of making sure that we listen
to country roads for the entire time that we hike through West Virginia and
so I think we just crossed the line so you want to hit that my friend oh yeah
oh yeah heaven West Virginia
life is old there older than the trees younger than
growing like a breeze country road take it home
to the place I belong
so it's 750 755 it's pretty early to be listening to country roads again but
we're still zigzagging in and out of Virginia West Virginia coming up very
soon we leave Virginia for the final time and I can't wait but the only
problem with editor means we have to listen to us non-stop until we leave
West Virginia well there's only so much of our country roads you get listened to
before you you truly wish for the end but um West Virginia's already over so
it's that one Maryland and oh it's Maryland sweet it's nice I feel good
about it
it's got to be de 82 or something very special day okay gonna try and eat two
litres of ice cream it you know 9 o'clock in the morning it's only night
now so we'll be little bit later then so we're here at the fabled ice cream
challenge place a couple of paddlers nearly okay introduce yourself boys
I am Frick you guys these guys going pretty hard it's done with the first one
you got to eat one of these yeah one of those will be fixed these guys are going
for the added challenge and for some sort of large chips as well large fries
so yeah how's it going it's going great I'm about to do it okay all right so
rules of the challenge you got one hour all it do this you're gonna struggle
with this one you got one hour eight one of these and then one of those Pepsi
cups full of ice cream it's pretty much yeah
munching down that
forgiveness
it's not pleasant
and that you still enjoying it left the stage well they just finished the
challenge how do you feel
what do you go there this is all you get they're like pacing around your ice
cream these together get close to my crotch real ice cream real moment to
walking along here leagues behind me unfortunately did manage to be me haters
ice cream ten minutes faster but I feel fantastic
how do you feeling who's laughing now I feel good
it's good
all right
let's think China better this
fifty-five
the right mm
it's me every time with that one
hey Blake how's the hair cook on I highly recommend this Barbara now let me
show you let me show you my favorite part here it's been this way so if
golfers sort of like a ball being used to look and but we lived in with a bird
style here and it was so sweet a little bit further he says he got the Aussie
mullet she's gonna rock I told my which one is with the ladies so we've
certainly internet how you like it
what bubbling
all right so here we are this train track this one here you see this let's
train check it's hot it's mad at the middle this is slightly more special
than all the other train tracks because it's the mason-dixon line this cat's
America in half basically so that's pretty cool mason-dixon Maryland
Pennsylvania oh yeah that's it now we're in Pennsylvania cool okay so I'm
Pennsylvania well known for the rocks you know it's pretty hot today and we're
thoroughly enjoying it I'm getting tendonitis in my leg feels good how do
you feel about it I love it
therefore it is just goes on and the maps is elevation wise it's like this 15
miles with no water I certainly haven't got enough but I've got some all right
so as you can see we got this large open fields just here so we've been walking
through him on and off all day and hot big-time hot now lasting you know here's
sunburn right so I haven't got a Sun Hat with me and by that I mean it's deep in
my pack what I have got is my t-shirt here what we're gonna do is the old
t-shirt tip and you just chuck it over your head like you're going to put on a
normal t-shirt that would be a normal t-shirt right wrong put it over there
like that you take your sleeves there's one it smells awful in here there's the
other one and you sort of just pull it tight and tie it at the back now if
you're looking for true Sun safety you can you can urinate on it to keep your
head cool but as you can see now if I step into the Sun I'm perfectly
perfectly Sun smart and it's actually ideal for a whole variety of things
you've got um snatch and grabs at your local dairy you know gang affiliated
crimes hit and runs home intrusions general theft and aggravated robbery
that's perfect so now I'm feeling pretty good
once I rap on some Sunny's here we go absolutely son smart walking in here and
as you can see there's not a single part of my body that's going to be burnt now
alright haven't got any urine but I have got the last of my water for the next
ten or so miles so just splash a bit over that over there for whatever reason
I don't know why you do that but you can drink a little bit three switch switch
it
that tastes like sweat it's awesome everything's good
I made
so we're hiking along back there and crippling pain when I stopped to take
some of the the rocks out of my shoe and notice that I've completely lost the
feeling in three of my toes so taking out the inserts that are already in the
shoe chucked in some dr. Scholl's and counting on your dr. Shaw help me please
please help me
well it's been nearly 24 miles of chronic foot pain dehydration pretty
thirsty very hungry I can't even imagine or my feet look like well it's the it's
the morning off it's a summer solstice 21st in Ligue Taniya she's doing that
after a brief period of full exposure we decided to hang the the rag
here we go this is the border right here at the moment of in no-man's land
this is Pennsylvania they to be New Jersey we got nine hundred ninety five
point six miles to go pretty stoked are you ready Oh neither killing bank
the Pennsylvania mom a Niva in my life never coming back
well dude 100 miles in four days yeah
so we're here Katahdin only 500 miles away so celebrate I'm eating the most
nutritious food you can get it here on the 80 which is a Little Debbie
strawberry fruit roll of one one of these for 1500 I've wanted one of these
for about five 1,500 miles so mmm tastes like sweet sweet cholesterol problems
for the future just go 220 miles today and then I got a friend gonna pick me
and legs up and we're gonna take up two days off that's a plan I still get
restless but we haven't taken the days off for a long time now now in my life
to rest it's kind of sounds like to do nothing
not a big fan of doing nothing so if we weren't gonna be hiking
and after the broadest of all bro fists it was time to get back out there it was
500 miles to go and the miles weren't gonna hide themselves
throw your stuff dry I mean the boots are still a little bit damp but the
socks I'm good to go
all right we're coming up to the
Vermont New Hampshire border crossing it's just up here so we're about to
leave them on go into New Hampshire there it is you can barely see it the
mall in New Hampshire so pretty
all right so we're in this um at five town here we are windows windows
oh this is what we sleep in this person it's true windows windows sunset
well it's been a long time coming
beginning closer and close to the whites for a long time now knowing full well
then when we got here it's gonna be steep and it is so yeah I mean too early
in the morning and I'm climbing up the star of a steepest mountain sir
welcome to the whites
you love to feel offended all right so we're climbing out did and final 4,000
feet foot peak off today so it's been a
pretty big day
we've got Mount Washington coming up there's at the second tallest peak on
the 80 dude it's a tall peak but anyway we've heard that people are actually
going over they likely making it over we also got told that one of the guys went
up there and the wind was so strong he was throwing onto his hands and knees
which is pretty funny and in the wind picked him up and flipped them like a
pancake onto his back and like ripped them a little bit but we're gonna be
going over there and like I know two and a half hours or something so I'm
actually really excited about it
okay so it's quite cold it's quite windy it's very wet anyway so we're just
hitting out that Washington now and just as a friendly reminder
Louise and
I wanna see the world now with the worst of the weather behind
us and having completed the weights the hardest terrain on the 80 it was looking
like it was going to be a straight shot all the way to Qatar
come back again
wanna feel
cousin bear
Azir feet
let's look healthy foot - you show us the other one yeah it's disgusting that
it's all slight it's slimy touch it it's like it's still slowing
get a touch it's extremely itchy it's itchy it's painful stinks
it's disgusting from all the rain this is basically what the trail is now just
soaking wet and carries on down so feel like keeping your shoes dry we're not
gonna fix the gangrene problem today trench foot is here to stay
I wanna see
well something's made me somethings made me pretty sick could be food poisoning
but they have to be some pretty nasty food yeah but it's most likely from
drinking some contaminated water Oh
I was referenced arting to realize it was something bad but I did not know yet
just how bad
it's not good
okay so it's the second office it's also the eighth day that I've been sick have
this motto I say if you get injured or sick or you know hurt or whatever give
it three days it's not better in three days give it five it's not better in
five give it a week and it's not better in a week except there's your new normal
and carry on from that point so I guess the constant nausea and you know all
that ya know good stuff should I send you normal now but with only well it was
eight days if I was fast I'm not sure if I feel very fast but I'm
still was hoping to be on the summer the Katahdin in eight days
symptoms are usually mild and include watery malodorous diarrhea mm abdominal
cramps and distension flatulence intermittent nausea oh I've got it bad
man acute I've got a better idea usually last one two three weeks oh my goodness
treatment is antibiotic antibiotic or antibiotic see like a fourth just like
deal with that option so I'm not gonna get better and that's again bollocks you
might not for three weeks though what are we supposed to do there's no friggin
doctors out here I think I can deal with it
it's just twenty-one miles a day for eight days lucky me so it was starting
to look like I'd contracted the dreaded stomach parasite but not only did I have
G alien but I'd also contracted E coli and without medicine the next eight days
were about to be the hardest eight days of the entire Malaysian trip and so yeah
coming up to a road speaking hitch into Munson Munson is the last town on the 80
the last town before the 100-mile wilderness so we're gonna hitch in there
grab some Goods after this it's literally one final push all the way
there no place to obtain supplies it's a hundred miles do not attempt the section
unless you have a minimum of ten days supply it's difficult and should not be
underestimated so basically it's saying if you're a little bit you might have a
problem or if you've got Giada are in a bum knee you could have a problem as
well yeah don't underestimate it man don't
underestimate it man spooky stuff man 100 miles of wilderness
spooky stone
four days until I'm standing at the summit
so it's the 8th of August which means tomorrow is the last full day of hiking
and then we're climbing Katahdin oh man welcome in Katahdin now one of the most
cruel symptoms of Giardia is your inability to process foods
meaning starvation and this was certainly something that I was
experiencing but at this stage in the game it wasn't a single thing on the
suit that was going to stop it for 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine and tomorrow
dear hundred and thirty nine is the last day
it's for 45 days a day let's get started
4.1 miles to go and my whole body is buzzing my heart's all fluttery I can't
tell if it's because every hardship every day with not enough food every
night was not enough sleep all of it winding down just one single
day making my whole body go crazy dad or it's just a ditch a mental health
problems caused by the red ball I just drank all the Giardia which is have
serious impact on my on my house 23
they say trying to fuel your body of sugar Alone's like trying to warm your
house by burning up in the newspaper in your fireplace and they're probably
right but on a day like today I say let it burn
now exhausted states we pushed on onwards and upwards into the clouds and
to the cold and after a hundred and thirty nine days and looking out and
picturing that side of my head I looked up and there it was
to look back on the past four and a half months is a strange thing sue I saw so
much in a short period of time I saw boss brown forests turn slowly into a
lush green paradise I saw branches encased in ice and when
the wind blew I saw a million diamonds fall from the sky
I saw an abundance of life and I saw the forest fires burn the trees play
I saw how people's lives have been changed by the trail and I saw people
were paying the trail in any way they could I saw in the kindness of others
and it's something I'll never forget
not everybody makes it nor should they and out of the few that do all of them
and their own way are changed humbled or anew
some of the people who finish will make a radical change in their lives with a
newfound appreciation for the things that previously took for granted like a
hot shower
cold drinking water a decent meal
but for a lot of them over time this appreciation will fade and they'll
slowly return to their old jobs their old habits and eventually their own ways
of life but not me and why not Ark is this something wrong with me
what's next
yo
