The First Hike, Through The Years, And The Birth Of Legacy Backpacking
“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
- Morpheus, The Matrix
2018
At nineteen years old I was going to college, had my own apartment, and was working as a night shift EMT for the city of Richmond. I thought I had what every guy wanted. It didn’t take long to realize that all my money was going to bills and all my time was going to school and work. It was a time in my life where I started reflecting on what truly made me happy and I kept returning to memories of camping with the Boy Scouts. I tried planning a weekend camping trip but commitments always pushed the trip back. After reading AWOL On The AT I decided I had enough and was going to hike the Appalachian Trail. I quit my job, subleased my apartment to a friend without telling my landlord, and submitted all my college work a month early. I figured two weeks on the trail would get this feeling out of my system and I could return to normal life. Instead, I ended up thru hiking the 2,190.2 miles that summer.
- My pack weighed 42.5lbs
- I didn’t know how to hang my food
- I didn’t know how to read my guide book
- I’d never used a water filter before
- I got severe plantar fasciitis within the first two weeks
- I wore the wrong clothing and chaffed so bad my thighs bled
The sheer generosity and kindness of everyone I met along the trail kept me hiking North. I learned to lower my base weight, make ten miles by ten o’clock, and what food to resupply on. It rained one out of every three days during those 154 days I was on trail and hikers bonded quickly over the misery. The rain drove many hikers off and the AT in 2018 was never too crowded.
September 14th, I completed my Thru-Hike surrounded by friends and my family who drove from Richmond, Virginia to Mt Katahdin, Maine to be there for the finish.
2019
The running joke at the end of the Appalachian Trail was that I was never going to hike again! Turns out, every moment from the AT to the Pacific Crest Trail was spent saving money. I went back to working night shifts on the ambulance and picked up a side job in the mornings cutting the greens at the local country club. It was like a scene from the movie Caddyshack. Sleep deprived the lines on the greens were wavey and in the middle of the morning I’d hide in the woods to take a nap.
On April 29th, 2019 I was overjoyed to take my first steps on the PCT. September 18th, 2019 I reached Canadian border. That summer was special as there were no fire closures and I was able to hike every mile of the 2,653.1 mile trail.
I pulled an idiotic prank on day 1 leaving me shivering in the cold rain with a reusable grocery bag, emergency shelter, one roll of tp, and a liter of water for the first 20 miles.
It was a 200% snow pack in the Sierra that year and myself and the hikers I was with learned how to use an ice axe by watching a Youtube video.
2020
Perplexed by a patch depicting the Florida Trail on a hiker named “Grits” backpack, the idea of that trail stayed in my mind since the third day of the AT. January 7th, I started North from Key West and reached Pensacola March 4th. In July I hiked the Colorado Trail with friends from the FT and in August I attempted the Tahoe Rim Trail as a reunion hike with friends from the PCT. Fires closed the TRT halfway through. Between these times I worked for FedEx and REI. REI eventually made me resign due to taking off too much time to hike.
2021
With family visiting my sister in Texas for Christmas I decide to make road trip of the state visiting Guadalupe Peak, Big Bend NP, and hiking Lone Star Trail. Again, while at home, every cent I made was set aside for the next thru hike. April 25th, I took my first steps North from on the Continental Divide Trail and reached the Canadian border September 6th. I took every possible short cut that year making my continuous footpath border to border 2,311.8 miles. After a week of being home I leave to hike the Long Trail South Bound September 22nd - October 7th with friends from the Colorado Trail.
2022
2022 was quite the year! New Years I hike the Foothills Trail with hikers named Tickle Me Elmo and Edward Shitterhands. In February I run my first 100 mile race called the Forgotten Florida Trail put on by Run Bum Races. In April I re-hike the first half of the PCT and make a side trip of completing the Tahoe Rim Trail with my friend Shoobie who I hiked with on the PCT in 2019. In July I jump from the PCT to Iowa to bike across the state for RAGBRAI. I thought I was done for the summer but friends from the PCT in 2019 tell me to join them for a section of the CDT. How could I refuse? I hike about six hundred miles with them from Wyoming through Idaho and into Montana.
While on the CDT our group, what’s known in the hiking world as a “Tramily” (trail family), was talking about Fastest Known Times (FKTs). We noticed the Ice Age Trail had a previous set record for the self-supported time of a 35 mile a day average. I though, 35 miles? I can do that! With encouragement from friends I set the record to a 47.6 miles a day average. My parents cheered in the dark as I reached the terminus at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. It’s a night that’ll live in my mind forever.
While out there making seemly endless miles on the Ice Age Trail I’d listen to Episode 13 of the Real AF podcast on repeat. It kept me going during the times I wanted to quit most.
2023
Tickle Me Elmo, Edward Shitterhands, and I hit the trail together again on New Years Day, this time to hike the Ocean to Lake Trail. A month later I attempt the Florida Trail FKT trying to average more than 44 miles a day. To prepare for the FT FKT I trained with Dean Bennett, hands down the best coach in the Richmond area and owner of DA Athletics in Mechanicsville Virginia. I truly believed I had this record in the bag. But less than four months from setting the record on the Ice Age Trail and just 150 miles into the Florida Trail FKT I bonked. My body felt sick and, my mind refused to push through the dark places it goes when your body is facing pure exhaustion. I struggled to manage 20 miles on the levee around Lake Okeechobee. Sitting in the grass, a warm winter day, I called my FKT.
Feeling relief from quitting but also looking for the next big adventure I run the Georgia Death Race in March before heading to hike the Arizona Trail in April. Again during this time I was working every minute I was home to fund these hikes. It had become an addiction.
By July I was in Peru for two weeks of ATVing, whitewater rafting on the Amazon, and hiking the Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu with a group called Travsessed run by an extremely adventurous couple named Kim and Erran.
That fall, well I expect we never know the days our lives are going to change, I met my girlfriend. We were working together as EMTs at an amusement park, just outside of Richmond, called Kings Dominion. It was a fall of “young love.” For the first time, I was going out and exploring Richmond’s restaurants and bars with her and great friends. Up until then, my life had been dedicated to hiking and hustling to hike more.
2024
My girlfriend begins Physician’s Assistant school in Savannah and before we’d started dating I’d inherited money from the passing of my grandmother and planned to hike the Te Araroa in New Zealand. I head South from Cape Regina December 2nd, 2023 and reach the Southern terminus of the TA March 23rd, 2024. While on the trail I hike past Mt. Doom, dive with Great White Sharks, and send a letter home to my girlfriend every day (132 post cards in total!). The friends I made from around the world made the experience incredible. My TA tramily now has a continuous journal we all write in and mail to the next member; mainly updates about our lives, remembering good times, and hikes we’d like to do in the future.
Upon returning home I move to Savannah, pick up a quick job at the Savannah Fleet Feet, and bartend for the Savannah Banana’s home games.
In June my girlfriend and I visit the distilleries, in Kentucky, along the Bourbon Trail.
In August I sail from Pensacola to Guatemala on a friend from the Long Trail 47ft Bavarian monohull sailboat. We cross the Gulf, snorkel with Whale Sharks off the coast of Cancun, and dive the reef off Belize.
A hurricane relief contact I work in Houston Texas that makes enough to pay for an on the spot trip to Iceland in September. My girlfriend and I visit Reykjavik, hike the Fimmvorduhals Trail, and drive the entire Ring Road around the country.
While falling asleep in an abandoned mountain hut atop of a volcano in Iceland, I realized my girlfriend who’d never hiked before was loving this adventure of a lifetime. It reminded me of friends I had taken hiking on weekend trips, between trails, and how always talked about how much joy they experienced on the trips we did together.
So, in December 2024, Legacy Backpacking was launched with the mission of opening up the world of backpacking to others through education, reconnection with nature, and thoughtfully planned guided trips.