Ever since he was six years old, Luke Badley wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail.
But it didn’t happen until he graduated from college.
And then last year, he took off.
On March 10, 2013, Badley started on his trek, from the southern most tip of the trail on Springer Mountain, Georgia.
Then five months later, on August 14, 2013, he finished on Mount Katahdin, Maine.
In between, 2,180 miles of beauty.
“It was a life changing experience,” he says.
Badley learned about persistence and finishing what you have started.
“My parents trained me well — never to quit,” Badley says.
“Thru-hiking on the AT is overwhelmingly a mental game,” he says.
The hike taught him how to overcome his self-consciousness.
In 2013, Badley was one of 589 who completed the thru-hike south to north of the Appalachian Trail, out of 2,250 who started (26 percent).
Along the way he experienced blisters (nothing you can do about them, just walk through them), three bears (the mice are the bigger threat to your food), and friends galore.
He walked the trail south to north — most thru-hikers do it that way because it’s more social — there are just more hikers walking it south to north.
Badley says there are about 50 people in what he called his “bubble.” That’s the group of thru-hikers in your general vicinity throughout the walk.
About ten percent drop out due to injury — mostly broken feet, he says.
His trail name was Wild Blue. He met a guy from Germany — there are lots of Germans thru-hiking because there’s a popular video in Germany about the AT. The German’s nickname was Yonder. When they hiked together they were Wild Blue Yonder.
He still has up the Facebook page he used to document his hike.
But he has taken down his personal Facebook page because he realized that Facebook didn’t promote “meaningful human interaction.”
“There’s too much pessimism on Facebook,” Badley says. “People make rash, hurtful and judgemental comments.”
“So I ditched my personal Facebook page,” he said.
And he doesn’t miss it.
He says he loves talking about his hike –”it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Luke’s advice: focus on shelter — good sleeping bag and hammock, good backpack, sleeping pad, Awol’s AT Guide (indispensable), two heavy duty black contractors bags to put your stuff in — so it doesn’t get wet — then stuff that into your backpack. And don’t forget good hiking shoes.
Plan on spending about $2500 on food and $2500 on gear.
And then there is “trail magic.”
People who live around the trail just leave stuff for hikers — food and goodies.
“One guy just set up a grill and was grilling hamburgers,” Badley said. “And he would just hand out hamburgers to hikers.”
“Walking the trail makes you believe in the goodness of humanity,” Badley said.
And Badley raised $32,000 for Cedar Ridge Children’s Home in Williamsport, Maryland.
He’s working there part time now, but soon will begin a new job at Climbing New Heights in Martinsburg, West Virginia.