Hiking the Path During a Pandemic

Plans change. I’ve said before that one of the things my long hike 5 years ago (where I walked from Springer Mountain in Georgia up to Great Barrington, Massachusetts before getting off the Trail to deal with the anemia) taught me was the value of having a Plan B, and a Plan C . . . and even a Plan D.

The Plan A back in January, going into retirement, was that I would head up into New Jersey or thereabouts this July and walk north from there to Mount Katahdin, Maine.

Then covid-19 happened so, yeah, that’s not going to happen.

Some things about the long distance hiking life are just like non-hiking life. Especially during a pandemic.

The Trail was actually closed in some places back in March and April and May; both the National Park Service and the Forest Service land were closed; shelters closed; privies not maintained; the Trail itself not maintained. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy was telling people to postpone their hikes. And all that was particularly hard on hikers who had already started north from Georgia, or had quit jobs and left apartments in order to go hike. Also on hostel owners who had to close. And small town grocers who lost business. Of course, those business owners were already pretty much directed by their various state governments to close up.

But the hikers. Some got off the Trail and found their ways home. (And some of them are now back hiking again.) Others walked on. What you then saw on social media were word battles between the obedient home-goers and the resistant walkers.

As social distancing restrictions were clarified, and hand-washing regimens explained, and masking requirements implemented, you also had hikers declaring that the authorities were telling people that being outdoors for exercise was an approved behavior, and that thru-hiking is an annual experiment in social distancing anyway.

Well, yes. BUT it’s only partly about social distancing. Sleeping in a shelter makes it impossible to maintain the 6 feet of separation (“Well, I always sleep in my tent or hammock!”) and the surfaces in shared privies can’t be sanitized between uses (“I’ll go in the woods.”). And there isn’t any way to pass people on the Trail in either direction while keeping 6 feet apart, except by stepping off the Trail onto sometimes fragile vegetation, or into poison ivy, or realizing you’re on the side of a mountain and there isn’t any “side of the Trail” to step onto. And there’s heading into towns for food resupply that exposes the local people to your infections, and you to theirs. And while small hostels may now accept hikers (at less than full capacity?) the Appalachian Mountain Club has announced that its (big and expensive) “huts” in the White Mountains will be closed for the entire year (it just takes too much to open them up, staff them, and supply them for a shortened season). And even now Baxter State Park in Maine, where Mount Katahdin lives, is still not completely open, and there’s still a 14 day self-quarantine for people entering Maine (though they’ve recently implemented a testing alternative to the quarantine).

On top of which, say you’re out thru-hiking and making your way around the closures and restrictions. And say you get sick. Depending on where you are it can take a day or longer to walk out to a road. And then some time to walk the road to a town, or try to hitch a ride (hoping for an open pickup truck so you don’t infect the driver). Then where are you? Probably still miles and miles away from a hospital that might be able to begin your care.

So my Plan B for this year is to hike locally. The Appalachian Trail is only a couple miles from our house, but that access point is through a Scout camp that has shut off public access through their property. A short 7 or 8 mile drive carries me to places where the Trail crosses roads. And yes, of course, there are other trails to hike. Have a Plan B.

As luck would have it, I came across the following article while I was writing this post. It has a couple references to hiking Plan B on a trail that’s a little to the west of the Appalachian Trail: the Pacific Crest Trail. You may have heard of the PCT through Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 book “Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” or the movie based on the book. Some of the facts about “trail angels” and that trail are also observable on the AT. Anyway, if you enjoy my hiking posts, you might enjoy this article from “Outside” magazine’s website: “Why the PCT’s Most Iconic Trail Angels Are Retiring” by Mary Beth Skylis (OutsideOnline, 18 June 2020).

[Footnote: 5 years ago today, I hiked a 23 mile day on the AT to finish the northern end of the Shenandoah National Park and spend the night at the Front Royal Terrapin Station Hostel.]