A Section Hiker's Journey
“That scene on the slope of Mount Adams, fifty years ago, with the sunlight sparkling on ice-dipped branches and clouds giving up views of the valley below, crystalized for me what hiking is all about. It’s about getting back to that place where I see myself in the big picture, just a small figure on the grand scale, perhaps, yet very much a part of it and at home in it.”
Every year, some four thousand hikers set out to complete the entire 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail. But these thru-hikers are a fraction of the estimated three million people hiking on sections of the trail. Most are day hikers, many are out for two or three days, and some are hiking hundreds of miles. In the span of fifty years, the author completed the Appalachian Trail in sections—63 hikes in all, most of them day hikes and short section hikes, but also long-distance hikes of 330, 380, and 530 miles. Each year, he was drawn back to the trail by the beauty of nature and the kindness of people he met along the way.
Steve Crowe is a retired journalist living on Boston’s North Shore. His trail name, Forty Four, was inspired by an encounter with an older man he met over a cup of coffee when he was 44 and thinking his best days were behind him. It turns out they weren’t.
